“I want you to understand. When we fought in your camp, you bested me because the woman interfered. In the wild, you would never find me, much less catch me.”
Robien nodded. “I let her take me-you know that, don’t you?”
The grass-figure shifted. “Robien the Tireless taken from behind by a human? Not in a year of springtimes.”
Amergin pulled the grass hood off his head. His dark eyes were rimmed with red. He’d apparently not slept these past two days.
“I’m tired, bounty hunter. I don’t want to go on wondering if in the end you intend to sell me to the Brotherhood.”
“Sell? What I do, I do honorably. Service rendered for money paid.”
“I am a person, not a service!” Amergin exclaimed.
“We can settle this afterward. The villagers-”
“Let’s settle it now!” Amergin drew his knife. “Renounce the Brotherhood’s contract, or I’ll water the weeds with your blood!”
As Robien’s hand closed around the handle of his sword, the rumble of moving horses reached them both. Hunter and hunted’s eyes met.
The forester pulled his hood down and vanished into the grass. Robien ran, hunched over, to a small sour apple tree on the crest of a slight slope. To the east he saw eleven riders cantering through the grass. The lead horseman raised his hand, and the riders reined to a stop.
“It’s beyond those fields, yonder? See the green? That’s it,” said the leader.
“Should we spread out, Keph?” asked one of the men.
“It doesn’t matter. There’s not a sword in the place.” He laughed shortly. “Nor a man to wield one!”
Two riders detached themselves from the rest and took up positions not twenty feet from Robien.
“Keep an eye out,” the leader, Keph, told them. “We’ll be back in two days to relieve you.”
“Bring wine!” said one of the scouts.
“And meat!” said the other.
Keph laughed. “I’ll bring you a feast deluxe.”
Something brushed against Robien’s elbow. Amergin was lying on his belly close enough to touch him.
“Let’s take them,” he whispered.
“What, now? Wait till the others are gone!”
“Now. Quietly. It will disturb the rest.”
With a mild rustle, Amergin was gone. The remaining nine horsemen trotted away, heading southeast.
The two scouts sat slouched on their animals, facing the unseen village. As Robien watched, he noticed the scout on the left’s horse shying a little, as though the beast had detected a serpent near its feet. A snake would be less dangerous, the bounty hunter thought.
Robien crept forward as fast as he dared, knees bent, hands brushing the ground. He left his sword in its scabbard and took out his hunting knife, a single-edged weapon as long as his hand. Teeth clamped on the blade, he worked his way closer to the unwary men.
One scout’s horse stirred a little. The rider patted his animal. “Steady, steady,” he crooned.
“He wants to go back to camp too,” said the other man.
Robien was behind them, no more than six feet away, when Amergin rose up like a ghost and grabbed both men by their mantles, jerking them backward off the rumps of their mounts. The horses took off, neighing and tossing their heads.
Amergin threw himself over one of the men, covering him with his grassy cape. The other man struggled to rise and draw his sword. Robien took him from behind, clamping a hand over the man’s mouth and burying his blade in the small of his back.
The grass flowed away, revealing the second rider dead.
“Now what?” asked Robien, breathing hard.
Amergin gripped the dead man’s collar. “Bring him.”
They dragged the bodies over the hill. Amergin proceeded confidently, leading Robien to a small depression in the hillside. This hollow was full of brambles. Amergin shoved the dead man in then took Robien’s victim and pushed him in, too. Robien thought they were done, but Amergin retraced their path, plucking up bent grass and wiping away any bloodstains. When he was done, only the most expert tracker could have detected where the bodies had been taken.
By now the frightened horses had overtaken their comrades, causing consternation among the other riders. They came galloping back. Robien made ready to retire, but Amergin gripped his wrist hard. He spread his grass cape over the bounty hunter.
“Watch. Listen.”
The brigands circled the spot where their companions had disappeared, prodding the grass with their lances.
“Juric! Vago!” the leader called.
More than once the men passed within spitting distance of the Kagonesti but failed to detect them.
“Keph, where are they?” one man cried.
“Hiding. They must be!”
“Vago wouldn’t do that!”
“Neither would Juric!”
Keph said, “Then they’ve deserted, the scum.”
The dead men’s friends protested vigorously. Keph cursed them into silence. “If they didn’t desert, what happened to them? Did they disappear into thin air?”
A gaunt, hawk-faced rider pushed the helmet back on his head and fearfully scanned the sky. “Something took them,” he intoned.
His leader scoffed. “What? A dragon? Don’t you think we would’ve seen anything big enough to carry off two armed men?”
Hawk-face would not be talked down. “There’s a reason why this land is deserted. There are wild spirits, malign powers abroad here!”
“You’re mad, Botha! The gods are dead, and all the ghosts died with them ages ago!” Keph circled his nervous horse. “Besides, this land isn’t empty. Farmers live here.”
“Maybe they have a pact with the dark spirits-”
Keph struck Botha with a mailed fist. The blow rocked him, but the hard-riding warrior kept his seat.
“That’s enough!” Keph snapped. “There are no spirits! There’s no power here greater than our Lord Rakell, understand?” He circled again. “Juric and Vago have deserted, I tell you. You heard ’em. They didn’t want picket duty, so they ran off. They’re hiding in the grass out there, somewhere. If I had time, I’d set a fireline and smoke ’em out, but Lord Rakell’s on the move and expects us back before sundown. So be men, not children! Let’s go!”
The bandits rode away. Once they were out of sight, Robien threw back the grass mat and sat up, drawing deep breaths. It was nearly airless under there.
“Seeds are planted,” Amergin said, shucking off his camouflage hood and gauntlets. “Now we will let them grow a little.” He started back to the bramble gully.
“What are you going to do now?” Robien called after him.
Amergin didn’t answer.
Robien followed, curious. Amergin dragged the bodies out and lashed their wrists together then draped the dead raiders on two of his scarecrows, looping their arms around his figures’ necks. It was a macabre scene, two corpses each hugging a scarecrow as if they were long-lost comrades. Rakell’s men were sure to be frightened or infuriated when they found them. Seeing Amergin’s macabre ploy, Robien wasn’t sure which he felt himself.
CHAPTER NINE
It was dark when Robien and Amergin returned. Robien made a wide circuit of the isolated village, checking the traps. When all was done, the two Kagonesti walked back to the village through the barley, tossing lightly in the night wind. Neither elf spoke to the other.
A bonfire blazed in the center of the village common. The bright fire startled the elves, and fearing trouble, they separated. Each entered Nowhere at a different point between the darkened huts. Yet all was calm. There were no signs of a raid.
Howland had returned. Malek and Nils were also present, but Amergin didn’t spot Hume. Curious, the elf made his way to the old Knight.
Caeta accosted him. “One of your comrades has been killed,” she said sadly. Amergin didn’t need to be told which.
Robien approached the bonfire from the other side. The villagers huddled around the flames, grass mats and blankets spread on the ground. With their homes filled with dirt, they would be sleeping in the open for a while.