Chapter 141: A Dangerous Surprise

Emeric noticed. He put it down to nerves, the way a person’s hand drifts to a sore place when they’re scared.

She looked at him then, and her mouth opened as if to say something else. Her eyes were wide and bright. For a moment she looked like a woman holding a door shut with her whole weight.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing." She shook her head. The hand slid back to her lap. "Nothing. Come home first. Then I’ll tell you."

"Tell me now."

"No." She smiled, and it trembled. "If I tell you now, you’ll stay. And you can’t."

He wanted to argue. He wanted to say, tell me, whatever it is, I’ll fix it. But Gaius was shouting in the yard, and a horn sounded once, low, and the clock in the corridor struck one.

He stood. He crossed to the crate in the corner, laid a hand against it, and poured a thread of calm into the dark. The faint glow answered and settled. Nyxie slept on.

"Look after her," he whispered. Then, to Isolde, "Tatia will be here the whole time."

"I know."

He came back to the chair. She caught his collar before he could kneel and pulled him down. She kissed him hard, once, with her fingers tight in the cloth. Then she held his face with both hands and looked at him as though committing it to memory.

"The same condition you left in," she said. "Or I’ll have words with you."

"I would enjoy that."

"I’m not joking, Emeric."

"I know."

She held on a heartbeat longer. Then her fingers opened, one at a time, the way you let go of a rope.

"Go."

He went.

He didn’t look back at the door. If he had, he would have stayed. He took the stairs two at a time and crossed the hall and pushed through the courtyard doors into the cold.

Above him, in the window of their room, a single lamp burned. It was still lit when they rode out through the gate, and he watched it shrink behind him until the road bent and the trees closed over it.

The Thunderhoof was standing.

Corin had bandaged the shoulder and fed it something from a flask, and it swayed in the torchlight, head low, flanks trembling. When Emeric rode past, its ears came up. It took one stumbling step, then another.

"It wants to go back," Corin said.

"Can it?"

"It can barely walk."

"It knows the way." Emeric looked at the animal. It looked back, steady now. "Let it lead."

Corin hesitated and then slapped its flank, gently.

It walked through the gate. The walk became a trot. By the time they passed the last house in the village, it was running.

They rode after it.

The road emptied beneath them. The fields flashed by, dark and silent. The moon hung low and orange. Emeric rode in the center of the group with Gaius at his right shoulder. The Thunderhoof was a darting shape ahead, throwing small bursts of light from its hooves.

Nobody spoke. The only sounds were hooves and breathing.

At the edge of his senses, something moved.

It was faint. Barely a flutter. A presence that slid along the southern ridge and kept pace with the road, soft-footed and patient. He had felt it once before, weeks ago, in the garden, and thought nothing of it.

SHADOW STEP (B)

Detection: one watcher, southern ridge. Moving parallel to your route. Stealth rating: very high.

It is not hostile yet. I would not rely on that.

He didn’t turn his head.

"Gaius."

"My lord?"

"Someone’s following us."

Gaius’s hand dropped to his sword. "Where?"

"Don’t look. Keep riding." Emeric stared straight ahead. "I want to see what he does."

Gaius muttered something that might have been a prayer.

The sky was grey when they reached the edge of the Marrowood.

The trees stood in a long, dark wall. The road ended in a wash of mud and leaf litter, and the Thunderhoof stopped where the grass gave out, flanks heaving. It turned its head and looked at Emeric.

The air had changed. The warm summer dawn behind them felt like a memory. Ahead, a thin white frost lay across the grass in a clean, glittering line that followed the treeline like a border drawn in chalk.

It was midsummer.

Emeric reached into the forest with Wild Reckoning, the skill that tracked herds and swarms and movement.

WILD RECKONING (C)

[Range: 500 feet. Contacts: None.]

There should be contacts. This forest ought to be full of animals but he was detecting nothing.

That did not mean nothing was there.

"My lord." Gaius had stopped beside him. His voice was low. "It’s quiet."

"I know."

"It’s too quiet."

"I know."

The Thunderhoof pawed at the frost, once, and looked at the dark between the trees. Emeric drew his sword.

"Stay close. Stay together. Whatever happens, don’t step on the white."

They rode in.

The forest swallowed the sound of their horses.

Emeric noticed it within twenty paces. Hooves that had rung on the road now landed with a soft, dead thud, as if the ground had been wrapped in cloth. Leather creaked and bridles jingled, and the noise died a few feet from the riders.

The Thunderhoof led at a steady walk. It kept its head low and its ears turned back toward him, and it never once glanced at the frost on the grass behind them.

Gaius rode at Emeric’s shoulder, one hand on his sword. The six knights followed in pairs. Merrick was in front, a broad, quiet veteran with a scar through one eyebrow. Perrin and Joss rode beside him. Behind them were Halvard, Oswin, and Brennan, the youngest, who kept turning in his saddle to look at the trees.

"Eyes forward, Brennan," Gaius said, without looking.

"Yes, Commander."

"Not the trees. The ground. If it’s white, we go around."

Emeric reached out with Wild Reckoning and pushed.

WILD RECKONING (C)

[Range: Reduced. 500 feet down to roughly 40.]

Something was smothering the forest. Not the trees.

The system could detect the horses and the men. Nothing else.

Forty feet. He had never felt it that short. It was like trying to see across a room with a hand pressed over his eyes.