Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [79]
Alias rubbed her temples. She was tired and hungry and frustrated with the ranger's single-mindedness. "Breck," she called, deciding to try once more to enlighten the ranger. "It could be that Kyre was wrong about Grypht. These treants might have attacked the creature. Of course it would have defended itself as best it could."
Breck spun about angrily. "Is that why it murdered Kyre-to defend itself from her?"
"Something else might have killed Kyre," Alias replied.
"Or someone-like your friend Akabar," Breck suggested.
Alias threw her hands up in the air. For lack of another thought, she addressed the ranger's previous supposition. "Suppose Grypht did kill Kyre in self-defense? Suppose she mistook him for a monster and attacked, and he fired back?"
"Kyre didn't mistake Grypht for a monster. He is a monster!" Breck declared and stomped off to search for the trail.
Alias looked at Dragonbait and shrugged. After a few moments, the pair of them followed the ranger.
Grypht's trail wasn't hard to follow, even in the moonlight. The creature had been running, oblivious to the fact it left a clear trail behind. Suddenly the trail ended abruptly, however. Beside Grypht's tracks were two sandal prints-Akabar's. Then there was nothing. The creature and the southern mage had vanished into thin air.
"Beshaba's brats!" Breck cursed. "They've whisked themselves away by magic again."
"Let's get back to the horses and make camp," Alias said. "We'll have a look around in the morning."
"They could be anywhere by then," Breck objected.
"They're already gone, ranger," the swordswoman snapped. "And I'm not going anywhere in the dark. Neither are you."
Breck's shoulders slumped. He turned wordlessly and headed back to the stream where they'd tied their horses, with Alias and Dragonbait following him, as usual.
When they'd reached the spot where they'd tied the horses, they found their mounts were missing. No portions of their lead ropes were left attached to the branch at all. The horses hadn't chewed through the ropes; they'd been untied.
"Someone's stolen the horses," Breck said.
Alias glanced at Dragonbait. "Who?" she asked. "We're out in the middle of nowhere."
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Breck said, looking over the ground until he found a set of bootprints.
"Here we go again," Alias muttered as they followed the ranger out of the clearing after the horse thief. This is Zhara's doing, isn't it? she signed to Dragonbait.
The saurial began examining the ground with exaggerated interest.
Suddenly Breck broke into a run, heading upstream. Alias looked up and gasped.
There, not far from the stream, framed in a clearing in the moonlight, was a female figure in robes standing in front of a horse.
"Why doesn't she just throw another light spell so he can see her better?" the swordswoman cracked sarcastically.
Dragonbait sheathed his sword and dashed after Breck.
Apparently unaware that she was being observed and about to be attacked by an angry ranger, the robed figure stood calmly stroking the horse's muzzle and feeding it something from the palm of her hand. Alias was pretty sure it was Zhara-only a priestess was stupid enough to stand out in the open like that.
Alias walked slowly toward the scene. This trouble is Dragonbait's fault, she thought. Let him handle it.
Breck leaped at the woman, knocking her to the ground. The horse neighed and shied backwards. Zhara screamed. Dragonbait pounced on Breck.
Alias pulled an apple out of her knapsack and began munching on it. While the ranger, priestess, and saurial rolled about on the wet grass, Alias grabbed hold of the horse-it was Breck's-and pushed it out of harm's way. Slowly she fed it her apple core as Dragonbait pulled Breck off Zhara.
The priestess made