“Of course.”
Gareth touched the dragon’s mind and looked through his eyes at the forest passing below. The cliffs to the east were snowcapped. In the West stood mountains and forest, but at the edge of vision, it looked like the land smoothed out. Somewhere further beyond was the Endless Sea, but it was too far away to see.
Directly ahead, but still too far away for detail was the volcanic valley his father lived in. When the valley was below, Blackie avoided looking down, but that was fine with Gareth. He flew higher and found the information he was seeking.
In the mountain range paralleling the ocean coastline was a divide, a high mountain pass that went through the mountains. However, part of the way up the mountain pass was a valley that went off at a right angle to the north. Following that valley took a traveler to his father’s valley, his home.
The only road across the pass slid under them first. The remains of a road wound up the first valley came after. It had probably last been used a century ago, maybe longer. The road had been constructed to supply the main house with building materials and workers, and it probably brought in supplies of food for the winters when the road was deep in snow.
But he now knew the way to the valley. All he had to do was avoid hundreds and hundreds of soldiers searching for him, and that did not include the new voice that was close to him. He ordered Blackie to find a safe place to roost while he pulled his mind back to the clearing in the meadow.
Both Ann and Tad were looking at him. He smiled. “I have an idea.”
“About avoiding the trap?”
“That too. The new voice we heard is nearby, I’m certain. Also, the army is spread out in a circle around both Reteam and Freeport, the cities where I was expected to leave my ship. All roads are cut off with checkpoints all along them, but the King has made a mistake. He removed the one source that could identify me.”
“The Brotherhood?”
“Exactly. The army has rounded them up and holds them, prisoner, while talks between the Brotherhood leaders and King takes place.”
“Giving us time to slip past.”
Gareth nodded and turned to the small, smokeless fire roasting a rabbit on a spit. He said, “We have to hurry before the Brotherhood is returned to its normal duties, but you are our advantage, Ann. Unless I’m wrong, you coerced that rabbit to either come from his burrow while you killed it, but that same skill in the forest will take us through. I will warn you of any people ahead, especially soldiers. You are the woodsman who will guide and feed us.”
“I don’t know where you wish to go.”
“I do, now. You’re familiar with the road that goes through the pass in the mountains?”
“Yes. I’ve heard of it, but never traveled it, of course. Nobody does.”
“Can you take us there?”
She paused, her eyebrows furrowed as she thought out the route. “There are a hundred places for the army to lay in wait between here and there, but I’m more worried about the nearby voice we heard.”
“Can you steer us to reach that mountain pass road by traveling only in the forests? I mean far from any other roads?”
“Yes, I’ll have to think about it, but my answer is, yes.”
“The voice we heard will be for me to handle, but I need you to take an oath to protect my grandson with your life. If I die, you will travel to Vespa. Tad will direct you after that.”
“I give you my oath, but only on the condition that you are not about to do something stupid.”
“What is stupid to you and what is stupid to me may be two very different things. But I believe that oath or not, you will do the right thing.”
CHAPTER TEN
Reluctantly, Gareth set the horses free. They were still close enough to Reteam that they might find their way home, but if not, somebody would find them and care for them. Horses are a luxury they couldn’t afford while traveling in the depths of the forests. Besides, horses leave easily followed hoof prints, and they have no understanding of stealth. Horses usually only travel on roads or wide paths. He planned to use lesser ways.
But the biggest reason was that people who own horses for travel are wealthy and, therefore, attract attention from all. People on horses are remembered. Even eyes that watch from hidden places remember horses and their riders. From this point on they would travel the back ways.
After staying awake all night, Tad was almost in a stupor, slow to move and quiet. His eyes were dull, but he could walk. They rested longer, ate the remainder of the rabbit, and did little speaking but a lot of thinking.
Ann spent the time lost in her head, reviewing the area they were in and where they wanted to go. She told him that her mind became a large map, every detail recalled and properly placed. Roads, rivers, streams, towns, and landmarks were properly placed until a possible route emerged.
Gareth did much the same. He laid down on his back and closed his eyes, but did not sleep. He let his mind listen to the chatter of thought as he tried to eliminate all but those thoughts from the people nearest to them. There was at least a hundred. He reached out to each, slowly and carefully. A single gentle touch followed by another more demanding until the person was eliminated as the one he sought.
More than fifty had been carefully investigated and eliminated before he located the right one. Gareth pulled back and considered his next move. Gareth’s next mental touch was warm, just the brush of a butterfly wing on a babe’s cheek while gathering impressions. He didn’t dare go deeper and examine any thoughts or feelings.
The fleeting impressions told him it was the mind of a young boy. An untrained mind, but one similar to his abilities. In that mind, thoughts scattered like a flock of birds after a cat pounces. But he found a few constants, too. The boy behind the thoughts was often hungry. Not the general hunger of all growing boys, but the hunger that comes with often missed meals over days and days.
The boy was also angry, lonely, and scared. Another, a stronger mind, controlled the boy’s actions. He didn’t like it but was forced to do things he didn’t want to do. The boy was scared of the other mind and what it did to those who didn’t obey it.
Gareth allowed a tendril of softness to penetrate the mind while he managed to a glimpse through his eyes. The boy was perched on the side of a hill overlooking a section of the road outside a village. His job was to remain there and touch the minds of all who traveled the road until he located Gareth.
Opening his eyes, he said to Ann, “I think our task is about to get harder. How much of that medicine for calming Tad do you have?”
“Enough for a few days.”
“So, what if there were two of him?”
“A day, maybe a little more. But it is a common herb, and I’m certain I can locate more.”
“Begin looking. The mind we felt earlier is very close. I think that I know exactly where.”
“What are you planning to do, Gareth?”
“We need information about who killed my father. I have no doubt that it was the insane voice that controls the one watching the road ahead. We don’t have one person with the same powers as I have, we have at least two, and I suspect three.”
Ann furrowed her brows and leaned closer. “You’re planning to capture him, not kill him.”
“The second voice, yes. His mind is strong but sane. He’s just scared. A frightened little boy being bullied by one stronger.”