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"I didn't know I was doing it myself," he muttered quietly, looking away from the carnage and trying not to smell the blood, or listen to the Cat sing to him in his mind.
"This was no group of bandits," Faalken said with a grunt. "Not with equipment like this."
"And not with a Wizard leading them," Dola
"This is too much, too fast," Faalken continued in a sober voice. "There was the fire at Watch Hill, and then the attack on Tarrin, and now this. Somebody doesn't want us to get back to Suld real bad."
Tarrin could hear the pounding of horses' hooves, and feel the vibration of it in the pads of his feet, coming from the road under him. "Dola
By the time Dola
"Not among us, captain," Dola
The captain reached under his surcoat and produced a letter. "The Duke asked me to give you this, to prove our identity," he said. "Jarax, take two men and see if the survivors of this are still lurking around. Kardon, take three men and pull these bodies off the road. Let's not litter the King's Highway."
The two men, one slim and wiry and the other massively built, saluted and took men to carry out their orders. Dola
Daran looked around professionally. "Quite a rumble," he noted. "Looks like the Were-cat did some serious damage. Good work, Master Kael," he said, bowing in his saddle. "It looks like you saved one of my Duke's favorite people."
"It was nothing," Tarrin said weakly. The smell of the blood was getting to him, and it was getting very hard to control the instincts.
Dola
"I think I will," he said gratefully.
After scrubbing the blood and bits of flesh off his paws and getting himself clean and into clean clothes, he rejoined them. The bodies had been pulled off the road and placed in a line in the meadow. The bodies had been carefully searched, nearly stripped, much of their equipment now on the pack horses serving the Duke's men. Dola
"I'm alright," she told him. "I almost got pulled off my horse by one of the bandits, but Sir Faalken saved me."
"Not before you put that sling stone in his eye, then kicked him in the face," Faalken chuckled as he rejoined them. "That had to hurt."
"It was supposed to," she said primly.
"I imagine it would," Faalken gri
"It's from working all day, Sir Faalken, and having nothing else to do but shoot things," Walten replied dryly.
"Just Faalken, please," he corrected. "And I think I'd rather have you three farm villagers in a fight over a pack of knights. Are we ready to leave, Dola
"Yes, we are ready now," she said. "Tarrin, pick up your staff and put the robe back on, and we will be off."
Tarrin rode with Dola
"They were not," she said gruffly. "A pack of bandits would not have a Wizard leading them."
"And then Faalken brought up the fire, and, and what happened to me."
"Yes, and I do not think that they were mere coincidence. Not now. Tarrin, someone sent the female Were-cat after you on purpose. The collar that she was wearing was a device that was controlling her. And now the attack on us, after you and Faalken had noticed the Wraith. And before that, the fire that started so mysteriously, and raged out of control faster than even my magic could control it. No, someone is trying to stop us from reaching Suld. Someone with considerable resources at his disposal."
"But why?" he asked. "It makes no sense. We're three villagers being brought to the Tower by a Sorceress and a knight. What possible reason could someone have to try to stop us? We're not worth the effort."
"I know, that is a part of the puzzle," she said thoughtfully, a finger tapping her chin as she thought. "Obviously, these people know something that we do not. Or believe that they do."
"I think-" Tiella said, then she quickly hushed herself.
"Go ahead, child," Dola
"I think that maybe it's not just one person," she said.
Dola
"Well, there was the fire, then what happened to Tarrin, and now this," she said. "And the Wraith, but it didn't attack us. Well, aren't they just a bit too different?" she asked. "Why not try another fire? That almost worked, and they had to know that. Why send that woman after Tarrin, when she could have attacked you? If they got you, Dola
"I think that you have a point," Dola
"The question is still why," Tarrin maintained.
"That, I ca
"So we'd best plan our moves carefully," Tarrin said.
"I have already mapped out our plan of action," she said. "At Marta's Ford, we will take a riverboat to Ultern. That, I hope, will leave behind any spies that are watching us. From Ultern, it is but a bit over three days to Suld. Two days to Jerinhold and one day from there to Suld itself. Plus, the Ultern Road is packed at most all times with caravans and travellers," she added. "The congestion on the road will help to conceal us from sight, and dissuade another such direct attack."
"So the worst of it will be getting to Marta's Ford," Tiella said.
Dola