Caracara's Hunt

When they were some distance away, Arawn asked, "Is our cover story the same?"

Corwal glanced down at the papers he had retrieved. "No, you"re my cousin now, and I"m bringing you to a famed doctor in Ayersbert."

"Was there anything wrong with the old one?"

"It was the old one?" Corwal asked while spurring his horse to move to the front of their small column. "If you can be anyone, why always be the same thing?"

Once he reached the front, Rain joined him, and they began discussing where should they go next. The first destination was obviously the village before them, but there were a couple options after that. After all, no one could tell where the hounds were at any point in time. They were ghosts that hunted all over the country.

"We should go to some more populated areas," Val suggested from the back. "I can"t imagine them having anything to do in backwater villages around here. What conspiracies could a bunch of farmers devise?"

"He"s got a point," Rain said while looking at the map in her hands. "There"s nothing here besides Ashta. Do you want to check it out or?"

Corwal was silent for a moment, staring at the road ahead of them. When he finally spoke, his voice was distant. "Ashta will be empty."

"How do you know that?" Betty demanded. "Are you hiding something from us?"

"Hiding?" Corwal turned his head to face her with an expression full of scorn. "Do you think I could operate the largest mercenary group in Ayersbert without ever coming in contact with hounds? I might not know all of them personally, but I know who they are and what they do. With the country in chaos, most of them would stick around the capital and its surrounding cities."

Anger burned in Betty"s eyes, but Rain raised her hand, signaling for her to not say more. "How sure of this are you?" she asked.

"It"s a fact, not a guess. With the conference in which the leaders of all neighboring nations will be present about to be held in the capital, do you really think the king will send his strongest force away? Hounds may be his best spies and executioners, but they"re his best fighters as well. He"ll need them to protect his life."

That gave Rain pause, and she bit her lip, thinking. Her eyes darted to the map, and she traced her finger over something. "We"ll go the capital then. It may be dangerous, but with all the preparations happening there, we might just get a lucky break."

Arawn watched Corwal, but the man didn"t say anything more. So far, he hadn"t shared any opinion in regards to their next intermediary goal—to catch a hound to learn about a possible conspiracy. Did that mean that Corwal suspected his own people? Or was he leading them forward to turn on Rain once they were in his territory?

The woman seemed ignorant of that possibility. She rolled up her map and returned it to her backpack. Betty rode up to her, and they began chatting about being back in Ayersbert. They had visited it once before, when they were children, and had various memories from that expedition.

Although Arawn didn"t have the background knowledge to understand their conversation, he listened to it while watching the trees around them. He was back in his home country, but he didn"t feel anything special about it. Was it because he had spent so little time outside? Or did he just have no idea about the concept of "home"?

As he pondered over it, he heard Rain"s tinkling laugh turn into a gasp. His eyes flew open and he jumped to his feet to take a look at what had startled her.

In the distance, they could see a wagon lying in a ditch. The horses were half on the road and half in the ditch, obviously dead. Their bodies were in such weird angles that there was no chance they could be alive.

Both Corwal and Rain spurred their horses. The rest followed suit, pulling Arawn"s old horse into something resembling a gallop as well.

He jumped out of the cart when they stopped and joined the others in looking for survivors. Five soldiers were beyond the dead horses, and Rain, Betty, and Val went to check up on them.

Corwal, Arawn, and Mutallu approached the wagon. They could see the driver a couple strides away. He was lying face down with his back raked from top to bottom. Something had struck him with extremely sharp claws, killing him straight away.

His status was more than obvious, so they examined the wagon first. If anyone was still alive, they would be inside.

"Anyone there?" Arawn called out in a soft voice while knocking on the wall.

When the wagon fell, its door at the back twisted, making it impossible to open it. Corwal gave Arawn a strange look, but didn"t say anything. Instead, he went to the other side of the wagon to check if the top had broken open.

Mutallu was already moving about the driver"s seat, checking for hidden compartments.

Since there was no answer from inside, Arawn went up the wagon, to what had been its side once, and called the ether to himself. He formed a small blade and cut a round hole. It didn"t drop out at first, so he cut a bit more, until it did.

He then looked inside. At first, he didn"t see anything due to the dark. There were plenty of clothes as well as broken pieces of pottery in all corners, but no bodies.

A short gasp bellied that conclusion.

"Anyone here?" Arawn called out again.

When there was no answer once more, he lowered himself inside. A part of him wondered if it wasn"t too dangerous, but it wasn"t like he could die. There was no one around, so even if he went out of control, Corwal could just bring their group away until he calmed down.

His feet landed on the opposite wall, rocking the wagon. Its movement was followed by a pained whimper. The sound came from the right, and Arawn saw an opened chest there. It was full of swords, knives, and axes.

After a quick examination, he saw two legs sticking out from beneath it. Without hesitation, he moved to push away the chest, but his action was followed by a blood-curdling scream. He stopped instantly.

"Found something?" Corwal asked while jumping inside. Mutallu followed after him, knife already in hand.

Arawn pointed at the chest. "Someone"s there, but I can"t move it without hurting them."

The other three people came moments later. Upon seeing them, Corwal waved toward Betty and Val. "You two, lift the chest. I"ll try to heal whoever"s beneath so they don"t bleed to death."

For once, Betty didn"t complain. She went to one side of the chest while Val moved to the other. They exchanged a look, then Val began to count, "Three, two, one!"

With a whoosh, the chest rose into the air. It was followed by another scream that could freeze the blood.

Ether condensed in Corwal"s hands and rushed beneath the chest. While Val and Betty struggled to drag the chest to the side, he squeezed his way to the fallen body.

It belonged to a well-dressed woman. Her hands were twisted in disturbing ways, and Arawn could see bone sticking out from her left elbow. The dress at her abdomen was torn, and blood gushed out in lethal quant.i.ties.

Once freed, the woman couldn"t stop screaming. Her eyes were flashing left and right, focusing on nothing but the pain.

Corwal"s ether first went to stop the bleeding in her stomach, then he spared some to send into her arms as well. The bone was covered by a layer of skin, but her arms remained in the twisted positions from before.

"That"s all I can do," Corwal said with a frown while crouching by the woman. "I don"t know if she"ll live."

"It"s a start. We need to get her to the village though," Rain said.

At that moment, the woman"s eyes cleared suddenly. She looked straight at Rain with a pale face and b.l.o.o.d.y lips. "The beast! It"s a beast! It killed him. John, oh Saint Theus, John! Where are you, John?"

Her voice grew sharp, screeching. "John, please! John! I need you!"

Blood in her throat almost choked her, but she coughed it out and returned to calling for John. Rain crouched down to try and calm her, but the woman didn"t see her. All her attention was on the invisible person named John.

Mutallu took out something from his inner pocket and grabbed the woman"s head by the jaw. He forcefully held her mouth open and poured a few drops of something into her mouth. Before anyone could raise a protest, he hid the small bottle and stepped away.

The woman"s wide eyes relaxed, and her eyelids grew visibly heavy. She closed them and leaned her head back against the wall. In a few moments, she slumped down, asleep.

"What did you give her?" Betty shouted out, already drawing her sword.

"Stop that," Corwal ordered, his words icy. "It"s only a sleeping drug. Her being unconscious is for everyone"s good."

Betty gritted her teeth and looked at Rain for support. Her companion, however, only sighed. "She"s not in pain anymore. But we have to hurry and find a healer."

This was agreed upon unanimously, and everyone swiftly went to work. Corwal created a door on the side so they would have an easier way out and would not have to jostle the woman too much. Val and Betty argued who should picked her up, both saying they were steadier.

In the meantime, Rain left to prepare a place on the cart, and Arawn followed her out. The injured woman would need as much comfort as possible, so he pushed the bags to the side, making enough place for a person to lie down. Rain brought her own blanket, and they made a three layer bed.

After some thought, Arawn took out his spare clothes and folded them into a pile to serve as a pillow. From what he knew, normal people didn"t sleep without them.

"Right, this should be enough," Rain said, nodding.

She then ran back to mediate the fight between the two heroes who wanted to carry the woman while Arawn remained outside. Only now did he notice that Mutallu had not joined in to help. He was poking around the wagon before moving off toward the soldiers.

Arawn thought to go and check it out, but the woman was carried out. Betty held her with a smug smile while walking with a sure and swift step.

When she lowered the woman, the n.o.ble"s eyes rolled beneath the eyelids, and she groaned. A grimace of pain settled onto her face.

"Let"s go!" Rain shouted out, already mounting her horse. "We"ve got no time to waste."

No one argued, and they left in a hurry. While pa.s.sing through the corpses of the soldiers, Arawn saw what had attracted Mutallu"s attention. Those people hadn"t been killed by blades or elements, but a large creature with sharp claws.

b.l.o.o.d.y footprints led down the road. The beast had left in the direction of the village.