Previously: after joining an oddly-mixed band of adventurers, Mira settles in to get more acquainted with her new companions. She is startled--and soon dismayed--when she learns of the ambitions of Seymuhr, the brute who abducted her. He considers himself a poet, and subjects her to some really, really bad poetry. Just as she's shaking off this latest experience, the company hears strange noises in the forest. Expecting an attack, Mira finds herself alone to face down this new foe...
There was little enough time to react, but I was frozen anyway. I barely had time to curse my misfortune when the figure burst from the trees, panting and with a wild look in his eyes. He yelped when he saw me and his eyes widened in shocked recognition--as mine must have, as well.
"Malak?" I asked at the same time he shouted my name. "What are you doing here?"
Connell Malak had, in a way, introduced me to this tale, but had abruptly left when things started to get uncomfortable. I assumed that he was well on his way to some safer location--or a nearby bed with a warm, willing companion. He was about the last person I expected to see. Was there was someone or something chasing him? That seemed more likely.
He looked past me and made eye contact with Merrick. "It is time," he said. "He moves now, with speed and stealth. We will have to hurry to catch him."
Merrick nodded, grunted, and sheathed his sword. Seymuhr kicked dirt over the fire. Broo-Fang Tane dropped silently out of a nearby tree, landing like a cat. I knew he was nearby, but even so his quiet appearance startled me. He flashed me a shy smile.
"You know these men?" I asked Malak. "Are you a member of this company?"
They ignored me and I hissed in exasperation. "Who is moving? Moving where?"
"I will explain later, if there is time," Merrick said. "Right now, if we're to accomplish our objective, we must make haste."
Malak nodded and started back into the woods. "It's this way," he said over his shoulder, a hoarse, tense whisper. "He was heading north, toward the hills."
Seymuhr slipped into the forest behind him, with Broo-Fang on his heels. Merrick took one last look around the clearing, nodded and motioned for me to follow.
"Come," he said. "We have a task tonight, after all. If you would have a hand in this tale--or the telling of it--hold your questions and take flight. We are in pursuit of of an elusive quarry: the wounded man you spoke to earlier, and his gold."
He turned and followed the others into the forest, leaving me stunned, a pool of ice spreading throughout my stomach.
"Thieves? Do you mean to tell me you are nothing but thieves...?"
"Just come, Esmiralda. I promise you we are not. We are interested not in the weight of his riches, but the mystery and, I suspect, treachery behind it."
Alone in the forest or following blindly a group of men toward an uncertain goal. My own lack of coin had brought hard choices to me these past few days. I stepped out of the clearing, into the darkness, where the sounds of pursuit led me I knew not where.
