Steel and Stone

Chapter 9

On the Ettin's Trail

'Morning. Time for bed.'

'No. Lady soldier follows. Master says so.'

'Too bad. Res sleep days.'

'Not now!'

'Hunger. Food soon?'

'Maybe.'

'Soldiers follow?'

'Yes, yes.'

'Good,' Res announced. 'Eat them.'

'No!' The ettin's left head struggled to recall the word the Master had used. A long word, and so long ago- nearly an hour. The Master had forced the left head to repeat the word, and the warning, many

times. 'Capture!' Lacua finally crowed now, remembering. 'Not eat. Not, not, not.' Its watery eyes, shaped like a pig's, squinted. The ettin's left hand brandished a spiked club with each 'not.'

The right head spat. Then Res brightened. 'Are four,' he pressed. 'Capture one, eat-' he hesitated over the impossible arithmetic- 'eat rest?'

'Capture,' Lacua repeated. 'Not eat. Not, not, not.'

'One? Only?'

Lacua argued the proposition with himself. The Master, whom he had spoken to through the Talking Stone just before dawn, had said to lure the lady soldier to the appointed mountain in Darken Wood, capture her, and wait. But Janusz had omitted rules about her companions. The lady was for capture, the mage had said. That meant… what? The others weren't for capture? Or were?

Lacua pondered. The range of choices gave him a headache. But he finally decided. 'Capture girl, eat one not-girl.' The two heads smiled, revealing rotten teeth. The ettin, its four beady eyes open for small game, continued north, careful to leave plenty of footprints as the Master had ordered.

Hours later, just as the sun passed its zenith, Tanis and his companions stood on the same spot, staring at the footprints-nearly three fingers deep, the right foot larger than the left-and then at the forbidding environs into which the prints were headed.

'Darken Wood,' Caven whispered. Tanis nodded, his gaze probing the underbrush.

There was no gentle transformation from one type of forest to another here. Instead, it was as though the icy finger of an angered god had drawn a line among the trees. Those on one side remained normal in appearance, while the rest withered or twisted. A dank breeze flowed from the woods, prickling the hair at the back of the two men's necks. Although a light wind moved the tattered leaves in the woods, no sound came to their ears.

Wode was fidgeting with his horse's mane. 'It's the silence of the Abyss,' he said softly. Kitiara slugged him on the arm to silence him.

'Half-elf,' Mackid said, just above a whisper. 'I'll concede you this: I've never seen such an evil landscape in all my days on Ansalon.' Tanis nodded again, deep in thought.

Without another word, the companions dismounted and drew their swords; even Wode carried a small knife, which he seemed to draw some slight comfort from. Suddenly the teen-ager spoke again, his voice cracking. 'The trees bleed!' He pointed a quivering hand at one of the pines.

The other three looked where the squire gestured. A strange look crossed Caven's features. 'By the gods, Wode, this is no time for jokes!' he exploded. He clenched his hands and started toward the teen-ager.

With one hand, the half-elf pulled Caven back. 'You see blood, Wode?' he asked quietly.

The boy's voice was shrill. Hands trembling, knife shaking, he pulled himself up on his nag, nearly cutting the reins in the process. 'Are you all blind? Don't you see it?' Wode cried. 'Blood, half-scabbed over, oozing down the bark in great gouts.' He yanked at his horse's reins, but by then Kitiara had reached the youth's side, pulled the knife from his hand, and held the horse steady.

Tanis took one more look at the tree in question, which appeared unmarked to him except for a smear of what looked like sap-pinkish, it was true, but definitely sap, not blood. He used the same tone he adopted with a jittery horse. 'On that tree only, Wode? Or more than one?'

The cords stood out in Caven's neck. 'You believe the cowardly-?'

'He sees something,' Tanis interrupted. 'It may be that we can't count on our senses. Darken Wood may appear different to different eyes.'

'Darken Wood,' Caven repeated. His temper evaporated as quickly as it had flamed. He worried his lower lip with his teeth. 'Perhaps we should wait until morning to enter,' he suggested. 'It's only a few more hours until nightfall. I don't care if they're offering ten times fifteen steel for that ettin back in Haven, it's not worth traipsing through Darken Wood at night. We should be sensible and wait for morning.'

Tanis said nothing. Indeed, he'd been about to suggest a similar tactic. But Kitiara snorted. She'd been shifting from foot to foot as the two men examined the ettin prints and marked the monster's progression into the woods. 'You three can hide out and waste three-quarters of a day, but I, for one, am not afraid of the unknown!' she cried. 'Besides, the spoor is fresh. The beast can't be that far ahead. We can capture it and be on our way back to Haven by nightfall.'

She released Wode's horse, leaped onto Obsidian, and turned the mare's head toward the woods, not heeding whether anyone followed. Wode began backing his mount away from the forest perimeter.

The other two men remained where they were. 'We can't let her go in there alone, half-elf,' Caven said almost plaintively.

'I never intended to,' Tanis said shortly, and he stepped toward the gelding. 'You are free to go back, of course.'

Caven reddened. Then he shouted for Wode to get moving-in the proper direction-mounted Maleficent, and pushed the stallion past Dauntless. Scrambling not to be left behind so close to the fearsome place, Wode followed as they entered Darken Wood.

The tracking continued to be easy-ridiculously so, the half-elf thought. Either the creature was remarkably stupid to leave such obvious signs or it had great faith in its ability to defeat all comers. Tanis didn't even have to dismount to see the five-toed prints, each as long as his hand and forearm.

Broken branches, as well as pine needles scuffed by heavy feet, marked the way. Although the path wended among the bent-trunked pines, the way was occasionally rocky. Pines crowded around them, the trunks just far enough apart at times to admit the horses. It was almost, Tanis thought, as though the trees were reaching for whatever brushed against them. He dispelled the thought with an oath and looked around him warily. Far above their heads, the evergreens expanded into a thick canopy. A haze seemed to hang over the woods-at least to the half-elf's eyes. The late afternoon air hung yellow-gray and humid, and Tanis found that he could not see more than several yards ahead.

They rode in silence for a while, with Tanis in the lead, followed by a thoughtful Caven, an elaborately nonchalant Kitiara, and, close upon Obsidian's hooves, the reluctant Wode. Every so often, the squire would glance at a tree trunk with revulsion and guide his horse in a wide circle around it. Caven looked jumpier by the moment. So far, the half-elf had spied nothing stranger than the clinging haze. Nonetheless, he felt as though every living thing about him-and he tried not to think about the rumors of dead ones-were glaring at the spot where his pulse throbbed in his throat. He tried unsuccessfully to pierce the haze with his nightvision. 'Does night fall earlier in Darken Wood?' he whispered to himself.

Tanis heard an exclamation as Caven pulled Maleficent to a walk and Obsidian practically collided with the feisty stallion. Maleficent struck out at Kitiara and her horse. Staying solidly in the saddle as Obsidian leaped aside, Kitiara drew up her whip and lashed Caven's stallion across the flank. With a snort, Maleficent sidestepped away, halting as Caven sawed at the reins. Wode, long tormented by the Mithas stallion, giggled nervously. Blood welled from a jagged cut in the stallion's glossy hide, and Caven opened his mouth to remonstrate with Kitiara.