Captain's Fury (Page 112)

"There," Amara said quietly- "Bernard?"

"Ready," he said.

And they started toward the enemy positions, with Amara in the lead. It took them most of the afternoon to reach the edges of the swamp, where the ground began to rise. Amara almost wanted to hold her breath as they approached the first concealed position. They passed by it, close enough to smell the smoke from a campfire-and to smell the aroma of freshly baked bread. Amara’s stomach practically leapt from beneath her belt, and even Gaius looked a little wistful.

It wasn’t for another several steps that Amara saw the dogs, great rangy beasts, outside the camp. They were sprawled in the sunshine, asleep, and likely to stay that way under the gentle, slow pulse of Bernard’s earthcrafting.

And then they were past the outpost, with their foe none the wiser.

The second watch post was much the same. They walked slowly, steadily by the tree supporting the observation blinds, and no one seemed to detect them. They kept up the same slow, careful pace for several hundred more blessedly dry, firm-grounded yards, uphill all the way.

It couldn’t be that simple, could it? Amara had imagined dozens of ways for their efforts to go disastrously awry, but none of them had come to pass. Something had to go wrong. Something always went wrong. Yet nothing had, and it made her nervous.

A fresh breeze hit them, clean air that smelled of pine, and Amara felt like singing.

And then hunting horns began blowing behind them.

She and Bernard whirled to look back at the swamps, and Bernard cursed. "One of their patrols must have swept by and found our trail. They’ll be coming."

Amara felt obliquely reassured by the sudden dour turn of events. Certainly, it meant that a great many madmen were shortly to be pelting after them, determined to wipe them out-but at least she was in a familiar element.

"Very well. Our options?"

"Limited," Gaius said, and coughed some more.

"I can’t erase our trail and still carry the stretcher," Bernard said. "We should run for the mountains. Dark’s coming on. If we’re still free by then, it should give us enough time to get Gaius close enough."

Amara nodded. "Then we run."

She turned and began jogging forward, up the hill, disdaining the wind-crafted veil. The enemy already knew they were here. The veil would just be a drain of energy that could better be used to keep moving. Bernard kept up with her, even bearing Gaius’s stretcher, though he breathed heavily as they ran.

The land rose steadily, the willows and fronds of the swamps dying away, replaced by fir and pine. The hunting horns kept sounding behind them, and Amara thought she could hear them coming steadily closer.

Amara had never particularly loved running, but the weeks of travel had done somewhat to harden her for the pace, and a gentle effort to guide Cirrus ensured that she never ran short of breath. As a result, her muscles didn’t begin burning until well into the first hour, and she kept the pace quick and steady.

The ankle the garim had injured twinged several times, and she took care to place her foot carefully; but evidently she’d had enough time to recover from the injury, and she was able to keep the pace she had set for them.

Bernard lumbered along behind her, implacably moving ahead despite his burden, and though his breathing was labored, his steps never faltered.

Amara found a smooth track leading up toward the mountains and followed it, her shadow lengthening on the hillside in front of her as the sun set behind them. She kept running for another half hour, and felt her arms and legs beginning to shake with weariness.

That was when they heard the hunting horns being blown ahead of them as well as behind. Amara slowed up, looking over her shoulder at Bernard.

"Aye," Bernard panted. "Surprised it took them this long." Fie came to a halt, breathing heavily, and Amara wished she could send Cirrus to ease his breathing as well-but without being able to sense the changing pressures, the way she sensed her own breathing, she could inflict a number of forms of injury on him, ranging from the inconvenient to the excruciating.

Bernard glanced around, frowning in thought, as he settled the stretcher on the ground, staring up the slope toward the mountains, golden in the setting sun. "They’re moving fast. Mounted. We’ve only got a few minutes." He reached into the stretcher, murmured, "Excuse me, sire," and drew out his bow.

"Mounted," Amara murmured. She went to check on Gaius as Bernard strung his bow. The First Lord was pale with pain. He gave Amara a faint smile, and said, "I hardly have the right to say it, but I th-think I’ve had enough running today."

"Just rest," Amara said. She dragged the stretcher as gently as she could to one side, under the shelter of some pine branches. Then she went to her husband. "I need to know something."

"Yes," Bernard said. "I was serious when I said I’d never done that with any woman but you."

She slapped his shoulder lightly. "Mind on business, Count Calderon. You can calm animals. Can you uncalm them, too?"

He grimaced. "Spook their horses? Hate to do it. Horses are big, strong animals. Get them scared enough, they can hurt themselves pretty bad."

"They’re coming to kill us," Amara pointed out.

"The riders are. I doubt the horses have strong feelings one way or the other."

Amara stopped and stared at him for a moment, smiling faintly. "You can strike down enemy Knights, shoot furious High Lords from the sky, make war on creatures out of nightmares, and fight garim the size of ponies three at a time without flinching. But you don’t want to frighten horses."

Bernard looked at something of a loss. He spread his hands, and said, "I like horses."

She leaned over and kissed him. Then she said, "I need you to do it."

He winced but nodded.

"Can you tell how many are coming?" she asked.

He jerked his head in a nod and rested his fingertips lightly on the ground. "Eight," he reported after a moment. "There’s another group several miles behind them. Much larger."

"Then the first eight are the men who were on duty. The others, perhaps, the men who had been sleeping."

"Yes, dear." Bernard sighed, a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth. "You were right."

Amara peered at the falling sun. "I want to hit them and take two of their horses. Mounted, in the dark, we can get farther."

"And the horses will know their way back to their stables," Bernard said. He glanced toward the First Lord’s stretcher. "He can’t ride. And in the dark, on this terrain, there’s no way we can sling the stretcher between our mounts."