darkness amongst the branches, watching. Perch could sense the tiger in the area, taste her scent on the air, but he couldn't see her.
Returning his gaze to the half-orc, Berun said, 'Nothing I can say to change your mind?'
Sauk stood, slowly, watching Berun, perhaps sensing something out of the ordinary. He returned Berun's stare, eye to eye. 'No,' he said.
'That's what I thought you'd say.' Keeping his face turned to the half-orc, Berun fixed his gaze on the man on Lewan's left. That one, he told Perch. Strike. Tooth and claw. Tooth and claw!
Perch's excitement lit up. Fight-fight-fight! Strike-tooth-and-claw!
A shadow fell from the darkness overhead…
Chapter Six
And hit the man next to Lewan in the face. The man went down screaming, the lizard hanging on. Berun shouted, 'Lewan, go! Go!'
The man on Lewan's left thrashed on the ground and slapped at the leathery shape clawing at his face. The other man had hold of Lewan's forearm. The boy twisted and brought his knee into the man's crotch. The man's eyes squeezed shut and he crumpled to the ground.
Lewan, eyes wide, cast one quick glance at Berun.
'Go, Lewan!' shouted Berun, just as Sauk screamed, 'Get that boy!'
Seeing five men coming for him, Lewan turned and ran for the woods. Sauk's men leaped after him. Berun let his bow slide down his grasp so he held it only a foot or so from the end. The bow was only thick in the middle and wouldn't make much of a staff, much less a club, but it might serve to distract the half-orc if nothing else. These men, if they were from Sentinelspire, were most likely trained killers. The best at what they did, surely. But Berun was willing to bet that Sauk was the only true woodsman in the group.
Berun turned, cocked his arm, and swiped the bow outward, aiming for Sauk's face.
The half-orc sidestepped and ducked. He turned and looked at Berun, his lips curling in a snarl over his incisors. 'That's how it is, then?'
Seeing their master facing off against Berun, two of Sauk's men-Val and Gerrell, if Berun remembered right- stopped just inside the reach of the firelight and turned around.
'Let him go, Sauk,' said Berun. 'The boy isn't in this.'
'He is now,' said Sauk-and lunged, aiming a jab at Berun's face.
Berun sidestepped, brought the bow up, and turned the punch aside-just as Sauk's left fist hit him in the gut. In that last instant, he thought he felt Sauk's knuckles scrape his backbone. All breath burst out of Berun in one gasp. His legs turned to water and he fell. His next thought was plain, stupid pride-he was grateful his bowels had held and he hadn't retched up his last seven meals. Then his thoughts vanished. His vision blurred and his body poured every bit of energy into getting breath back into his lungs.
+++++
Lewan used the fall. He'd been running as fast as he dared. But beyond the light of the campfires, all was pitch black, and through the trees he had to cast his arms in front of him and run more by feel than sight, each headlong sprint broken by stumbles over the uneven ground, roots, and rocks. Shouts from behind spurred him on.
Branches scratched his clothes and scraped skin off his face and hands. After a bad stumble that left his shin bloody, Lewan risked a glance back as he pushed himself to his feet. The men had stopped long enough to light torches. He could see two of them amongst the trees, and the distance from them to himself made hope flare in his heart.
Then something roared off to his right. The tiger.
Lewan ran, pumping his arms, heedless of the branches and leaves. He'd run perhaps two dozen steps when the ground fell away beneath him. He hit the down slope, biting his cheek as he did so, and continued a long slide down a hill covered in generations of leaves and fallen branches. When he finally came to rest at the bottom, the avalanche of detritus he'd caused kept coming, burying him.
And so Lewan used it, keeping absolutely motionless, forcing himself to take deep, slow breaths rather than the gasps his body demanded. From somewhere above he heard men crashing through the brush.
'Here!' one shouted. 'This way!'
'No.' This voice fainter. 'He'd keep to the ridges where the ground is surer. Can't you see?'
'I can see. But he can't. He's got no light, and look how all the leaves are disturbed.'
Lewan's heart hammered, and he tensed, preparing to run again.
'A tracker now, are you? Just 'cause you follow Sauk don't mean-'
'Move, you idiots,' said a third voice, and Lewan heard something coming down the hill.
Close now. Lewan could feel the vibration through the ground. The man stopped, probably no more than a pace or two above him, then began moving again.
A toe struck Lewan's shoulder.
'Got him!'
Lewan erupted from cover, put all his strength behind one fist, and brought it up into the fork of the man's legs. A pained gasp escaped the man, then he folded in on himself, dropping the torch.
'Ha!' said a voice from above. 'That whelp got him again. Same damned place!'
The man lurched onto his knees as his companions started their way down. Lewan snatched the torch from the fallen leaves and thrust it at the man's face. The man saw it coming and slapped at the fire, then began to fall forward. He screamed in agony as the burning pitch stuck to his fingers, but the thrust had swiped the brand from Lewan's grip.
Lewan turned and ran, following the course of the valley between the two hills.
'After him!'
'My-hand!' said a voice that was half sob.
A harsh laugh, then, 'That ain't the part I'd be worried about. I'd-holy gods!'
Lewan heard a rustle of leaves on the slope above him, then a mammoth weight hit his back and crushed him onto the leaf-covered ground.
+++++
When awareness began to seep back in, Berun saw the blond man-the one Sauk had called Val-standing over him, holding his bow and quiver. The man wore an insolent, almost pleased smile. Another man, shorter and darker, stood behind him. Sauk was crouched beside him, one fist clutching Berun's torn shirt. The other fist jerked back, and Berun felt fingers scrape the back of his neck just before he heard a snap. His necklace!
Sauk stood, a broken leather braid dangling from one fist. On the end of the braid was tied an intricate knot work of hardened vines. Something in the midst of the vines caught the firelight and sparkled, almost as if an ember burned there. Erael'len.
'No!' said Berun as he lunged for it.
Sauk stepped back, almost casually, as Berun's hand swiped at empty air. Then the half-orc stepped forward again and brought the toe of his boot into Berun's side, just below the bottom rib. Biting back pain, Berun swiped at the necklace again, but Sauk caught his wrist and twisted. Berun struggled, but it was no use. His free hand reached for his knife The half-orc twisted harder, tough nails breaking through
Berun's sleeve and piercing skin. Bones in his wrist scraped together, then Sauk wrenched, bringing the entire arm around behind Berun's back.
Sauk planted one foot in the middle of Berun's back and said, 'You draw steel on me and I'll tear your arm off. Understood?'
Berun poured the rest of his strength into a final attempt to pull his arm free.
Straightening the leg planted on Berun's back, Sauk pulled the arm tighter. Though he tried to hold it in, tried to clench his jaws shut, a scream escaped Berun.
'Understand now?' said Sauk.
The tension in the arm loosened. Not enough that he could move it, but just enough that Berun no longer felt
