they’d actually won.
Chapter Sixty
4 June 1768 Octagon Richlan, Mystria
“Well, I ain’t of a mind to disagree with you.” Nathaniel, as bidden by Prince Vlad, had found Kamiskwa in the Octagon. They both crouched beside a pair of tracks through the snow that worked from the wooly rhinoceros corral on over to where a muddy mixture of snow, ice, and dirt formed a nearly perfect circle. The mud had frozen over, solidifying little ripples and a couple of bubbles that had not yet burst. Dirty snow formed a berm around it and reminded Nathaniel of the tunnel Rufus had dug to escape Happy Valley.
The tracks told one simple story. After dealing with the rhinoceros riders and reversing the magick they used to enslave their mounts, Ezekiel Fire and Msitazi had strolled across the valley floor and into the troll hole. The mud had erased half of Fire’s last footstep, and almost all of Msitazi’s. Given the length of their strides and the crisp outline of their footprints, Nathaniel could easily visualize them walking arm in arm like old friends, leaning on each other for support, passing serenely through the chaos which, in a few places, overlaid troll tracks on theirs. They had strolled straight through the battle, unconcerned and uncaring.
Kamiskwa looked up from where he traced a finger around the heel mark of his father’s last step. “Look again, Magehawk.”
Nathaniel scooped up snow, and used magick to fashion the mask Kamiskwa had used on him before. The scene came alive in magick. Whereas the mud lay frozen, glowing blue energy around it still quivered. The hole fairly well seethed with magick, as if it were a pot on the boil. Yet even as he watched, he could tell it was trending toward a simmer. Whatever had opened the hole, and however it had been closed, great magick had been brought to bear, and two men had vanished as a result.
“Your father do that?”
“He did, or they did together.” Kamiskwa twisted and sighted back up the hill. “A few of the warriors said my father ordered them to help me. They thought he would come, too.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “He knew what he was doing, weren’t of a mind to have any of them in the way. Question is, what in tarnation did he do?”
The Shedashee warrior stood. “It feels akin to the portal magick. He used it to send the trolls and demons away from here. What concerns me is this: he has always had to lead the way. Knowing how savage the Noragah creatures are, I have to wonder where he would take them.”
“And can he get back again?”
“Yes, that, too.” Kamiskwa started around the circle’s perimeter. “Come take a look at this.”
Nathaniel followed, and crouched at the circle’s northern edge, almost directly across from where Msitazi’s and Fire’s tracks vanished. There, preserved in the mud, were two delicate footprints of bare feet, obviously female. No steps led up to that point, or away from it. “You reckon that’s the one you seen?”
“Would you recognize Rachel’s footprints?”
“I would, but I done seen them a-fore.”
“And I’ve seen hers, in my dreams.” Kamiskwa sighed. “Every night, she is there. Not teasing me, but she is a mystery. I can hear her voice, but I cannot understand her words. She’s afraid, Magehawk, but feels safe in my company.”
Nathaniel ran a hand over his unshaven jaw. “And these just ain’t no regular dreams.”
“In them she is more real to me than you are right now.” Kamiskwa looked at his hands and brushed his thumbs over his fingertips. “She was here, Nathaniel, not the vision she was before, but here. I think she helped my father and Fire deal with this hole.”
“So she would know where they are.”
“Or she is with them.” Kamiskwa glanced down. “I must find them and bring them back.”
Nathaniel stood. “Are we leaving right quick now, or will morning be soon enough?”
“Magehawk, I cannot…”
The Mystrian raised a hand. “Now you listen here, Kamiskwa. I seem to recall there was a time when I headed out on a fool expedition while I weren’t much better than half-dead, full of hate and stupid. You was the onliest one what stood beside me. Before then and since you done saved my life a passel of times, and I done the same for you. Your pa done took me into your family, and I took a liking to Fire. And if this woman who’s gonna be your wife is involved, there’s one more reason for me to go. And the reason you want me with you is that aside from being wise, and a better shot than you, it was me made sure the last thing going through Rufus’ mind was a hunk of lead. He was the biggest mage I ever done hawked. Where we’re going, I reckon there might be a mage or three even bigger what needs some lead poisoning. I’ll oblige ’em.”
The Shedashee smiled. “Nathaniel, what about the men you led here? You have your responsibility to them.”
“Well, I reckon I do, but I reckon there’s more of a way to handle that than walking back to Temperance with ’em all. Caleb Frost, good Lord willing he made it through alive, and Makepeace, they done led them in this battle. I reckon they can get them home again. Having me head off with you, providing I go round and visit folks when we’s back, will do more for them men than a couple weeks of campfires and tall tales.”
“How does that make sense?”
Nathaniel folded his arms across his chest. “For the longest time I didn’t want nothing to do with civilization-Norillian civilization, mind. Shedashee civilization makes sense to me. But you was right after Anvil Lake: men was feeling all full of piss and vinegar, like they could whip the world. They’d be expanding Mystria, as Fire did, by pushing on out, and they’d be putting pressure on the Shedashee. But that was when they figured there weren’t nothing out here that would push them back, them not reckoning on how hard the Shedashee could push if they was of a mind to.
“See, most of these men love the idea of the wilderness. It makes it safe for them. Iffen a farm fails, they pack up, move west, make a new farm. And me, I is a reminder that the west is always there. Now Caleb has ties to Temperance, and Makepeace is from a Virtuan family, soes they gots more in common with these men than I do. So when I tell the men, and let it be told, that there’s some unfinished business out here, and that you and me is going out to handle it, but they should be ready to help. We make them safe again, and important. They’ll know we’ll be a-calling them, and if you and I is heroes, and we need them, they’re heroes, too.”
Kamiskwa’s amber eyes narrowed. “It is probably best that you remain out here, Magehawk, away from civilization. That kind of animal cunning would make you dangerous in the cities. I think we should depart after we reach Fort Plentiful. We will go to Saint Luke. The Altashee will need to elect a new chief. Then we begin our hunt.”
Nathaniel nodded and jerked a thumb toward the southwest. “Start at the Antediluvian ruins?”
“In a practical sense, yes. First, however, we must visit the other tribes. We know what the Altashee know of the Noragah. We need to know more.” Kamiskwa’s lips pressed into a grim smile. “We learn everything we can, then we hunt, Magehawk, killing anything that would stop us along the way.”
Owen found Bethany wandering through the encampments on the southern edge of the battlefield. The combatants, exhilarated but exhausted, had grouped together in small meadows and hollows. Pickets had been set out in case any demons or trolls that had escaped decided to come back and raid. Most people believed they’d not stop running or flapping until they reached the far coast, and many were hoping they’d starve to death before they ever got there.
He looped around to approach her from the front. She was completely lost in thought and did not notice him. “Bethany, are you well?”
She looked up, momentarily startled, then smiled as she pressed a hand to her throat. “Oh, Owen, please forgive me.”
“What’s the matter?” Owen glanced back toward where the Prince had set up his pavilion. “I just saw Caleb. Aside from a couple of cuts, he was fine and happy.”
“Yes, I saw him.”
He looked around. “Clara wasn’t…?”
