A moment later, Pikel and Cadderly, and finally Belago (who came down only because he fell), were at Ivan's side. Some of the closest wolves made halfhearted attacks at the group, but the four friends were well armed and well trained, and with most of the pack scattering, they easily drove the stragglers away.
It was soon over, several wolves lying dead on the ground, the others gone from sight. The tree was just a tree again.
"Your magic bought us some time and some space," Shayleigh congratulated Cadderly. The young priest nodded, but then looked to Pikel, the green-bearded "doo-dad" smiling ear to ear. Cadderly didn't know how much of this animation had been his doing, and how much Pikel's, but now wasn't the time to explore the mystery.
"If they come back, use the flask," Belago offered, moving to Cadderly's side.
Cadderly considered the wiry man for a moment and realized that Belago was unarmed. He handed back the flask. "You use it," he explained, "but only if we absolutely need it. We've got a darker road still to travel, my friend, and I suspect we shall need every weapon we can muster."
Belago bobbed his head in agreement, though he did not know, could not know, the depth of the darkness of which Cadderly spoke.
As it turned out, they did not need Belago's flask that night, or anything else. Shayleigh put them on the move immediately, back to the west, to a grove of thick pines, and there they spent the rest of the dark hours, the five friends, and Percival, too, keeping a watchful eye from the highest boughs.
Cadderly could only assume they had hurt Rufo badly, for the vampire did not find them. That was a good thing, on the surface, but the young priest could not get it out of his mind that if Kierkan Rufo was not with him, the vampire might be with Danica.
Cadderly did not fall asleep until the night was almost at its end, until exhaustion overwhelmed him.
Lost Soul
Percival's chattering heralded the new dawn and brought poor Cadderly from a fitful sleep filled with nightmares. He remembered little of those horrid dreams when he opened his eyes to the glistening light of a bright new day, for they were surely the stuff of a dark night.
The young priest did know, however, that he had dreamt of Danica, and he was unnerved at that thought. For while he was out here, in the morning light, his dear Danica was in there, in the library, in Rufp's evil hands. The library.
Cadderly could hardly stand to think about the place. It had been his home for most of his young life, but now that time seemed so very long ago. If all the windows and doors of the Edificant Library were thrown wide
now, the structure would remain a place of shadows, a place of nightmares.
Cadderly was shaken from his private thoughts by the sound of Ivan's rough voice, the dwarf taking command while sitting on a thick tangle of branches below the young priest.
"We got the weapons," Ivan was saying. "Belago there's got his bottle."
"Boom," Pike! remarked, throwing his hands up high. The force of the sudden movement nearly sent Ivan tumbling from the branch.
Ivan caught himself and started to nod, then stopped and slapped Pikel on the back of the head. "Me brother's got his club," the dwarf went on.
"Sha-Iah-lah!" Pikel whooped in delight, interrupting again in an equally expressive manner. This time Ivan didn't react fast enough, and by the time he realized what had happened, he was sitting on the ground, picking clumps of sod out of his teeth.
"Uh-oh," Pikel moaned, figuring that last move would cost him another slap, as his brother began the steady climb back up to his branch.
He was right, and he accepted the punishment with a shrug. Ivan turned back to Shayleigh.
"Sha-lah-lah," Pikel said again, quietly this time, and without the expressive movement.
"Yeah," Ivan agreed, too exasperated to argue further. "And ye got yer silver arrows," he said to Shayleigh, though he was still eyeing his impetuous brother, expecting still another remark.
"My sword will prove effective as well," Shayleigh explained, holding up her fine, slender elver, blade, its silver inlays gleaming bright in the morning light. ^
Ivan continued to scrutinize Pikel, who by this point had taken to whistling a cheery spring morning tune.
"Even better," the yellow-bearded dwarf said to Shayleigh. "And I got me axe, though it's not for hurting them vampire things. But it'll take a stiff-legged zombie