Sir Aldric Thornhaven's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

At first light the party reached the stream. Ruth crouched at the muddy bank and went still. Aldric knelt beside her. Fresh drag-marks scored the earth, deep and wide, pointing away from the den. Something heavy had been hauled down to the water in the dark. "The mother hunted overnight," Ruth said. "She dragged a kill back this way." Her jaw tightened. "She may not be in the den when we get there." Aldric weighed it. A den with only the young was easier to clear. But a mother Fel loose in the reeds could circle behind them. "Then we move now," he said. "Before she returns." He waved his guards forward. Ruth caught his sleeve and held it. "You said you'd follow me. The near bank gives way. We take the ridge." A voice cut in from above. "Or you follow the marks." A young woman sat on the stone rise, legs hanging over the edge, twin daggers on her hips. Black suit, black ponytail. Aldric's hand went to his sword. He had never seen her, and no one had heard her climb. "Easy, Captain. I've been up here since dark." She dropped down light as a cat. "There's a green stone in that cave. Glows. I came for it. Then I heard the beast leave." "You're a thief," Aldric said. "Raven," she said. "And I watched the mother go north an hour ago. She hasn't come back." She jerked her chin at the drag-marks. "That's an old kill, dragged out, not in. Your widow's half right. The den's empty of the big one." Ruth stood. "You don't know these banks." "No," Raven said. "But I know the cave's open and the mother's gone. That won't last." She looked at Aldric. "You want the young dead, you go now." Aldric decided fast. "Ruth leads. You watch the north for the mother. Call if she turns back." Raven shrugged and slipped ahead along the ridge. Ruth guided them down a firm shelf of rock, past the bank that would have swallowed a man. The cave mouth opened black beneath the rise. Inside, the young Fel huddled in a nest of bones. Two of them, half-grown, teeth already long. They came at the men snarling. Aldric met the first with the heavy sword and cut it down. His guards took the second against the wall. It was done in moments. Then Raven's voice rang from the ridge. "She's coming. Fast." The mother had heard her young die. Aldric turned toward the light. A green glow caught his eye deep in the nest, a gem cut with pale fire, humming under his boots. The thief had not lied. But there was no time for it now. Outside, something huge crashed through the reeds, and the ground shook. The young were dead. The mother was between them and the town.