Malrith's Shield by Azalea Moone

Author:Azalea Moone [Moone, Azalea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Homeland

They rode into the dark night, without the moon’s light to guide them. Sawyer galloped too quickly, and Kohaku called out for him to slow. It seemed he’d woken from his daze, but he still acted quite different than before. Kohaku sucked in his bottom lip, praying that Gordak was wrong about his wound being a curse.

“We should camp,” Kohaku said as Sawyer rode up next to him.

Sawyer tugged on the reins to stop near a cutout of the tree. “Yes.” Sawyer glanced out over the forest near them. “How about here? It’s out of the way of the road…and look there.”

Boards were placed in a formidable fashion around an old fire pit to resemble a camp. It wasn’t much of a good idea to take over someone else’s site, but sleepiness lingered and Kohaku found it difficult to keep his eyes open much longer.

They tied their horses to the trees behind the site and started the fire. Kohaku was the first to crash on the boards. He needed to relax after today’s excitement. Unfortunately, he couldn’t much rest his mind. It wandered off into memory of earlier—the fire, Sawyer’s pain, and his strange attitude.

“What did you see during that?” Kohaku pulled up the bundle of hides he’d formed into a pillow.

Sawyer sat at the edge of the fire, his knees pulled in, his arms wrapped around his legs, staring haphazardly into the flames. “I saw him. The sorcerer.” His confession made Kohaku tense. “He smiled, as if he knew I was there.”

“And the pain?”

“Worsened during that.” Sawyer scrubbed his face with the palms of his hands. “It’s gone now, though. It was the most terrifying moment. I heard everyone talking, something about magic and curse, but it was all like a dream to me.” Sawyer recoiled, his hands over his head. “Is it true? Am I cursed?”

“I…” Kohaku didn’t know, and didn’t want to think of such things. If the sorcerer had placed a curse on Sawyer, it meant he watched the knight’s every move, expecting his next one. “We can find a healer before moving on to—”

“No!” Sawyer’s distraught glare caught Kohaku off guard. “I mean. I’m okay, now. We’ll go on to the castle and report to the king.” He hid his face, again. “Don’t worry, please. That dim-witted old dwarf probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about, anyway.”

Kohaku let out a stifled breath. Getting through to Sawyer would be difficult. The man was hardheaded, conceited, and stubborn, but it still concerned him to think of Gordak’s claim. Curse magic? It could be so. He’d seen dragons and fairies and giants living in the forest, and he’d bet the sorcerer knew all sorts of spells and enchantments. He lay silently eyeing Sawyer, how the hunter stared into the fire and trembled in the cold even with his pelts over him. To heal he’d need more warmth than the fire could give.

Picking himself up from the makeshift cot, he grabbed up his own hides and threw them around Sawyer.

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