"What the hell does she think—"
"She's not thinking," Ravagin cut her off. "That's the whole trouble. She's into that open-eyed sleepwalking thing again. And she's not alone—the sprite I sent to check her out said there was a djinn accompanying her. Probably from the robe."
"That's impossible," Melentha said flatly. "I checked it thoroughly—you watched me doing it."
"So someone on Karyx knows more about trapping and disguising spirits than you do," Ravagin snapped. "That come as a big surprise? Look, never mind how they did it for now—we've got to get her back before she winds up dead."
Melentha nodded and headed for the door. "I'll have a couple of horses prepared right away. You want any special equipment along?"
"Bring whatever stuff you'll need if we have to do a complete exorcism," Ravagin said, following her out and turning toward his own room. "Standard survival pack, if you have one made up. And a good bound-spirit sword, if you've got one. Doesn't look like Danae even took a change of clothing, let alone any sort of weapon."
"I've got a dazzler sword you can use—the mate to my dagger," Melentha called from the stairway.
"Though if the bandits are smart, they'll leave her alone anyway."
Yeah. Maybe. Gritting his teeth, Ravagin ducked into his room to grab a few essentials of his own.
Sleepwalking or not, Danae had a fair lead on them, and it could turn out to be a very long chase.
They were on her trail within fifteen minutes—a trail, it turned out, that was remarkably easy to follow. Every kilometer or so Melentha sent a sprite ahead to locate Psskapsst and confirm Danae's direction, and each time the messenger came back reporting her still headed in a northeastwardly direction. Circling Besak, clearly, and the giant lar silently enfolding the village... and Ravagin's stomach tightened at the obvious destination the direction implied.
His fears quickly proved to be correct. The trail passed around the northern edge of Besak and continued almost due east toward the dark mass of Morax Forest. Toward it and, an hour later, into it.
"Now what?" Melentha asked tightly as they reined in beneath the first row of trees.
"We go in after her, of course," Ravagin growled, glaring ahead in a futile attempt to pierce the darkness. "I do, anyway. You probably go back and see if you can find someone who knows exactly where in Morax this Coven is located—I'd rather not trust a sprite to scout out the territory if I don't have to. Any hard information you can locate would be appreciated, too."
"No one in Besak knows anything," Melentha shook her head. "I'd have heard."
"Then send sprites to the other way houses as soon as the nighttime lares are down," he snapped.
"The one in Citadel, especially—someone on Karyx has to know something about the place."
"All right." Melentha twitched the reins, turning her horse back around toward Besak and home.
"How do I find you?"
"I'll send out sprites periodically. Let me have that provision bag, huh?"
She tossed the double satchel over the back of his horse. "What if you can't send out any sprites?"
"Why wouldn't I—? Oh. Hell. Well... if they're interested in blocking even outgoing spirits, I'm in trouble anyway."
"Oh, that's a fine attitude," she snorted. "Nothing like walking up and putting your head on the block for them.""
"All suggestions cheerfully received. You got one?"
"At least wait until morning to head in there." She tossed her head back toward the trees. "Forests aren't fun to travel through in total darkness even under normal conditions, which these certainly aren't. Besides which, who knows what sort of nocturnal eating machines live here?"
"I suppose I'll find out, won't I?" Ravagin gritted. "Look, Melentha, I don't have any choice in this.
Danae's my client, and I have to do my damnedest to get her out before anything happens to her.
You've never been a Courier; you wouldn't understand."
"I suppose not." Melentha sighed. "All right—I guess all I can do for now is wish you bye-and-luck.
And suggest you try and avoid doing any more spirit invocation than you absolutely have to."
"Agreed. See you later."
She nodded and galloped away. Biting at his lip, Ravagin watched her go, then reached into his pack and pulled out a stone and a long, tightly wrapped cylinder. He'd been ridiculed more than once by his fellow Couriers for making and carrying such things around on a world where light and fire were there for the invoking... but maybe he was about to get the last laugh.
Assuming he survived this at all, of course.
The dazzler sword lit the forest up briefly as he drew it from its sheath. Advertising his presence to anyone who happened to be watching... Ignoring the knot in his gut, he swung the sword, striking the stone in his hand a grazing blow. A shower of sparks burst out and onto the tip of the cylinder, igniting the highly flammable resin saturating it there. The torch flared brightly for a few seconds, then settled down to a quieter, steadier glow.
Fire and light. With luck, maybe even animals who were used to the presence of firebrats and dazzlers would shy away from it in this form. With even more luck, whatever spirits Coven had protecting their forest wouldn't notice it.
Taking a deep breath, he sheathed the glowing sword and nudged his horse with his knees. Torch held firmly aloft, he headed into the forest.
Chapter 16
It was, at first, easier going than Ravagin had expected. The trees were large and well packed, with wide skirts of branches reaching out to pluck at the casual traveler, but whether by design or accident Danae had entered at a spot where a trail of sorts formed a twisted path around the worst of it. With the light from his torch pushing the darkness back a few meters, Ravagin was able to keep pretty much to the trail. Even with that mysterious djinn along to show her the way Danae was unlikely to make much better time, and urging his horse along at a fast walk Ravagin almost began to hope he'd catch up with her before they reached Coven.
Half an hour into the forest, the trail petered out.
"Damn," Ravagin muttered to himself. Drawing the sword Melentha had given him, he reluctantly dismounted, wishing like hell he could afford the time and risk of invoking a lar to encircle him.
Karyx horses could be nasty fighters, and even a forest predator might think twice before tackling a man astride one. But a man down at ground level was something else again, and Ravagin had to force himself to wrench his eyes from the surrounding shadows to study the ground.
It was, fortunately, a quick job that took only a few seconds of his attention. Danae's horse had kicked up identifiable chunks of the forest mat on its way, and discerning the direction it had taken was practically child's play. A minute later Ravagin was back in pursuit, at a necessarily reduced pace.
He kept on steadily, stopping every few minutes to make sure he hadn't lost the spoor, and about two hours later came to a small clearing that was nevertheless large enough to have a circle of moonlight at its center. A safer spot for a break he wasn't likely to find for a long time. Reining up, he stopped his horse in the center of the pool of light and, with a careful look around, dismounted. Holding his dazzler sword low where its shimmer couldn't affect his night vision, he worked a stick of cured meat out of the survival pack and wearily took a bite.
"Good evening."
Ravagin jerked around, dropping the meat stick and reflexively bringing his sword into low guard position. Halfway across the clearing from him a dark human figure stood, its figure swathed in a long cloak, its face hidden from the moonlight by a wide-brimmed hat.
Ravagin swallowed, hard. The other didn't seem to be armed; but under the circumstances, that didn't mean a hell of a lot. For starters, there was no way he could have simply walked in here without Ravagin hearing him, and that implied damn good spirithandling. Or worse. "Hello," he managed.