“How far away are we?” she asked Fess.
“Five miles,” he said. “Perhaps a bit more.”
His estimate confirmed hers. “It’s growing.” She turned a slow circle, taking in the destruction of yet another outpost. In truth, there hadn’t been much to destroy. Everything that could have been removed prior to the attack had been and there were no bodies. None.
“Where did they go, Lady Deel?” Fess asked.
She dropped the leaf and crushed it beneath her boot, obeying some obscure impulse. “South. The commander either received word to withdraw or was wise enough to notice the encroachment of the forest, probably the latter.” She pointed to the sapling. “The dirt around the trunk is freshly dug. Clever man.”
She glanced at the sun, noted they still had two hours until dusk, and considered their course of action, weighing Ealdor’s command against the desire to find the men who’d fled their outpost. For the moment, those two objectives aligned. She paused. Perhaps there was a way to ensure that continued. Mounting her horse, she lifted her voice and called. “Wag.”
“I don’t see him,” Fess said. “Can he hear you?”
Toria nodded. “The sentinels are physically gifted, just as you are. Imagine adding a pure gift to an animal whose senses of smell and hearing are already far greater than your own.” She pointed east, to where a blur moved across the ground at frightening speed. “You see?”
A moment later, the sentinel stood before her, his tongue waving in time to his panting. “Wag, track the men who fled from here, not the attackers.”
With a yip that should have come from a smaller dog, he entered the compound, pausing to smell the ground where the grass had been disturbed and flattened by the presence of tents. Then he returned and started south, setting a pace that forced the horses to a quick trot. Toria breathed a sigh of relief. The possibility that the evil from the forest had caught the men unaware, corrupting them, had lain on her heart, nagging at her and refusing dismissal.
A half hour before sunset, Wag went on point facing a thick copse of trees. Fess dismounted. “They don’t know us, Lady Deel. Wag and I will go first.” He approached, stepping slowly with his hands in sight and Wag on his right. “We’re seeking the men from the outpost north of here,” he called.
A woman wearing the blue and black of Caisel stepped out from behind the nearest tree, an arrow nocked and trained on Fess’s heart. “Move along, stranger, and we won’t have any trouble.”
Fess halted his advance. Toria dismounted and edged closer, keeping him between her and the woman. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?”
“Because you won’t survive the night without us,” Toria said.
A man stepped out from behind a tree to her left. “I’m Commander Oriano. You tracked us here so you could help us?” He darted a glanced at the woman on his left. “You hear that, Serana? They want to help us.” He barked a laugh. “I have two score men in these woods. We can care for ourselves. Tomorrow we’ll make the outer cordon.”
“No, Commander,” Toria said. “You have fifteen, and when the sun goes down the fields north of here are going to be filled with the enemy.” She took a step forward, away from Fess’s protection and made a point of gazing at the copse of trees. “At the approach of dawn, your hiding place will draw them like a flame draws moths. They’ll need shelter from tomorrow’s sun, and when they find you here, Commander, you will die.”
Doubt filled Oriano’s gaze as Toria waited.
Serana’s arrow dipped toward the ground. “And what can you do to help us?” the woman said. She pointed at Wag and then Fess. “The dog is big enough and he moves well, but your sword won’t be much help in the dark. And as for her . . .” She nodded to where Lelwin sat her horse. “The snap of a twig would have her screaming.”
On Toria’s left the sun touched the horizon. “Commander, if you want to live, you need to let me help you. I can show you how to fight those from the forest, but you have to do exactly as I say, and you have to do it now.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “And if I refuse?”
Toria turned her back on him and returned to her horse, ready to mount. “Then we will leave you to your own protection and circle around.” She nodded to Wag. “He sees well enough in the dark to get us to the outer ring of Rymark’s defense. We’ll send someone back for your bodies.”
She gave him all of two heartbeats to decide, then put her foot in the stirrup.
“Alright.” He stepped forward. “What do you want us to do?”
“Take us to your camp,” she ordered. “Then, gather or make long strips of heavy cloth, about a hand wide.” His expression clouded, betraying his confusion, but he turned and waved Toria and Fess into the copse.
Ahead of Toria, Fess turned, his expression dark. “What do you intend?” he said. “They do not have the knowledge to fight like Lelwin. You’ll be sending them out to be killed.”
“No,” Toria said. “They will fight nearly as well as she does.”
He stopped, as if entering the trees might signal surrender. “What do you intend, Toria Deel?” he repeated.
Conscious of the soldiers waiting for them, she edged closer. “At sunset Lelwin’s vault will open and she will become Brekana once more. With your help, we will delve her and place her knowledge and experience into Oriano and all his soldiers.”
He shook his head. “If you mean to do this without their permission, Toria Deel, I will not help you.”
She nodded. “That is your choice, Fess, but
