Firebrand

As if to punctuate his statement, more howls chorused through the woods, carried eerily to them by the damp air. Estral visibly trembled, the color draining from her face.

“We need to choose the place,” Karigan replied.

“It may be,” Enver said, glancing over his shoulder, “there is a place. Maybe even a refuge. It is made conspicuous by its desire not to be noticed.”

“A place made what?”

“We will try to reach it before we exhaust the horses,” he said. He unclipped Bane’s lead rope.

“What are you doing?” Karigan demanded.

“Mist will tell Bane what to do,” Enver said. “Our hands will be too busy to—”

A projectile whizzed past Karigan’s face and smashed into a nearby tree, followed by a second that skimmed over her head. In a motion almost faster than she could follow, Enver answered with a pair of his own arrows. An inhuman scream pierced the woods.

And then they were off again at a gallop. Poor Bane lagged with his short legs and heavy packs, but he followed. More arrows fell about them. One stuck in Karigan’s message satchel. They careened through the trees, and suddenly Coda’s feet flew out from beneath him, and he and Estral went down.

Damnation. Karigan hauled Condor to a halt and threw herself off his back. Coda staggered to his feet, but Estral sat dazed in the snow shaking her head. Mist turned on her haunches, and Enver loosed arrows into the woods.

Karigan knelt beside Estral. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m alive. Fell clear.”

“Good. You need to—”

Hulking figures rushed out of the fog. Karigan’s hand went to her hip before she remembered Estral had her saber and that her longsword was strapped to her saddle. She reached Condor’s side and drew it just in time to block a blow from a rusty broadsword. Several groundmites circled them. They were almost human in shape, but were covered in patchy fur and possessed mobile, catlike ears. The groundmites looked emaciated beneath their rags and pelts. Hunger made them ferocious.

Karigan dispatched the first, and Condor kicked a second in the gut. She heard Enver clashing with another. She fought to keep herself between the groundmites and Estral.

One swung a stout branch at her. She ducked and slid her sword between its ribs. Another swiped at her with its claws and nothing else. She danced around it, slipping in the snow.

“Karigan!” Estral cried.

Karigan was grabbed around the chest from behind and lifted off her feet. She kicked out at a groundmite in front of her, and it stumbled backward. Fetid breath gusted wetly past her ear from the one that held her; then it screamed and dropped her. Karigan whirled to see Estral on her knees, longknife in her hand dripping blood. The groundmite hopped on one foot and mewled piteously. Karigan dispatched it with a quick thrust and spun in time to kill another.

Then she stopped, glanced around, breathing hard. Enver severed the head off a groundmite and there was silence.

“Quickly,” Enver said, “there are more out there. Mount up. We must ride fast before they gather their courage.”

Karigan caught Coda’s reins. The horse was panicked and she had no idea why he hadn’t run off. He half-reared and pulled away until Mist whinnied sharply. He then stood still, trembling, and tolerated Estral to mount.

By the time Karigan had her foot in the stirrup to swing up on Condor, more ululating howls and yips ripped through the woods. When she was in the saddle, they launched into another run, arrows flying after them. More groundmites leaped out of the woods at them, and Karigan and Enver cut them down. Condor trampled another. Poor Bane, once again lagging, kicked at one that grasped at him.

Enver turned in his saddle, arrow nocked and aimed. For a moment, Karigan thought he meant to impale her, but his arrow sailed a whisker’s breadth past her shoulder and took out a groundmite that had appeared behind her.

The nightmarish scramble continued, Karigan not knowing how much the damp on her face was from rain and sleet or sweat. Enver suddenly reined Mist sharply from the course they’d been on, onto tougher terrain. Karigan hacked at another groundmite that jumped in front of Condor.

They drove through a thicket of close-growing spruce and fir, the horses plowing through the sharp-needled boughs until they emerged into a clearing. A tingling sensation flowed over Karigan, and she sat up in surprise. Enver pulled Mist to a halt.

“We have made it,” he said.

Poor Bane came crashing through the woods up beside them moments later, his sides heaving.

The howling of the remaining groundmites still filled the woods.

“Made it where?” Estral asked. “They are still all around us.”

“They will not bother us,” Karigan said, smiling. She pointed across the clearing to where a dilapidated cabin stood with an adjoining paddock. Enver had found a Rider waystation.

• • •

When Estral dismounted, she fell to the ground and sat there looking dazed.

“Estral!” Karigan swung off Condor and went to her friend. “Are you hurt?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

She was trembling hard, though, and her eyes shone with tears. It was the shock of battle, Karigan thought. Estral was pretty tough, but she’d never faced battling groundmites before and running for her life. Karigan helped her up and led her toward the cabin. The top step was clear of snow and dry beneath the overhanging roof.

“Sit here and rest,” Karigan told her. “Enver and I will take care of the horses.”