Guardian of the Lightkeep by Catherine Miller

Author:Catherine Miller [Miller, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781707288786
Published: 2019-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

Ten

They could not maintain such a pace for long. Not with a pack on Grimult’s back and a heavy lantern pulling down Penryn. But they kept moving until their feet could manage it no longer, the dark threatening to overtake them.

The trees were what they sought. He had seen them, knew they were there, yet even as they dragged onward, they had yet to appear.

He did not know what to do, and that frustrated him. They would need rest soon, could not keep such a punishing pace for long, but he could not risk a camp so out in the open. Not when a predator was so close. A fire could promise to frighten off a few creatures, but too large of one in such surroundings could easily become free of its confines and put the entire plane ablaze.

A tempting thought, if it meant a barricade of flame between them and a beast intent on seeing them as a meal.

But the thought was a terrible one, and with the dryness of the season would likely lead the devastation of everything in the fire’s path, including the wood that he was beginning to believe had merely been a figment of his imagination.

Penryn’s steps were getting slower, but still she did not complain. She had meekly asked when breath allowed her to do so if the creature was the same as the tracks he had asked her about, and he had to admit that he did not know.

Another part of him worried that he had frightened her for nothing, that something innocuous had spooked the herd and he was being overcautious and exhausting them both for no reason.

Indecision weighed on him heavily. They could not keep on like this and the day was coming to a close. A hunt could not last so long, could it? And they were fleeing when the beast was likely already feasting on one of its prey, unaware they had ever been so near.

“Penryn,” Grimult said at last, his steps slowing. It took her a few paces more to realise he was no longer directly beside her, and she gave him a worried, quizzical look in return. “We should stop,” he decided. “Or at the very least slow down.”

Her attention shifted, no longer upon him but behind, from where they had come. “Is it safe?”

It took a great deal to admit it. “I’ve no idea.”

Penryn bit her lip, the answer as distressing to her as to him. A part of him wondered if it would be worth it to track down the beast itself and prevent it from following them with quick work of his sword. But that held risks of its own, most particularly that some other danger could find Penryn while he dealt with their current foe.

There were no good answers, and that troubled him greatly. He wanted her safe, he wanted their path to be simple. They had clung as much as they could to the direction they were meant to be headed, but he was afraid they had strayed slightly.

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