Horse snorted, and the Spawn gave Daks a withering look.
“Look,” Daks pressed on, “we’re sorry if we disturbed you or anything, but, uh, we’re just looking for our friends. We’ll be on our way tomorrow… or right now if you prefer. No time like the present, right?”
Daks shuffled closer to Horse’s side but froze when the Spawn raised a hand.
“Do these friends of yours happen to be two women, one pale, one dark?” he asked, as if the question had to be dragged out of him.
Daks’s chest tightened. “Yes,” he replied breathlessly as Ravi gripped his arm.
The Spawn sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well, at least none of us will have to listen to the darker one rail at us anymore, while the little pale one coos and consoles. You are Daks, I presume.”
He said the name as if it tasted foul, but Daks couldn’t have cared less. His grin was wide as he asked, “Is she all right? Where is she?”
The Spawn man shrugged. “She is recovering well enough. I will take you to her, if only to cease her constant complaining.”
“Where?” Daks repeated.
“At our encampment. I told you I would take you there.”
Daks shot Ravi a hopeful, questioning look, but Ravi only shrugged.
“As usual, when it could be at all helpful, my curse is silent,” Ravi whispered.
Daks gripped the hand on his sleeve and kissed Ravi’s forehead. “It’s okay. The encampment was where I was headed anyway. And honestly, if he wanted us dead, he wouldn’t have to resort to trickery to make it happen.”
The Spawn must’ve had good hearing, because when Daks turned his attention back to him, he was smiling… or baring his teeth, Daks couldn’t decide which.
The Spawn turned and headed for the road, displaying his high, rounded bare ass in the process. Under any other circumstances, Daks might have done a bit of ogling, but he hadn’t quite decided whether to piss himself in fear or relief yet. Spawn were the stuff of nightmares, corruption and evil made flesh, the cautionary tales told to scare children into obedience. You didn’t lust after them… or at least he hadn’t before.
“Daks,” Ravi said, a warning in his tone.
“What?”
Ravi simply scowled at him as he pushed past him after the Spawn. “Hey! Hey you!”
Daks caught back of Ravi’s cloak and pulled him up short. “What are you doing?”
“I’m tired. I’m sore. And now I’m just pissed off,” Ravi huffed.
“Are you coming?” the Spawn called from the road.
“Can it wait until morning?” Ravi shouted back. “Unlike you, I’m guessing, some of us actually need to sleep. And who knows what we might blunder into in the dark? I really don’t relish the thought of being hit by another trap, thank you very much.”
While Daks looked on in dread, tightening his grip on the sword again, the Spawn studied Ravi for a few moments before a true smile spread across his somewhat disturbingly handsome face.
“There are no traps the way I will take you. I’ve destroyed any such things as I’ve come across them. You’ve had dealings with the bogfolk before, I take it.”
“Enough,” Ravi huffed, and the Spawn’s smile widened.
After a few seconds of anxiety-producing silence, the Spawn nodded, as if he’d made his mind up. “Very well. You may sleep. I will return at dawn to guide you the rest of the way, for the sake of your friend, if nothing else. We owe her a debt.” His face softened at the words, making him appear even more human… at least until he glanced in Horse’s direction and his expression turned unreadable. “I will let them know you’re coming.”
One second, the Spawn man stood naked in the middle of the road, the next, the air was filled with the flapping of great black wings as a raven took off into the night sky and disappeared.
“Seven Hells,” Daks whispered vehemently.
“Yeah,” Ravi agreed, still staring where the thing had vanished.
After a few seconds, Daks blew out a breath, grabbed Ravi’s shoulders, and gave him a little shake. “We need our sleep, thank you very much?” he repeated, huffing out an aggrieved laugh.
At least Ravi had the decency to blush. “I am tired. And who knew a Spawn could be so annoying.”
“You kill me,” he said with a half smile. “Come on. I have a feeling sleep isn’t going to come so easy, but at least we can build up the fire and make ourselves comfortable. I managed to, uh, borrow a flask of something pretty potent from a guy passed out in the corner of the pub. I think I’m gonna need a snootful or two to relax. At least it’s Shura getting us into trouble this time and not me.”
While Ravi puttered with the fire, Daks checked on the dapple. The poor thing had calmed down considerably at least, though it had chafed the skin around its halter, trying to break free. Horse was, as always, serene and regal, and Daks eyed the animal with a new wariness.
After not sensing the Spawn until it was right on top of them, he began to question the limitations of his abilities a little. But if Horse was more than an exceptionally smart, loyal, resourceful animal, Daks still couldn’t sense it.
“You stumped a Spawn, though, and I’ve never even heard of such a thing,” Daks murmured to the beast as he held its pale blue gaze until he had to look away. “Whatever you are, I’m glad you’re on our side,” he finished, clapping Horse on the shoulder before carrying the flask and borrowed bedroll back to the fire.
“You came prepared,” Ravi said wryly, eyeing the bedroll like it was the softest of featherbeds.
“You need but ask, and the gods shall provide,” Daks intoned with a grin.
“Uh-huh.”
Daks shrugged before shaking out the roll and spreading it over the ground. “The guards I borrowed this stuff from won’t suffer… too much.”
“Eh, they deserve it anyway.”
“They do,” Daks agreed.
He settled onto the bedroll after tossing
