“They are but youngsters and yet they brave the Sakova from which nobody returns,” quizzed MistyTrail. “Why do you suppose they are here?”
“Omunga youngsters are ignorant,” HawkShadow declared. “They probably do not know where they are.”
“There is more to it than that,” the short woman mused. “Twenty assassins on their trail indicates that someone is pretty determined to stop them from getting somewhere.”
“More like forty assassins,” HawkShadow corrected. “There is another group tracking them as we speak. It is the reason for me coming this far. These ones will not be foolish enough to eat game from the forest. They rely on their trail food.”
“I wanted to ask you about that,” she said. “How did you get the poison to spread to all of the meat? I would have thought that only the section where the dart pierced would contain enough poison to kill the men.”
“Not if it is carried by the animal’s bloodstream,” grinned HawkShadow, “then it spreads everywhere. It doesn’t matter which part of the animal a man eats after that.”
“But the blood stops flowing when the animal dies,” frowned MistyTrail. “That means that you had to poison the deer while it was still alive.”
“You learn quickly,” HawkShadow smiled. “The fools shot the deer fatally, but not cleanly. The animal would have survived long enough to wander away and die elsewhere. I shot it in the throat as they were coming after it. The poison had time to spread before it died.”
“I am impressed,” admired MistyTrail. “That means that you were very close to the deer when they shot it and they did not detect you. It appears that I have yet more to learn from you.”
“You learn quickly,” asserted HawkShadow with a smile. “Your tracking is almost my par, and I can say that about nobody else. You must learn to remain hidden better though, little one. Never should the enemy hear you or see you.”
“What do you have planned for the Assassin group?” MistyTrail asked.
“I am not sure,” confided HawkShadow. “I had planned to use you in eliminating them, but you still toy with the three young ones. These men are not to be toyed with. They are trained assassins and a direct confrontation could go poorly for us. I got lucky with the last group, but this one will not be so easy.”
“Aren’t you at least curious about the youngsters?” questioned MistyTrail. “Forty professional assassins is something spectacular to throw against three young ones.”
“I am curious,” nodded HawkShadow, “but I take no chances with the security of Sakova. The Omungans have tried to root us out for centuries and we have survived by not taking chances with our homeland. I guess my curiosity comes after my duty. When they are dead, we can wonder why they were here.”
“I do not agree,” objected MistyTrail. “They may not know why they are here, but they were meant to come here. The girl who dresses like a boy carries a ring, a Ring of Sakova.”
“A Ring of Sakova?” queried HawkShadow. “Why did you not tell me this?”
“To make you realize that sometimes you may kill too quickly,” MistyTrail grinned. “You would have found it after you killed her.”
“That would have been her misfortune,” frowned HawkShadow. “The Ring only allows passage if it is presented to a Sakovan. She did not present it to anyone. She probably stole it anyway. She obviously has no idea what it means.”
“I agree with you there,” she sighed. “Still, I sense something in her, something good. I do not know what it is. I guess that is why I have not killed them yet. I want to know why they are here and why the killers are tracking them.”
“Your curiosity will get you killed, Misty,” Hawkshadow warned. “In any event, we now have a problem. If we join together to whittle down the assassins, we will lose the youngsters. If we split up, I will not be able to take out the assassins before they catch up with the youngsters. You should have eliminated the three of them when you had the chance.”
“Suppose we play a game,” MistyTrail suggested. “We can follow the three youngsters and still slow the pursuit of the assassins. If the assassins catch the trio, then we have only one target and we will be together. If they do not catch the youngsters, then we will always know where they are. We have only to slow them down once in a while until we find out what I want to know.”
HawkShadow leaned his tall frame against a fargi tree and thought about the proposition. He was curious about the children and the Ring, still he had the security of Sakova to worry about. Nobody was allowed to leave once they entered Sakova; that was the law. Unless they had Right of Passage, he quickly reminded himself. The girl had not used the Ring properly and that meant that she did not know what she had possession of.
“You want to play a game, do you?” quizzed HawkShadow. “Fine, but I will set the rules. Do you agree?”
“Hey, not fair,” protested the short woman. “You can make rules that stop the game before I have found out what I want to know.”
“I have always been fair with you, Misty,” smiled HawkShadow. “I will give you three days to find out what they are about. I will send word today for others to join us and help eliminate the assassins. Each night, you and I will go out and harass the assassins. At the end of the third day, when the others join us, we kill them all. Those are my rules.”
“Dawn of the fourth day,” MistyTrail bargained. “If I am out with you each night, my time to find out why they are here will be limited.”
“Done,” laughed HawkShadow. “I should know by now that you must always bargain with an elf.”
“I am not an elf,” MistyTrail protested as she dragged her hat down over her pointy ears. “There are no elves.”
“So you have said many times, my little friend,” grinned HawkShadow as he extended his leather covered arm high into the air.
MistyTrail marveled, as she always did, as the large black hawk swept out of the sky and descended silently to HawkShadow’s arm. HawkShadow removed a small capsule from his pocket and attached it to the bird’s leg. From another pocket, HawkShadow produced a treat for his bird. The bird’s beak could easily snap a bone in two, but it gently picked the treat from between HawkShadow’s fingers and cocked its head to stare at MistyTrail.
“Why does he stare at me so?” she asked.
“He wonders what I see in you,” laughed HawkShadow as he tossed the hawk into the air.
The bird rose in a circling motion and swiftly disappeared through the forest canopy. MistyTrail placed her hands on her hips and scowled at HawkShadow.
“You didn’t write a note,” she accused. “What was in the capsule?”
“Just what we discussed,” HawkShadow grinned.
“Impossible!” she declared. “I watched you the whole time and whatever went in that capsule must have been written before we started talking. Are you changing the rules already?”
“So it was,” agreed HawkShadow. “I am not changing the rules at all. The note merely asks for help with the assassins. It will take three days for that help to arrive. I had planned to harass the assassins until the help arrived anyway, so I agreed to give you three days with the youngsters. Nothing about the game has been altered.”
“And you still get what you wanted all along,” she scowled. “I have to learn to bargain with you better.”
“You learn quick enough,” HawkShadow stated as he laid his hand on her shoulder. “I have never had a student as good as you. Enough talk for now. You must hurry to keep track of the youngsters and I have to set some traps for the assassins. Give me your word that you will kill them if they try to leave the Sakova before the three days are up.”
“I will not let them leave the Sakova,” insisted MistyTrail. “If I can accomplish that task without killing them, then I am performing my duty properly.”
HawkShadow smiled and nodded and then turned and disappeared into the forest. MistyTrail watched him go with admiration. She had learned much from the Assassin of the Sakovans and he seemed to put up with her arguing with him, which he would not accept from anyone else. She would not destroy the trust he placed in her, not for the youngsters or anyone. If she wished to find out what they were doing in the forbidden Sakova, she had three days to do it in. She would not argue with HawkShadow, if after that time, he ordered her to kill the youngsters. MistyTrail started plotting as she ran through the woods to catch up with the youngsters.