Mage Hunter Omnibus (Complete 5 Book Series) (22 page)

Moving further and further from the cave, Guthrie found himself nearly a mile ahead on the mountain trail. He paused a moment to rest, leaning against a wall. Something had to be done. He had collected some kindling, but that alone would not be enough. His eyes closed, he slumped to the ground, feeling the chill of winter eating through his armor and into his chest, into his very soul. His skin was dry because of the exposure, rubbing at his hands producing flakes. His lips were chapped, his limbs stiff.

He nodded off.

Chapter 4

A brushing at his eyelashes startled him awake. Guthrie flinched and blinked. It was snowing again. That was what had brought him around, pale flakes fluttering along his lashes.

He groaned as he stretched and got to his feet. The rest had done little for him, and he felt more chilled than ever, his limbs heavy and sore as if he had been recently beaten. Picking up the small pile of kindling he had gathered, he began to make his way back toward the cave. This snow was not a good sign, even if it was only flurries so far. This snow could kill them, if his companions were still alive.

Fear eating away at him once more, Guthrie tried to rush ahead, but he was weak. At the last bend before the cave, he paused for a moment to catch his breath and to steel himself for the worst. It was daylight, but he had no idea how long he had been asleep. Would the knights still be alive? Probably, but when was the last time they had eaten or drank anything? When was the last time they had held any warmth within their bodies? At least Guthrie had the padding of his armor, though that little protection might only prolong his suffering.

Fearing the worst possible, he rounded the corner and saw the cave’s entrance. The knights were not there. The cave was shallow, all its insides easily seen from Guthrie’s view.

He almost panicked. What had happened? Moving forward with caution, he saw there was no blood nor other signs of a struggle. There were no obvious tracks away from the cave, but then the weak snow looked to not have been falling long, having only left a dusting across the stone floor of the mountain trail.

Guthrie glanced up the other end of the trail, back toward the Kobalans. Seeing nothing untoward or his missing fellows, he dropped his package of twigs and tree limbs at the cave’s entrance.

Movement stirred him. He spun around, one hand on his mace.

It was Zanbra and Kroff, the two bent over, huddling together as they shuffled forth along the neck of the trail leading back to their enemies. The two had their arms wrapped around one another, but Kroff was holding something small and dark in the crook of one arm.

They had not looked up at Guthrie yet. Before they did, he decided to try working some magic, something that might save their lives. He glanced down at the little pile of kindling and flashed a thought at the pieces of wood.

“
Burn, damn you,” he muttered under his breath.

To his surprise, a small flame darted up in the midst of the twigs, catching and spreading.

Glancing around, Guthrie found some rocks to create a small barrier around the fire.

“
Glad to see you found some flint,” Kroff said as he and Zanbra entered the cave, the two collapsing next to one another along one wall.

Guthrie looked to them. Both were turning blue. Zanbra’s head hung, the woman either lacking the strength or the will to look up. She appeared asleep.

Kroff held up a hand, something covered with feathers dangling from it.

The sergeant rushed forward and stared at a sizable bird of some type. “How in the name of Ashal did you manage this?”

Kroff gave the animal over to Guthrie and gave a weak chuckle. “We went looking for you and found this thing already wounded down the path. Must’ve got in a fight with something and lost. Zanbra finished it off with a couple of rocks.”

Glad they would have something to eat, Guthrie took the bird to one side, knelt and went to work on it with his dagger. “Any signs of us being followed?”

“No,” Kroff said, “but I’m not sure it matters.”

Guthrie tugged feathers and skinned the bird. “What do you mean?”

“We’re done, Hackett,” Kroff said with a huff, glancing aside at his fellow knight. “We’ve only been out here a couple of days, I think ... it’s kind of hard to tell ... but the cold is already sapping us. Zanbra is the worst. If we don’t get help soon, we’re dead.”

“
Don’t give up just yet,” Guthrie said. “You never know what might happen.”

Kroff chuckled again. “For one who does not seem the most zealous of Ashal worshipers, you have a lot of faith.”

“I never said I don’t believe,” Guthrie said, still working on the animal. Then he paused and glanced over a shoulder, a glint in the sergeant’s eyes. “Besides, I’ve not exactly seen you doing a lot of praying.”

The Spear’s laughter was heavier this time, shaking his frame and bringing about a cough. Eventually he managed to control his breathing once again. “That is true. I barely made it into the Order.” He glanced at his partner again. “Zanbra, though, you should see her back in Mas Ober. It’s prayers in the morning, prayers after breakfast, prayers before lunch, and after, then at dinner, and after, then before we go to bed each night. And then there are all the prayers at our meetings and whatnot. All the knights aren’t like that, of course, but those fellows are like me, only Spears or Darts. The Swords, like Zanbra here, they’re always praying. And the High Sword, I don’t think that man ever stops praying; probably why we hardly ever see him.”

“Sounds like a dull life,” Guthrie said, finally finishing with the bird. He went to work making a tree branch into a skewer for cooking the meal. “The army wasn’t much better, though nowhere near as much praying. Lots of standing around on guard duty, paperwork for the officers.”

“
I bet you wish for those times now, don’t you?” Kroff asked.

“
Not exactly,” Guthrie said, holding the bird over the fire. “Oh, I wish we weren’t in all this trouble, but I can’t say I miss the daily routine. To think, if not for this war, I’d be retired by now, probably on my way down south somewhere.”

“
What were you going to do?”

“
I don’t know for sure,” Guthrie said. “I didn’t have any particular plans, just to get away from the army. Oh, I didn’t hate serving or anything like that, but after ten years, I was ready for something different. I guess I got more than I bargained for.”

“
You can say that again,” Kroff said. “Our problem, yours and mine, is we were cursed to live in peaceful times.”

Guthrie said up straighter. What had Kroff meant by that? He turned a curious glance to the knight.

“You and me,” the Spear explained, “we are like the rest of the country, meaning Ursia. We got soft. We hadn’t had any real enemies in decades. When was the last war? Not during our lifetimes. It’s one of the reasons we of the Order have been so successful. We’ve had nothing else to do but hunt down wizards and witches. And here you are in the army, bored out of your head for years and years. Then we get slammed by these Dartague, and it caught all of us by surprise.”

Guthrie went back to cooking. “You think Zanbra would agree with you?”

“Probably,” Kroff said with a weak laugh, “though she would likely say it was because of the spread of godlessness and sin or some such.”

“
She does seem to be quite fervent in her beliefs,” Guthrie said as he continued working on their meal.

“
Have you thought about joining?” Kroff asked.

For a moment, Guthrie did not know what the man meant. He kept cooking the bird, and the meaning of the Spear’s words dawned on him. “I don’t think I’m knightly material.”

“I thought the same thing twenty years ago,” Kroff said, “but the Order needs all kinds, not just those who will drop to a knee for prayer every five minutes. A little diversity in thought keeps us from being blind sided, though not everyone agrees with me on this.”

Guthrie could imagine Zanbra’s opinion on the matter. “I didn’t realize one could join the Order. I thought you had to be knighted by a bishop or duke.”

“You do,” Kroff said, “but you can put in a request. That’s how I got in, in a roundabout fashion. My old man, he put in a request with our local duke. Next thing I knew, I was pulled away to Mas Ober for indoctrination and training.”

“
Pulled away?”

“
I was a grunt, like you,” Kroff said.

Guthrie glanced to the man again while turning over the chicken. “Where were you stationed?”

“Little garrison town down on the border with Pursia,” Kroff said with a grin, as if remembering a fond youth. “Just the opposite of this place. Hotter than hell all the time, sand up the crack of your legs each morning when you woke, but the women were the most beautiful I’ve ever laid eyes upon.”

Guthrie grinned and went back to cooking.

“You should consider joining the Order,” Kroff said to the sergeant’s back. “I could put a word in with Duke Heggel for you.”

“
I’ll think about it,” Guthrie said. And he would. Knighthood was not something he had ever considered, but it would be a life of sorts. He had a growing animosity toward those with magical abilities, but there were his own powers to consider. What kind of life could he have knowing he might be found out and executed at any time?

“
That’s if we get out of here,” Kroff added, shifting a little to remove an arm from behind Zanbra’s head. Looking worn and nearly dead, the woman slumped back against the wall.

Nearly finished with the bird, Guthrie glanced out of the cave and found the snow was coming down in heavy sheets. The path across the cave’s entrance was already covered.

“After we eat, I’ll gather some snow for drinking,” he said.

“
Good lad,” Kroff said.

“
Unfortunately,” Guthrie went on, “we’ll have to use our hands. Sorry.”

“
No, we won’t.”

Guthrie glanced back. Kroff was holding up a small wooden cup.

“Where did you get that?” the sergeant asked.

Kroff grinned again. “Managed to pick it up when I grabbed that piece of tenting for our shoes. It was underneath, and I thought it might come in handy.”

“Thank Ashal.”

The Spear chuckled again. “Or the Kobalans.”

Figuring their bird was cooked through and through, Guthrie pulled their meal back and handed it to Kroff. The knight did not argue, but took the animal and attacked it with a viscous bite. Guthrie smiled watching his comrade eating away, not fearing there would not be enough for all of them since the bird was of fair size.

But Kroff’s last words had brought something to mind. “Speaking of the Kobalans, I was out for most of it, but I picked up a few things when Verkain was interrogating me. Still, I don’t know what they were doing here, or what happened to us after leaving Ildra.”

Kroff chewed and swallowed. “He wouldn’t tell us anything, but his officers talked in front of us quite freely, not realizing Zanbra and I speak Kobalan fluently, as do all of the Gauntlet.”

“
So what was going on? Why is Verkain involved in all this?”

“
He’s not,” Kroff said, “at least not directly. He wasn’t behind the Dartague war, if that’s what you mean. The war was all Ildra’s doing, and he was against it.”

“
I’d hate to see how he would have treated us if we
had
been at war.”

Kroff chuckled again. “Oh, he was going to kill us off, you and me and Zanbra, no doubt, then hide the bodies away in a deep pit somewhere. Even if our bodies had been found, it would have looked like the Dartague had done us in.”

“Why did he want us dead?”

“
We were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Kroff said. “When he discovered us at that pagan temple, he feared the Ursians suspected him of involvement with Ildra and the Dartague, when it was really just the opposite in many ways. He was planning to torture us to find out what we knew, then do away with us to get rid of any evidence. Sneaky bastard, and devious.”

Guthrie shook his head. “So ... I’m not following you. Are you saying the Kobalans and the Dartague are enemies?”

“Not at all,” Kroff said before taking another bite, chewing and swallowing. “Verkain didn’t want this war, not now, but was thinking of a push against Ursia down the road, perhaps in a few decades, maybe a century. Either way, it would be long after you and I are around. Who knows if he would have ever done it. But to those ends, he had trained Ildra. She just jumped ahead of him, apparently too impatient to wait until she was an old woman for her countrymen to get a little revenge on us Ursians. I think that’s why Verkain killed her, because she had ruined his plans. Especially with us escaping, if we should live, Ursia will know to keep a watch on him now.”

“
But he turned over the baby to some Dartague?”

“
Oh, yes,” Kroff said. “Apparently the bastard isn’t as bloodthirsty as everyone thinks. When he and his boys left the temple behind, they ran into Ildra’s escorts, likely those from the camp you and Werner visited. Verkain handed over the child to some chieftain, then informed the fellow that his wyrd woman was dead. I guess either Verkain lied about how Ildra died or the Dartague weren’t stupid enough to take on someone rumored to be one of the most powerful wizards living. Either way, the Dartague rode off with the babe, and the Kobalans set up camp, planning to interrogate the three of us before slinking back to Kobalos. I guess Verkain felt safe here in the mountains, thinking none of our scouts would find them.”