Of the four, only Lelani made the journey effortlessly, pausing every so often to let the others catch up. Wind that could freeze lava whipped the snow around them, but Lelani, impervious to the chill and warmed by a seething rage, trekked on. She had left Fronik’s killers unharmed by Cal’s decree. At first she suspected he might simply be protecting his own and suppressed a lifetime of prejudice against bipedals to follow his orders. But Cal’s logic was sound, and everything she’d seen until now showed him to be a just man.
The forest soothed her. It reminded her of home, which she had been away from for three years. The parks and gardens of Aandor were poor substitutes for the Blue Forest. Too long since she was last surrounded by trees and other living greens in the wild, even hibernating ones. Her companions did not find the terrain friendly or relaxing. Cat had sprained her ankle on a loose rock coming down a hill. She piggybacked on Cal for a quarter mile until they reached a rock-strewn slope where the extra weight compromised his footing. The winter sun was waning, and they had less than an hour left before darkness covered them.
“Let me take her,” Lelani offered.
“I’m okay,” Cal said.
“You are not,” Cat argued. “The last thing you need is a broken ankle.”
“I’ve had training packs that weigh more than you,” he responded.
“Oh jeez, will you let Seabiscuit take her?” Seth argued. “I’m freezing my fucking balls off out here. We’re like the fucking Sopranos lost in the Pine Barrens.”
“My lord, you should proceed unconstrained,” Lelani said. “We don’t know what we’ll find ahead.”
Cat hopped off her husband. Standing next to Lelani, she had the overwhelming urge to avoid approaching the empty area behind the redhead.
“Your instincts are telling you there’s something your eyes are not seeing,” Lelani explained. “It’s part of the spell to make others want to avoid running into me.”
“How do I…” Cat motioned to Lelani’s back.
Lelani crouched. “Close your eyes,” she said. “Put your left hand on my left shoulder. Now reach across and grab my other shoulder. Lift your leg up.”
Lelani stood.
“Looks like a piggyback,” Seth said.
“It feels like bareback riding,” Cat said. She folded her arms across Lelani’s breastbone.
“How far?” Cal asked the centaur.
“Down this ravine and up the next h-”
A crossbow shaft suddenly pierced the forearm Cat had braced around Lelani’s shoulder. It continued through the centaur’s shoulder and broke skin on Cat’s chest. Lelani suppressed her scream with a grunt. Cat shrieked in the centaur’s ear.
“CAT!” her husband yelled. A bolt grazed Cal’s cheek, peeling a strip of skin like an orange. Seth ducked for cover.
Lelani jumped into a large ditch with Cat. The shaft had pierced beneath her clavicle and emerged out the back, where it continued to cut into Cat as they jostled. Cat slid back off the point, which ripped flesh. The tip was serrated.
“Break the end off!” Lelani yelled between sharp breaths.
Another bolt split a branch by Cal’s head. He fired in the direction of the shot.
“My lady, break off the tip!”
Cat cut her fingers on the serrated tip, trying to snap it off, but the shaft wouldn’t give. Lelani handed her a hunting knife.
“Cut through the wood.”
“Seth, can you outflank him?” Cal asked, holding out his other pistol.
Seth had found a depression behind a fair-sized boulder to crouch in.
“I’m not moving my ass from this spot!”
Cat sliced through the shaft. Lelani grabbed the end in front of her and pulled in one quick motion. Cat screamed again from the wood scraping flesh out of her forearm. She fell off the centaur and landed on her back. Her shirt was stained dark red. She began hyperventilating. Lelani washed Cat’s wound with water from her canteen. Even though Lelani was the more injured of the two, Cat was not trained to assimilate such shocks. After cleaning out the splinters, Lelani took out a vial of white powder and sprinkled it on Cat’s wound. It fizzed in the blood like sodium bicarbonate in vinegar.
“Oh God! It burns,” Cat wailed. “It feels like acid.”
“You’ll live,” Lelani told her. She was starting to feel light-headed from her own loss of blood. “Wrap the gash with cloth and apply pressure.”
“What about you?” Cat asked.
Lelani sprinkled the powder on the entrance of her own wound and handed the vial to Cat. “Pour this over the exit point.” She put a branch in her mouth and bit down hard as the powder began to sew her shredded cells together. Cat poured the rest of the powder on the sorceress. The pain was intense, so much so, Lelani spasmed and bit through the branch. They both leaned back in the hole and caught their breath. No more bolts had flown for the past few minutes. “Is anyone coming?” she asked Cat.
“I don’t know. Where’s Cal?”
Cat took a peek. A series of bolts struck the tree above their makeshift foxhole. Cat ducked.
“I couldn’t see anyone.”
“Stay down!” they heard Cal yell, a few trees over.
Lelani reached into her backpack and pulled out a five-foot composite longbow and a quiver of arrows.
“How the hell did that fit in there?” Cat asked.
“I’m a good packer.”
“Cat! Are you and Lelani okay?!” Cal had moved to a birch a few feet away and crouched low. Seth was still under his rock.
The centaur looked to Cal for instructions. He tossed his extra pistol to Cat and fell back behind the birch as a bolt slammed into the tree.
“Fire in that direction,” Cal said. “Keep them down and keep them believing we’re in this spot. Lelani and I will do the rest. Save one bullet.”
“Why?”
“If Seth tries to run away… shoot him in the ass.”
They took off. With Lelani’s speed, she could outflank the assailant in time for the captain’s frontal assault. She glided between the trees and brush, bounding over creeks and ravines with surefooted confidence of an equestrian champion. Bolts flew around her, hitting true at the places she’d been a heartbeat before. Cal fired from below, forcing the assailant’s attention on him. Lelani’s shoulder throbbed, but the pain only added to her focus. She slowed, waiting for some noise to betray the attacker’s position. Her arrow was notched and ready to fly, but there was only foliage in her sight. She spotted the captain below, making his way up a ravine. The assailant had stopped firing. The frequency and limited origin of the bolts indicated only one attacker. Was his quiver empty? Had he left for reinforcements?
A twig snapped behind her. She caught a glimpse of reddish fur from the corner of her eye. She kicked back with her hind legs, surprising the assailant. He hit the tree behind him with such force an avalanche of snow fell from its branches, burying him. Before he could gather his wits, Lelani fired a shaft into his chest, pinning him to the tree. The creature’s yowl echoed through the hills.
“Lelani, you okay?” Cal shouted.
“All is clear.”
With its tongue hanging out, the creature panted rapidly, trying to take air through short bloody breaths. Froth and bloodspots stained its snout and fur. Its ears stuck up at Lelani’s wary approach. Its furry hands, which had only four stout fingers with thick black claws, shook violently. Cat and Seth soon joined them. She was leaning on Seth for support.
“Looks like a dog,” Seth said.
“What is it?” Cat asked.
“A gnoll.”
“That can’t be right,” Cal said. “Why would a gnoll work for Farrenheil-with Dorn?”
“Bad guys,” Seth said. “They all stick together.”
“Not that simple,” Cal said.
“Dorn’s uncle is intolerant of nonhuman species,” Lelani explained. “He sponsored ‘cleansing’ campaigns into the forests and mountains of Farrenheil. Torturing, killing, and driving out everyone who didn’t look right to him. As a child, I remember centaurs coming from Farrenheil as refugees. My parents fostered orphans. They’d lost everything. The gnolls didn’t fare much better.”
“Farrenheil and Verakhoon didn’t have the numbers to hit every fortification, town, and port in Aandor,” Cal said. “We couldn’t find reinforcements anywhere in the kingdom. Our banner men were under siege in their own lands. If Farrenheil made war pacts with nonhuman races, though…”
“They could have tripled their forces,” Lelani finished.
“Why would they join Dorn’s uncle if he’s out to ‘purify’ them?” Cat asked.
“A truce keeps his attention off the purge-off of them,” Lelani said.
“And because there are always spoils to war,” Cal added. “And Aandor is the biggest jewel in the box.”
The gnoll whimpered. Its head fell forward, the spasms ceased, and it stopped breathing.
“I almost feel sorry for it,” Seth said.
“Don’t,” Lelani replied. “We were fortunate to encounter the beast before nightfall. They’re nocturnal. His bolts would have hit more true in the dark.”
Seth took out his pack and pulled a Camel out with his lips. His hands shook as he tried to strike a match. Lelani grasped his wrist, preventing him from lighting up.
“Smoke will give away our position,” she said.
“There are others?” Seth asked. He looked around the woods nervously. “Jeezus, I need a freakin’ smoke.”
Lelani looked ahead. The sky was in transition, the fading sunlight carved by the tree tips dwindled as the beams of shadow between them thickened. “The lay line is over that crest.”