Whisper of the Wilding Woods: Chapter 3
In which things go from bad to worse.
Chapter 3
Kaeleth’s heart beat an erratic tattoo in his ears, blotting out all sound but for the girl’s ragged breathing. She’d stopped thrashing, but Kaeleth wasn’t ready to risk removing his hand from her mouth just yet. Her body was too rigid—like an animal frozen in fear awaiting its first opportunity to flee. If she ran now, she’d bring the soldiers down on their heads in an instant. They had to be smart about their next move, but Rowan couldn’t think straight. He had to calm himself. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths to still his wild heart. As the roar of blood in his ears faded, he turned into the sounds around him. Kaeleth wished the girl understood how hard she was making this. She was trembling so badly, it rustled the bracken that was the only thing hiding them from sight. With his hand wrapped around her to clamp her mouth shut, Kaeleth could feel her heart beating quick as a sparrow’s. He had to get her to quiet down somehow.
“You’ll give us away if you keep shaking like that,” he whispered in her ear. “Are you trying to get our throats slit?”
The girl stifled her next breath, then let it out in a long stream of warm air that washed over Kaeleth’s fingers. Her next inhalation was more measured, and the worst of her trembling quickly stilled. Kaeleth couldn’t see her face, but he had the distinct feeling she’d closed her eyes and was pretending she wasn’t there. As she relaxed beneath his restraining grasp, he became acutely aware of how tightly he was holding her. He wanted to let go of her mouth so she could breathe more easily, but he didn’t quite trust her not to scream or begin crying. She was only a girl after all. About the same size as him, though maybe a little taller. He doubted she was much older. Girls couldn’t be trusted to stay calm in dangerous situations. His own pulse quickened at the knowledge of how desperate their situation was; Kaeleth couldn’t imagine how terrifying this must be for her.
“Just let me listen a moment,” he said. “Try to be still. I’ll get us both out of here, I promise.”
Now that the girl was no longer making so much noise, he could tune her out and concentrate on the sounds of the forest. No birds chirped, and no wind rustled the leaves above. The forest was silent but for the distinct noises of men who had no need to be silent as they spread out and searched for their quarry. There was definitely more than one soldier in the forest now. Kaeleth had counted eight of them in total, and he’d watched his father’s arrows take down at least five. Judging by the voices he heard calling to one other now, there had either been more men hiding from sight or reinforcements had joined them. Either way, it was clear they couldn’t stay hidden in the bracken forever. If even one of the soldiers had so much as a hint of tracking sense, he’d be able to spot the trail of destruction the girl had left behind when she’d tumbled down the hill. The broken branches and furrows in the dirt would be as clear as a cart road to anyone with the skill to see and follow.
But none of them had noticed the signs yet. Kaeleth’s ruse with the thrown stick had worked so well, the men were busy tramping around an area almost two dozen feet away from where Kaeleth and the girl were hiding. Kaeleth considered simply staying hidden until the men gave up and left, but soldiers who ambushed carriages wouldn’t just leave without thoroughly searching the forest. Whoever the Magus was, he wanted this girl badly enough to kill everyone she’d been traveling with. If Kaeleth didn’t get them out of the underbrush soon, he doubted the soldiers would show him any mercy.
Kaeleth scanned the treetops looking for the position of the sun. Still only early afternoon. It felt like hours since he’d first spotted the carriage, but it had probably hardly been a quarter of an hour. There were still far too many daylight hours for the soldiers to come to their senses and organize a proper search. Worse, more men might arrive to help. If Kaeleth was going to get this girl safely away, they had to move and they had to do it before the men realized they were searching in the wrong direction.
“We have to find a way out of here,” he told the girl. “If we’re going to survive this, you’ll have to follow my every instruction. Can you do that?”
The girl murmured something incomprehensible beneath his hand. This was ridiculous. They didn’t stand a chance of escaping alive if they couldn’t work together. Either the girl understood that her life depended on her cooperation or she’d give them away and Kaeleth would have to make a run for it on his own. Hiding in bracken hoping to be saved by someone else wasn’t an option.
“I’m going to uncover your mouth,” he whispered. “Nod once if you’ll stay quiet and listen to me.” He waited until he felt her head move up and down precisely one time, before taking his hand away. “There’s a stream farther down the hill. If we can make it that far, we can use it to cover our tracks. We’re going to have to stay low and move from cover to cover. Are you injured? Can you walk?”
“My ankle hurts, but I believe it will bear weight,” she said in thickly accented Aerdish. “And my arm. I think I injured it during my fall.”
Listening intently for signs that the soldiers might be getting closer, Kaeleth relaxed his grip and scooted back enough to inspect her arm. It seemed fine, so he nudged her slightly to prompt her to roll over. She shuffled in the small space, turning until she was so close their noses practically touched. Kaeleth’s breath caught in his throat when he saw how much blood had soaked the girl’s dress around her upper arm and across her side where she’d been lying on it. As carefully as he could, he peeled back the ripped fabric of her dress to reveal a ragged gash from where she’d caught it on a branch or sharp stone during her tumble. The wound would have to be cleaned and bound. Kaeleth had a small bandage with him, but there was no time to do it now. If they couldn’t get somewhere safe enough to stop and treat it properly, her injury would be the least of their worries.
“It’s not too bad,” he lied. “But your dress is too colorful. Here, wrap this around you. Pull the hood up to cover your hair.”
Kaeleth shrugged off his cloak and passed it to her. He had to help her worm her way into it since her left arm hung limp and useless. Once the bright fabric of her gown was mostly hidden beneath the cloak, Kaeleth risked a peek out of the bushes. The men were still disorganized and searching individually instead of as a group. They’d moved slightly closer to the thicket, but not yet so near that Kaeleth and the girl couldn’t make a run for it. It would be a close thing, but if they went immediately, they might just make it.
“Hey, over here!” one of the soldiers shouted from up above. “I think this is where she slid down!”
Kaeleth cursed. So much for their advantage. The men searching the steep slope of the embankment were already turning this way on the direction of the one calling out from above. With attention on them from both above and beside, they’d be spotted the instant they broke from cover. Kaeleth might be able to make it on his own if he used every bit of knowledge and agility accumulated over a lifetime spent in the woods, but the girl would never be able to keep up. The soldiers would be on them in minutes. Running was the only option, but where? How could they slip so many eyes searching at once? On this steep of a slope, the forest was too sparse for them to run unseen from tree to tree.
“We’ll have to crawl as far as we can,” he whispered. “And we have to go now. Are you ready?”
Eyes cold and unreadable, she nodded her head and then shifted to her hands and knees. She made no noise of complaint, but Kaeleth could tell by the set of her jaw that putting pressure on her injured arm was causing her pain. Crawling wouldn’t work for long. Several paces below them was a sharp drop-off that would hopefully conceal them from above. Moving slowly and erring on the side of caution, Kaeleth crept toward the stout trunk of a nearby tree. He didn’t look back, but he could hear the girl shuffling behind him. To his ears, her clumsy crunching of every dry leaf and snapping of every twig was loud enough that he expected every one of their pursuers to come crashing down on them at any second. Yet somehow they made it to the tree, and then beyond it to the cover of a bushy fern.
“Wait,” the girl said, tugging limply at his shirt. “My arm. I can’t keep crawling like this.”
Though her voice was steady, her cheeks were streaked with tears. Fresh blood had trickled down her arm, staining the sleeve of her dress bright red where it peeked out from beneath the cloak. At this rate, if the wound wasn’t bound soon, she’d lose too much blood to even be able to walk. Kaeleth had foolishly cut his palm while skinning a rabbit once, and the loss of blood had made him dizzy until his father had sat him down to clean and bind it. The gash on the girl’s arm was longer and deeper. Kaeleth was impressed she looked as hale as she did, though her cheeks were pale and her tightly pursed lips were more blue than red.
Kaeleth nodded. He was about to peer out from behind the fern to check on their pursuers when he heard a shout and the crashing of bodies through the underbrush. The soldiers were closing in on the alder thicket where even a blind man would notice the blood the girl had left smeared across the bracken. Once they did that, it would take no time at all to track Kaeleth and the girl to where they now cowered behind a fern with no more cover for several paces in every direction. The embankment was close, but for the open distance they’d have to cover to get to it only to face a drop of unknown distance, they might as well stand up and shout their location. They’d be easy targets for someone with a bow watching from above. Worse, any drop survivable by Kaeleth and his injured companion would be short enough for healthy men to follow without so much as slowing down.
“What are we doing?” the girl whispered emphatically. “We can’t just sit here all day. Those men are getting closer by the second. I thought you had a plan.”
Kaeleth winced at how loud her voice sounded. Noisy as it was with men shouting and stomping through the underbrush, he was fairly certain her voice wouldn’t carry far enough for anyone to hear, but their safety was so tenuous it might vanish in an instant. Only the steep pitch of the slope had prevented their pursuers from making it all the way down the embankment already. If Kaeleth and Aline were going to make a dash for cover, it was now or never. Kaeleth’s father was too far away and too poorly armed to take on so many soldiers at once. There would be no rescue, and they were beyond desperate distraction ploys. Kaeleth would simply have to pray to Daena, patron goddess of forests, to protect them as they ran. His life was in her hands now.
Kaeleth leaned in close to whisper into the girl’s ear. “We have to get to the stream below. When I say so, we’re going to make a break for the edge of the embankment there. No matter what you see on the other side, you must drop down. Stay low and roll over the side. Try to land on your feet if you can. Got it?”
The girl eyed the embankment. “I understand. On your word.”
“Run.”
Not waiting to see if she moved or not, Kaeleth burst from cover, bent low and silently pleading for Daena to hide their movements from the soldiers. It only took a half dozen strides to make it to the edge. When he was close, he slid feet first, rolling onto his stomach and grasping at the clumps of grass and dirt in a desperate attempt to slow himself as he pitched over the edge. The drop was small—shorter than he was tall—but his momentum carried him far enough out that he landed awkwardly on his feet, catching his heels and flailing his arms as he pivoted backwards and onto his ass. By clutching his arms to his chest and shifting his weight onto one shoulder, he was able to roll onto his front, sliding to a stop on his knees in the rocky soil at the edge of the stream. He looked up in time to see the girl roll daintily off the edge. Unlike Kaeleth, she’d approached the drop more cautiously and was able to place her feet on the ground before crouching out of sight from above. She looked around frantically, and upon seeing Kaeleth, scurried over to join him.
“Did they see us?” she asked breathlessly.
“I don’t know, but I don’t plan on sticking around to find out.” Kaeleth took her hand and pulled her up to follow him. “Come on. Into the river. Time is against us.”
Kaeleth’s boots were one of the finest things he owned, other than the new cloak currently draped over the strange girl’s shoulders, but they were soaked through after a minute of splashing upstream. Each step became heavier than the last until his boots were thoroughly water-logged. They had precious little time to get back into cover, but the longer they spent in the water, the better chance they had of throwing off even the most experienced tracker. Trudging through the nearly knee-deep water, Kaeleth repeatedly glanced uphill to ensure they were still hidden from sight by the sharp cut of the embankment. The water was icy cold, and the rocks below his feet were slippery and loose, but he gritted his teeth and forged onward.
It quickly became apparent the girl wouldn’t be able to keep up. Kaeleth had a firm grip on her hand, and more than a few times now he’d had to support her weight when she stumbled. It was only when he gave up on the idea of staying in the river any longer that he noticed the girl’s shoes were nothing more than flimsy silken slippers. She probably would have been better off barefoot, he thought as he looked for a suitable place to exit the stream. When he saw a patch of the river’s edge choked with aster, he steered the girl toward it, carefully sweeping aside the delicate branches and guiding her steps so she trod only on the dirt below. When he released the branches, their footprints were effectively hidden from sight.
“Step on the mossy patches where you can,” he told the girl. “It will spring back some and hide our footprints. Failing that, step on rocks or roots. Avoid the dirt if you can.”
“Moss, rocks, roots,” she repeated. “I’ll do by best.”
Kaeleth quelled the doubt that doing her best might still not be nearly enough to prevent both of them from being found and killed. Short of carrying her, he wasn’t sure what other options they had. The lack of shouting in their vicinity gave him hope their sprint for the drop-off hadn’t been spotted, but he wouldn’t rest until they were far from this place and any indication that those men were still looking for them. So focused on moving swiftly and silently through the forest was he, that he almost didn’t notice the girl trying to get his attention.
“What?” he said, annoyed at the interruption. He couldn’t hear the sound of anyone beating the bush behind them, but that didn’t mean they were far off.
“I need a rest.” The girl clutched her arm. Her face had gone pasty white and her eyes were unfocused. She looked ready to collapse. “Please, just a moment. I’m so tired.”
There was enough cover for them to simply crouch where they were rather than risk making extra noise by finding a suitable hiding spot. Besides, Kaeleth didn’t plan to linger. The girl needed more rest than they could afford, but there was nothing to be done for it. Kaeleth dug into the pouch at his side, producing a small handful of dried nuts and berries. He popped a few in his mouth, then dumped the rest into the palm of the girl’s uninjured arm. She looked at the fruit and nuts reluctantly, but a stern glance from Kaeleth was enough to get her to concede to popping a few berries into her mouth. While she chewed somberly, Kaeleth unsheathed his knife and eyed the fabric of his cloak. He needed fabric to bind the girl’s arm, and loath as he was to cut it from the cloak, it was the only fabric at hand. Then again, the cloak was sturdy and warm enough to protect from the elements. Unlike the girl’s ridiculously voluminous dress. It was far from practical, and cutting a strip or two off the bottom might actually make it easier for her to walk.
“I’m going to have to cut your dress,” he said.
The girl clutched her arms to her chest and stumbled backwards a step, shaking her head. “What, why?”
“No, at the bottom.” Kaeleth gestured to her injured arm with his knife. “To bind your wound.”
Confusion gave way to resigned acceptance, and the girl pulled back his cloak to let him do as he wished. Working as quickly as he could, Kaeleth cut away a hand’s width of fabric from the bottom of her dress, being careful not to nick her legs with his blade. When he had enough cloth, he peeled back the cloak, forcing a smile as he inspected the wound. It was worse than he thought. If he could get her back to Daurendale, the healer had an impossibly fine bone needle she could use to sew the skin back together. Until then, all Kaeleth could do was wad up a bit of the cloth to place over the wound, then use longer strips to bind it in place. The girl let out a whimper of pain when he cinched it down, but it had to be tight to prevent blood loss. She must have understood the necessity because she made no attempt to stop him when he wrapped another strip and tied it even tighter.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t stay here any longer,” he said. “We’re going to have to climb out of this ravine soon. We’ll have to sneak across the road, but once we do I know a hidden path that will take us to the top of the cliff where my father is waiting. Just a little further now, okay?”
The girl nodded, but when she stood upright, she wavered so badly that Kaeleth had to catch her to keep her from falling over. It was clear she could no longer stand on her own. Cursing how difficult it would be to minimize signs of their passage walking side by side, Kaeleth put her good arm over his shoulder and grabbed her by the waist. Together they shuffled at an agonizingly slow pace until they had looped all the way around and back up to the road nearly a mile from where the carriage had been attacked. Kaeleth peered down the road from cover, then with another silent prayer to Daena for protection, he ushered the girl across as quickly as he could manage. From there, it didn’t take long to find the path that wound up through the rocks. This one was much farther away from the overlook than the path he’d used to get down in the first place, but the trees and rocks here provided them ample cover. It was slow going, and Kaeleth was sweating when they reached the top. In contrast, the girl looked like she’d taken a bath in the river. Sweat glistened on her forehead, yet her lips were icy blue and her teeth chattered audibly. As they traversed the ridge line to get to the overlook, Kaeleth was forced to murmur soft words of encouragement to keep the girl moving.
The words were as much for his own sake as hers. Now that it seemed they were free of their pursuers, Kaeleth could hardly believe they’d managed to escape detection. It shouldn’t have been possible, and he considered that Daena really must have been watching over him for the soldiers to not have overtaken them before they made it to the river. Now that they were relatively safe, he had no idea what to do next. Their cabin was still a half-day’s trek through the forest. Daurendale another hour beyond that. The girl needed help now. That much was clear. She needed a bed and something to ease the onset of blood fever. There were plants that could do the job if prepared properly. His father had taught him—made him recite them as they walked through the woods—but for the life of him, Kaeleth couldn’t remember a single one. Fortunately, they were almost at the overlook. His father would know what to do next. His father always knew what to do.
Though it couldn’t have been much more than an hour since he’d been sipping tea and eating bread with honey, Kaeleth felt like he’d been walking for days by the time they emerged from the trees at the edge of the overlook. He didn’t see his father at first, and he nearly stepped back in fear that someone else had discovered the spot and was waiting for his possible return. The figure sitting by the cold remains of their lunch fire was slouched low against a rock as if sleeping. Kaeleth’s father would have heard them coming from a half mile away. Tired as he was, and supporting the girl, Kaeleth’s movements had become clumsy and noisy. It was all he could do to keep his own feet beneath him, let alone hold up the girl. She didn’t look like much of a burden, skinny as she was, but Kaeleth had had to bear most of her weight since all she’d been able to do was drag her feet in pitiful little shuffling steps. Whoever it was, the figure barely stirred when Kaeleth set the girl down out of sight, crouching low and sneaking towards the overlook with his hunting knife held out before him. What he saw as he drew near didn’t make sense. It was his father’s hair and his father’s cloak. So why wasn’t he moving?
“Father?” Kaeleth asked a little too loudly as he approached. “What’s wrong?”
His father’s hand flopped to the ground, slick and red with blood. Kaeleth ran the last few steps to his father’s side, dropping to his knees as he took in the blood-soaked mess that was his father’s stomach. Life yet flickered in the man’s eyes, but it was dim and distant. His lips were dry and his mouth hung open, his words a bare whisper when he spoke.
“Is she safe?” he asked. “Where you followed?”
Kaeleth’s eyes darted to where the girl sat cradling her injured arm, head hung low. “She’s with me,” he told his father. “I used every trick you taught me. I don’t think anyone managed to follow us.”
His father nodded. The motion was slow and exaggerated, like it took every bit of effort the man could muster. “Good. Go home. Get supplies. Hide in the woods.” He paused to cough. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “Don’t know who she is, but these men won’t rest until they find her. Protect her, son.”
Kaeleth cupped his father’s head, using his thumb to wipe the blood from his father’s chin. Tears blurred his vision. “I’ll get you home too, father. I’ll pack the wound with moss and bind it tight. Build a litter and carry you out. Just hold on a little longer, okay? Please don’t give up. Please, I need you.”
“You were the best son I could have asked for,” his father said with a strained smile. “I love you, and I couldn’t be prouder of you, but now’s not the time to ignore every bit of good sense I tried to instill in you. I killed the men who climbed the ridge to get me, but more will follow in time. You must go. Save yourself and protect the girl.”
“I can’t leave you here,” Kaeleth said with a choking sob. “I’ll be quick. Just—”
Fire burned in the old hunter’s eyes. With surprising strength, he clasped Kaeleth’s upper arm and squeezed hard. “I am as good as dead, Kaeleth.” The fire and his grip softened. “You seem to have lost your cloak. Take mine. And my bow. Remember what I taught you.”
Kaeleth repeated the words he’d heard his father say countless times throughout the years. “Be brave, be good, and be kind.”
“Aye.” The strength seemed to fail Kaeleth’s father, and his hand dropped away. “I’ve lived my life, son. Go, so that you may live many more years of your own.”
Kaeleth’s father lifted his arm again, this time to the drawstring of his cloak. His fingers were too weak or numb to undo the knot, so he could only paw at it until Kaeleth took mercy on him and untied the string himself. Though it felt immensely wrong to strip his father’s cloak from his shoulders while the man still drew breath, he helped his father shift his weight in order to get the bottom of the cloak out from beneath him. When it was finally free, he draped it over his arm rather than put it on. The sun would set before long, and he’d need it to keep warm. But he couldn’t bear to put it on just yet. The only thing worse would be taking his father’s bow and leaving the man completely defenseless.
“Don’t be foolish,” his father said when Kaeleth placed the still-strung bow in his father’s lap. “I couldn’t lift an arrow in my condition, let alone draw the damned thing. Take it. I wish I could have offered you a better inheritance, but I’ve rarely needed more in my life than a good cloak and a stout bow. Take them both and be on your way. I’ll be alright here. I just want to enjoy the view a while longer.”
“Father, I—”
“Go,” Kaeleth’s father said more firmly, plucking his hunting knife from the sheath at his waist. He could only lift the blade a few inches, but his words carried a fatal authority when he added, “Or I’ll stab you myself if you’re so intent on dying here with me.”
“I… I’ll go,” Kaeleth said reluctantly. Then, more firmly, “Peace be with you father. Until we meet again.”
“Til we meet again,” his father said, smiling once more.
Kaeleth snatched up the bow, then grabbed the quiver lying beside his father. There were no arrows in it, but there would be more back at the house. He turned away quickly, trying desperately to convince himself it was the right thing to do. His father had been both loving and kind, but above all a practical man who valued good sense over rash behavior. Still, who was this girl that her life was worth so many others? How did she balance the scales against his father and all those guards lying scattered around the carriage down below? Why was he walking toward her instead of doing whatever he could to save the man who’d raised him alone for most of his life?
As Kaeleth helped the girl to her feet and shouldered her weight, he begrudgingly accepted the answer to that second question, if not the first. His father was already dead. Kaeleth hadn’t let his gaze linger on the mess someone’s sword had made of his father’s stomach, but before flinching away he’d been certain he’d seen things that were supposed to be on the inside hanging on the outside. Kaeleth had seen enough animal intestines by now to know what guts looked like. His father might hold on for hours yet, but he would certainly die before Kaeleth could build even the crudest of litters and drag him all the way back to Daurendale. Not in Kaeleth’s current state of exhaustion, anyway. Most likely not even at his best. And the girl wouldn’t make it on her own. It had come down to one or the other, and only one of the two had a real shot of making it. His father had known as much.
Even so, it would be a trial getting her to a healer in time. That sense of urgency was the only thing keeping Kaeleth going, one reluctant step after another taking him away from his dying father.
