The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) (20 page)

They kept riding at a ground-eating trot that made miles
pass under them. With only glimpses of the moon overhead, and no clock on her,
she couldn’t say how much time had passed. Her aching backside firmly
maintained that it had been at least a decade since she’d climbed on board.
Grimacing at the discomfort, she tried to grip the horse’s sides with her legs
and readjust her position. This did and didn’t succeed. “There’s no way to tell
if we’re catching up, is there?”

“Not until we actually catch sight of them,” Decker
confirmed. He turned his head slightly toward her. “You’re fidgeting. Getting
sore?”

“I’m not used to riding a horse.” She decided to leave it at
that.

“Well, with all of those magical flying devices you have, I
suppose that makes sense,” he allowed. “Bear with it. We’re making good
headway, I think. In fact, I’ll be surprised if we don’t catch them by dawn.”

“And, ah, how far away is dawn?”

“A good three hours yet.”

So they’d already been riding like this for two hours? She
thunked her head against his back and groaned. And she had to put up with this
for another
three hours?

“You’ll survive,” he assured her drolly.

Probably. “I’m taking every ounce of my discomfort out on
those thieves’ hides.”

“I won’t stop you,” he promised in dark humor.

Up ahead of them, the wolves slowed to a walk and then
stopped altogether, their noses up in the air and pointing to an area off the
road that looked to be dense with virgin forest. They stopped as well, the
horse blowing out a sigh of relief to finally have a chance to catch his
breath. Sevana put her hands on Decker’s shoulders and used him to lever
herself up so she could properly see. “Hinun? What are you sensing?”

The wolf let out a long whine, taking two cautious steps
toward the side of the road.

“What?” Decker looked at his own wolf, who didn’t seem to
know what to think of the situation. “You’re not smelling what he is?”

“It’s probably not a scent at all,” Sevana said absently,
her eyes straining to see in the dark. “Hinun is sensitive to magic after
living with an Artifactor for so many years. I think I’m seeing what he sensed.
It’s faint, but there’s an aura of magic over this area.”

“A trap?”

“Off the road?” she countered. “I would think you’d put the
trap
on
the road. But I really can’t tell from this distance. I barely
see it at all.”

He stiffened his arm and gave her something to balance with
as she slid off the horse. Hinun looked uneasy about this thing, whatever it was,
so she trod cautiously. The wolf might not understand magic the way they did,
but he certainly had good instincts about it. If he didn’t trust it, she
wouldn’t either. She came up to stand at his side, drawing first a crystal that
emitted a soft glow of light so she could have a proper view of the area. It
lit up everything in a pale yellow, throwing things into a sharp chiaroscuro of
shading and light.

Hmmmm, something looked strange about this. Very strange.
The trees directly in front of her, exposed to strong mage light, looked flat,
almost two-dimensional. The trees off to either side looked like exact
duplicates, something she hadn’t been able to see until she stood this close.
One, two, three…five trees were mirages based on some of the surrounding trees.

“This area isn’t real,” she said, outlining it with her free
hand. “It’s either a trap meant for us to fall into or a bolt hole for them to
hide in. I can’t tell which.”

Decker dismounted as well, one hand resting on the sword
hilt belted at his side. “Which one are you inclined to think it is?”

“A trap,” she said frankly, not taking her eyes away.
Something about this didn’t look quite right, not compared to the skill she’d
already seen from this magician. In fact, part of the spell seemed to be…leaking?
“Gid doesn’t smell them going into there, right? Hinun doesn’t seem to be
either, he just sensed the magic. And the way this is set up is almost shoddy,
in a sense. Like they had designed it to where it would have
just
enough
of a magical presence that I would detect it.”

“And come in close enough to fall into it,” Decker finished
darkly. “Well, well, they are clever, aren’t they.”

“Not clever enough to outsmart a wolf, thank mercy. But they
certainly caught something.” She rubbed at her chin and stared harder. Now that
she saw the spell, she could see through it to a certain extent, although the
inky darkness kept the details hidden.

“Something?” Decker parroted, peering into the woods
himself.

A piercing cry split the night air, the sound like an angry
bird of prey calling out in challenge.

“Ah…was that…?”

“A griffin,” Sevana confirmed for him. “At least, I’m seeing
a large body with wings and it certainly looks like a griffin.”

“Those idiots trapped a griffin in there?” he demanded
incredulously.

“Likely not on purpose. Traps like this are devilishly hard
to set because you can only set it to trap a certain amount of creatures or
races before you hit a limit. He likely set it to entrap beings with sentient
intelligence, as that’s the easiest way to mark humans apart from animals.
Griffins are intelligent enough to fall into that bracket.”

Decker looked unnerved by this, as well he should be.
Griffins did not have a natural propensity for being benevolent toward
humankind to begin with. They wouldn’t attack humans without provocation, but
they weren’t inclined to get along with them either. You had to win a griffin’s
respect first before ever trying to deal with them, and that was challenging.

While this situation had ‘danger’ written all over it, it
also came with a great deal of opportunity. She rocked back on her heels and
thought about it. “Decker, how far are we away from that split in the road?”

“About a half-hour or so, why?”

“And are there game trails that can get us ahead of them, if
we know which way they went?”

“Well, of course, but it’s impossible to know…” he trailed
off as he picked up on where these questions led. “You think you can get him to
cooperate with us if you free him?”

“I don’t see the harm in trying.” She shrugged. “If he’s not
in the mood to bargain, I’ll contact Sarsen and have him come up and undo the
trap. It won’t hurt our flying friend in there to be trapped for a day or so.”

Decker shifted from one foot to the other, ill at ease. “I
heard griffins are hard to deal with.”

“That’s an understatement. But I think I have the right
motivation for him to cooperate at the moment.” Rooting through her bag, she
found a vocal wand and put it to her throat, projecting her voice to a more
audible pitch. “Honorable griffin. I am Sevana Warran, an Artifactor.”

The thrashing on the other side of the trees abruptly
stopped. “
Artifactor
?”

“Indeed. I am in pursuit of the men that set this trap and
ensnared you. They are evil and we wish to punish them.”

“
Then free me. Undo their work
.”

“I certainly am willing to, but my efforts come at a price.
Will you aid us in hunting them down? I will consider it a fair deal if you
do.”

A weighty silence descended as he mulled this over. Finally,
he responded, “
What do you wish of me
?”

“It won’t take long,” she promised. “Let me ride on your
back and see if I can spot them in the air. If we know which road they took,
we’ll know how to get ahead of them and can catch them sooner.”

Another weighty silence before he capitulated with ill
grace,
“Fine. Undo this wretched spell.”

She grinned in victory.

The spell didn’t take much to dismantle. Spells that
camouflaged didn’t take a lot of power—that’s how they were able to evade
magical detection in the first place, by using more natural power and less of
the human element. But that also meant that if push came to shove, any magician
worth their salt could break it easily. All Sevana did was switch wands to one
with more power in it, and with a sharp slashing movement, commanded, “
KLAK NE FOLE
!”

The trap dissolved as if it had never been there, revealing
a small clearing instead of the line of trees that had been there before. The
griffin lost no time in leaping free of the clearing and landing on the road,
coming in close enough that he spooked both wolves and the stallion. The wolves
quickly backed up, coming in closer to their respective humans in a clearly
defensive posture. The stallion just jerked at his reins, trying to leave the
area altogether. But most animals would when faced with an angry predator their
own size.

The griffin didn’t appear to either notice or care about
their reactions. He just shook himself from head to tail, wings flaring as if
he had been locked in a cage instead of a clearing. Sevana pursed her lips in a
silent whistle. My, my, my, what an amazing specimen. In her mage light, his
eyes shone like polished glass, and even under all those glossy golden feathers
she could see muscles ripple and contract as he moved. He looked to be a young
adult, old enough to have his full body, but just barely. It could explain why
he fell for the trap, as well. He didn’t have the experience yet to recognize
when an area looked suspicious.

After another full-body shake, he looked at her squarely. “
Well
,
Artifactor
,
climb on
.
I wish to get this over with
.”

“And, ah, how do you propose that I stay on?” she asked him.
After all, she didn’t have a saddle or anything like that, and she’d seen
griffins fly before. They could put falling stars to shame with their speed.

“
That is your business
.”

Right. Obviously she wouldn’t get any help from that
quarter. Shaking her head, she reached in her bag and pulled out two charms,
which she stuck on the inside of her thighs. She put the mage light away at the
same time, as it would interfere with his night vision and give away their
position up in the air.

“Um, Sevana?”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured Decker, hoping she didn’t lie.
She looked the griffin over with a calculating eye and decided to sit at the
base of his neck, right in front of his wings. It seemed the best spot, anyway.
With a bit of a running start, she hopped up onto her stomach—why did he have
to be so
tall?
—and swung both legs around so that she could sit up
properly. His feathers felt smooth and prickly at the same time, depending on
where she gripped, but she found a likely spot to hang on to. As soon as she
did, she activated the charms on her legs, which gripped tightly to his sides.
Thank all mercy she had sticking charms in the bag. Hopefully they would be
adequate to the job at hand.

Settled, she directed, “We need to fly north.”

Without a word, he spread his wings, and with a few running
steps, took off into the air. Air blasted her in the face, whipping a few
strands of hair out of her braid to slap her in the face. She didn’t dare lift
even one hand to drag them free. It felt as if she
barely
had a secure perch
on his back. Sticking charms or no sticking charms, if she made it to the
ground in one piece, it’d be a miracle.

The air up here felt far colder, and at the speed they flew,
it felt like icicles formed inside of her lungs. She kept her mouth closed as
much as she could and breathed through her nose, but it didn’t seem to help
much.

“
Where
?”

Peering downward, she tried to see the ground. It looked
like nothing more than pitch darkness to her, most of it semi-bristly. “We’re
looking for a group of men travelling fast.”

The griffin didn’t respond, just took off in a short dive
that brought them closer to the ground, speeding them ahead. Sevana had to
trust his eyes, as she couldn’t see a single thing, but a griffin’s night
vision should be able to see every mouse as it moved down there.

He did one slow, lazy circle, and then stopped in midair,
hovering with gentle beats of his wings. “
I see nothing.”

She blinked. “Nothing at all?”

“
There are no humans down there
,” he confirmed
darkly. “
Woman
,
you are sure of the direction
?”

“The wolves were the ones tracking their scent. I didn’t
detect any magic that would have confused them.” She pondered that for a moment.
“I suspect they have a bolt hole of some sort prepared to evade our pursuit.
It’s apparently closer than I would have guessed. How far can you see?”

“
Far
.”

She rolled her eyes. Really? That was the best answer he
could give her? “Down both the east and west highways?”

“
Yes
.”

Well, they couldn’t be
that
far ahead to disappear
completely out of a griffin’s sight. No, they had to have a bolt hole fairly
nearby. “Do you see any areas that look…strange? Like the area that trapped
you.”

“
I cannot see human magic
.”

Ahhh.
That explained why he was trapped within it.
Well, staying up here any longer would serve no purpose except to freeze her
even further. “Thank you,” she said politely. With griffins, you were polite,
or you were a mid-meal snack. “If you’ll take me back now?”

“
That is all you wish of me
?” he sounded surprised.

“That’s all I needed to know,” she assured him. “If you
can’t see them from up here, then they’re hiding nearby. Knowing that, I’ll be
able to find them.”

He didn’t respond, but his lack of response carried weight,
as if he was thinking it all over. He turned and dove back toward where Decker
and the wolves waited on them. It seemed that the return trip took half the
time, which Sevana felt like saying a prayer of thanks for, as her hands felt
so cold she didn’t know how much longer she could grip anything. From now on,
if she ever had to pursue anyone in the dead of night, she was wearing
gloves
.

The griffin landed lightly on the ground, wings fully
extended, and stayed still as she undid the sticking charms and slid stiffly to
the ground. With frozen face muscles, she managed a smile and gave him a bow.
“Thank you.”

For the first time, the griffin reciprocated the courtesy
and gave a nod of his head in return. “
You make fair deals
,
Artifactor
.
I will remember this
.”

Oh? Sounded like she’d just made a friend, of sorts. “I
promise to track down the men that trapped you.”

He gave a curt nod of the head, feathers bristling. “
If I
am nearby
,
and you need my aid
,
you may call on me
.
I am
Clear Wind
.”

She gave an appropriate bow for the gift of his name. “I
will do so.”

With a last, piercing cry, he lifted off the ground again,
sending gusts of wind swirling about them. She lifted her arms to shield her
face in a defensive gesture, but as quickly as the air hit her, it disappeared
as he took to the sky.

She blew out a breath. “Well. That was an adventure.”

“What did you see?” Decker pressed.

“Not a blasted thing,” she confessed frankly. “It all looked
like various shades of black to me. But
he
said there weren’t any humans
moving about and a griffin’s eyesight is not to be underestimated. He also said
that he couldn’t see anything that has human magic on it—”

“Hence why he got trapped?”

She gave a nod at his guess and continued, “—so it’s likely
they’re holed up somewhere. Somewhere close, if they managed to get under cover
this quickly. Hinun, Gid, it’s up to you to track these gormless twits down.”
She didn’t think she’d be able to see their true bolt hole. As much as it
pained her to admit it, their magician’s skill level was too high for him to
make careless mistakes.

They remounted, with much pain and grumbling on Sevana’s
part, and set off. The wolves kept their noses in the air or dropped them to
the ground now and again. After shivering for a full minute, she gave up and
picked up the bottom of Decker’s jacket, climbing her way underneath it.

Decker yelped as her cold hands touched his back and
squirmed. “Sevana!” he squeaked. “What are you doing?!”

“Shut it. I’m freezing.”

“What, you don’t have warming spells or something?”

“Not on me,” she grumbled against his back. Ooooh, so nice
and waaaarm. Like a lizard finding a hot rock, she wrapped her arms around his
stomach and snuggled in. The chill started leaving and she felt like purring in
contentment.

“Happy?” he drawled.

“Mmmm-hmmm,” she sighed.

“You realize your hands are freezing me?”

“Do I care?”

Decker muttered, “Apparently not.”

They rode along in silence for several minutes. Eventually,
Sevana started to feel too confined and stifled by being under the jacket like
this. Most of her body liked being warm but it felt hard to breathe. After some
internal debate, she gave up and climbed back out of the jacket and into the
progressively colder night air. When she lifted the jacket up, Decker let out a
hiss of protest. “What?” she asked in exasperation. “I thought you didn’t like
me under there.”

“I don’t, but every time you lift the jacket, a cold blast
of air goes up my back!” He shifted one hand off the reins so he could tug his
jacket back into place.

She shrugged, as this didn’t bother her any, and asked, “How
are the wolves doing?”

“Still going strong. They don’t seem the least bit confused.
Is it possible to duplicate someone’s scent and lay a false trail?”

“Yes,” she responded instantly. “But it’s hard to do it in a
hurry and make it credible enough to fool an Illeyanic’s intelligence. Hinun
especially will be able to tell the difference.”

Decker gave a nonverbal grunt of understanding.

A thought occurred and she asked, “Have you ever hunted down
men before? Thieves, murderers, that sort of thing?”

“Yes,” he answered simply.

She didn’t press him for details. She didn’t need to.
Huntsmen in any corner of the world were depended on for more than just game
and furs. They also augmented the ombudsmen and whatever law enforcement might
be in place. Sevana had joined in with such parties once or twice before on
Milby’s behalf because the criminal they chased had some sort of magical talent
or device on them that a normal man couldn’t safely handle. She knew exactly
what Decker had experienced before this. The way he reacted to this situation,
spur of the moment as it was, spoke a great deal of his history.

“Have you?” he asked her, as if he hadn’t thought to ask
this until she had.

“Oh yes. I’ve never had to do it in the dead of night like
this, as I said earlier.”

Decker mulled that over for a moment before saying slowly,
“The more I’m around all of you, the more I realize that Artifactors are rather
jack-of-all-trades. You seem perfectly capable of turning your hand to
anything.”

“We have to be,” she agreed. “We cater to both magicians and
those with no magic at all. We must think outside of the lines and inside of
them. Being an Artifactor means that we are the most intelligent, the most
creative, the most talented, because that’s what you
have
to be in order
to do the job.”

“You sound so matter-of-fact about it.” A timbre of
amusement colored the words. “Even though you are renowned for being a
prodigy.”

“I don’t believe in false humility.”

He snorted a laugh. “Obviously.”

Really, if she had a choice on whom to go into a rough situation
with, she’d choose Sarsen, Master, Kip or someone else she’d known for years
and trusted. But aside from the fact that she’d never fought side by side with
Decker before, she had no complaints about him. In fact, he might be the better
choice as he knew the land like the back of his hand. He’d been hunting and
living in this area for decades, after all.

Their pace slowed slightly. She perked up and tried to look
ahead, but really, she couldn’t make out much. “Why are we slowing?”

“There’s a ravine up ahead. It’s shallow, as ravines go, but
steep enough that I don’t want to take it at any speed.”

Scratch that—Decker was the
perfect
person to take
into this situation. She’d have run right into that ravine and probably broken
a few bones, to boot.

They slowed to a walk and within a few steps started to
navigate the sloping sides of the ravine. In this season, it contained a good
quantity of water in the bottom, but not enough to do more than cover the
horse’s frog. It barely even splashed any water on Sevana’s boots. She said
many a prayer of gratitude for that. What did hit her felt so icy cold that she
was amazed it hadn’t frozen solid yet.