The Drifting (4 page)

My fir
st dagger shoots out toward
the witch’s hands and deflects off her shield.  I send another, then another
,
until finally the last one break
s
through and spear
s
her hands together
, stopping them in mid-motion
. 
The demon screams with rage before he disappears along with the black smoke. 
Startled at
the turn of events and
finding her hands bound together by the blade, the witch turns on me at the same time forcing her hands apart.  Before she is able
to make her next move, however
, Tolan
breaks
free from their earlier struggle
.  He
closes his hand into a fist and yanks it backward pulling the
silver shard
from the kikta’s throat.  Blood from the wound gushes out
,
and she tries unsuccessfully to stop the bleeding with her wounded hands. 

Not taking any chance that she may recover,
Tolan whips out both chains.  One wraps around her waist, the other around her neck.  With a final pull, Tolan separates the kikta’s head from her body, landing somewhere off to the side with a thump.  Her body remains hovering for a moment before turning to dead weight and falls heavily to the ground –
and all becomes still.

The rain continues to pour.  We wait, listening for any other movement.  I send out my senses in one direction as Tolan takes another.  We let a few mor
e minutes pass before Tolan let
s his shoulder
s
drop.  He turns to
the area
where one of the dead men lies and waves his
hand
out before it.  The jungle moves to one side
like
a parted curtain and within it Julia
waits.  She looks at us and then at the dead man closest to her.  As I expected, she didn’t flinch…some of the old Julia is still there.  Tolan
looks over at
me
before dropping his head
and makes his way back to her.
 
I’ve had enough of the rain, so I followed my brother back to the shelter.

“What just happened, Tharin?”
once again
I sense the exhaustion in his thoughts, but his meaning was clear.  How was a kikta, considered to be the weakest of the Velesi witches
,
able to
silently
summon Kabba?

“I don’t know
,
brother,”
I reply shaking my head. 

As we reach the shelter, Julia moves back inside allowing us some room
. 
She looks over at Tolan asking, “Are they with this Ziri you told me about?”

Tolan shakes his head at her, “No.  They’re bandits.  There are many here in the realm, so it’s important you stay close.  Did you see the whole thing?”

Julia nods, “I did.  That, that woman you were fighting, what was she?  She was floating, I saw her.”

“A witch,” I answer.  “And Tolan’s right, don’t get lost here.  There are others out there that are just as dangerous, if not more so, than this group.”

Julia hugs herself and nods. 
Tolan
looks her over and
I share more than just a glancing concern for her as
well
. 
H
e pulls out another blanket
from a bag we brought with us
and
removes
the soaked one
from
her shoulder
s
. 
She takes the blanket from him not allowing him to place it around her.  Sighing, Tolan
places his hand to the ground and it slowly rises until it becomes a ledge.   He removes his coat and turns it inside out and lays it on
top of the makeshift bed
.  It’s not completely dry, but it’s drier than the
earthy
mound.  He places one of the bags as a pillow
and turns to Julia, “Get some rest, there’s nothing we can do for now.  I’ll wake you when we’re ready to take off.”

Julia shakes her head at him, “No.  You said you would track them.  You promised me we would find them.”

Tiredly, Tolan nods answering, “I know and we will.  The rain is making it difficult to find a starting point to begin tracking.”

“You promised me.  We can’t just sit here while Lily is out there alone.”  Julia turns to me with pleading eyes.  I can see that she isn’t listening to Tolan, refusing to accept anything he’s saying.

I step up to her, take
off my own coat
and hand
it to
her. 
Julia
stares at it confused.  After a moment, she snatches it from me.  She sits on the mound and wraps my coat around herself, but she refuses to lie down.  Tolan gives me a grateful glance before calling forth another panswa from the bag, setting it next to Julia.  The heat emitting from it quickly warms our small shelter.  Julia continues to stare out through the opening watching the rain fall while Tolan sits next to her and waits. 

It
isn’t long before Julia begins to doze off and Tolan catches her when she’s about to fall off the mound.  She startles awake and pulls away from him, continuing to sit and watch the rain.  It is a few minutes more when she finally falls against him asleep.  He gently moves off the mound and lays her down.  The snoring follows immediately.  Once he’s sure she’s comfortable and covered, Tolan finally relaxes
. 

I’ve been sitting on a mound closer to the opening doing what Julia was doing, watching
the rain fall.  Tolan
walks over and
brings up another
mound
across from me.  He sits, head down, his worry for Julia evident on his tired face.

“The humans and the orc
weren’t assassins, but mercenaries,
” I say keeping my voice down
, trying to distract his thoughts of Julia
.  “They were trained for combat, but they
weren’t
assassins.  If they were,
in our current condition, we
would be dead.  As for the kikta, the summoning of Kabba takes a powerful wizard
,
and even the
n it would take more than one. 
Yet, this kikta was about to do just that. 
She attempted to c
all the Warden of D
emons here, to Velesi…
by herself.”

“How is that possible, Tharin?” whispers Tolan
tiredly
.

“Falsad.  Or Eathos.  One or the other, I’m not sure
,
” I answer.  I turn to
face
him and continue, “Remember what we told you about our meeting with Mareck?  How Lado was possessed by Falsad?  She was floating the same way as the kikta.  At first
I thought
the fear in
her
eyes was from the link in her throat.  It wasn’t until later that I realize
d
it was the same look of fear and insanity that I witness
ed
with Lado when
Falsad
took
over
her body. 
The witch
was scared before she even started her battle with you.  It’s the only thing that makes sense, but it’s like I said
,
I’m not sure if it was Falsad.  The witch is dead and so are her companions, we’ll never know.”

Tolan sits in thought and then finally asks,
“So, it’s safe to say that the attack has nothing to do with Ziri, then?”  Tolan watches me carefully, waiting for a reaction.

I stare at him momentarily then sigh
ing I shake
my head
at him
.  “No.  And I don’t believe that he took Lily on his own.”

Tolan gives me a puzzled look, “I don’t follow.”

“Think about
it,
Tolan
.  H
ow would Ziri know where to find us at
Crow
foot
Mountain
?  Especially when he’s never been through the doorway before?  And even if he did, who did the summoning for him to cross
over to begin with?”

After a
nother
moment’s thought
, Tolan replies
, “He could have bribed someone, or maybe he’s working with someone from the court. 
It could be
possible, except for one thing.”

“And what’s that?” I ask curiously.

“Father.  If there’s anyone Ziri love
s
more than life, it’s Father.  He would never betray him
.
”

It’s true
.  My father holds no favorites, but it is well known that he and his youngest son were very close until Ziri chose to leave us.
  I sigh deeply
,
my earlier anger and frustration seeming to deflate along with my energy.  The fight also helped release some of
my earlier
rage.  I stare out at the rain knowing for now we’re safe in the little shelter.  With my own shield enforcing that of Tolan’s, it would be impossible for anyone, including a kikta or any other witch, to detect our whereabouts. 

“Do you think what’s going on has anything to do with
Ziri
leaving
six months ago?
” asked Tolan bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Maybe.”

“Well,” he says slowly, “it’s inevitable that we’ll meet up with him again. 
Will
you ask him why he left
,
and what he meant the last time you two spoke?”

“I’m going to kick his ass first is what I’m going to do.  Then
I’ll ask him why.”

Tolan gives me a lopsided grin. 

I smile back, shaking my head.  I let out a breath and along with it the last of my rage.  I stare back at Tolan, saying,
“There’s something here we’re missing,”

“What are you thinking, Tharin?
I’m guessing you
have some idea
what or
who is behind Ziri’s motives,”
replies
Tolan knowingly.

“The shape-
shifters I told you about
…the old couple.”

“What about them?”
he prompts.

“Back at
Crowfoot
Mountain
, when
they
first came to me in wolf form, they
insisted I g
ive the
Manui
statue to Lily.  They were adamant I give
it
back to her.  I can’t help but feel they manipulated
the events leading up to Ziri taking Lily ─
not only in my handing her the statue, but the timing as well. 
I’m convinced they knew Ziri was the
re…and they gave us no warning.  It was just too easy for Ziri to appear out of nowhere and then take Lily when our guards were down.  What I don’t know is why.
”