The Jewel of Turmish - Mel Odom [95]
"If I could have gotten rid of her," he said, "I would have."
He rummaged on the ground and found a hunk of green and white moss. Praying over it, he closed his hands, hiding the moss from view, then opened them again to reveal that the moss had become more vibrant and healthy. Working quickly, he packed the moss into the bear's wounds.
"I didn't give him a choice," Druz said, giving in to the anger that overrode her fear.
The elf shot her a look and said, Tf he'd chosen to leave you, woman, you wouldn't be here."
The elf squatted and ran his fingers through the gray-white ash. He felt the consistency, smelled it, then put a pinch of the ash on his tongue. His face turned lemony tight and he spat the ash out.
"Dead things," muttered the elf.
Finished with the bear, Haarn pushed himself erect again and said, "The skeleton remains free."
"Which way?" the elf asked.
He stood with easy grace and Haarn pointed.
"How did you come to follow it?"
"The business I had with the woman put me close to where it dug up itself from the ground," Haarn said.
The elf frowned at the pile of gray-white powder and asked, "The skeleton had the power to create this shambler?"
"Yes."
"You've fought skeletons before?"
"Of course I have," Haarn said. T faced my first skeletons with you."
"So you did. Have you ever seen one then or since that can handle magic like this?"
Haarn shook his head and started forward in the direction the skeleton had taken. Broadfoot lifted his big head and whined a little. The bear put his front paws out and tried to rise but couldn't get up the strength.
"There's a jewel in its chest," Haarn said as he pushed himself into a jog, slogging through the water. The elf followed.
"What kind of jewel?"
"I don't know," Haarn admitted. T didn't get a good look at it, but I know it created that false shambler." "That creature was very strong," the elf said. "If it had been any more powerful, I might not have been able to destroy it."
Staggering forward, Druz felt her body screaming as she took up their rapid pace. They plunged seemingly without effort through the uneven land and brush that constantly threw Druz's own gait off and slapped at her eyes. She didn't know what reserves Haarn must have been drawing from after the frantic pace they'd been traveling at since morning and the beating he'd taken from the shambler.
Just as black spots started swimming in Druz's vision and her breathing was beginning to burn the back of her throat, she saw the druids-the elf was surely another druid-slip through the wall of brush and scraggly trees. The land sloped down and water that had been lazy and stagnant on the marsh gathered speed as it tumbled down the long, steep descent ahead.
Gazing at the broken ground, shading her eyes with one hand, Druz saw where several streams had formed and bled off into a small river that roiled between two irregular banks. Nearly a quarter-mile away, the skeleton kept up its steady pace. It pumped its arms, running hard and throwing out clods of mud from its skeletal feet.
"There," Haarn said, pointing.
The elf glanced at him and asked, "Can you shift?"
"Not now," Haarn said.
Nodding, the elf lifted his arms.
"The skeleton is very powerful," Haarn warned.
He turned and jogged along the edge of the steep dropoff, looking down.
"So am I," the elf said.
He held his hands straight up, and as she watched, Druz saw the elf shrink and sprout feathers at the same time. In seconds, he was a great horned owl, almost identical to the one she'd seen Haarn turn into.
The owl took to the skies, leaning forward and falling over the edge. Spreading his wings, the great bird caught the wind and leveled off in a steep glide that took him straight toward the skeleton.
Haarn found a less steep section of the incline and started down. Druz followed him, nearly falling half a dozen times in the first three steps.
"You know this elf?" she asked, watching the owl bear down on bis quarry.
"Ettrian," Haarn said.
He released bis hold on the incline