'No.'
'I'm ready, master. I am! I can help. I-'
'No, Lewan.' Berun did not shout. His voice was low, almost gruff, but there was no room for argument in it. 'No. Not to Sentinelspire. You don't know that place. It is…'
'What?'
'It's… hard to see clearly there.' 'I don't understand.'
'I know.' Berun offered a smile, but it never touched his eyes, and in the gloom of the forest the expression seemed almost obscene. 'You must understand, Lewan. Sentinelspire is a realm built on blood. Murder. Despite what the bards may tell you, murder doesn't come easy. At least not to most people. Killing a man is a hard thing. Killing for no good reason save that you're told to do so… that's… damn. I don't have the words. It's not natural, is what it is. You have to convince a man not only that he can kill, but that he wants to. To do that…' Berun shook his head. 'I don't want you anywhere near that place.'
'I'm strong, master,' said Lewan. 'You've taught me well. I'm not afraid.'
'That's what worries me. That's how the Old Man gets to you.'
'But-'
'No, Lewan.' Berun's voice was hard. Cold. 'My mind is set as stone. I'm going alone. When I'm done, I'll come for you.'
'And if you don't come back?' Even Lewan could hear the petulance in his voice. Like a child. A scared little boy. But he didn't care. 'What then? What about me?'
Berun held the silence a moment, looking him eye to eye, then said, 'Get some rest. We move at first light.'
Chapter Twelve
16Tarsakh, the Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR) The foothills of the Khopet-Dag
Morning dawned no drier. Lewan woke to the sound of the rain roaring outside their shelter. Sitting across from him, his head resting against the remains of a long dead waxleaf shrub, Berun slept, his lips open slightly. Sometime during the night Berun had changed into dry clothes and braided his hair to keep it out of his face.
Lewan sat up. His muscles were stiff, and though his injured arm still hurt, the pain was good. Pain was feeling; the numbness was gone. Lewan leaned over and shook Berun.
'Master, wake up. It's morning.'
Berun's eyes snapped open. He looked around and groaned. 'I didn't mean to sleep.'
'You can't exhaust yourself,' said Lewan. 'Yesterday was hard.'
'Today will be harder,' said Berun. 'We must go far and fast. The rain will help to hide us. All but the biggest spiders will stay under cover. But it won't make traveling pleasant.'
Lewan looked outside. Above the trees, the rain still came down in sheets, and millions of tiny waterfalls fell from leaves and branches. Water had begun to seep into Lewan and
Berun's shelter, and a tiny river was running down the hill just beyond the pile of leaves near the entrance.
'Should we not wait out the storm?' asked Lewan.
'We dare not risk it. Sauk and his band are still too close for my liking.'
'You said the venom would take a few days to work through their blood.'
'I also said we shouldn't underestimate Sauk. We need to have leagues behind us come nightfall.'
They shared a light meal and washed it down with rainwater, then set about securing their packs and tightening their bootlaces. Berun hesitated at the entrance.
'What's wrong, master?'
'Help me,' said Berun, and he began stringing his bow. It was no easy task in the cramped confines of their shelter. But wedging it between them, Lewan holding one end while Berun secured the string on the other, they managed.
'The rain will ruin your string,' said Lewan.
'I have a spare,' said Berun. 'But until we're deep in the mountains, I'll feel better with it.' Berun looked out at the wet morning gloom. 'I'd feel a great deal better if I knew where Perch and the tiger had gone.'
'Still nothing from Perch?'
Berun shook his head. Lewan could see the worry on his face. 'In this weather,' said Lewan, 'I'm sure he holed up somewhere.'
'Under normal circumstances,' said Berun, 'so would a tiger. But…'
'These are hardly normal circumstances.' Lewan tried to force a smile.
'And that's hardly a normal tiger. So I'll walk with the bow, rain be damned.'
They left their shelter, huddled in their damp cloaks. Their breath steamed in the cool morning air.
'Walking will warm us,' said Berun. 'I'll risk a fire tonight to dry our things.'
Lewan looked around. It almost seemed as if the gods had lifted the ocean and decided to dump it onto the Shalhoond. This was an unusually fierce storm, even for the mountain lowlands in early spring.
'You're certain we must travel in this?' Lewan had to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of the rain.
'We must,' said Berun. 'At best, it will be a couple of days before Sauk's men are eager to travel. But I warrant Sauk will not wait that long. He'll be after us sooner than I'd like.'
'Much sooner, I'd wager,' said a familiar voice, and Sauk rose from the nearby brush.
Berun pushed Lewan behind him, threw back his cloak, dropped to a crouch, and reached for an arrow.
'Easy!' said Sauk.
The rest of Sauk's men rose from their hiding places, and somewhere in the forest behind them the tiger roared.
'I was hoping you wouldn't have the bow ready. That… complicates matters.' Sauk smiled and thrust out his chest, obviously reveling in Berun's shock. 'Oh-ho, I bet you have questions.'
Berun's fingers flexed over the bow. His other hand fingered the nock of an arrow in his quiver. 'How…?'
'You thought we'd venture into the Khopet-Dag without antidotes for spider venom?' Sauk laughed. 'You have been gone a long time. The Old Man's blades may not all be men of the wilderness, but we aren't stupid. We came prepared.'
Lewan looked around. Every one of Sauk's men was here. None looked happy, and Lewan could see why. Every one of them bore welts on face and hands from spider bites, Val's eyes were still red and puffy from the tep yen, and Kerlis's skin was red and had the slick sheen of a recent healing. Every man looked ready to murder. Kerlis, in particular, was staring daggers at Berun.
A show of force, then. Every man in Sauk's band stood before them. That gave Lewan a small amount of hope. If the half-orc had meant to kill them, he would have kept some of his men in hiding and made this an ambush.
The tiger roared again from somewhere behind them. The sound reverberated off the hillside, but Lewan could tell that she was not in the same place she'd been the last time she'd roared. She was on the move. Tigers were not like most other predators. Ambush hunters, they did not roar to frighten their prey. A tiger roared for one reason: to communicate. She was letting Sauk know that she had their prey covered. One way or another, Lewan and Berun were surrounded.
Lewan looked to the half-orc. Sauk dropped his smile. His face hardened, and his eyes glinted cold. 'Throw down your weapons,' he said. 'Give me back that relic you took. After your stunt last night, you and the boy will walk with your arms bound today, but you'll go alive. If you do as
« say.
Lewan looked to his master. Berun had gone very still- everything except his eyes, which went from man to man, never resting upon one for long. This wasn't lost on Sauk.
'Don't be a fool,' said the half-orc, and Lewan heard genuine concern in his voice. 'Even if you get away, you'll
