The Dreaming Hunt (41 page)

“He's
blind,
” Will blurted.

Rynn was aware of Sha'Li slipping away and easing silently through the trees to position herself behind the blind hunter while Will, Rosana, and Raina moved between the hounds and Eben, effectively cornering all of them. It was courageous of them to put themselves in the way of the hounds, but they had no idea what those beasts were capable of. They were all going to die horribly. Even one of those beasts would give them all the fight they could handle.

Every cell in his body screamed for him to run for his life, but he stood his ground, out of sight and out of the hunter's mind, hopefully. It was what he got for letting down his guard and daring to enjoy the evening in the mistaken belief that they were safe. Safety for him while the Kothite Empire yet existed was an illusion.

“Not entirely blind, boy,” the hunter replied to Will. “I perceive what my hounds do. And I can see well enough that they've found their quarr—” The man stopped, his blind eye sockets pointed unerringly at Eben and the four mighty beasts. “Who are
you
?” the hunter demanded in Eben's direction.

Raina stepped forward. “Why do you ask, hunter? Are not those your hounds? Do you not know who they track?”

“This is not the one they seek. And yet, my hounds never err. You will have to come with me, young man, while we sort out why they hunted you—”

Sha'Li struck so fast Rynn barely saw her move. One second the hunter was speaking about taking in Eben for questioning, and the next, he was crumpling to the ground, unconscious. Sha'Li stood there with the butt of a dagger raised shoulder high.

In the instant before all hell broke loose, Rynn cried out not to kill the hunter. Doing so would unleash the hounds from whatever mental restraints he exercised upon them. But he had barely gotten the words out when all four hounds leaped forward, intent upon devouring Eben.

He jumped forward, shouting, “Drop my spirit form, Raina!”

She did so just as he reached the beasts, who were giving Will and Eben more than they could handle even backed up against a tree that forced the hounds to stay in front of them.

Rynn leaped upon the back of the nearest hound, straddling it like a horse. He raised both fists, clasped them together, and slammed them down into the base of the hound's skull. The beast staggered and then whipped its head around, its enormous jaws clamping down on his lower leg. He felt the armor plate there start to crack. He smashed his fists into the beast's skull again, and this time the hound dropped.

But even taking the battle down to three hounds wasn't enough. The hounds forced the others to fall back, abandoning the protection of the tree. He leaped clear of the hound he'd been riding as it fell and all in one move smashed his right fist into the ear of the closest hound just as it lunged for Rosana.

His blow diverted its attention, and the open-mawed attack came at him instead. He ducked and avoided the teeth but not the heavy jaw, slamming into his face and throwing him backward off his feet.

A black, fast-moving shape flew past him, launching into another one of the beasts, both claws plunging directly into its throat. The hound yelped in pain and leaped off Raina, whom it had pinned to the ground, turning to attack Sha'Li.

The lizardman spit into the beast's face, and this hound joined the first in squealing in pain. But neither beast stopped snapping and lunging, one pouring blood, the other slobbering in huge, sticky gobs. Rynn took advantage of the instant's respite to haul Raina to her feet.

“Don't go down again or you're done,” he bit out to her as he turned to place himself in front of the healers.

The first hound he'd knocked out was already back on its feet, groggy, shaking its huge head, but regaining its senses far too quickly. All four hounds advanced upon them now, less frenzied than before but every bit as determined to tear Eben limb from limb.

Rynn and the others gave way before the snaps and snarls, swords and staff swinging frantically to hold off the beasts. He feared for his crystal gauntlets, but miraculously, they held under the force of the bites and blows the beasts peppered him with.

“The cliff!” Rosana cried.

“Idea I have!” Sha'Li called out in response. “Tease them into charging, and all of us when they come shall duck. Over the cliff we may send them.”

“Let's do it,” he grunted, kicking and punching and blocking for all he was worth.

There was no time for discussion or a vote. He could only hope the others grasped what Sha'Li had proposed and went along with it. If he was the only one who dropped his guard, he would die horribly right here on the edge of this cliff.

He stood upright and dropped both fists to his sides. The move startled the hounds, who paused momentarily as if to consult with one another. Rynn dared not take his stare off the beasts to see what his companions were doing. The success of this thing would depend upon split-second timing.

The hounds charged. They were only a single full stride away from the party, so it was more of a massive pounce than an actual charge. The hound in front of him flew up overhead and came crashing down toward him, fangs first, jaws wide open and claws outstretched.

“Now!” Rynn shouted, dropping flat upon the ground even as the beast arced down toward him. He rolled frantically away from the cliff, which he felt crumbling beneath his shoulder. The beast caught him a glancing blow, and Rynn grunted in pain as claws raked across his back.

But then he heard and felt a sudden scrambling of claws on rolling rock. The ground trembled, and the sound of boulders tumbling joined the yelps and clawing below him.

“Back up!” Will yelled.

Still on his belly, Rynn raced on all fours like an alligator away from the cliff just as a chunk of it maybe twenty feet long and half that wide calved off and plunged down in a great crash of breaking stones, rolling dirt, and tumbling boulders.

The avalanche went on for long seconds and then settled. All went still and silent around them. He lay there panting, taking stock of his wounds. Nothing mortal, but he would need some of Raina's store of healing if he were to stand and walk anytime soon, let alone fight.

“Everyone all right?” Raina asked into the quiet.

Rynn lifted his head. A cloud of dust rose from the valley below and was drifting through the clearing. Sha'Li. Eben. Will and Rosana. Raina. They were all here. Praise the stars above and the sun below.

“We need to secure the hunter,” he said. Excruciating pain shot through his jaw. Cursed hound must have cracked it when he whipped his head around and hit his face.

Eben grunted, “I'm going to need some healing before I can stand.”

Raina pushed to her feet and stumbled over to Eben, healing herself as she went. She reached the jann and gathered a great ball of healing energy that she threw into him. Eben grunted again as Raina turned to Will and did the same. Rosana was already healing herself. Raina healed Sha'Li, who moved off fast toward the hunter, pulling the rope off her belt.

Raina came over and crouched beside Rynn. “You look the worse for wear, my friend. Fast or slow?”

“Fast,” he mumbled. His jaw was already becoming immobile and waves of pain radiated from his leg where it had been bitten. Fiery agony across his back suggested that the claw marks there were rather deeper than he'd thought at first, and none of his limbs seemed inclined to obey his orders.

Raina slammed a crackling ball of magic into his chest, and it raced across his body, ripping at his flesh and knitting it back into place all in one agonizing instant. He sucked in a sharp breath in spite of his best effort not to react to the pain. Without the adrenaline of battle to numb the sensation, combat healing hurt almost worse than the injury.

“That should do it,” Raina announced cheerfully, holding a hand down to him. She weighed half what he did and stood a full head shorter than he, but he appreciated the gesture enough to take her hand and let her give a mighty heave. He came to his feet easily, his body responding correctly to his commands once more.

He bowed over her hand, which he still held. “My thanks to thee, lady healer.”

“It is I who owe you thanks. You distracted that hound when it would have killed me.”

“All in a day's combat. We look out for our comrades and fight as a unit.”

Eben called out from precariously close to the new cliff edge, “It looks as if the avalanche caught all the hounds, but we should go down there and make sure they're dead.”

Raina made a small sound of distress in front of him. He sensed the conflict within her. As a White Heart member, she was responsible for the lives of the hounds. But loyalty to her friends and residual terror from being attacked urged her to let Eben slit the beasts' throats.

“I will see to it that Eben incapacitates them without killing them outright,” he promised quietly.

She gazed up at him with big, dark eyes brimming with tears. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He turned her hand loose and moved confidently to the edge of the cliff. Rock climbing was a longtime hobby of his, and he eyed the scree and boulders littering the steep slope with a practiced eye.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Keep that hunter unconscious until we return, Sha'Li.”

“Mine is the pleasure,” she replied, grinning. In her reptilian face, the expression was macabre. A ferocious fighter, that girl was.

He half ran, half slid down the slope in a heart-stopping rush that put him at Eben's side in a matter of seconds. Just in time, in fact, to place a restraining hand on the youth's wrist as he raised his sword to hack off one of the hound's heads.

“Raina,” Rynn murmured.

“She's not here, and that thing tried to eat me.”

“Raina saved your life and healed us all. In return, we owe it to her to respect her colors and her duty.”

Eben glared at him furiously.

“I understand, friend,” Rynn said sincerely. “I've been hunted by beasts like these before, and it is my fondest wish to slice them into a thousand tiny pieces. But if you kill these, the Empire will only replace them with ten more packs just like them. And,” he added gently, “you will destroy Raina.”

Eben's rage wavered.

“She loves you like a brother. Do not let her down.”

“Gah.” Eben spun and stomped away cursing fit to rouse the dead.

Rynn let him get the frustration out of his system and then suggested low, “We could, however, shift that outcropping of rock just up there and maybe bring down another chunk of the hillside on these mangy, flea-infested curs and bury them deep enough that it will take days to dig them out and heal their injuries.”

A broad grin split Eben's face. “I'm liking you a bit more, paxan.”

“Look, just there. See that boulder at the base of the outcropping? If we move it—”

“We'll need a lever,” Eben interrupted excitedly. “Pull out that stone and the rest will tumble down.”

They searched about and found a stout tree branch that had come down with the original avalanche. They placed its tip under the key boulder and in front of a knee-high rock they muscled into place. Then, together, they put their combined weight into pressing down upon the other end of the log. It took a couple of minutes of sweating and cursing and groaning, but at length, Rynn felt the boulder begin to shift.

“A bit more,” he grunted.

Bracing his feet on the rock wall behind him, he pushed down with all his strength. The boulder gave way all at once, and a strong hand grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him out of the way as a larger piece of the rock wall than he'd anticipated came crashing down.

He threw his sleeve over his mouth and coughed violently along with Eben as a thick cloud of dirt and dust rose from the vicinity of where the hounds had fallen. In a few seconds, the dust cleared, and they were able to see their handiwork.

“Better,” Eben announced in satisfaction. “That should hold those cursed mongrels down for a few days.”

A huge pile of rocks and dirt completely covered all signs of the elemental hounds. It would take a team of men days to dig them out fully. Grinning, he banged his knuckles against Eben's as the jann held a congratulatory fist out to him.

“A job well done,” Rynn declared.

“Are you two all right?” a female voice called down to them.

Rynn looked up to see Rosana lying down, peering over the edge of the cliff. “Just buying us a little breathing space.”

“And getting a little vigilante justice,” Eben muttered under his breath.

“Sha'Li says it'll be days before the hunter gets his knots undone up here. She conked him over the head again and says he'll be napping for a while. Raina and Will are just finishing packing up everybody's stuff. How long will it take you two to get back up here?”

“You four need to join us down here. The soldiers who travel with the hunters and their hounds will search the forest up there and find any tracks we leave.”

“I'm not coming down that cliff!” Rosana squawked. Raina's face joined Rosana's in peering over the edge, and both girls pulled horrified faces.

“It's not that hard,” Rynn coaxed. “You just start sliding and then run enough to keep your feet from getting buried as the dirt slides.”

“No, thank you,” Raina declared.

Will's head appeared. “It's not that bad. You two can do it. Unless of course, you're too afraid to give it a go.”

“Hah.” Sha'Li's dark visage appeared beside Will's. “Easy will it be. Raina will I help while Rosana you bring down.”

Rynn ducked as the party's packs came sailing over the edge and tumbled down the slope, narrowly missing his head. Boots appeared overhead, then the hems of the split skirts the healers wore for traveling. Then all four of their companions lurched over the edge of the cliff.