‘Well, we did,’ Yeorson said with growling fatalism. ‘But right now we’ve got other things to worry about, namely Meirach and where we go next: forward through this damn forest or back to the castle.’
There was no serious alternative. They would have to search for Meirach.
‘He’s a troublesome son of a whore, but he’s too handy in a fight to lose,’ was Yeorson’s conclusion. ‘We can decide whether to go on or back when we find what kind of a state he’s in.’
They would all go, it was agreed, leaving a note for Meirach should he return to find the camp deserted, and marking their route well. Not knowing what they were going to find, there was no point in splitting the patrol again.
An examination of the ground around the tether line showed them the direction in which Meirach had left. It was to the north.
‘And he’s leading his horse,’ Storran said, crouching down to study the tracks more closely.
Both pieces of information were puzzling. What could have possessed him to head further away from the castle?
After some congestion around the edge of the clear-ing, the trees became more widely separated and the undergrowth less dense. The patrol was obliged to move slowly and carefully as they followed Meirach’s tracks, and their progress took on the appearance of being nothing more than a group of friends enjoying a leisurely afternoon ride across a stately parkland as they moved through the leaf-shadowed shafts of sunlight.
They travelled thus for some time.
Then Haral touched Yeorson’s arm and pointed. Yeorson squinted into the distance and in turn reached out and touched Storran.
Ahead of them lay a mound. It was not possible to make out what it was from a distance because of the shadows being thrown across it by the surrounding trees, but when they reached it, such quietness of spirit each might have been secretly relishing in the silent search, vanished abruptly. The mound was a horse. Its belly and throat had been ripped open and its entrails strewn about the forest floor. Flies were beginning to gather.
For a while the men simply stared at the carnage. They had seen worse in their time, but this had a peculiar horror by virtue of the sunlit calm about them and the implications for their companion.
‘What kind of an animal could’ve done that?’ some-one said eventually, his voice hoarse with shock.
Storran ignored the question and moved to stem any outburst of conjectures. ‘Stay mounted,’ he said sternly, swinging down from his horse. ‘And keep still. We don’t want to disturb any tracks.’
His voluptuous mouth twisted in distaste, he ap-proached the carcass. Yeorson joined him.
‘Good question,’ Yeorson said softly as they both crouched by the body. ‘What could’ve done this?’
‘And what did it do to Meirach?’ Storran added.
‘We heard some kind of a scream when we were up the mountain,’ Yeorson said. ‘Did you hear anything?’
‘Faintly,’ Storran replied. ‘We were a long way from here.’
‘Well, I’ll wager that tells us when this happened,’ Yeorson said, standing up. ‘How do you think we should go about finding out what?’
Storran was prodding the body thoughtfully. ‘I’m not sure I want to,’ he said.
‘We’ve got to find Meirach,’ Yeorson said, uncertain about Storran’s intentions.
Storran glanced up at him. ‘Look at the size of this bite.’ He poked the jagged edge of a wound in the horse’s side. ‘Whatever did this won’t have left much of Meirach.’
‘We’ve still got to find him. Or whatever’s left of him,’ Yeorson said. ‘Morale’s bad enough, and on the whole I’d rather face whatever did this than have to tell Nilsson we lost someone and didn’t look for him.’
Storran looked at the waiting men then heaved him-self upright. ‘I know,’ he said, blowing out a resigned breath. ‘Let’s get on with it.’ He turned to the men. ‘Those of you who’ve got them, string your bows,’ he said. ‘And if you see anything big, shoot it and ask after.’
‘Even if it’s Meirach?’ someone shouted.
‘Especially if it’s Meirach, the trouble he’s caused us,’ Storran said.
The raucous laughter was strained as it floated up to the sunlit canopy overhead.
There sat two figures.
‘Your friends don’t seem to be taking your loss too much to heart, Meirach,’ Rannick said softly.
Meirach’s face had a deathly pallor which made his burns peculiarly livid. He stared at Rannick wide-eyed, but made no answer.
Chapter 15
‘What do you mean, you couldn’t find him?’ Nilsson thundered, bringing his two fists violently down on to the table.
Yeorson and Storran held their ground before his onslaught, but barely.
‘Just that, Captain,’ Yeorson said. He summarized his account again. ‘There were the tracks of a horse and someone walking it up to where we found its body, then…’ He shrugged in exaggerated helplessness. ‘Nothing. Literally nothing. No sign of anyone or anything moving away from the body. We circled out to over a hundred paces, and there was still nothing. We went back to the camp site to see if we’d missed anything else, but we hadn’t. We’d followed the only track out other than those we’d made ourselves. There was nothing we could do but come back.’ He leaned forward. ‘That place is bad, Captain,’ he said. ‘Me and Storran felt it the first time we went. This fellow, Rannick, said the same, and he was a weird one. We’ve got problems to the north, Captain. My guts tell me it’ll cost us dear if we go that way and if there’s only this… Great Forest… at the other end.’
Nilsson met his gaze ominously. ‘I don’t want to hear this, Yeorson,’ he said.
‘I didn’t want to have to tell you, Captain,’ Yeorson replied, doggedly.
Nilsson’s eyes narrowed, but Dessane, sitting next to him, whispered, ‘Steady, Nils. Listen to him. You didn’t see the men when they came back; they were badly shaken up. We’re going to have a serious morale problem on our hands if we’re not careful. Something’s frightened Yeorson to make him talk like that. He’s a good man, you know that. So is Storran. Better with us than against us.’
Nilsson remained motionless for a moment then he nodded and relaxed.
‘Sit down,’ he said to the two men. Hesitantly they did as they were told, judiciously placing themselves at the opposite side of the table.
Silence filled the room as Nilsson pondered the news he had received. When he spoke, his heavy face had a grim set about it. ‘I suppose everyone knows about Meirach and the horse by now, but have you told anyone about your… feelings… about the forest?’ he asked.
‘No, Captain,’ Yeorson and Storran replied simulta-neously.
‘Good. See it stays that way. And anything we dis-cuss here, now, stays between us also. Is that clear?’ Nilsson twisted his chair sideways and, leaning backwards on it, swung his leg on to the table. ‘This is a cosy niche,’ he said, looking round at the stone walls whose bareness seemed to lend no small irony to his words. ‘And we’ve reached it without making any great stir. Without… anyone… knowing where we are. We’ve been lucky.’ He rocked his chair back and forth gently. ‘In fact, very lucky indeed to stumble across such a place with its plentiful food and its quiet people.’ He paused for a moment, then drew in a noisy breath through his bared teeth. ‘However, we can’t stay here for ever, and if we go south we’ll be going towards trouble. Back towards the consequences of our past activities. It’s not something we can even consider unless all other avenues are closed to us.’ He tapped out an uneasy tattoo on the table top with his fingertips. ‘Completely closed to us,’ he emphasized.
He looked at each of his listeners in turn as he con-tinued. ‘Gentlemen, we have mountains to the east and the west, shades to the south and doubts to the north. The first impassable, the second undesirable, the third…?’ He shrugged. ‘We have no choice. We go north unless it proves absolutely impossible.’
He drummed his fingers on the table again, then brought his palm down on it with a sharp slap to mark the end of his reverie.