“We’re easily a candlemark behind them now,” Kard said grimly. “We’re losing ground.”
“They camp at nightfall latest,” Doka told him. “No one ride horse in water in dark.”
“Unless they’re close to their destination,” the hunter replied. “Let’s keep moving. We can’t track them in the dark.”
“You couldn’t,” the guide said with a chuckle. “Doka could.”
“Quiet,” Teer told them both as he heard something. “Listen.”
Something was moving in the bushes uphill from them. He unslung the hunter from his shoulder and stepped closer, studying the dense greenery twenty yards away. Whatever it was had frozen now, and he slowly shook his head as he studied the bushes.
“Beast, I guess,” he told them. “Getting twitchy.”
“Dangerous beasts in these hills,” Doka said. “Better twitchy.”
She had her thunderbuss in her hands, studying the bushes intently as she gestured for Teer to fall back toward her.
“Even things that fit in bush kill,” she continued.
As Teer fell in beside the guide, he saw a sparkle of purple light flash past him. He barely managed not to look behind him at Kard as the El-Spehari’s magic flickered into the bush.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Kard’s spell took hold of the creature and the movement returned as the beast fled. A dark gray streak flashed out of the bushes in the opposite direction from them, legs pumping as magical fear drove it.
Doka was raising her gun as the beast fled, but Kard laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Let it go, Doka,” he told her. “It’s no threat to us.”
“Wolfen threat to everyone,” she said grimly.
“This one was looking for fish and we were in its way,” the El-Spehari said. “No need to kill a beast that didn’t harm us, is there?”
The wolfen—a nastier form of wolf with venomous teeth and claws, Teer understood—was out of reach of the thunderbuss now, anyway. Teer was sure he could hit the creature, but he followed Kard’s orders.
He hadn’t tested whether their bond would let him disobey the other man yet. He’d sworn loyalty, after all, and he had every intention of honoring that oath.
“You strange man, Kard,” Doka said, but she returned the thunderbuss to its place on her shoulder. “Not bad. Just strange.”
“Do what needs, no more,” Kard said, like he was reminding her of something. “Let’s not kill anything or anyone we don’t have to. Plus, well, that thunderbuss makes a lot of noise, and I don’t think we’re that far behind our quarry!”
14
It was around a candlemark later when Teer spotted the hoofprints leaving the water. Having ridden in the stream for over a candlemark themselves, their quarry clearly felt that was more than enough. They’d turned and left the water as a body, the four of them riding abreast as they headed into a sparsely wooded section of the hills.
“Not clever,” Doka said a moment later as she spotted the track. “You not need Doka to follow idiots.”
“I’m glad to have you anyway,” Kard replied, studying the trail. “What’s around here that they might be heading to?”
“No campsites Doka’d use if hiding,” she said slowly. “Couple places used by travelers. Path head toward one.”
“Well, we follow and see where they went,” Kard said. “Shouldn’t take much luck now to track them to Boulder.”
The three of them turned into the tracks, walking around the hoofprints in the mud and the loam. The vague path their quarry had followed was through scattered trees and between several of the hills.
The entire area was very different from what Teer was used to. The hills themselves were sharper and taller than the occasional bump that marked the plains he’d handled cattle on. This patch of less-dense forest was about as heavy as the trees ever got around Hardin’s Ranch.
He liked the shade and the greenery. The smell was surprisingly pleasant as well, though part of him missed the smell of grass and scrub in the sunlight. Not the smell of cows, though. He wasn’t sure he’d ever miss the smell of cows.
“We’re still losing ground,” Kard murmured to Teer. “I expected as much, but it’s starting to get close enough to dark that we may want to stop.”
“Think they rode until dark?” the younger man asked.
“I suspect they reached their camp by dark,” the bounty hunter admitted. “But I don’t want to stumble on Boulder and his men in the night. The numbers aren’t in our favor; we need advantages.”
“You thought you could take them on your own,” Teer pointed out.
He felt Kard’s amusement through their link.
“I did and I do,” he agreed. “Fear can get you a lot in this business, Teer. Working with Doka costs me options I might otherwise have. Normally, killing them all is an option.”
Teer shivered as Kard’s matter-of-fact admission that he’d kill the entire group of their quarry if he thought he needed to. Probably with magic. Teer hadn’t seen the El-Spehari let loose with anything resembling offensive magic yet—but he could see the problem, if Kard was keeping his true nature hidden from Doka.
“You have a plan?” he finally asked, eyeing the guide ahead of them and keeping his voice very quiet. From what Kard had said, Doka didn’t hear as well as Teer did, but she still heard better than most others.
Of course, Teer was only just now beginning to realize that not everyone heard as well as he did. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The world didn’t quite add up to him at that moment. He figured he was rolling with the changes well enough, but he was well aware he was unsure of everything.
“Basics of one, yeah,” Kard answered his question. “Depends on the ground. You and Doka add options I wouldn’t have on my own, too.”
“Catch up,” Doka said loudly.
