Chapter 23

Withered leaves, stripped from the branches by stormy gusts, swirled along the ground. Naked branches bent and swayed. The wind shrieked and tore at the land with insane fury, then lashed the forest floor with sheets of driving rain. The sky was dark with tattered clouds, growing ever darker as the day drew to a close.

"Got to keep going..." The lone traveller braced herself against the rough bole of an ancient tree as the wind tried to sweep her from her feet. "Got to find them... Find him!"

Her tattered cloak, a scrap of discarded blanket she'd picked up along the trail, offered little protection against the storm. The scant clothes she wore under it helped not at all. She was barefoot, though that seemed the least of her problems, and her pale blond head was bare. The pouring rain felt icy cold against her fevered skin, and she staggered as she tried to make her exhausted body obey her commands. Her only defense against the dangers of the forest was a heavy stick, nearly as long as she was tall, crudely sharpened against rough stones until it could serve as both club and spear.

She peered through the gathering darkness, trying to find the faint trail that she'd been following all of these weary days, but in the gloom one opening between the trees looked just like every other. Finally, she found a spot that was almost sheltered, beneath the trunk of a tree newly fallen to the storm's fury. She huddled against the shattered bole, stifling a racking cough as she determined to last out one more night.

Warmth gradually returned to her numbed fingers and toes as the heat of her body dried her cloak, and she at last fell into a fitful slumber. Distorted images rushed and tumbled through her mind, taking her back to...

"I'm going after him!" Riggan strode toward the edge of the forest, tall and somehow godlike in the morning light. "Mak is going to need help, capturing Norgan and his men and bringing them back here."

Kinna watched as Riggan and Jewel argued, the dark woman maintaining that Mak was fully capable of taking care of himself and wouldn't need any help.

"If I have to, I'll go by myself!" Riggan set his jaw, the picture of stubborn strength. "He saved my life, and I owe it to him."

"All right, then," Jewel finally agreed. "But at least take Olna's squad with you. You won't do Mak any good by yourself."

"Kinna will go, too." She surprised them, and herself, by speaking up. "Kinna know how to find her way in woods."

She tagged along at the rear of the squad, happy to be in the company of Prince Riggan. In her dreams, somehow the hours passed swiftly by. Olna protested that they were veering too far to the north, but Riggan swore that he was following Mak's trail through the forest. Then, somehow, it was evening and they were sheltered by the trees at the edge of Chakcha City's fields.

"Wait here," Riggan commanded. "Keep together, so that nobody stumbles across you and I can find you."

Sometime during the night, the storm passed on by. The temperature dropped as the winds died down, bu Kinna's scrap of blanket kept her warm enough to go on dreaming.

As soon as Riggan faded into the darkness, Olna posted sentries.

"Riggan say not to," Kinna protested.

"I don't care. This is my squad, and I know more about what should be done than that... that man does! All right, the rest of you go ahead and catch some sleep."

Kinna took shelter under a dense clump of brush, but she couldn't sleep. When it was finally time to change sentries, she sat up and crept over to where Olna was stirring.

"I can take sentry post," she offered. "I not sleepy."

"All right. You take Fellin's place."

The night was silent, almost unnaturally so. The laterising moon climbed higher, halfhidden by ragged clouds, and it was long after midnight when the sound of stealthy movement brought Kinna to full alertness.

"That not Riggan," she told herself. "Too many feet, coming this way."

She swiftly roused the others. They were ready when the intruders charged toward them, shouting as though to terrify them into submission. Kinna ducked away from a burly, clubswinging shadow, her head ringing from a poorlyaimed blow. She reeled away, falling to the ground and rolling away into the bushes as consciousness faded. The sounds of conflict died away as Olna's squad retreated, and when she opened her eyes again she was alone in the darkness.

The morning sky was partly clear, the wind dying down to little more than a fitful breeze. To the east, the smowcapped mountains she had so laboriously crossed were still shrouded by ominous clouds, but ahead of her traces of blue sky were showing through the branches of the trees. She cracked a few fallen nuts that had escaped the notice of squirrels, even though she no longer felt the pangs of hunger, and with these to sustain her she limped onward. She was no longer sure where it was that she was going. She only knew that somewhere ahead of her were the ones she sought, the ones she had to find before a danger that she could not quite focus on overtook them all. A fitful breeze scattered a drift of leaves across the ground, and she came to a confused halt, reliving the days after the nighttime attack.

What to do? Where was Olna's squad, and should she look for them? No, they would be all right, or they wouldn't, but her presence or absence would make little or no difference. What had happened to Riggan? Had he been captured? Had they forced him to tell them where Olna's squad waited for him? She had to know.