The King's Bastard - By Rowena Cory Daniells Page 0,140
decided it must have been a physical problem, after all.
'Eh, no visions, then?' he prodded, just to be sure.
Orrade cast him a swift, slightly startled look.
'Just kidding,' Byren muttered. If his guess was wrong, then there was no point in worrying Orrade. Still, he vowed to sleep lightly.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Byren woke to screaming horses. Forgetting where he was, he rolled to his feet, driving his head and shoulders through the roof of their snow-cave. It collapsed on the others. Snow muffled their confused cries and the brazier hissed like a trapped beast.
He leapt over Piro's snow-shrouded form, ploughing towards the horses. It was a cloudy night and the stars were hidden, but he knew the layout around their camp. A horse shrilled, then went ominously quiet. The others squealed, their hooves drumming on the ground as they tore at their pickets. He could imagine the scene from the sounds. As for the predator, he guessed it was a big one or a pack desperate and bold enough to attack their camp.
Manticores? He dreaded finding out.
He shouldn't charge in alone.
Behind him he could hear Orrade organising Garzik and Piro to protect each other. A glow of flames illuminated the night as Orrade lit torches.
'What is it?' Orrade asked, coming up behind Byren and handing him a burning brand.
'Watch my back.' Byren forged through the branches they'd stacked to form a windbreak for the horses. None of their mounts remained, only the churned snow where they had reared and fought for their lives.
Byren sniffed the air, recognising the scent. 'God-touched beasts.'
'Manticores,' Orrade confirmed.
Byren's stomach clenched. Had Piro been right? Had he misheard Lence's warning and led them into trouble?
He scouted the clearing, studying the tracks in the snow, confirming that it was a pride of manticores. 'One large male. Two females and at least five half-grown cubs from last spring.' A large pride. He indicated blood-smeared trails in the compressed snow. 'This is where they dragged the unlucky horse off. The wind has dropped. Our mounts must have caught their scent and been able to avoid their first strike.' Manticores preferred not to expend too much energy hunting. Ideally, they liked to creep up on their prey, paralyse it with the poison barb on the end of their chitinous tails then drag the body somewhere to devour it in safety.
'Let's get back. We've a long walk ahead of us tomorrow,' Orrade said.
Byren nodded. The other three horses would be running through the forest, safe enough since the manticores would glut themselves on their prey. But one kill between three adults and five juveniles was not enough to sustain the pride.
'They'll come back for us,' Byren whispered.
'Tomorrow night,' Orrade agreed.
'Are you all right?' Piro called as she ran up to join them. 'What happened?'
'Fine,' Byren told her, seeing Garzik in the clearing behind her. The boy lifted his hands helplessly as if to say, I couldn't stop her. 'Orrie told you to stay with Garzik, Piro. Next time do what you're told. We've lost the horses. Manticores -'
'The pride Lence warned us about?'
He shrugged. There were plenty of them up on the Divide, more on the other side on the spars than on Rolencia's borders. It was rare for them to come down this far into the valley. 'They must have woken early this spring. I wonder if there's another new seep. That could've disturbed their winter sleep. At any rate, they're here and they're hungry.'
Byren waited, but no one accused him of nearly killing them by mistaking Lence's warning. For once Piro held her tongue. The thing was, he hadn't misremembered it. Had he?
'What'll we do?' Garzik asked, eyes searching the circling trunks as if expecting further trouble.
'Sleep up a tree for tonight -'
'They can climb,' Garzik insisted.
'True, but they'll be gorging themselves on that poor horse.'
'And tomorrow?' Garzik asked.
Byren glanced to Orrade.
'We'll need shelter,' his cousin muttered. 'They'll pick up our tracks and follow us. If we climb a tree we'll be trapped. They could out-wait us, pick us off one by one -'
'Eh, it's not that bad,' Byren interrupted, seeing Piro's pinched face. She turned to him hopefully. 'If we leave the horse trail and march across country to Lake Sapphire -'
'But we don't have skates,' Garzik pointed out.
'They do at Narrowneck tradepost.'
'Good idea,' Garzik agreed. 'We'll be safe there and we can borrow skates.'
'See, Piro, there's nothing to worry about.' Byren squeezed her cold little hands. 'Now, gather your things and we'll sleep up a tree just to be sure.'