“What is it that Garth does inthe woods every night and every morning?” Tedi asked. “He does itevery day and it is the only time that he will not allow anyone toaccompany him.”
“I don’t know,” Arik concededwhile pointing out the peculiar way the slant of the blades ofgrass alternated between pointing right and pointing left as ifsomeone had swept something across the grass back and forth toremove footsteps. “I suspect that he is making sure that no one isnear. Or, at least, it must have something to do with the securityof the campsite.”
Suddenly, the trail totally disappearedand the boys stood up, puzzled. There was not one clue as to whichdirection Garth had taken next.
“You forgot one of the mostimportant lessons in tracking,” Garth said from behindthem.
The boys spun around and faced thelength of Garth’s long, sinuous sword wavering between theirthroats. “What lesson was that?” croaked Tedi.
“The first one that I taughtyou, fisherboy,” Garth said grimly. “Maintain silence at all times.Why do you think I taught you to use hand talk? Do you think it wasto give your idle fingers some exercise? Your tracking skills arecoming along fairly well, but you would be dead now because of avery foolish mistake.”
“But this is only practice,”complained Tedi.
“There is no differencebetween practice and real life,” sighed Garth. “What do I have todo to convince you? If I kill you, you will have finally learnedthat lesson, but I will have wasted my time teaching it. Do youthink we are in some park where no bad people exist? We are but afew miles from Toresh where the Dark Riders have a major garrison.Their own practice sessions use these very woods that you arefrolicking in and yet you walk around as if there is no danger.There is danger every moment of your life. Never forget it.Never.”
“What did we miss here?” Arikasked as much to break the tension as to hear theanswer.
“Look at the tree bark,” Garthexplained. “I jumped up and grabbed that branch, but my feetdisturbed the bark there and there. You would have troublefollowing from there, but if you checked surrounding trees youwould eventually find where I came down. Enough tracking for now.You boys are due for some more sword practice. Today you two getthe chance to kill me. It should be fun.”
Garth turned and headed back towardsthe campsite leaving Arik and Tedi shaking their heads. Arikwatched the way Garth walked as he followed him. The careful, ifsubconscious, placement of every step. His feet always coming downon the quietest, most solid surface the path provided. Arikwondered how many years Garth had been walking that way. It was sosecond nature to the man that Arik was sure he did it withoutthinking.
The afternoon was as full of activityfor the boys as every day for the last two weeks had been. Whilethey still had trouble keeping their eyes open during the latedinner, the aches in their muscles were becoming less each day.Garth came into the campsite late for dinner and sat down with afrown on his face.
“Your friends are stilllooking for you,” he said to the boys. “There are about thirty DarkRiders several miles to the North and your friend, the witch, iswith them.”
“Should we leave tonight?”Tedi asked nervously.
Garth chewed a mouthful of rabbitbefore answering. “Traveling by night is too dangerous unless youknow the country well or you are very desperate. Neither caseapplies here. One of the hardest tracks to hide is a wagon. I thinkwe can avoid any problems with them as long as you two are out ofsight when they come.”
“What about their horses?”asked Arik. “They are bound to recognize their horses andsaddles.”
“Not necessarily,” Garthstated. “And if they do, I will tell them that I purchased themfrom a gang of bandits that headed south. Gypsies are known totrade with anyone. If they argue too much, I will offer to sellthem back to them.”
“I can’t believe that you aretaking this so lightly,” Tedi burst out.
Garth put down his plate and leveledhis gaze on the boys. “I take nothing lightly,” he declared. “I donot always seek a fight when there are other ways out of asituation. I do not shun a fight, but it is better to choose whenyou wish to fight and not let others decide for you. You would dowell to remember to face every problem with calmness and logicalthought. Emotion can kill you as quickly as a sword.”
“Is there anything that we cando to prepare for tomorrow?” questioned Arik.
“Get some sleep,” orderedGarth. “If all does not go well, you may be called upon to exerciseyour new skills and I would like you well rested for theoccasion.”
The boys nodded and headed off to theirblankets. Kalina and Garth sat talking softly for an hour beforethey, too, retired.
* * * *
Niki was practically falling asleep inthe saddle. “Why do we have to keep riding, Fredrik? I’m tired andI want to go to sleep.”
“I want to ride a littlelonger,” answered Fredrik. “We have been too long without somethingsubstantial to eat. If we keep stopping early, we will die ofstarvation. We need to find a village or small town and the longerwe ride each day the sooner we will find it.”
“We haven’t seen so much as afarm since that place you stole the chicken,” Niki complained. “Idon’t think anyone lives along this road.”
“You may be right,” admittedFredrik, “but I thought I smelled smoke a little while ago and Iwouldn’t mind some food before I fall asleep.”
They rode on for another ten minutesand Fredrik perked up again. “I know it is smoke this time,” hesaid hopefully. “If we don’t find some food at wherever the smokeis coming from, we go to sleep anyway, okay?”
Niki didn’t answer and Fredrik led themoff the road and onto a small dirt path that led into the woodstowards the East. The smell of smoke was still very faint, butFredrik followed it until it got stronger. Finally, he saw theshape of a wagon far up the dirt path. He thought he heard a slightsound like two pieces of metal tinkling against each other, butignored it. When he reached the edge of the clearing where thewagon was parked, he dismounted and told Niki to get down and holdthe horses. He surveyed the campsite and could not see anyonemoving. Other than the wagon, the campsite held a string line forhorses and Fredrik could see around a half dozen horses. He thoughthe could pick out two shapes over by the horses that might be mensleeping.
“I’m going in to see what Ican find to eat,” whispered Fredrik.
Niki nodded and tied the horses to asmall tree. Fredrik crept toward the wagon, keeping an eye on thetwo sleeping forms. He successfully reached the back of the wagonwithout waking anyone and began to ease the door open. The tip of asword touched his throat from alongside the wagon.
“Don’t you know it is politeto knock before you enter a woman’s wagon?” the steely voiceasked.
Fredrik raised his chin and the swordfollowed it up. He let go of the door to the wagon and raised hishands. “Sorry,” he croaked, “I was just looking for food. I haven’teaten in days and I am very hungry.”
Garth looked at the boy before loweringhis sword and sheathing it. As he started to open his mouth tospeak, he caught the glare of a magical projectile screaming infrom the woods. He threw himself to the ground and kicked Fredrik’sfeet out from under him. Quickly twisting his body as theprojectile screamed by overhead, Garth wrapped his muscular armaround the boy’s neck.
“One more mistake like thatand this boy’s life is ended,” he shouted. “Come out of the woodsso I can see you.”
Arik and Tedi leaped to their feet,their bows ready and arrows nocked. The door to the wagon openedand Kalina stepped out. She looked at the boy carefully and thengazed into the woods as if trying to determine who would be helpingthe boy.
“Whether you value the boy’slife or not,” she called, “do not use any more magic. There is acompany of Dark Riders only a couple of miles away and they have awitch with them. Your magic will call them down here quicker thanif you sent a rider to tell them you are here. If you want food, wewill feed you. If not, you may leave.”