The Dreaming Hunt (75 page)

Indeed, it took most of the morning for Raina to recover from whatever she'd done to the unicorn. Sha'Li was secretly glad to rest and eat the brace of quail Rynn hunted, Will prepared, and Eben cooked, for she, too, was feeling exceptionally tired and weak. Even Rosana seemed to be drooping this morn.

Only Tarryn was bright eyed and bushy tailed. She spent the morning pulling strands from her silk vest and twisting them into a bowstring. The elf trimmed feathers from the quail and fletched her arrows, as well, and by noon was practicing shooting at a nearby tree, getting the feel of her makeshift bow and arrows.

Eben studiously avoided her, and she didn't push him to talk to her or even acknowledge her existence. The fact that he hadn't betrayed her in retaliation for her betrayal of him was humbling. And it saddened her. She was in the wrong, and they both knew it. Furthermore, there wasn't anything she could do about it. Kerryl was long gone, and they would likely not get another shot at capturing the nature guardian again.

Sha'Li scouted a reasonably dry route for the party to the north and west, out of the swamp. She turned down Tarryn's help and did the scouting alone.

For once, she was glad to be leaving her native home. She would have liked to visit her village, but the shame of what she'd done was too much for her to face her grandfather right now. He would want to show off her tribe mark to everyone in the village, and she was not worthy of it.

The unicorn took his leave of them, declaring that his herd had lost its way and needed reminding of it. When Raina questioned him on that, he said something cryptic about the unicorns having forgotten that they were, in fact, unicorns. As the king of their kind, it was his responsibility to teach them how to be unicorns once more.

Raina asked Cerebus, “When it is time to wake Gawaine, how shall I call you to him?”

The unicorn answered simply, “I will come.” And with a flash of glistening white hide, the beast disappeared.

“Where went it?” Sha'Li asked, looking around in surprise.

Rynn answered, “Unicorns are said to have the ability to instantly transport themselves from one place to another. As soon as Cerebus was free of that magical mud that had the property of preventing him from teleporting, he was able to leave anytime he wanted to.”

But he'd stayed to help Rosana … and to help her. She was humbled by the honor.

That evening, as they sat by a blazing campfire, Eben sat down beside her. “Sha'Li, do you think you could do the same thing for Kendrick that you did for Tarryn? Remove Kerryl's curse?”

She frowned and looked over at Raina, who frowned back thoughtfully. “Newly made was Tarryn. Not deeply woven into her spirit was the curse. And help from Raina and Cerebus I had. Much more difficult to fix Kendrick would it be. But impossible it is not.”

She dared not risk looking at Eben as she spoke the words.

To her shock, Eben actually reacted, even if not directly to her. “One day, we
will
catch up with Kendrick again, maybe when he's done figuring out what Kerryl's up to. And we'll fix him then.”

“If help I can, help I will,” she replied soberly.

Eben didn't respond.

*   *   *

Raina felt wrung out for several days after healing Cerebus. She'd opened the gates of her healing wider open than ever before and had poured enough magic into the unicorn to heal hundreds of people. Frankly, she was surprised she'd lived through it.

In a dream, Gawaine had thanked her for helping Cerebus and then rather sternly lectured her not to pull such a stunt again without further training on how to handle large volumes of magic. She did not know if it had been an actual communication from him or just her own guilty conscience conjuring what he likely would have said. Either way, she made a mental note to request more training from the high matriarch if they ever got back to Dupree.

Over the next two weeks of travel, she practiced quieting the voices in her head the way Gawaine had shown her. Gradually, she was learning to control the echoes. Just knowing what they were had helped. It was a relief to know she was not going mad.

They had Gawaine's crown, ring, and steed now. All they had left to find were his sword, shield, and bow. And then, of course, they would have to find his body. But that was a quest for another day. Right now, they had to return to Goldeneye, give him the ampoules of change water they'd recovered from Phillipe's corpse, and get Rosana's enslavement removed.

Although Raina worried that something else was wrong with the gypsy. Ever since she'd come back from the spirit realm, Rosana had been different. She'd been pensive and preoccupied. Raina tried to talk to her about what she'd seen and done there, but the gypsy refused to talk about it. And gradually, it dawned on Raina that Rosana never cast magic anymore. Where she might have cast a spark of magic to light a fire before, now Rosana chose to struggle with flint and steel. If Will had some small cut or bruise that Rosana would have healed before, now she sent him to Raina for healing. And when Raina asked about it, Rosana mumbled an excuse about needing to recover from her spirit journey and changed the subject.

Instead of heading into the Quills to the Dominion encampment there, this time they hugged the Barbed Coast, following the stormy shore of eastern Haelos north toward the Dominion capital. Rynn called it the Great Den, and she gathered he'd been there before.

Who was Rynn, anyway? She hadn't forgotten his declaration the night they'd fought Kerryl's minions that he had the right to exercise high justice on Pierre and sentence him to death. Only a high-ranking noble could do such a thing. And then there was that odd exchange with the paxan, Olar, they'd met on the road. Olar had acted at first as if he recognized Rynn, at least until Rynn and Olar shared a mind touch and some private communication. She didn't question him about it. They all had their secrets, and he was allowed to keep his if he wished.

For her part, she did not share with the others that she visited Gawaine in his grove nearly nightly now. The others teased her about developing a great fondness for sleep and about being nigh impossible to wake up at times, and she let them.

She and Gawaine spoke on topics ranging from politics to the nature of magic. He talked about mistakes he made when he'd been king of a great elven nation—overconfidence that peace would hold forever if his subjects were happy.

His zinnzari guards briefed him on current events whenever one of them died and joined the others guarding his eternal grove. But her perspective was somewhat different from that of the Children of Zinn's, and she was able to fill in gaps for him and brief him in detail about recent events in Dupree.

He had a brilliant mind and unshakable sense of right and wrong, both of which she found immensely appealing. He seemed to enjoy her dry humor and scathingly honest observations about the people and events around her. She could not speak to anyone else thus. As a White Heart member, her position called for tact and diplomacy at all times. He seemed to understand that. She supposed kings were similarly constrained in not being able to speak their minds freely to even their closest advisors.

She worried that her visits were an imposition upon him, but then one of the zinnzari guards commented that until she came, he had never heard Gawaine laugh. After that, she made it her mission to bring him laughter frequently.

One afternoon, she and her companions were trudging along the coast road when they rounded a headland, and before them lay a great sprawling city. Briza, the Great Den of the Dominion. It was close to Dupree in size, but without the elaborate stone structures and towering palaces and builds. Rather this city was made up of hundreds of low, wooden structures weathered gray by the nearby sea and many hundreds of heavy tents. Huh. They'd probably never been burned out by the Boki like Dupree had. The Night of Green Fires had been the catalyst for all major structures in Dupree being rebuilt of stone.

To the east of the city lay a long stretch of gravel shore terminating in a large dock crowded with cargo ships. To the west, a complex of large caves was visible, nestled in a line of gray cliffs. Near the cliffs a great open plain was dominated by a circle of standing stones visible even from here. Those must be
huge
up close.

Raina and her companions were eyed suspiciously as they entered the rough city, but no one challenged them outright. Briza was crowded and busy with changelings everywhere. She was fairly sure several men wearing Dominion military colors followed them, but they were hard to spot in the crush of people.

Apparently, it was some sort of market day. A great open-air bazaar had drawn a huge crowd, and merchants from far-flung corners of the world hawked weapons, suits of armor, furs, and herbal mixes that would increase a person's strength or stamina.

It was in the market that they found Goldeneye, seated in a huge tent that seemed to be a combination feasting hall and tavern, surrounded by an entourage numbering in the hundreds. Musicians played on exotic instruments, changelings of every imaginable variety crowded into the space shouting for more food and wine, serving wenches hurried to comply, and chaos ruled.

Of course, Raina and her friends were not allowed to stroll right up to Goldeneye to say hello. The cobra changeling was surrounded by a cadre of big, dangerous-looking warriors, eating and drinking with their leader.

In fact, their party was stopped at some distance from the ruler of the Dominion by a phalanx of guards and ordered to state their business. Rynn had been elected spokesman for their group. Not only did Dominion warriors seem to respect his open eye, but he'd dealt with them before and still lived.

“We come bearing something of great personal importance to your leader, Lord Goldeneye. Kindly tell him our party has arrived; he will want to see us immediately.”

The guard scoffed and told them to move along.

Rynn replied patiently, “If I am speaking the truth, he will kill you for delaying us. Are you willing to take that chance?” The guard frowned, his dismissal wavering. Rynn pressed his advantage. “Perhaps you should tell your superior to speak to us.”

And so it went. It took three more Dominion military officers coming over to hear out Rynn before a badger changeling finally strode over, looking annoyed. But as soon as he caught sight of them, the changeling's demeanor changed to alert scrutiny. “So. You're back. Never thought to see you again, I did.”

Rynn made a formal short bow, polite, yet curt enough not to be subservient. “We have returned to report on our mission. Lord Goldeneye is going to be irritated at the length of the delay in our being presented to him. May I have your name to add to the list of soldiers who refused to let him know we have arrived?”

“Stand down, Three Eyes. I'll tell him. Stay here.”

Raina wondered if Rynn used his mind powers in some way to influence the changelings he'd spoken with. Or mayhap he was just an accomplished diplomat. If so, his methods were worth studying. She could use that kind of persuasive skill.

Raina watched the big badger changeling elbow his way across the crowded tent and lean down to murmur in Goldeneye's ear, assuming he actually had ears somewhere in that cobra hood of his. Goldeneye looked up in their direction and then gestured once sharply with his hand for them to come.

He must have known it would take them a while to cross the tent, for he returned to drinking and laughing with his cohorts. It was no easy task to push through the crowd, particularly since they were assumed to be servants or slaves not worth moving aside for.

But Rynn was patient as he led the way, and with Eben and Will elbowing along just behind him, a narrow path slowly opened for Rosana, Raina, and Tarryn. Sha'Li brought up the rear, protecting them from untoward demands to refill mugs. At length, the last few soldiers moved aside, and Goldeneye loomed before them, intimidating even while lounging at a table.

“Report,” he snapped between bites on some succulent fowl carcass.

Rynn replied, “We found Kerryl Moonrunner, engaged him and his minions in combat, and recovered that which you wished us to, minus one ampoule Kerryl had already used.”

“Used for what?” Goldeneye asked sharply, laying down the roasted bird.

“To transform a prisoner he held into a were-alligator. We captured her, however, and have already reversed the transformation.”

“You reversed a changeling transformation?” They had the cobra changeling's undivided attention now.

“She's with us if you wish to meet her,” Rynn said mildly. The paxan gestured Tarryn forward to stand beside him.

“Give me your hand,” Goldeneye demanded. He took Tarryn's hand for several seconds, as if to detect whether she was truly fully kindari and not a were-creature in humanoid form. He asked abruptly, “How did he do it? How did he change you, kindari?”

Tarryn answered, “A ritual of some kind. He first kidnapped an alligator speaker and had him summon a great alligator to us. Then Kerryl used the change water, a few items he possessed, and nature magics to join my spirit and the alligator's.”

“And you reversed it how?”

Tarryn looked over at Sha'Li, who stepped forward. “I used my tribe marking, nature energies, and her spirit magics.” Raina winced involuntarily as Sha'Li pointed her way and that golden stare landed on her. They had all agreed that it would not be wise to mention the existence of a unicorn to anyone. Their horns were prized as great magic items, and they were relentlessly hunted by certain factions.

“Let's have my change water, then.”

Rosana stepped forward, holding the pouch with the ampoules of magical water in it. “I believe, Lord Goldeneye, that we had a bargain.”

Raina thought she spotted a hint of amusement in the changeling's expression. But it was hard to tell with those vertical pupils of his and reptilian features. He held out his hand, and Rosana laid the pouch in it. He looked inside and nodded in satisfaction.