The Hallowed Hunt

the marsh. Fara never looked back.

Biast did, wheeling his horse about to watch as Ingrey poked up the fire with a stick. 'Will you two be all right?'

'Yes,' said Ingrey. 'Make for the gate of thorns. We will catch you up.'

Gravely, Ijada took the standard, backed a few paces, and held the black-and-red banner in the fire till it caught alight. She handed the staff to Ingrey. Ingrey gripped it tightly in both hands, closed his eyes, and heaved it skyward. He opened his eyes again, grabbed Ijada’s hand, and prepared to dodge whatever fell back. If anything.

Instead, the staff spun up and burst into a hundred burning shards, which rained down all around.

'Oh,' said Ijada in a tone of surprise. 'I thought we would have to walk through the woods with torches for a while, finding dry brush piles... '

'I think not,' said Ingrey, and began to tow her toward Biast, who was staring back wide-eyed in the growing yellow light. 'But it’s time to go. Yes, definitely.' Somewhere in the woods behind them, something very, very dry went up with a roar and a fountain of sparks. 'Briskly, even.'

Biast’s horse jittered despite its weariness, but the prince-marshal kept pace with them as they wound through the misshapen trees back toward the marsh. He eyed Ingrey and Ijada as if trying to decide which of them to pull up behind him on his horse and gallop for it, if the wind shifted. Happily, in Ingrey’s view, because he did not have the energy for another argument tonight, the faint breeze didn’t shift, and the ring of fire crept out from its center at no more than a walking pace. They reached the edge of the woods if not well in advance of the flames’ steady destruction, sufficiently so.

Ijada supported Ingrey as far as the gate of thorns. Then Biast, watching him stumble, climbed down off his horse and boosted Ingrey aboard instead, and led the beast. They needed no other lantern than the distant burning to climb the zigzag path up the wall of the valley. They reached the open promontory to find that all the others had gathered at a meager campsite prepared by Symark, Ottovin, Bernan, and Hergi.

Lewko helped Ingrey down from Biast’s horse. Ingrey was shivering badly now, in the dawn cold. Seeing Lewko draw Ingrey’s arm over his shoulders to escort him to the campfire, Hallana abandoned Fara, who was being hovered over by Hergi as well, and hurried to them. Ingrey found her low mutter of Dratsab! more alarming than his own weakness.

She frowned medically. 'Get him hot drinks and hot food, swiftly,' she ordered Bernan and Oswin. 'And whatever blankets and cloaks we have.'

Ingrey sank down on a saddle pad, because standing was no longer quite feasible.

'Has he spent too much blood?' Ijada asked her in worry.

Hallana replied, a little too indirectly, 'He’ll be all right if we can get him warmed up and fed.'

Hergi appeared with her leather case, and Ingrey endured yet another washing and rebandaging of his crusted right hand, though the wound was closed—again—and the bruises green and fading. Others bustled about with what seemed to him needless excitement, scavenging food and blankets and building up the fire. Ingrey was tired, breathless, and dizzy, and his chilled shaking threatened to spill the odd-tasting herb tea from his cup before he could get it to his numb lips, but Ijada plied him repeatedly with refills and what bits of fare the camp could supply. Better still, she huddled under his blankets with him to share the warmth of her own body, warming his hands with hers. Eventually the shudders stopped, and then he was merely very, very tired.

'How did you come here?' Ingrey asked Learned Lewko, who sat down to keep him company and share a bit of dried fruit someone had produced from a saddlebag. 'I could not send a message, after we left the king’s deathbed, though I wanted to. Horseriver held both Fara and me in thrall.'

'I had escorted Hallana to interrogate Ijada that night. We were talking together when Ijada became most upset, insisting something dire must have just befallen you.'

'I could not feel you anymore,' Ijada put in. 'I feared you had been killed.' She would have inched closer, but they were out of inches already; her arm around him tightened instead.

'Horseriver stole our bond.'

'Ah!' she breathed.

Lewko raised a curious eyebrow at this, but elected to go on with his narrative. 'Lady Ijada insisted we go investigate. Hallana agreed. I... decided not to argue. Your Rider Gesca also decided not to argue, at least not with Hallana, though he followed along for the sake of his warden’s duty. We all four walked up to Horseriver’s palace, where they told us you had gone to the hallow king’s bedside. Then up to the hallow king’s hall, where we found Biast at his father’s deathbed saying you had all gone back to the earl’s. We knew we had not missed you in the dark. Hallana got, well, the way she gets sometimes, and led us to the earl’s stables.'

'That must have been quite a scene,' Ingrey remarked.

'To say the least. Biast had been unconvinced of anything untoward beyond his sister’s usual illness, till then. From that point on, no one could have been more urgent in pursuit. Hallana hurried off to fetch Oswin and Bernan and their wagon, and found Prince Jokol talking to Oswin—he still wants a divine to carry back to his island—and she brought everyone. I was uncertain about taking this unruly mob upon the road, but, well, I can count to five. At least'—Lewko sighed—'Jokol didn’t bring his ice bear.'

'Did he want to?' Ingrey asked, bemused.

'Yes,' said Ijada. 'But I talked him out of it. He is a very sweet man.'

Ingrey chose to let that pass without remark.

Lewko continued, 'That was the point at which I decided the gods must be on our side—how does one say five gods help Them when it is the gods?—just imagine this same jaunt with the ice bear.' He shuddered. 'Fafa would have had to ride in the wagon, I suppose, although the beast is big enough to ride.' He blinked for a moment, looking reflective. 'I wonder... do you suppose this whole quest for a divine was a ploy on the beautiful Breiga’s part to get rid of the bear before it ended up sleeping at the foot of her marriage bed?'

Ijada’s eyes lit, and she giggled. 'Or worse, on it. Possibly. She sounds a determined lady. For pity’s sake, don’t suggest that in Jokol’s hearing.'

'I wouldn’t dream of it.' Lewko rubbed the grin from his mouth and continued, 'Biast thrust everything in Easthome onto Hetwar’s shoulders, which I think are sturdy enough to hold them. We were on the river road pelting north not four hours after you three had left Easthome. After that it was all commandeering Temple courier horses and royal mail station remounts, and taking turns resting in the wagon, all the way to Badgerbridge.'

'You took the main road straight there?' said Ingrey, considering a mental map. 'That would have saved some time. We took a lesser track when we turned west, for secrecy I think.'

'Yes. There appeared never to be any doubt about where we were going. Such a deluge of dreams! I did not see why, until... well. I have now seen why. We traded the wagon for fresh mounts and outraced the prince- marshal’s escort out of Badgerbridge; they may yet catch us up, if they have not lost themselves in Ijada’s forest, here.'

Ijada nodded thoughtfully, as she considered this possibility. 'The forester is with them; they will find their way eventually, maybe by another pass.' She glanced out over the valley. 'The smoke must draw them, if nothing else.'

Hallana motioned to Ijada from across the camp, and Ijada rose to see what she wanted. Ingrey stretched and, finally warmed to comfort despite a headache, clambered up to wander to the edge of the promontory and gaze out over the bowl of Holytree–Bloodfield–The Wounded Woods. My kingdom of All-That- Was.

He unclutched the blanket from around his neck and sat on it, his arms wound about his knees, and stared into the graying gulf of mist and smoke. The earlier hot bright yellow that had seared the dark was dying down to a sullen red ring, black in the growing middle. The bloody light reflected off the undersides of the charcoal-colored clouds; far off, Ingrey heard a faint rumble of thunder reverberate through the serried hills, and the heavy scent of the coming rain mixed in his nostrils with the stink of smoke. He wondered if the morning after the original massacre had looked and smelled like this, and if Audar himself had also paused upon this spot to reflect on what clashing kings had wrought.

Biast strolled over to stand beside him, his arms crossed, staring out likewise, as if sociably. The prince- marshal was a little too drawn to bring off the illusion, but Ingrey spread his hand in invitation nonetheless, and Biast sank down next to him. Biast’s tired sigh was not feigned.