None of his business, he reminded himself as he sucked gravy from his fingers, washed that down with flat ale and a swallow of water, then pulled a tart, crisp apple from his own bag of provisions. He finished that as Eddis, M’Baddah and Blorys came over to join him for a look at the map, and aquick conference.
Jerdren unfolded the heavily detailed parchment. “Now, we’reabout-here, right?” He indicated a point well into thick woods. The East Roadhad taken a bend south and was at the farthest point from them.
Eddis shook her head. “There are four streams shown betweenthe Keep and that point. We crossed one dry bed and stopped the night at this one. Makes two, Jers.”
“Dry being the proper word,” Jerdren replied evenly. Hewasn’t used to having his skill with maps questioned. “We could’ve crossed dry,flat beds without knowing it, in the dark.”
“M’Baddah would have known,” Eddis countered. “I would have.”She indicated a point halfway between the Keep and his finger. “I’d say we’renearer here.”
“It is easy to settle,” M’Baddah put in smoothly as the twoco-captains eyed each other narrowly. “Ask one of your hunters. If he isn’tcertain, we can always send someone up a tall tree. If you are correct, Eddis, the road will be visible. If not…”
“I don’t believe it matters,” Jerdren said as the outlanderhesitated. “But by all means, if we’ve someone good at trees.”
“No point in risking a broken leg this early on,” Eddisreplied mildly. The tension between the two was gone. “We came straight eastlast night. We’re going north today, aren’t we?”
“Toward that hilltop,” Jerdren agreed, his finger moving totap at the indicated height.
“At worst, we’ll need to angle a little east or west to makeit. Though I’m still not sure why we want that hill. Map shows it covered in oldforest, Jers. What d’you think we’ll see from there?”
“Well, we probably won’t see much,” Jerdren said as he shovedstones aside and re-rolled his map, folded it twice, and stuffed it into his pack. “Thing is, we should be able to
Eddis gave him a cold look and got to her feet. “I didn’t askfor a lecture, Jerdren, and I’m not a dim-witted child. Next time just tell me.”She strode off and knelt to stuff her loose belongings into her pack.
“She’s right, Brother,” Blorys said finally. “She’s not achild or a fool. Don’t treat her like one.”
M’Baddah had already quietly moved away.
Jerdren watched his brother go and cast up his eyes. Here I thought fighting a camp of robbers was going to be the hard part. He made sure the map was tucked firmly into his pack, got up and stretched hard, fingers digging at the small of his back.
They moved on soon after, angling north and a little east through ancient trees. There was little undergrowth here, and only an occasional ray of sun came all the way down to touch the needle-cushioned ground. More light reached them at midday, when they took a break, sharing around a skin of wine and one of water while their provisioner and cook handed out flat bread, cheese, spicy, jerked venison, and dried apple slices. The rest of the day was as quiet as the first half, and they made the top of the hill just before sundown.
The trees were an odd mix, here. Massive oaks with thick branches set far apart, as if the hill had once been a nobleman’s park. In andaround these, scrub oaks, fir and other trees twice as tall as the tallest of them, and thin. Spine-brush and other weedy undergrowth was everywhere.
There had been no water all afternoon. No pools, not even a dry stream bed, and as the ground rose, the dirt grew harder underfoot. Mead, who was still in the middle of the company, glanced at Jerdren once or twice and finally dropped back to join him.
“There is something wrong here,” the elf said quietly.
“Wrong?” Jerdren stopped, sent his gaze around the woods,tested the air with his nose, then simply closed his eyes and
“Excuse me please, but I’ve never before worked with a magi-amage. Or an elf. Perhaps we’re not using
Mead was standing very still, head cocked. He shook his head. “I am not certain what it is. My spell revealed nothing. Just-if we stay in thisarea for the night…”
Jers considered this, then shrugged and started walking again. The rest of the company was a ways ahead, and Eddis glanced back. He waved her on.
“We should have about one more hour of walking, mostlyuphill. Once we’re there, we’ll talk again, Mead. If there’s danger about, we’dbe fools to camp in the midst of it.”
The mage merely nodded.
They reached the brow of the hill well before sunset. There was little brush here, but the trees were closer together and smaller. Most of the Keep men were already sitting as Jerdren came up, rummaging through their packs for water and dry wafers, while others gathered firewood. M’Baddah and hisson were keeping watch. Blorys knelt to cut a hole in the springy grass for the fire. Eddis just dropped her pack and was waiting as her co-captain joined them.
“Nothing much to see here, Jers, and all I’ve heard so far isthe noise we’re making. Which isn’t much.”
“It’s enough,” he said and bit back irritation that was atleast half caused by tired legs and feet. “We’ll listen once everyone’s settledin. But you and I had better listen to Mead, first.” He repeated the earlierconversation.
Eddis frowned at her fingers, then looked around for the mage.
The elf had moved away from the rest of the party and now stood with his hands against the bole of a massive oak, eyes closed, fingers exploring the rough bark. Willow eyed his half-brother anxiously, then came over to join Eddis and Jerdren.
“He said he told you, Jerdren. He still can’t be specificabout the threat, just that there’s something. He’s concerned enough that hewon’t be sleeping tonight.”
“If… we were to keep going, farther north maybe, or backthe way we came?” Eddis asked. “There’s at least an hour of daylight left, butwe could keep going after dark with lanterns again.”
The elf shrugged. “He’s had the sense for most of theafternoon. Whatever is bothering him, I doubt we could get far enough away from it before dark, but he still says there isn’t anything close by that’s anythreat.” Willow tipped his head back to gaze high into the trees. “The last timehe had a feeling like this, we were attacked by an owlbear. Nasty creatures, and hard to kill. But there’s plenty of deer and small game tracks here. Youwouldn’t see any, if it was an owlbear.”
“We’ve got trackers,” Jerdren said. “Men or-or whatever’saround-has to leave prints.”
Eddis waved an arm, taking in the land sloping down and away from them on all sides. “On this? There hasn’t been rain in a long time. Theground’s hard.” She drew a deep breath, let it out slowly. “All the same, you’reright. I’ll get a couple of these men to keep watch and let M’Baddah and M’Whantake a look while we’re getting settled in. And I say we keep the fire goingtonight,” she added. “All night.”
“I was going to say as much,” Jerdren replied.
Eddis merely nodded and went off to talk to her lieutenant.
Thin, high clouds began to move in as their cook got a fire going and began kneading dough for bread. Wind sighed through the high branches, though little reached the camp. Willow found a small, bubbling pool down the north side of the hill, so there was water for soup and washing. The meal was eaten in shifts, with four on guard around the hilltop at all times. Mead ate on his feet, wandering in and out of the trees, often stopping to listen.
Willow, Blorys, and Eddis took turns at listening also. The only nearby sounds were wind, and the crackle of fire, and now and again small birds high overhead.
Later, when Jerdren went down to the spring, a squirrel ran off chattering through the branches, and moments later the unmistakable bounding thumps of a deer crashing through the undergrowth brought him up short. He closed his eyes briefly as the deer moved out of hearing. Odd, he thought. There still wasn’t anything that
