Three robed figures stood next to the River Galaran looking on as a fourth knelt inspecting the riverbank.
“How long?” Jukung asked.
“One hour, certainly no longer,” Soen said as he stood. “So, they’re following the river. They are impatient and prone to mistakes. We must trap our prey while we can.”
“Surely they cannot escape us,” Jukung boasted. “The glory of their capture shall be ours.”
“We are far indeed from the Imperial Majesty where such glory is tallied, Assesia,” Soen observed in dry tones. “There is a border not far from here which few of our Order have trod and fewer still have returned to report. The faeries occupy that forest. Our prey has no doubt decided it is better to hope for life in a place from which no soul has ever returned than to face our justice. We must take them before they can find such dubious sanctuary.”
“Then we shall return to the Keeper, as agreed,” Jukung said with an oily arrogance that he no longer bothered to disguise. “You have much to answer for, Inquisitor.”
Phang cleared his throat.
“Indeed,” Soen replied with serenity. This boy was a fool after all, he thought. Soen knew with calm surety that he could plant this boy’s cold body just about anywhere in this wilderness and live the rest of his life in absolute confidence that Jukung would never be found. Still, there was something about the youth’s overconfidence coupled with so little prudence that he found entertaining in a sad, tragic way. Perhaps that was why he let him live; it amused him to do so. “Perhaps, I could answer for it now and save you the trouble later.”
“This is not the appropriate time or place to. .”
“Oh, but I think it is,” Soen said through a sharp-toothed smile. He started pacing in a circle around the Assesia as he spoke. “Let me anticipate you, young Jukung. You would ask before the Council of the Iblisi Disciplines why I broke up the Quorum. Answer: It was necessary-in order to secure the Timuran household-to assign most of the Assesia of the Quorum to continue the work in the Western Provinces while the remainder of the Quorum pressed the pursuit of the bolters who caused the fall of the Aether Well. No, you assert; you meant why did I break up the Quorum at the Field of the Dead and send each of us through separate folds? Because, as I said at the time, we needed to pursue all four directions at once. But, you will counter, I did not return. Of course, I will reply; I found evidence that our bolters were fleeing our justice, could not risk losing their trail, and knew that the rest of my Quorum would follow. And I will point out that I
Soen stopped his circular stroll in front of Jukung, his face barely a handbreadth away from the Assesia’s. “I can’t wait for the Tribunal. Let me know when it starts.”
“Yes, Master Inquisitor,” Jukung answered as he turned his head away.
“Qinsei and Phang,” Soen said. “You will take opposite sides of the riverbank. Stay on the high ground and get ahead of our prey. When you find a suitable site for an ambush, mark it and position yourselves on the far side. Our young Assesia-now so eager to learn-will come with me up the riverbed. We’ll drive the prey to you, and then you take them. There aren’t enough of us to do this properly, so Jukung and I will have to kill the manticores and the chimerian and dwarf outright. You capture the human male. Once he’s secure, kill the females.”
“Why keep the male alive?” Phang asked.
“I have my reasons,” Soen answered. “Do not disappoint me.”
When no further explanation was offered, Phang nodded then set out.
Qinsei and Phang, with quick and silent footfalls, outdistanced their squabbling quarry with little trouble. Qinsei followed the left bank with Phang on the right. They had worked together often down the uncounted years, and this part of their job had become a matter of routine. Their target was in sight-all that remained was to answer the questions of where and when the trap would be sprung.
Wordlessly, the two Codexia closed again on the river. Their prey was now behind them, coming in their direction. They remained on the high ground of the steep, sheer banks, following its curves and undulations farther, Qinsei thought, than she would have preferred. But it was Soen who was their Inquisitor, and Qinsei wanted to find the perfect place for them to bring this sorry business to its inevitable close.
“Ah,” Qinsei sighed with satisfaction as she stopped at the crest of the bank where the river turned sharply. “Soen will be pleased.”
It was a steep banked bowl surrounding a pool at the base of a waterfall. The river had cut a narrow passage that was the only way in or out. It would be slow climbing out of such a bowl. Qinsei saw it all in her mind: their prey walking into the bowl, Soen and Jukung closing off their only escape out of it, while she and Phang stood atop the edge of the bowl, capturing them all before their prey was even aware they were caught.
Qinsei reached over next to her. She grabbed a branch and deftly twisted it back, locking it among the other branches in an awkward bend. The sign set, she looked across the ravine to Phang and made hand signs to him as to her instructions. He responded silently with signs of his own that he would do as she suggested, circle the top of the bowl to the northern quarter and prepare to spring the trap.
Qinsei moved around the southern edge of the bowl. All that was left for them to do would be to wait until. .
Sobbing.
Qinsei froze at once, her Matei staff readied.
She could hear quiet sobbing just through the trees to the south.
Qinsei frowned. It would not do to have someone unknown at her back. She stepped cautiously through the trees, weaving a careful path to be as silent and unseen as possible. She halted at the tree line, her breath carefully slow and her black eyes dappled by the afternoon light through the shifting leaves of the trees.
A long clearing ran up a slope between the trees on either side. The clearing itself remained in the shadow of the surrounding trees under a bright sky. Qinsei waited patiently for a moment, her eyes searching the trees and the tall grasses for a time before her gaze fixed on the small head whose back was turned toward her just past the crest of the hillside meadow.
A child-an elven child sat at the crest of the hill weeping in this lost and forsaken wilderness.
Qinsei frowned. She was more puzzled than concerned. There were no Rhonas settlements this far west- certainly none so near the Murialis Woods. It might be rebel elves out of Museria somehow come this far north. Whoever they were, her maternal instincts were not aroused; she meant to question this elf child and get answers quickly regardless of the cost.
Qinsei stepped into the tall grass and smiled. The ground was soft and spongelike beneath her feet. Her footfalls would go unheard.
She remained unaware of the long line of stones that she had stepped over as she crossed into the meadow.
Phang’s eyes searched quickly along the northern rim of the pool’s box canyon for the best point where he might lie in wait until Soen came and sprang their trap. This was his favorite part of the hunt; the prey were coming toward him, their fate irrevocably fixed and held in his hands and those of his fellow Iblisi. There was something about watching their approach-seeing their faces completely unaware of the doom that he knew was about to descend upon them. He relished their lives in that moment-that they were still dreaming of another tomorrow and making plans that would never be. Such a moment deserved a well-chosen position from which to view the show.
He soon saw the perfect spot from which to observe the last moments of his prey’s freedom. It was a collection of large boulders at the top edge of the steep northern slope overlooking the waterfall and the pool. He could see and not be seen there. He smiled and was about to move up to the rim of the canyon. .
Then he heard the piercing scream.
