“Farrenheil and Verakhoon didn’t have the numbers to hit every fortification, town, and port in Aandor,” Cal said. “We couldn’t find reinforcements anywhere in the kingdom. Our banner men were under siege in their own lands. If Farrenheil made war pacts with nonhuman races, though…”
“They could have tripled their forces,” Lelani finished.
“Why would they join Dorn’s uncle if he’s out to ‘purify’ them?” Cat asked.
“A truce keeps his attention off the purge-off of them,” Lelani said.
“And because there are always spoils to war,” Cal added. “And Aandor is the biggest jewel in the box.”
The gnoll whimpered. Its head fell forward, the spasms ceased, and it stopped breathing.
“I almost feel sorry for it,” Seth said.
“Don’t,” Lelani replied. “We were fortunate to encounter the beast before nightfall. They’re nocturnal. His bolts would have hit more true in the dark.”
Seth took out his pack and pulled a Camel out with his lips. His hands shook as he tried to strike a match. Lelani grasped his wrist, preventing him from lighting up.
“Smoke will give away our position,” she said.
“There are others?” Seth asked. He looked around the woods nervously. “Jeezus, I need a freakin’ smoke.”
Lelani looked ahead. The sky was in transition, the fading sunlight carved by the tree tips dwindled as the beams of shadow between them thickened. “The lay line is over that crest.”
2
Cal told them to stay hidden until he and Lelani could recon. They were at the edge of the tree line and an open space materialized a few yards ahead of the last cluster of shrubs. Seth and Cat rested behind the skeleton of a snow-topped bush. The sky in twilight shifted from a light cerulean on the western horizon dabbed with traces of green and yellow, to a grayish blue above them, and finally a deep indigo in the east. The first stars that appeared in that indigo canvas would soon be covered as a cold front moved stubbornly down from the north.
Seth peered into the moist gray ceiling above them and was surprised to find himself thinking about his cat in the middle of this life and death struggle. They had dropped Hoshi off at the YMCA, where Lelani kept a room. He wondered if they had left enough food and water out, and if not, would anyone answer the mewling that was sure to follow. Girlfriends and models came and went, but Hoshi was one of the few constants in his life. The cat was always glad to see him, unlike his present company.
Seth resented every step dictated to him since Lelani entered his life. He had lost himself in the past forty-eight hours and couldn’t remember the individual he was only yesterday. His friends had abandoned him, his home was a cinder, dog-men were shooting arrows at him, and his only companions were a mystical horse-girl, a moody fascist cop, and his humorless wife. His past had nothing to do with the present. One day he earned a living photographing and fornicating with beautiful desperate girls, and the next he was running for his life on the yellow brick road. A massive disconnect had occurred-an alignment of stars against him. And strange as it was, this felt more real than the past thirteen years of his life.
Cal signaled the all clear.
The tree line encircled a pristine meadow; in the center stood a grand old tree. Unlike its counterparts in the woods, this tree had all of its leaves, green as on a moist August day. Around the tree was a small zone of healthy green grass, untouched by the weather. A few yards away sat a small white RV trailer hitched to empty air. Smoke wafted from a pipe on the roof. No tracks led to or from. Either no one was in or no one had left home recently.
Seth walked a few steps and felt a snap underfoot that didn’t feel like wood. The snow was spotted pink. He retrieved what had cracked. A bone. A slimy bone. Some animal, he thought. It was picked clean, notched with tooth marks and stray clinging ligament. He realized that there were bones all around him. He spotted a paw; a five-fingered paw-with opposable thumb.
“Uh, guys,” he said.
Cal hushed him.
“Shush yourself, man. There are pieces of some dude all around me.” That got their attention.
Lelani examined the bones.
“There are two people here,” she said.
“Fuck,” Seth said. “This place gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe the other sentries are worse than dog-boy.”
Cal examined the scene also.
Lelani discovered shreds of scaled clothes, a spear, and some netting.
“These are the other guards,” she said. “These items are from Aandor. One of them was a skilyte.”
“A what?” Cat asked.
“Swamp dwellers,” Cal said. “Not friends of Aandor.”
“Perhaps we have an ally?” Lelani said. “Rosencrantz?”
“No.” Cal picked up a thighbone and studied the nicks and scratches that covered it. “The gnoll got hungry.” Cal handed the bone to Lelani for confirmation.
“It ate its partners?” Seth asked incredulously.
“Gnolls are terrible allies.”
“Wouldn’t their leader know this?” Cat asked.
“Dorn probably ordered the gnoll not to harm them,” Lelani answered.
“And he didn’t realize it wouldn’t obey?”
“No. Treason and insubordination are rare in the Kingdom of Farrenheil. Dorn’s uncle enjoys putting people on trial for the most minor infractions. Execution is the family hobby. Thinks it sends a good message to the masses. Sometimes they even coax children to divulge their parents’ beliefs, then they arrest the parents and place the children in military orphanages. That’s how they maintain such a large army.” She threw the bone down with disgust. “What arrogance! They believe their whims can subvert nature. Their alliances with these base creatures will be everyone’s undoing, including their own.”
“Right now, that’s a blessing,” Cal said. “Two less sentries we need to deal with.” He studied the trailer. “I assume that’s where the mojo is?”
“Yes,” Lelani said.
“And odds are, Rosencrantz is in that trailer.”
“I’d take that bet,” she answered.
“I’ll go first,” Cal offered.
“No,” Cat responded. “We’ll go together. How much safer can it be in a forest with man-eating gnolls?”
Seth chuckled. Maybe not completely humorless, he thought.
He helped Cat stand and volunteered to be her crutch as he’d done often since they’d dispatched the gnoll. The other two needed to be unencumbered in case something sprang up. It made sense to everyone, and it helped alleviate the sour mood that sprang between them after he had refused Cal’s order to outflank the gnoll. It seemed like a team-player thing to do. Seth had a more practical motive for helping Cat. In the woods, you don’t have to be able to outrun a bear to survive an attack. You just have to be faster than the person you’re with.
They cut a path through the snow. The clearing reminded Seth of the Roman colosseum; the trees surrounding the clearing, bristling in the wind, were a thousand cheering spectators. This didn’t bode well for the four of them, who were on stage. Seth felt vulnerable. Cloistered in the canyons of Manhattan, a person can’t appreciate the reality of open ground. A tactical disadvantage when being hunted.
The trailer was about fifteen feet long and in need of a wash. Dents and dings decorated the pleated aluminum skin. Cinder blocks lifted the hitched end off the ground. Cal reached it first and was about to knock, when-
“Wait!” Seth said.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?”
“I…”
“Are we just going to stand out here?” Lelani asked.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Cat said. She hobbled up and rapped on the door.
The vapors from their breath ceased in unison. Everything was silent. Then they heard clanging and banging within. The trailer rocked as the footsteps grew louder. The door creaked open and stopped at the limit of a chain, just enough space for a mouse to slip through. A single eye in the darkness took stock of them from the crack.