Origin (24 page)

After about fifteen minutes, Elwyn slowed Gemma down to a gentle canter and signaled Raffe to do the same. First, she didn’t want Keroc to be tossed around any more than was absolutely necessary, and second, she didn’t want the morden too tired, in case they had to make a run for it a second time. For the next several hours, everything was quiet. That was everything except Elwyn. It felt to her as if every sense in her body was working overtime. She was also incredibly stressed by the sense of danger she was feeling and the responsibility she felt for Keroc, Raffe, and Gemma. She was hyper vigilant as she rode, with every nerve fiber in her body generating a reaction to each sound she heard or each slight movement she saw. Elwyn couldn’t wait to reach Kren, to be with other people, and to experience the feeling of safety once more.

She was actually beginning to feel grateful to her uncle for keeping her hidden all these seasons. What had her family done to this king that he was so determined to hunt them down and kill them? The world and the future were fast becoming less desirable to Elwyn. She hadn’t been able to truly relax since her walk on the beach before all the violence started in Tarlon. While becoming a healer had not been what she envisioned for herself, living as a fugitive, dodging assassins, and fleeing for her life was not acceptable either.

The clouds overhead gave way to a quarter moon and some stars that helped to illuminate the road once again. Elwyn could see that thick trees were no longer encroaching on the trail. The forest was thinning and the tree line was quickly moving farther back. She found she was looking forward to dawn and a temporary respite from the threat of assassination attempts; if only until the next nightfall. She would have liked to stop to give Keroc some more water as Kierra suggested. But given the situation, Elwyn was unwilling to do that while it was still dark and the danger from the assassins was high. Their attacks were too hard to predict and, until she understood how they were able to track her to specific locations, stopping was out of the question. As she rode along thinking of how the assassins were able to track her, she suddenly felt Gemma tense under her legs. Raffe also quickened his pace coming from behind to ride by Gemma’s side.

Dawn was just beginning to trickle into the small valley Elwyn was riding through, and she could clearly see three shadow squad assassins silhouetted ahead of her; two standing on the road and one off to the side. She pulled out her bow, nocked an arrow, and as soon as she was within range, fired one arrow rapidly followed by another at the assassin holding the bow. She then fired another arrow at one of the two assassins standing on the road ahead of her, while Raffe charged the third. Within minutes, all three assassins lay down on the ground. Having learned some lessons from her last encounter with these killers, she jumped down from Gemma, drew her sword, and slit the throats of the two closest to her. She grimaced and felt ill at the smell of blood in the air, but she knew there was no choice. As she drew close to the third assassin, who’d held the bow, he suddenly jumped up and drew a sword. As tired as she was, she felt adrenaline pumping through her body as she prepared to engage the killer. This time though, the fighting did not last long. While Elwyn and the assassin were exchanging blows, Gemma circled round and came up behind him. Her movement distracted him long enough for Elwyn to strike a fatal blow.

As he fell, the assassin gurgled, “Ssitss not oversss.”

Elwyn then realized that as long as she still lived, shadow squads would relentlessly keep tracking her down, trying to assassinate her. After checking a second time to make sure that the three assassins were dead, she quickly gave Keroc some water, mounted Gemma, and moved out along the trail at a swift canter.

As she rode, it occurred to her that the men that just tried to kill her were probably the same ones that attacked her earlier in the evening. There had been four then, but only three at this last attack. She noticed as she jumped down to kill them, that one of the men was bleeding from a shoulder wound. Gemma must have killed the one she ran down on the road, but she must have only wounded the archer with her arrows. The three that were left traveled and tracked her faster than she could ride, and then attacked her again. That was the only possible explanation. Thane insisted that Shadow assassins always struck in groups of four. She had a feeling that the three that were left from the first attack thought a single young woman would be easy prey and felt they could finish the job without picking up another member for their team. Someone was going to have to capture one of these assassins and get them to explain how they could travel so quickly and know exactly where their prey was located.

After a while Elwyn got tired of thinking. She lost track of time as she rode steadily through the early morning mist, attempting to relax after a long night full of stress intermixed with spikes of adrenaline. Just as she was starting to fall asleep, she jerked awake as she felt Kierra’s gentle presence touch her mind.

“Kierra, I just don’t know how much more of this I can take. How are these assassins tracking me and how do they move so quickly. I’m so tired of running from them, only to have more show up in front of me.”

“I know this is difficult, but slow down and tell me about it from the beginning. Your thoughts are so jumbled that I can barely understand you. I know that you are frightened and upset, but walk me through what happened during the night.”

“I was attacked twice by assassins. The first time, the morden and I worked together and thought we killed at least two of them before we rode out of range. It was so misty though, I couldn’t be sure. Just a short while ago, three more were out on the road ahead of me. It may not have been another squad. It may have been the ones that survived the first attack. When they struck the first time, Gemma ran one down and I shot the archer, so two, possibly three of them were left alive. We didn’t stop to fight, we just outran them. The morden sensed them and gave me a little warning both times so I was as ready as a person can be for something like that. But I don’t just understand how they travel so fast and keep finding me. It’s like they pop out of nowhere. If it was another attack by the same group, they traveled faster than my morden can gallop, and knew right where we were. They were standing there waiting for us. This time though, we did stay and fight them. By the time we left, they were all dead. As the last assassin was dying he spoke and told me that it isn’t over.”

“Oh my poor Elwyn, my heart goes out to you. I know how tired you are, but please don’t give up hope. You and the morden did very well. I can’t say that you won’t run into any more danger when night falls again, but for now you have time to rest and recuperate. Shadow squads do not strike during the daylight hours and you have traveled far and fast enough to outdistance any of Stefan’s soldiers.”

Changing the subject, Elwyn rattled on. “I really miss Keroc’s voice in my head. I feel very alone right now. Keroc is still unresponsive. We were forced to travel very quickly, and I’m sure that it didn’t do him any good. I just wish there was something more I could do for him.”

Realizing how afraid and stressed she was, Kierra tried to comfort her. “Just try to hang on a little while longer. You should reach Kren soon, where you will find both help and protection. My drakenhawks should be arriving in another day or so. They will protect you both and help you with Keroc”

“I know Kierra, I will. Please try not to worry about me falling apart. I know I sound like an idiot right now. I was just spending time feeling sorry for myself. This whole situation is nothing like I imagined leaving my village for adventure in the outside world would be. Right now, everything in me just wants to rewind the clock and go back to before all this occurred and we were living in Tarlon happy and ignorant of all this violence and death.”

“I did contact Ayron and let him know that you were doing as well as could be expected and that you found Keroc and were tending to his wounds. He told me that your uncle and Clayre are handling the trip well and that Rhys continues to improve. I think he is anxious to reunite with you soon again.”

“Thank you for the information about my uncle. I miss him so much. When you get the chance, could you ask Ayron to give him a message from me? Could you ask Ayron to tell my uncle Rhys that I love him very much and that he needs to get well quickly. Also ask him to tell my uncle that I miss him and need to see him soon. And I have one more message for him. He was right; being an adult isn’t necessarily all that great, and it doesn’t solve all life’s problems. Oh, and thank Ayron for keeping his word. I am very grateful to him for watching over my uncle.”

“I’ll be happy to deliver your message to Ayron and that of the assassin also. And from what I know of your uncle Rhys, he will be happy to receive his message as well.”

Kierra agreed to deliver the message and wished her well as she left Elwyn’s mind. Her discussion with Kierra finished, Elwyn pondered, over the next few hours, the question of how the shadow squads were able to locate people, no matter where they were. She was beginning to wonder if it had something to do with scent and body heat. Many of the snakes in Unity found their prey by scent and sometimes by body heat. Perhaps, since the Salissians were descended from snakes, they might use scent and possibly body heat to locate their targets. Perhaps they stopped traveling when they noticed body heat signatures or picked up a scent. Then maybe the particular scent of a person’s body heat would determine if they’d found the correct target. Of course her theory was just speculation, but she decided that before the next evening she would look for an opportunity to change her scent and, if possible, that of the morden. She told her companions what she’d decided and Gemma nickered in response. Elwyn took that as agreement. Elwyn had no idea how they traveled so swiftly and decided to save that mystery for later. If she could hide herself and the morden from them, it might not matter how swiftly they could travel.

She continued riding north as the sun began making its journey across the morning sky. The day was hot, cloudless, and very bright. Elwyn found herself squinting to block out the sun’s rays. The good news was that the heavy trees and tall brush were receding with grassy meadows and plentiful streams taking their places. She stopped about every two hours to give Keroc some water and to allow the morden to rest. She wasn’t willing to risk stopping come nightfall. The little drakenhawk still remained unresponsive but was breathing steadily, so she knew he still lived. She was really worried about him and wished that, even if he couldn’t open his eyes and screech, he would contact her with his mind. Unfortunately, there was no response to her probes.

When the sun was high overhead, Elwyn came to a fork in the trail. One option was to travel to the northeast and the other the northwest. Elwyn had no idea which fork to take. She jumped down from Gemma to consult the map Ayron gave them. She sighed realizing that the map was no help at all, because it showed only one road leading north in a straight line between Tarlon and Kren. Elwyn knew enough about traveling in the wilderness to know that she had not been traveling in a straight line since she’d left Tarlon. Now she had to choose between traveling northeast or northwest. Perhaps that was why it was taking her so long to reach Kren. You couldn’t get there by traveling in a straight line.

“Figures that he would give us a map that’s both out of date and inaccurate,” she muttered to herself and to the morden. “Why does life have to be so complicated?” she moaned as she threw down the map in disgust.

She then turned and asked Gemma what she should do, not expecting anything helpful to come of it. Gemma snorted loudly and started down the northwestern path with Raffe following closely behind.

“Are you sure, Gemma?” We can’t afford to retrace our steps. We have to get to the village as soon as possible without any detours because we don’t know how soon another attack will come,” she said, still nervous from her last encounter with the assassins.

Gemma kept pacing down the northwestern path shaking her head and snorting loudly.

“Something tells me you’ve been this way before, girl.”

As soon as the words fell off her lips, Gemma nodded her head up and down.

“Gemma, you are so amazing. I can’t believe how long I’ve underestimated you. Did you carry my mother through here a long time ago?”

Again Gemma indicated yes by shaking her head up and down. Elwyn, fighting back the tears was more than willing to take Gemma’s word for it. She remounted, but before continuing her journey north, she led the two morden east for a few miles. She stopped next to some swampy marsh water a short distance off the right side of the trail. Elwyn dismounted, bent down, and proceeded to smear some of the evil smelling muck from the marsh all over the two morden and then covered herself as well. She was unwilling to spread any of the mud on Keroc, but did spread some on the litter that carried him. When she was finished, they all smelled strongly of rotting vegetation. She then rode back the way she came, but off the trail through the marsh and wetlands. When she arrived back at the crossroads, she started up the trail to the northwest.

Morning slowly drifted into afternoon. Except for a few brief stops, the little band traveled steadily forward. The meadows and streams were soon replaced by tall marsh grasses and trees draped in a silvery moss that obscured their view of the surrounding landscape. It was very humid and Elwyn felt hot, itchy, and constantly under attack by little flying insects that seemed very interested in the mud she’d smeared on her body. She could also tell that the morden were being attacked by these same insects, because they were doing a lot of tail swishing and hoof stomping as they moved forward. She tried taking a short nap, but as tired as she felt, her fear and the tiny insects buzzing around her face kept her from sleeping. Also, even though she knew that Gemma would wake her at the first sign of any danger, she couldn’t suppress her fear enough to relax. Eventually though, she drifted off into a troubled sleep.