Assassin's Quest

"The shores of a lake." I nodded to myself as I considered what Verity's map had shown me. "Perhaps. Perhaps it silted in and became swamp. But then, what do all these statues signify?"

She made a vague gesture around at the forest. "A garden or park of some kind, perhaps?"

I looked around us and shook my head. "Not like any garden I've ever seen. The statues seem random. Should not a garden possess unity and theme? At least, so Patience taught me. Here I see only sprawled statues, with no sign of paths or beds or… Kettricken? Are all the statues of sleeping creatures?"

She frowned to herself for a moment. "I believe so. And I think that all are winged."

"Perhaps it is a graveyard," I ventured. "Perhaps there are tombs beneath these creatures. Perhaps this is some strange heraldry, marking the burial places for different families."

Kettricken looked about us, considering. "Perhaps it is so. But why would that be marked on the map?"

"Why would a garden?" I countered.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the area. We found a great many more animals. There were all kinds and a variety of styles, but all were winged and sleeping. And they had been here a very long time. A closer examination showed me that these great trees had grown around the statues, the statues had not been placed around them. Some were almost captured by the encroaching moss and leaf mold. Of one, little remained to be seen save a great toothed snout projecting from a boggy bit of ground. The bared teeth shone silver and the tips were sharp.

"Yet I found not a single one with a chip or a crack. Everyone looks as perfect as the day it was created. Nor can I decide how the colors were put to the stone. It does not feel like paint or stain, nor does it appear weathered by the years."

I was expounding my thoughts slowly to the others as we sat about our campfire that evening. I was trying to work Kettricken's comb through my wet hair. In the late afternoon, I had slipped away from the others, to wash thoroughly for the first time since we had left Jhaampe. I had also attempted to wash out some of my clothes. When I returned to camp, I had found that all of the others had had much the same ideas. Kettle was moodily draping wet laundry on a dragon to dry. Kettricken's cheeks were pinker than usual and she had rebraided her wet hair into a tight queue. Starling seemed to have forgotten her earlier anger at me. Indeed, she seemed to have forgotten entirely about the rest of us. She stared at the flames of the campfire, a musing look on her face, and I could almost see the tumbling words and notes as she fit them together. I wondered what it was like, if it was like solving the game puzzles that Kettle set for me. It seemed odd to watch her face, knowing a song was unfolding in her mind.

Nighteyes came to lean his head against my knee. I do not like de

"It does seem as if at any moment they might awaken," I observed.

Kettle had settled with a sigh to the earth beside me. She shook her old head slowly. "I do not think so," she said quietly. She almost sounded as if she grieved.

"Well, as we ca

"What will you do," the Fool asked quietly, "if Verity is not at the last map destination?"

"I do not know," Kettricken confided to us quietly. "Nor shall I worry about it until it happens. I still have an action left to take; until I have exhausted it, I shall not despair."

It struck me then that she spoke as if considering a game, with one final move left that might yet lead to victory. Then I decided that I had spent too much time focusing on Kettle's game problems. I yanked a last snarl from my hair and pulled it back into a tail.

Come hunt with me before the last light is gone, the wolf suggested.

"I think I shall hunt with Nighteyes tonight," I a

"We are far from the Skill road. This has been the most peaceful day I've known in some time. In some ways."

"We may be far from the Skill road, but we are still in the heart of a land once occupied by Skill users. They have left their touch everywhere. You ca

Nighteyes whined low in his throat, anxious to be gone. I longed to go hunt with him, to stalk and chase, to move through the night with no human thoughts. But I would not discount Kettle's warning.

"I'll go' with him," Starling offered suddenly. She rose, dusting her hands on her hips. If anyone besides myself thought it was strange, no one made sign of it. I expected at least a mocking farewell from the Fool, but he continued to gaze off into the darkness. I hoped he was not getting sick again.

Do you mind if she goes with us? I asked Nighteyes.

In reply he gave a small sigh of resignation, and trotted away from the fire. I followed him more slowly and Starling followed me.

"Shouldn't we catch up with him?" she asked me several moments later. The forest and the deepening dusk were closing in around us. Nighteyes was nowhere to be seen, but then, I did not need to see him.

I spoke, not in a whisper, but very low. "When we hunt, we move independently of one another. When one of us starts up some game, the other comes swiftly, either to intercept, or to join in the chase."

My eyes had adjusted to the dark. Our quest led us away from the statues, into a forest night i

You are so aware of her, you will not see a rabbit if you step on it! Nighteyes chided me.

At that moment, a hare started from a bush right beside my path. I sprang after it, going doubled over to follow it on the game trail. It was far faster than I, but I knew it would most likely circle. I also knew that Nighteyes was also moving swiftly to intercept it. I heard Starling hurrying after me but had no time to think of her as I kept the rabbit in sight as it dodged around trees and under snags. Twice I nearly had it, and twice it doubled away from me. But the second time it doubled, it raced straight into the jaws of the wolf. He sprang, pi

I was opening its belly and spilling its entrails out for the wolf when Starling caught up with us. Nighteyes snapped the guts up with relish. Let's find another, he suggested, and moved swiftly off into the night.

"He always gives up the meat to you like that?" Starling asked me.

"He doesn't give it up. He lets me carry it. He knows that, now is the best hunting, and so he hopes to kill again swiftly. If not, he knows I will keep meat safe for him, and that we will share later." I secured the dead rabbit to my belt. I started off through the night, the warm body flopping lightly against my thigh as I walked.

"Oh." Starling followed. A short time later, as if in answer to something I'd said, she observed, "I do not find your Wit-bond with the wolf offensive."