Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 109 of 150

Ben watched the road until the third hour past midnight. Then he saw the riders. Four of them, coming up from the gate. They rode slow. Their lamps were hooded. He could not tell if they wore Cage's colors or trader's cloth. He could not tell if they were hunters or men on the mill road by chance. He crouched lower on the burned roof. The ember cub raised its head at his boot. Its spots pulsed faster. It felt the change in him. If they were hunters, he had to run now, north through the pines, before they climbed the slope. If they were travelers, running would show him against the ridge line and bring them straight up. Wrong guess either way and he was finished. He needed a closer look. He climbed down and went to the door. The girl was awake on the beam. Her eyes were open in the dark. "Four riders," Ben said. "Slow. Hooded lamps. I can't read them from here." "Stay off the road," she said. "If I stay and they turn up the slope, I'm cornered. If I run and they're nothing, I run into whatever comes behind them." She sat up. She counted under her breath. One. Two. Three. "Then make them show," she said. "How." She pointed at the charred pail by the door. Coals sat inside, still bright. "Drop one on the switchback. Not the road. The switchback above it. A hunter looks up. A traveler keeps going." Ben took the pail. He went down the slope, quiet, fast, and set a single coal on the bare rock above the road bend. He backed into the pines and lay flat. The riders came around the curve. The lead rider saw the glow. He raised a hand. All four stopped. He said something Ben could not hear. Two riders dismounted. They drew crossbows from their saddles. They started up the switchback toward the coal. Hunters. Ben went back up the slope on his hands and knees. He reached the burned house. The girl was already on her feet. "Two coming," he said. "Two waiting on the road." "Go north through the pines," she said. "Now." "They'll see me on the ridge." She walked to the doorway. She lifted both palms. Flame woke on them and did not go out. The cub stepped to her ankle, spots blazing. "They'll see the house," she said. "Go." Ben went. He heard the roof catch behind him, a low roar, and then the shouts of the two men on the road as the ridge lit up bright as a signal fire. He kept low through the pines. His wolf found him at the second draw. The hunt on his name had not ended. It had found him. He was moving again, north, with a purse in his coat and eleven pieces answered for and two hunters climbing a burning slope behind him.