The Dreaming Hunt (10 page)

But poor Eben had lost his sister to slavers barely two months ago, and then his best friend and surrogate brother, Kendrick Hyland, had been kidnapped soon after. Now this. Her heart broke for him. It was more than one person should have to bear.

Rosana and Will spent a long time hugging, as well.

“What? No one the lizard comforts?” Sha'Li demanded in disgust.

Laughter broke the spell of grief engulfing the room. Raina sighed. “Ahh, Sha'Li. I have missed you. Where have you been?”

“In nearest water soaking I have been. And eating my fill of nice raw fish, not that swill you humans call food.”

Surely, she had not just been bathing. Raina would lay odds that her friend's new Tribe of the Moon symbol, recently appeared upon Sha'Li's cheek, had earned the lizardman girl a raft of new training. Although in what combat arts, she knew not.

“You've been in the Dupree harbor?” Will asked skeptically.

Sha'Li rolled her eyes. “No, stupid human. In Glass Lake I was. Fresh water my kind prefer. Only filthy Merr in salt water delight.”

Selea and Aurelius had been murmuring quietly in a corner, but then Aurelius's voice rose, cutting across the other conversations. “Who did it?” Aurelius asked tersely.

“I am no seer. I do not know everything,” Selea protested. “I am only certain it was not a guild-sanctioned hit.”

“But you have a good idea of who did do it,” Aurelius accused shrewdly.

The nulvari shrugged. “Anton is the obvious suspect. He would have hired killers from outside the Assassin's Guild, of course. I imagine he would attempt to cast blame for the attacks on others. It would not surprise me if his killers were specially chosen for their ability to sow discord and panic throughout the colony.”

Raina piped up. “Will the new governess believe accusations against the former governor without solid proof, though?”

Selea sent her a penetrating look, and Aurelius murmured reluctantly, “Doubtful. She is a kothite noble herself. She will be reluctant to think the worst of a fellow kothite.”

Reluctant herself, Raina asked the obvious next question. “What details have your sources passed to you of the other attacks, Master Selea?” She wasn't certain of the nulvari's title within the Assassin's Guild, but it was widely assumed that he was some sort of master assassin at a minimum.

“A house guard in Delphi field-resurrected successfully. He describes his attacker as a snake changeling wearing Dominion colors.”

“Dominion!” the group exclaimed collectively.

“Aye,” Selea answered. “Jethina Delphi confirms that a snake changeling and a male human whose face she never saw attacked her. The remains of several Dominion-marked changelings were found partially charred in the wreckage of Leland's manor, as well.”

Will burst out, “What in stars' name does the Dominion want with Dupree?”

Even Raina knew the answer to that one. The faction of animal changelings, purportedly bent on defeating the Kothite Empire and conquering all the colonies for itself, believed that might made right. Dupree was weak, its old leadership recently deposed, its new leadership not yet established. Now was the perfect time for a Dominion strike.

She spoke thoughtfully. “Is the timing of this Dominion attack too perfect, perchance?”

Will and Sha'Li both scowled at her, but Rosana, of all people, nodded in thoughtful agreement. “Suspiciously perfect timing, indeed, for the Dominion to rise up now. Anton used Boki before to give himself an excuse to make war. Why not use the Dominion to make war, now?”

Aurelius frowned. “Subtlety has never been Anton's strong point. He's a thug at heart and has always surrounded himself with equally direct thugs. He sees what he wants and takes it.”

“What does he want, then?” Raina asked.

“That's easy,” Eben answered grimly. “Revenge.”

Sha'Li scowled, the fine scales on her face lifting to lend her a menacing aspect. “Revenge he has, methinks. Three of the four landsgraves missing or dead. A brand-new governess who of this place knows nothing. In his mind, cut off is the snake's head. What plans he next, then?”

“I have one more report of note,” Selea announced quietly.

Something about his tone of voice made Raina's blood freeze once more.

He continued, “From Talyn Keep, I have received news of an incursion. A Boki attack. A large, bloody one. However, it is only a first report and badly garbled. It may be nothing.”

Or it could be a full-scale war party. The Boki were livid at the recent invasion of their traditional home forest and Anton's slaughter of their kind. To their immense credit, the Boki had thrown their men, women, the old and infirm, even their children at defending the site of the portal to the Sleeping King's dream prison. It had been a bloodbath for the Boki to keep Anton out of the secret cave.

Talyn was the northernmost holding in Dupree and encompassed the Forest of Thorns that the Boki called home. If the orcs had left their forest and attacked Talyn Keep, there was no telling where they might head next.

Something bothered her about Talyn's disappearance. If the Boki had killed Landsgrave Talyn, they would have made a ritual of it, loudly and publicly feeding the nulvari landsgrave's spirit to one of their bloodthorn weapons. If the reports were true that Talyn had disappeared without a trace, then the Boki had not succeeded in killing him.

Will spoke heavily, voicing the thought they all were having. “If the Dominion and the Boki attack Dupree simultaneously, the colony will be crushed.”

The mere thought of the death toll that would come from a double invasion made Raina physically ill.

Eventually, Aurelius broke the heavy silence. “What do we know of Gregor Beltane's disappearance?”

Selea answered, “Two of his men resurrected. They report being attacked by Merr in Loch Narr. Apparently, they were dragged off their boat, pulled underwater, and drowned. They saw nothing of what happened to Gregor.”

Sha'Li hissed. Her scalp scales lifted into a crested ridge that ran from the top of her head down the back of her neck and disappeared into her jerkin, making her look even fiercer than usual.

“Gregor's not a fighter I would relish tangling with,” Aurelius commented. “He cannot have been an easy takedown. Do we have any reports of Merr resurrecting recently?”

Rosana spoke up sheepishly. “I stole a peek at the death log. No Merr have resurrected in the past week anywhere in Dupree.”

Eben added, “For that matter, Landsgrave Hyland is—was—a formidable warrior. How many Dominion bodies were found in his house?”

“Four,” Selea answered.

Will smiled a little. “Not a bad showing for a man alone and ambushed.”

Eben said heavily, “This will kill Kendrick. But he deserves to know. We
must
rescue him and let him know his father is gone.”

Selea frowned. “The prudent thing would be to put the search for Kendrick and Marikeen on hold for a while. Now is no time to be gallivanting about the colony. Not with Dominion and Boki forces marauding and Anton out there somewhere.”

Eben and Sha'Li exchanged a loaded look and moved to stand side by side in solidarity. Clearly, they hated the idea of stopping the search for their friend. Raina hated it, too, but none of them were skilled enough adventurers to continue the hunt without more training.

Aurelius added, “Not to mention you all have your educations to attend to. Later, when you're all ready, we can search for the regalia.”

Eben spun to face the solinari, glaring. “To the Void with your regalia. We cannot stop searching for Kendrick and my sister! Kendrick would keep searching for any one of us. The hunt
must
go on.”

“I understand your frustration, Eben,” Aurelius replied. “But we have no leads. As soon as we have something solid to go on, I will not stop you from looking for Kendrick. But in the meantime, you all need more training. The stakes have gone up; the risks are greater than before. The five of you are known now, and you have enemies. Certain people will do everything in their power to stop you if they suspect you may be on the trail of the Sleeping King.”

Namely, Anton Constantine,
Raina thought.

While she found the elf's logic unassailable, loyalty to their friend Kendrick rebelled in her gut. He'd been a good-hearted youth, well on his way to becoming a man much like his father. Not to mention he'd been charming and personable. She did not know Marikeen and had only glimpsed her once in a slave market, but out of general principles, she worried about Eben's sister. The girl had no one else but her brother to save her from whatever fate had befallen her.

When she'd faced the prospect of running away from home, Raina had been a young girl, alone and afraid. She still thanked the stars daily that the kindari elf Cicero had come to her rescue and escorted her safely to Dupree. But Marikeen had no such rescuer. Raina fully understood Eben's urgency to go after his sister. However, she also understood Aurelius's reservations. The world was a dangerous place and becoming more so every day for their little group.

Eben was not so circumspect. “I will not sit here twiddling my thumbs while everyone else studies applied theory of underwater basket weaving until you deem us ready to go forth and save the world. Kendrick and Marikeen are kidnapped. Missing. Enduring who knows what hardships or worse. They cannot afford for us to wait a single day to find them!”

Sha'Li spoke up. “Truth speaks Eben. Go we must. Now.”

Rosana cast a distressed look first in Will's direction and then in Raina's. For her part, Raina glanced over at Will. Of all of them, he and she best understood the perils ahead of them if they wished to find the Sleeping King's regalia and wake him. They'd survived their first attempt to wake the king by a hair's breadth. Next time, they could not expect to be so lucky.

Doubt glinted in Will's eyes. He knew he needed more training to unlock his talent for magic, which had gone largely untapped before now. She, too, was just learning the full scope of her powers, not to mention the full power—and responsibility—of her tabard.

A strange animal, the White Heart. Often called fanatics and peaceniks, her order's mission was to defend life. She was expected to heal a Boki as quickly as a human, a Dominion changeling as quickly as a citizen of Dupree. Had she been present at Hyland's ambush, she'd have been duty bound to heal both the landsgrave and his murderers. If Anton Constantine himself fell at her feet, she was obliged to heal him; hence, the White Heart was universally liked, trusted, and granted safe passage.

The intense neutrality of her position made her able to travel pretty much anywhere with impunity. But it also threw her order squarely into the middle of the stickiest political situations in the colony. White Heart members were frequently called upon to negotiate between disputing factions in last-ditch attempts to prevent violent conflict or even to step in front of swinging swords to stop it.

She was yet to fully understand the dynamic between her order and the knights of the Royal Order of the Sun. The order was charged with defending the Heart—particularly the chapter houses, Heartstones, and healers. Apparently, any time a White Heart member came to harm, the swift and sure retribution of the Royal Order of the Sun was a terrible thing to see. She gathered that the threat of angry knights coming to call was part of what kept members of her order safe from harm.

That, and her kind were walking healing batteries everywhere they went—she more than most. The women in her family had long been bred to be powerful mages and she was no exception. At full strength she could heal a small village by herself; moreover, her ability still seemed to be growing.

Raina said to Eben, “The Sleeping King can take on Koth and possibly win. Our goal of waking him reaches far beyond ourselves and our friends. We must think about the good of everyone—”

The jann cut her off. “Cut out that White Heart tripe. We're just a bunch of kids. How on Urth do you expect us to overthrow Koth? That is far,
far
beyond our abilities. But we
can
find our friend and my sister. Why do we sit here and argue when time is slipping away from us?”

Will, of all people, interceded to support her. “Have some faith in yourself, Eben. You have more potential than you know. We all do.” He looked around the group, making eye contact with each of them. “We may be young, but we are talented. And we
are
young. We have speed and strength and stamina. Belief in ourselves. We can find the king's regalia and wake him. I know we can.”

Sha'Li scowled more darkly than usual. “Die we can, as well, Will. Too dangerous is what you propose.”

Raina frowned. Since when did Sha'Li doubt their quest? What had the Tribe of the Moon and her fellow lizardmen been preaching to her while she soaked in Glass Lake?

“And you think going after your friend Kerryl Moonrunner is any less dangerous?” Will exclaimed. “Lest you forget, he dropped
all of us
with hardly a fight and made off with Kendrick.”

“
Nothing
do you know of Kerryl—” Sha'Li started hotly.

Raina interrupted the burgeoning shouting match, asking quietly, “What would Kendrick want us to do?”

Eben looked on the verge of exploding. If she was not mistaken, the colored striations across his flushed cheeks were actually swirling. “That is not fair,” Eben ground out. “Kendrick was—is—a noble fool.”

“Why is it unfair to take into account his desires, noble or otherwise?” she asked reasonably.

Warily, she eyed Eben's fist flexing and unflexing around the pommel of his long sword. She moved over to his side and placed a light hand on his sleeve. “Be calm, my friend. We shall rescue Kendrick and your sister. But we must live to reach them first. What if we take a short break here in Dupree to pursue more training for all of us, then we go forth in search of both the regalia and Kendrick when we have a lead on one or the other?”