Wild Blood (Book 7) by Anne Logston

Author:Anne Logston [Logston, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Mundania Press LLC
Published: 2013-05-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six—Valann

“Little fool!” Valann gasped, ducking behind a tree with Lahti. “What could she have been thinking?”

“You are certain it was her?” Lahti was panting too, her brown hair limp and stringy with grime and sweat, her eyes darkly ringed with exhaustion. She nocked another arrow, peered around the tree, and loosed the arrow. A cry testified to the accuracy of her shot.

“Have the arrows stopped burning?” Val asked anxiously.

“Almost.” Lahti turned, and he saw the worry in her eyes, too. “You shouldn’t have done that, even for your sister. You shouldn’t have shot fire at the forest. It’s forbidden to put fire to living wood and outside a fire pit.”

“I knew they’d stop to put it out, giving her time enough to get away,” Val said grimly. He pulled Lahti to the next clump of trees. “There’s been enough rain. It wouldn’t have burned long in any wise.”

“It’ll burn long in the memory of the Blue-eyes,” Lahti said, troubled. “It will redouble their hostility.”

“We’re almost at their border,” he assured her. “Only a short distance and we’ll cross into Hawk’s Eye’s lands.”

“And what then?” Lahti asked anxiously. “What if they’ve heard the disturbance and—Valann! Above!”

Val leaped aside just in time to avoid the Blue-eyes who dropped like a ripe fruit from the tree, barely drawing his knife quickly enough to parry the blindingly fast attack. Val squinted through the darkness at his opponent, and his heart sank as he saw the tall, beaded coil of a braid at the top of his opponent’s head—this was a matriarch, a woman of great age and doubtless great experience with her dagger. He was stronger than most elves he knew, and his reach was very good because of his height, but his opponent was much faster, and he could never hope to match her centuries-honed skill.

The Blue-eyes woman darted in, and Val hurriedly retreated with a burning line of blood flowing down his forearm. He ducked behind a tree, hoping to dodge the Blue-eyes woman long enough for Lahti to—

The Blue-eyes woman grunted and fell with no grace at all. Lahti gazed down at her dispassionately, then tossed aside the branch with which she had clubbed the older woman.

“Hurry,” she said. “Before others come.”

They ran with almost reckless speed through the darkness, Val letting Lahti, with her superior night vision, lead the way. Fortunately it was not long before he saw the stones marked with glowing runes that indicated the boundary between Blue-eyes and Hawk’s Eye’s lands. For a moment Val thought fearfully that the Blue-eyes might have set up an ambush at the boundary; then they were across, and safe.

“Stop,” Lahti said as soon as they were well beyond arrow range. “Let me tend your arm in case the knife was poisoned. I can’t carry you back to Inner Heart if you’re weakened.”

The scratch was deeper than Val had thought, but after sniffing the wound and tasting his blood, Lahti announced with relief that it was not poisoned. She bound up

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