CHAPTER TWELVE
C aim kept his eyes on the rising ground ahead of him where Keegan and his sister made their way up the hillside. He saw them clear enough in the darkness, but the youths had to be navigating by instinct. He hoped they knew where they were going, because he didn’t have a clue.
Caim stopped beside a leaning pine and scratched his aching forearm through the sleeve as he looked back the way they’d come. The snow glowed with a ghostly luminance. There was no sign of pursuit, but he wished he knew where Kit had gone. She was always flighty, but he’d never seen her fade out like that. But her absence wasn’t the only thing bothering him. The marauders who had attacked the woodsmen’s gathering stuck in his head like a bad dream. More than fierce, they had been almost bestial. And the huge fighter…
Caim’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. He knew what he had seen. The black armor, the cloak of darkness-they screamed that he was in trouble up to his eyeballs. Caim continued up the slope, which became steeper as they got higher. The siblings had gotten a couple hundred yards ahead of him. A face peered back. The girl. She had come out here for him. He hoped she didn’t end up dead because of it.
Caim caught up to them on a narrow shelf of ground that wound around the hill toward its northern face. Keegan hugged the sheer face of bare stone and kept as far as possible from the hundred-foot drop on the other side. The path was short and ended at the mouth of a small cave. Keegan ducked inside without hesitation, and Liana followed.
Caim stood at the entrance for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the new level of darkness. With the sharp clack of steel against stone, a tiny spark burst into view. On the second strike, the spark caught and light blossomed. The cave extended about fifteen feet or so into the hillside. The roof was right above his head. Although not cozy, it was, he had to admit, an excellent hiding place, provided no one stumbled upon them. He didn’t want to think about trying to fight his way out of here.
While Liana joined her brother at the back of the cave to tend the fire, Caim sat down and stretched out his legs. A knotted muscle throbbed in his thigh, and another one higher up in his hip, but it was his arm that bothered him the most. It itched like he had a hornet buried under the skin. He rolled back his sleeve and pulled back the bandage, and hissed as fresh air touched the wound. The skin around the bite punctures was swollen and purple. Rivulets of yellow pus ran from the holes as he prodded the site. He started to roll down his sleeve, but Liana stopped him.
“Let me see.”
“It’s fine.”
“Just give me a look.”
He sat back and let her have his arm. With a light touch, she probed the wound, causing more pus to ooze.
“Where did you get these?”
“A bear.”
She reached behind her back. “Getting bit by a bear is supposed to be good luck.”
“And how many times have you been bit-ouch!”
While he was talking, she had produced a small knife-very sharp-and ran its blade lengthwise across the holes. He started to grab for her, but she pointed the knife at his face. Despite the grime and the sweat, she was beautiful.
“Don’t be a child. I have to get the bad humors out or they’ll spread to other parts of your body, and then we’ll have to cut off your arm.”
Caim leaned back against the wall and tried to ignore the fiery jolts shooting up his arm. The smell was worse than the pain.
“So why have you come north?” Liana asked.
“I needed a fresh start. There was some trouble back home.”
“So you chose Eregoth? In winter?”
“I know. I-” He almost said he had forgotten how cold it got up here, but stopped himself. “I may have made a mistake.”
“A woman,” Keegan said.
Caim looked over. “What?”
“The trouble,” he said. “It was over a woman, right?”
Liana pursed her lips. “No, I’m thinking maybe the woman was the trouble.”
Caim shook his head at their guesses, and winced when Liana slapped his leg.
“I’m right, aren’t I?
“If we’re asking questions, I notice you and your father live pretty far out of the way.”
“Is that a question?”
“Isn’t it dangerous out here?”
Liana bent down over his arm. “We used to live on the steppe. Papa is loreman of the clans. He keeps our stories and songs, and teaches the young. It seemed like he was always on his way to or coming back from someplace new. Sometimes we’d go with him. When mother died, we moved out to the hills.”
Keegan kicked a stone into the fire. “That’s enough, Li. He don’t need to know our whole history.”
“All right,” Caim said. “Then tell me what happened back there. You can start at the point where your friends kidnapped me. That was your doing, right?”
“Ramon gave the order.”
“Ramon’s the big guy with the white cape, right? He’s your leader?”
When Keegan shrugged, Liana huffed at him.
“Is that why he wasn’t at Aldercairn? He leads the Gilbaerns now?”
“Thane Sigmer died in his sleep. Ramon was chosen the next day.”
Liana finished rubbing Caim’s arm and rooted through his satchel. He helped by fishing out a semi-clean shirt, which she ripped into long strips.
“You spoke of problems in Liovard,” Caim said. “Starting with the coming of this duke. I take it you and your friends don’t much like him.”
Keegan pulled a small bundle wrapped in cloth from his pocket. Inside was a wedge of cheese. He broke off a piece and tossed it to Liana; she offered a piece to Caim, but he shook his head.
“He’s taken everything short of our lives,” the youth said. “And he’ll come for those soon enough. The Eviskines were nothing more than horse thieves until a couple years ago. Then the duke’s father died, and Erric took over the clan. The next summer they came down and took the city. A moon ago, a council of thanes was called to make a plan. Eviskine killed them all.”
Caim flexed his wrist. Liana’s new binding was better than he could have done. “But you escaped?”
Keegan finished his cheese and brushed off his hands. “Caedman-our captain-asked me to go, so I went.”
“Caedman Du’Ormik was a good man,” Liana said. “Now that he’s gone
…”
“He’s not gone.”
She turned to her brother. “But you said everyone at the peace-meet was killed.”
“Aemon and Dray found me at Orso’s. They heard from Vaner that Caedman was taken alive. The duke is keeping him at the prison.”
“Does Ramon know that?”
Keegan shrugged. “Probably. I never got the chance to ask him.”
Listening to them and trying to get a sense of this land which had once been his home, there was something else Caim wanted to know, but he wasn’t sure how to ask it without revealing too much about himself. But who else is going to tell me?
“Who was the warrior in black?”
“The Beast.” Keegan tossed another stick in the fire. “If you want to know about that one, you should first start with the darghul. She was at Aldercairn, too.”
