Nature's Peril Part 1 (The Nature Mage Series) (18 page)

“It’s going to be a long trip,”
Rimulth said seriously. “Who knows what you may be asked to contribute before the end?”

“Rimulth
’s right,” Heppy said. “But if you want to help out right now, you can gather firewood.”

“Okay,” she
said, glad of something to do.

“I’ll go with you,” Lydia said, and the two girls left the glade and started picking their way through the forest, looking for fallen branches. Heath was very particular about
things like that. He didn’t like them cutting down living branches, and he certainly didn’t approve of using magic to speed up the cooking process. He thoroughly disapproved of Heppy’s enchanted cooking pots, but as they had no others, he’d made a concession on that. At the druid’s insistence, everything had to be cleaned and prepared by hand, and cooked without arcane interference. He made them say a word of thanks to the Great Spirit before every meal, and even insisted on thanking the animals whose bodies gave them sustenance. Hephistole didn’t seem to mind Heath laying down the law at all. In fact he watched the whole process with obvious enjoyment, as if it was all some kind of grand experiment.

“When do you think we’ll catch up with them?” Lydia asked as they searched
, distracting Emmy from her thoughts. Emmy thought her friend sounded strangely vulnerable.

“
Very soon,” she responded. “I can’t get an exact answer from Lilly, but she’s very excited today, much more than yesterday. If I had to guess I’d say tomorrow or the day after.”

Lydia didn’t respond to that, and carried on picking up fallen branches.
All of a sudden, she stopped and straightened up. “What are you going to say to Gaspi?” she asked. Now she definitely sounded vulnerable.

“I don’t know
yet,” Emmy said. “I suppose it depends on what he says to
me
.”

“I was so angry
at Taurnil,” Lydia said, as if she hadn’t heard Emmy’s response at all. “But now I just don’t know. He was just trying to protect me after all.” She stared intently at Emmy as she spoke, but Emmy got the feeling Lydia was talking to herself and not to her. “He’s an idiot of course!” the gypsy girl continued. “We are Soulbound, and should never be separated like this, but I guess he wouldn’t understand that. Maybe I should just forgive him and be done with it,” she finished, bending down to pick up another branch. Emmy didn’t know what to say to that. Lydia had been through a very hard time in the last couple of months, and if forgiving Taurnil made things easier for her, then that had to be a good thing. But that didn’t mean she had to take the same approach. No way! However the reunion turned out, Gaspi wasn’t going to get off so easily, that was for sure!

…

The Darkman raced across the landscape, faster than a horse at full gallop. It didn’t tire, nor did it sleep. Bound by Shirukai Sestin’s compulsion, it chased after its prey with unrelenting energy to the exclusion of all else. People shuddered as it passed, hugging themselves tight as bowel-loosening fear gripped them. The feeling passed and they went about their business, never knowing how close they came to the foulest form of death.

Day and night it ran, crossing fields and thoroughfares, cut
ting through towns and villages with only one thought in its mind; it must kill the Nature Mage. The Darkman had an inner compass, drawn magnetically to its quarry and, though it had been thwarted once, it would not be again. It was drawing closer now. More than half its journey was complete, and it wouldn’t be long until the Nature Mage was at its mercy.

…