Hunted: The Warrior Chronicles #2 Page 4

  “Not just the Graygual, Miss,” Claude said as he picked his nail in nervousness. “The Hunter. He’s the one at that camp down there. You best ride on. It’s said that when he’s on someone’s trail, he doesn’t stop until he catches his prey.”

  “The Hunter? Is that what you’re calling the Superior Officer?” Shanti asked.

  Claude nodded with serious eyes. “Yes, m’lady. I heard he’s trying to get into the Being Supreme’s guard. You don’t want him knowing where you’ve gone.”

  “Great.” Shanti fixed Rohnan with a blistering stare. “Of all the camps you could’ve walked into, Rohnan.”

  She gazed back down at Claude. “Thank you for the help, Claude. Stay safe.”

  “Yes, Miss. Of course, Miss. I will, Miss, yes.”

  A piercing stab of mental power ripped across Shanti’s consciousness. She slammed her shields into place as Rohnan started and looked behind him with wild eyes.

  “They’re already here,” Shanti said in a low tone. She looked at Rohnan. “We’re going to have to fight our way out.”

  Chapter Three

  “You revealed yourself,” Rohnan said as he turned his horse.

  Blessedly, Shanti’s horse followed. The old man, for the first time, sat straight in his saddle with a tense back and serious face. She still couldn’t get any sort of reading on him, though. She didn’t even know his name! If he decided to use this opportunity to betray them, she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. All she had was trust and Rohnan’s word, and from what she’d seen and heard, Rohnan knew as little as she did.

  “I need to be seen here and for the rumor to spread. I need them to know I’m not with Cayan.” Shanti winced as spikes accosted her mentally, the strength of power nearly matching her own. The Sarshers were close, and there was more than a few of them.

  Her heart started to pound as she thought of their escape. The Hunter was probably already closing off the city, building his forces to overwhelm her small party.

  “Cayan—that’s the man who steals all your thoughts?”

  “He doesn’t steal anything. Can we trust this old man, Rohnan?”

  “We have to.”

  Shanti gritted her teeth as another scorching attack slapped her shields, trying to break through. “We need to look at the map,” she shouted, grappling with the onslaught.

  Rohnan jerked his horse down an alley as Shanti opened up again and tried to block the constant barrage of minds. Fighting it, she felt along their merge until she found the pinnacle user and struck. Her sharp mental blade sliced into the opposing mind with all the force she could muster. She felt their pain well up before they withdrew behind blocks. She slammed her shields home again, only to realize they were in front of an empty store.

  “What in Death’s bad humor are you doing, Rohnan?” Shanti demanded as Rohnan sprung from his horse. “We don’t have—”

  Shanti cut off as the clattering of hooves came around a corner down the small lane. A villager dropped an armful of bread and dived out of the way as three horses fought for position between the shops. All wore black uniforms with the red at the breast. Swords gleamed in the early morning sun.

  “Save your mental strength! Stay on your horse,” Rohnan shouted. The window of the storefront shattered. Rohnan jumped through.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Shanti asked as she pulled her sword from its sheath, staring at the oncoming riders. “They’re almost on us and we’re just sitting here!”

  She kicked her horse, willing it forward to meet the challenge. Rohnan’s horse was in the way, though, blocking her attempt.

  “Hurry!” she screamed at Rohnan, watching the three riders descend in a thunder of hooves.

  Rohnan emerged from the shop at a jog with a long staff equipped with two small blades on each end. He took a running leap with the grace of a dancer and pulled himself into his saddle. His staff whirled, each knife at the ends sparkling in the sun.

  The first rider reached Rohnan just as he was settling on his horse. Shanti chanced opening her mind, ready to lash out, only to immediately feel the attack from the waiting Sarshers. She ground her teeth, striking back before forcing her shields down again. The first strike fell toward Rohnan. He batted it away expertly before bringing his staff across the enemy’s body. The wood portion battered the first Graygual in the stomach, bending him over, before the blade sliced through and opened him up. His insides tumbled over his saddle. His body slumped and fell, sliding down between the two horses.

  Rohnan urged his horse forward, knocking the now-rider less horse. The loose animal squealed and backed away in panic. It bumped into the third Graygual, forcing the man to maneuver his animal to get into the action.

  The second man’s blade swung at Shanti. She blocked with her sword as a knife on the edge of Rohnan’s staff swiped the back of the Graygual’s neck. He arched with the pain. Shanti thrust forward and stuck her blade through his stomach, clutching onto her horse’s mane to keep her balance. Amazingly, the animal didn’t seem to object. Instead, it shifted to the side, shielding them behind the dying Graygual to keep the last enemy out of striking range.

  The mental assault battered at her shields as Rohnan yelled, “I have him!” He worked his horse in the small space to get behind the remaining Graygual. The other man turned in his saddle, trying to see behind him. Rohnan reached forward with his long staff and jabbed the back of the man. The blade sank in halfway, no more than a knife strike.

  The Graygual reached behind him in reflex, screaming with the pain. Shanti slapped the horse in her way, but by the time the animal moved, Rohnan had closed in. He raked his weapon across the Graygual’s throat. The man dropped to the ground.

  “I can’t fight on these accursed animals,” Shanti growled in frustration, kicking her horse’s sides to get him to move. “How did you learn such skill, Rohnan?”

  “I stole a horse early and traded up as often as I could. Riding a horse is faster, and less tiresome, than walking.”

  Shanti wasn’t convinced about the latter.

  “Toss them some of your wealth to pay for what I’ve done,” Rohnan said, motioning toward the broken shop window. “If we can afford to give it, we should.”

  Shanti tossed a couple gold pieces through the broken window before they turned their animals west. Shanti opened her mind again, ready for a mental attack without the interruption from a physical one. None came—the Sarshars were probably regrouping, or getting into a different position. She didn’t dare search them out, though. They would be forced to attack if they felt her presence, and she needed to save her mental resources for whatever might be to come. Instead, she made a mental map of the area surrounding them, making sure no Graygual lay in wait. All she found was the sleepy minds of townspeople going about their morning routine. No Gifted and no Graygual. For now.

  “The Superior Officer is behind this,” Shanti said as they raced down the empty, residential street. People pressed their faces against windows or stood in open doorways, half-dressed, with fear and shock on their faces. Most watched them pass. Only a few ducked back into their houses to hide.

  Shanti spread her mind wider, lightening her touch. To the east, beyond the awakening minds of the town, coiled a cluster of anxious and eager individuals. There she felt the Sarshers, but her readiness was not called on. If they felt her lightly brush against their shields, they made no sign, gave no reaction.

  “There are too many Sarshers for me to break their blocks, and even if I did, I would expend all my energy if I tried to take down that many. They’re getting ready for something, though. They think we are going that way, I’d bet. Or waiting for instructions.”

  Rohnan turned into an alley and reined in. Shanti’s horse mimicked the action, once again ignoring her attempts at control. The old man stopped beside them, his expectant gaze trained on her. If he was looking to leave, it wasn’t to get back to the Graygual. He’d had his opportunity to run, but he’d remained out of the action,
weaponless, waiting for Shanti and Rohnan to deal with the attackers. It wasn’t much of an assurance, but it would have to be enough.

  Shanti yanked out the map and opened it. Three loose sheets of paper tried to slide off the top. “Rohnan, look at this.”

  Each map detailed a portion of the land. Each section contained detailed plans of cities and towns and the wilds surrounding. Within the wilds were routes marked in blue, red and yellow. Red circles appeared in various places, black “X’s” often next to those, or in isolation, and orange circles randomly spread out throughout the land, most often in the wilds, but with at least one in every city.

  A gnarled pointer finger stretched toward the corner and touched a small key at the bottom right of the map. Shanti glanced at the old man, who was looking intently at the map. She looked at the spot and spoke in a language they could all understand. “Blue indicates an often-traveled route, red is an often-traveled Graygual route, and yellow is the ‘Thieves Highway’. So we’ll be away from honest people and Graygual, but subject to bandits.” Shanti pursed her lips. “Could be worse, I suppose. Red circles are known Graygual camps—yes, there’s one where we just came from. Black ‘X’s’ are Sarsher camps—it’d behoove us to burn them all to the ground if we could. The orange are people dedicated to the cause.”

  “That is an extremely dangerous map for the orange circles.” Rohnan’s thumb wiped a spot of blood from the wooden shaft of his weapon.

  “And the thieves, yes,” Shanti agreed.

  “He handed it over pretty easily.” Suspicion rolled from Rohnan’s mind.

  “Esme has to be a code name. I bet they change it often. Remember what I looked like—a whore that didn’t do much business. He’d hardly think I worked for the Graygual or their spies.”

  “Crimson flies in violet skies.”

  Rohnan and Shanti stared at the old man as he smiled knowingly for a moment. Shanti turned back to the map without comment. Switching back to her and Rohnan’s shared language, she said, “Okay, so we need to get to—”

  “That map would lead us west. We’d backtrack.” Rohnan looked up with calculating eyes. “You are using the wrong map…”

  Shanti met his gaze with a stubborn set to her jaw. “We need backup, Rohnan. Two of us and an old man against a large army of fighters and mind-workers? Even if we were to get to the sea, we’d be spotted along the way. They’d be waiting for us. If the Graygual are already this far east, and if the real Chosen is—”

  “You are the real Chosen,” Rohnan interrupted with a warning in his eyes.

  “—working toward the sea as well, equipped with a large army and packing as much power as I have, then we won’t get to the Shadow Lands. Even if we do, we’ll be killed once we land. We need someone at our back. This journey is suicide without help, Rohnan. We must head west.”

  “Who is this man Cayan, in the Mountain Region? Every time you take a piece of gold the guilt eats away at you, but if you mention going back the eagerness drowns out other emotions. Is this love or is this duty? Can you tell anymore?”

  “Rohnan—” Shanti ground her teeth in frustration. “We don’t have time for this! The Sarshers are working our direction. The guards are spreading out around the town. The Superior Officer is nowhere on my mental map, which means he and his men are waiting for us outside my range. The longer we stay here, the more time they have to organize.”

  Rohnan stared deep into her eyes as his Gift was surely reading her urgency. She sighed and said, “I have to go west, Rohnan.” She didn’t prevent the pleading from soaking into her voice. “There are a million logical reasons why it is the right thing to do, but I am thinking with my heart. It isn’t romantic love, but I care for that city and the people in it. I won’t deny it. I have to go there.”

  A wry grin tickled Rohnan’s lips. “Thinking with your heart, huh? I’m amazed you could find that blackened, shriveled thing, as small as it is.”

  “This is the right thing to do, Rohnan.” She placed her hand on his. She had one moment to stare into his green eyes to sell the gravity of the situation before her horse shifted, almost dumping her onto the ground.

  “Do you see?” she scoffed as she clutched onto the saddle. The maps crinkled in her lap. “The animal has something against me.”

  “If we make it through the next few hours, we will have a long talk, you and I.” Rohnan tapped the sides of his horse with his heels. “I seem to have missed some important milestones in your life.”

  Like nearly dying? You won’t love hearing about that after what you sacrificed for me.

  “I have a few questions of my own,” she said, folding the maps to keep their chosen route on top. “Like what did you plan to do once you were a prisoner in a camp with a Superior Officer? How could that possibly seem like the best way to get information…?”

  Humor colored Rohnan’s mind. “Yes. A long chat.”

  People were milling through the streets, starting their day. Horses pulling carts clogged the road but Rohnan didn’t let that hinder his progress. Twirling his staff at his side and yelling, “Heyah!” at his horse, he forced his way through, making people jog or yank their animals out of the way.

  “The Sarshers here are trained,” she yelled to Rohnan. “I’m better—at least when I’m on my own feet—but these are the best trained Sarshers I’ve come across.”

  “We’ll kill them if we can.”

  “Yes, Rohnan. Thank you for, again, stating the obvious. What did I do without you all this year?”

  “You certainly weren’t riding a horse,” he yelled as he expertly steered his animal around a child.

  “Ohhh… bloody… Apologies!” A mother stood in Shanti’s wake screaming and shaking her fist. The child had thankfully been pulled to the side in time.

  The dwellings thinned as they approached the edge of the town. The road veered around a short fence encircling a small vegetable garden. Instead of following it around, Rohnan cut through. He jumped his horse over the fence and continued on. Before Shanti could even react, her horse followed suit, nearly bucking her off in the process.

  “Bloody—” Shanti clung onto the horse’s mane as the horse’s landing jarred her forward. Its neck tasted like soot, hay and manure. “—bastard,” she finished as Rohnan increased his speed. She took one last jiggling assessment of the map, made sure the old man hadn’t fallen off his horse, then grimaced when she realized she was the worst rider of the three. She leaned forward into the run, telling the horse to go faster.

  It was the first time the stubborn animal listened to her not-so-subtle cues.

  It lurched forward with a burst of speed she wasn’t expecting. Her body yanked back with the change in pace. “Bloody—” She pushed forward to get her bearings as her horse shot past Rohnan.

  The animal raced up and over a hillside. The tree line loomed closer. A tiny little path cut through the dense foliage away to the left. A larger route cut through the right.

  When Shanti saw what waited near the larger road, her heart started to pound and she yanked back on the reins without thinking. The horse skidded and bounced to a stop, breathing hard. Shanti stared with a churning mind, also breathing hard. Rohnan’s horse pranced to a halt beside her, warning and fear radiating from him. The old man was there a moment later, smiling at the sky.

  A large group of black clad men blocked a hasty escape. Twelve Graygual, ten on foot and two on horseback. Shanti couldn’t see the stripes on their tunics, but none of them had the intellect of a higher-level officer. The Hunter wasn’t one of those twelve.

  A group of Sarshers stood in two neat rows, five in each on the grass at the side. One wore white—a master executioner, an expert at attacking with his Gift.

  “The Superior Officer thought we’d go east. Toward the Shadow Lands.” Shanti analyzed the minds ahead. The officers on horse were keen and level-headed, probably skilled with a sword, but hopefully not excellent; they lacked a cunning that most advanced swordsmen had. The o
thers were lower ranks and wouldn’t pose too much of a problem for her and Rohnan. It was the addition of the Sarshers, though, that gave her cause for concern.

  She wasn’t as good a fighter when she was engaged in mental warfare at a distance. Fighting with a sword and her Gift simultaneously was something she’d trained for all her life, but fighting one person with a sword, and another with her mind, was like patting one’s head while also rubbing one’s stomach. It took great concentration and slowed her down. With ten of them, all reasonably powerful, her odds did not look good.

  “They are too many, Rohnan,” Shanti admitted. “We have no chance. It’ll take everything I have to fight off the mental attack, even with your help through a power merge. You can’t take on twelve Graygual, not with two of them being good swordsmen.”

  “Can we race them to the route we mean to take?” Rohnan asked with a desperate edge to his voice.

  “Then what? We’ll have to walk the horses even if I manage to find it quickly. The Graygual will just pour in after us, mentally fighting the whole way. I can feel them already, gathering power. We don’t have much time.”

  Rohnan looked over at the old man. He was staring into the distance with sparkling eyes. “If we’re killed, or taken, he’ll be taken as well. I don’t know what he’s capable of, but he’s important or they wouldn’t have organized this quickly. We can’t let them have him.”

  She knew what Rohnan was saying. Kill him—we can’t risk Xandre with him.

  Shanti looked at the old man. He sat so peaceful. So placid. He was waiting patiently in his own world as two powers fought over him. He didn’t seem worried, or afraid of what might come. With the prospect of death, or capture by a people that had whipped and beat him, that seemed odd. Maybe he was mad.

  She thought back to when she had first realized Cayan had a powerful Gift. She remembered thinking she had to kill him—she’d even tried. She was so thankful she had failed.