Shadowed Forest: A Historical Fantasy Series (The Peacemaker’s Tale Book 2) by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear

Author:W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Gear, W. Michael & Gear, Kathleen O'Neal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

10

As Sindak led the way back to the place where he’d hidden the night before, icy leaves crunched beneath his moccasins. He felt vaguely numb. He hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last three nights, and that, along with the fact that they hadn’t been eating well, was taking a toll on his strength. He veered off the trail and headed out into the glistening grass. Frost coated everything this morning, shining like a thick layer of crushed shells in the tawny halo of morning light that lanced through the trees. The brittle mustiness of late autumn filled the air.

“Where are we going?” Koracoo called from behind.

Sindak pointed with his bow. “Over there. See that huge hickory tree? That’s where I hid from the warriors last night.”

Towa’s distinctive steps were close behind him. Koracoo was slightly farther back, and Gonda’s footsteps came from far in the rear. Sindak turned halfway around to look back. Gonda was trudging along with his head down, as though totally defeated. His war club was almost dragging the ground, and he didn’t even seem to notice.

Towa caught his gaze, turned to look back at Gonda, and trotted forward to catch up with Sindak. In a low voice, he said, “I think he’s becoming a liability to us.”

“He is. But until Koracoo figures that out and orders him to go home, there’s nothing we can do.”

Towa’s buckskin cape fluttered around his long legs as he walked at Sindak’s side. “Even if Koracoo ordered him to leave, I doubt he’d do it.”

“I suspect you’re right. He’s going to stick to us like boiled pine pitch until he gets us all killed.”

Sindak followed his own tracks across the frozen mud toward the leafless hickory. “Did Gonda keep you awake half the night with his moaning and thrashing?”

“Yes. I was deeply grateful when Koracoo woke him to take his watch. That’s when I finally got to sleep.”

Sindak sighed. “Me, too.”

As they approached the hickory, the cold indigo shadows of the massive limbs began to enfold them. Sindak tugged his cape more tightly around him, and circled to the left. His own tracks were unmistakable. Last night’s mud had squished up around his moccasins, leaving clear prints that, this morning, were crusted with frost.

Sindak stopped and waited for Koracoo, and eventually Gonda, to arrive.

Sunlight tipped Koracoo’s lashes with gold as she looked at him. Even exhausted, trail-worn, and filthy, she was still a beautiful woman. Her large dark eyes resembled black moons, and the dawn light blushed color into her small nose and full lips.

In an irritated voice, Gonda said, “Did you plan on showing us something, Sindak?”

“What? Oh… yes.” He turned, embarrassed. Had he been staring at Koracoo? “This is where I hid last night to allow the warriors to pass by.”

“And where were the warriors?”

Sindak gestured out toward the trail that forked thirty paces away. Towering pines scalloped the edges of the path. “The warriors came up the trail and took the fork that heads off to the west.

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