The next morning was slow going. Sevren stopped more than usual, looking for signs of their previous camp, and spent longer at each branch. As the day wore on, the shifter grew increasingly tense, snarling at any interruption of his concentration. He was beginning to believe he’d led them astray. Shortly after the sun passed its zenith, he threw himself on the ground.
“What was it Vor said?” Sevren said. “Something about abandoning hope?”
“Abandon all hope for your body or your soul,” Zandar said, crouching near the shifter.
“We should have done that days ago.”
Kauth sat to rest his legs, a little away from the others, and stared at the ground. Days ago, he thought, I should have realized that I couldn’t lead these men to their deaths. Now it’s too late.
Wrapped in his thoughts, it took a moment for his mind to register what his eyes had seen. In a tiny spot beside him, there was a disturbance in the sea of gravelly ground. Larger pebbles cleared away to the sandy soil below. And in the soil, the faint memory of a pattern-a pattern traced by Vor’s finger!
“We’re here!” he shouted, startling Sevren to his feet.
“We’re where?” Zandar said, looking around the canyon walls.
“This is where we camped the night before last. Look-Vor was tracing his finger on the ground while we talked that night.”
Sevren crouched beside him and examined the ground. He threw his head back and laughed. “Well,” he said, “it’s taken the better part of a day’s travel, but I’ve finally managed to retrace a half-day of our journey. Only a day and a half to go!”
“Excellent,” Zandar said, his old grin returning to his face. “We should be out of here by the middle of next month.”
Despite Zandar’s affected gloom, their mood was high as they continued their journey. Sevren chose their path with more confidence, and from time to time pointed out other signs he remembered from their earlier course-a place where Zandar’s foot had slid in the gravel, a particularly large boulder Sevren had scrambled on top of to get a sense of the land. Kauth almost dared to believe they might all get out of the Demon Wastes alive-and he could carry the guilt of only this one last death, Vor’s death, back into the Eldeen Reaches.
As Sevren pointed out what might have been one of Vor’s heavy footprints, though, a terrible ululating cry arose from the cliffs around and above them, gripping Kauth’s heart with icy fear. By the time he could pull his mace from his belt, warriors were running down the steep canyon walls like a swarm of insects, continuing their eerie wailing.
“The Carrion Tribes,” Sevren said.
They were filthy and wild, matted hair jutting from beneath their battered helms and old blood staining their leather armor. They swung their weapons-clubs and spiked chains-in whirling arcs as they charged. Their rush was so chaotic that many tumbled down the steep canyon walls, only to be trampled under the feet of the barbarians behind them. They numbered in the dozens.
“Back to back,” Sevren said.
Zandar took his position close to the shifter, each of them facing out to the onrushing horde. Kauth completed the triangle, glad to feel his companions so close, but acutely aware of Vor’s absence.
CHAPTER 20
Haldren pulled Cart aside while the soldiers broke camp. “What’s your assessment of our position?” he said. Cart thought a moment. “We’re making an assault into an enemy territory we haven’t scouted, trying to secure an objective we haven’t identified. We have no idea of our enemy’s numbers, and very little sense of their capabilities. And we have eight soldiers, in addition to ourselves, Ash-Lady d’Cannith, and the wizard from Arcanix. We’ve already lost one-seventh of our original force.”
Haldren listened and nodded. “And in our favor?” Cart thought longer. “Very little. Your spells seemed effective against them, so your magic is a strong weapon in our arsenal. Lady d’Cannith is able to keep wounded soldiers alive. I didn’t see what the wizard-”
“Caylen.” Haldren said, a note of disdain in his voice. “What Caylen accomplished during the attack, but I assume he’s competent.”
Haldren snorted.
“Perhaps not,” Cart continued. “But I count him as a mark in our favor, however small.”
“Anything else?”
Cart shook his head. Put in those terms, their situation seemed grim indeed.
“We’ll begin, then, by rectifying our weaknesses,” Haldren said. “We need to scout the land, determine our objective, and assess the strength of our foes.”
Cart ticked off the problems he’d listed for Haldren. “And reinforcements?” he said.
“We avoid any further engagements with the enemy until the soldiers marching from Fairhaven arrive,” Haldren said. “Pick two of our soldiers and scout ahead. Take Caylen with you,” he added, almost an afterthought. “He should at least be able to help you find the canyon we’re looking for.”
Cart gave a sharp nod.
“Don’t let the worgs catch you,” Haldren said. “And keep those two soldiers alive. Dismissed.”
Those two soldiers, Cart thought, striding away from the Lord General. He evidently doesn’t care if Caylen survives.
He summoned the two sergeants and conveyed Haldren’s orders. He asked them to select his scouts, then went to find Caylen. He found the young wizard perched on a rock, flipping the illuminated pages of a slender tome. Caylen looked up as he approached.
He wasn’t sure how to address a wizard of Arcanix, so he got directly to the point. “The Lord General has requested that you assist me on a scouting mission.” Based on Caylen’s earlier outburst, Cart thought it best to present Haldren’s orders as a request.
The wizard raised his eyebrows-surprise, Cart thought. “Scouting? I’m no scout.”
“He believed your magic would be able to locate our destination.”
“Surely his magic is sufficient-”
Cart interrupted him. “The Lord General is in command of this operation and cannot be spared for a scouting mission.” Not surprise-Caylen’s eyes were wide with fear. Cart began to understand Haldren’s disdain of this wizard. “Therefore you are the only one available with the particular skills we require. Skills that, I was led to believe, were the primary reason for your inclusion in the operation.”
Caylen glanced around as though looking for an avenue of escape. “How many… ah, how many of us will there be?”
“Four. You and I, and the two best soldiers we can spare.”
“Will that be enough?”
“It will have to be,” Cart said. “We have been instructed to avoid any engagement with the enemy, so I plan to return as a party of four.”
Caylen slumped, resigned to his fate. “When do we leave?” “Immediately.”
The mission was not Cart’s area of expertise any more than it was Caylen’s, but the sergeants had chosen two fine scouts for the task. Verren and Tesh were more than able to compensate for Caylen’s weakness. They made their way south into the foothills of the Blackcaps with Verren watching for tracks or other signs of the worgs, Tesh taking note of the lay of the land, and Caylen scanning for any great concentration of magical power in the area. Cart actually began to feel extraneous, but he kept his senses alert for any approaching danger, figuring that he was along on the mission primarily to keep the others alive, as Haldren had said. And he intended to keep Caylen alive as well, annoying as the wizard was.
Tesh led them along high ground that provided good vantage points over the valleys below, crawling along the crests of hills and creeping along narrow paths cut into canyon walls. At one point, Verren steered them off- course in order to make a wide circle around an area he said the worgs traveled heavily. Cart couldn’t say whether he was right, but in any case they didn’t encounter any of the demon-wolves. Finally, lying flat on a high bluff with a commanding view, Caylen proved his worth.
