For two full days they had been riding through forest so dense Kevin thought that any one of them could have followed the track—The trail had been so overgrown a horse’s body could hardly have kept from breaking telltale branches; there had been no way for the kidnapper to avoid leaving a track, let alone to leave the trail. But the forest had been thinning for some time as the land grew increasingly more rocky.
And now they had broken out of forest altogether. The trail melted into a series of paths and one true road winding their way through a limestone wilderness, a time-eroded maze of tall, gray-white stone walls.
“Are we out of luck?” Kevin asked.
Lydia shrugged. “Can’t follow a trace over solid rock! Still, it’s not all rock ....”
She dismounted, searching with her face so close to the ground that the bardling was reminded of a hunting hound searching for an elusive scent.
“Yes ...” the woman said at last. “This way. I think.”
They rode on, following the road, the only sounds the creak of saddle leather and the dick of their horses’ hoofs against stone. Kevin glanced at Lydia, not at all happy about the uncertainty he saw on her face.
The walls of the gorge towered over them as they rode, weighing down his spirit. Staring up at the narrow slash of sky, Kevin couldn’t shake the sense of being a very small, insignificant creature in the middle of a very small, insignificant party—Now that he wasn’t so overwhelmed by the mere thought of adventure, he had to admit that five ... ah ... beings hardly seemed a big enough group to have any hope of success. Yet if the count had sent out any larger expeditions, the bardling hadn’t seen any sign of them.
I don’t understand that. 1 don’t understand any of that! We don’t even know for sure that whoever we’re following actually has Charina!
Kevin sighed. None of his doubts were going to matter if he couldn’t hold his team together long enough to accomplish something.
Team, ha! The last thing they were was a team. Oh, everyone was nicely polite to each other—if you ignored the subtle snipings of White and Dark Elf at each other, or the jibes of Lydia at these silly males, or the nasty little jokes of the fairy.
The bardling gritted his teeth. Tich’ki seemed to have decided he was the best butt for her humor she’d ever seen. She never said anything out-and-out hostile. Oh no, that would have been too simple! Instead, the fairy would wait till he’d finished practicing a particularly difficult melody on his lute, then ask innocently, “Are you going to actually play something now?” Or worse:
“When are you going to work some Bardic Magic?” knowing he was too scared of failure to risk trying another spell—Or perhaps she would simply wonder aloud what it was like co be a leader when he hadn’t really had a chance to be one. Anything, Kevin thought, to undermine what little self-confidence he had left!
The only two who did seem to be getting along were Naitachal and Tich’ki. After that first night, Kevin was still keeping a wary eye on those two, but so far they hadn’t done anything even remotely suspicious.
Except ... last night, there had been that bizarre whatever-it-had-been. Kevin frowned, remembering how he had caught the Dark Elf and the fairy huddling together mysteriously, so involved in what they were doing they hadn’t even noticed him. The bardling had gotten close enough to hear Tich’ki urge, “Try it again.” And Naitachal had actually responded with, “Pick a card, any card.”
At that moment, they’d spotted him. The Dark Elf had suddenly straightened, looking important and mysterious, but Kevin could have sworn Naitachal was embarrassed. And hadn’t he caught a glimpse of Tich’ki hastily hiding a fairy-size deck of cards?
Card tricks? A necromancer learning card tricks?
It made about as much sense as anything else so far.
“We’re not still on Count Volmar’s lands, are we?” Kevin asked warily—
“Hardly.” Lydia glanced up at the sky, judging direction. “I’m pretty sure we’re on the outskirts of crown lands. If we keep riding east like this, we’ll probably wind up in the city of Westerin.”
“If we get that far.” Eliathanis glanced up at the steep, brooding walls on either side, his usually unreadable eyes glittering with uneasiness.” I don’t like this place. Anyone could be lurking up there.”
“Claustrophobic el0” Tich’ki taunted. “Scared of the shadows in his mind!”
The White Elf glared at her. “I’m not imagining things! Westerin is an important trading city, is it not? Thanks to the rocks, this must surely be one of the only roads available for anyone who wishes to reach the city from the west. What better place for an ambush?”
