The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Garrett Robinson (poetry books to read TXT) 📖

few paces down. Oku moved more slowly now, sticking close to us, unsure of his footing on this new terrain.

I found myself growing tense again, distracted, almost irritable. I had to force my attention back to the path ahead of us. It had turned from a solid road to little more than an animal trail, and almost all my focus was required to pick the right path through the rocks and avoid dead ends.

Almost all my focus, but not quite. Suddenly I realized why I was so distracted. My mind was not wandering—it was drawn to something. Tiny noises, which I had passed off as an echo from the stones, but which carried on when we paused for breath.

We were being followed.

I drew an arrow, nocked, and turned in a flash. I paused for a heartbeat before loosing, not wanting to harm some innocent passerby.

There, high above. A woman in grey clothes and a blue cloak, with hard-bitten features.

I fired. If I had not hesitated, I would have struck her in the thigh. As it was, the fletching nearly grazed her rump as she scrambled out of sight.

“Up there!” I cried.

Mag did not question me. Slinging her shield onto her arm, she sprang off of Mist and up the slope towards the woman who had been hunting us.

I spared no thought for the horses. I ran after Mag.

“Oku, tiss!” I cried, and Oku came bounding after me.

Mag had outdistanced me, but she was looking for a way to climb up towards her prey. The woman dodged nimbly through the rocky terrain, clearly familiar with it. I only caught sight of her for a blink at a time, never long enough for a clear shot. She was much higher on the slope than we were. Mag ran for a sharp incline that would take her up. But when she tried to climb, the land broke under her feet.

“Too soft!” I cried as I ran past her. “We have to find another way!”

Mag growled and tried again. She planted the butt of her spear in the ground to help her, and it held. She climbed up, but ever so slowly. I lost sight of her a heartbeat later.

We were nearing the southern end of the dale. Not far away was the road we had taken to get here. If I could reach the road before the woman, we would have her trapped. I kept glancing up as I sprinted, catching flashes of her blue cloak between the rocks. It would be a near thing. I pushed myself harder, my legs flying.

I rounded a boulder and saw the road a span away. The woman was still moving between the rocks, but there was a half-span of open ground before the road. I nocked an arrow and drew, waiting for her to emerge into the open. Oku gave a thunderous bark and leaped ahead of me, trying to intercept her.

“Kaw!”

A streak of black feathers swept down upon me. Pain lanced across my face as I felt talons bite into my flesh. I cried out and lost my balance, crashing down upon a rock that struck me in the ribs. Wheezing with the pain, I fought my way back to my knees.

In the air above me, the raven wheeled and screeched again. Oku, hearing my cry, had stopped, and was now looking back. The woman we had been pursuing was mayhap a dozen paces from the road. But I knew the raven that had attacked me was no ordinary beast.

“Oku, attack!” I called out. The hound hesitated. “Haka!” I cried.

He turned and went after the fleeing Shade.

I turned my attention back to the weremage. An arrow was in my hand faster than blinking. I loosed it at the raven even as it wheeled and dived for me again.

The arrow impaled its wing. The raven screamed and crashed into the ground behind a rock a half-span away. I moved forwards slowly, readying another arrow.

Magelight flashed. The weremage’s form swelled as she took her human shape, and I caught sight of her behind the rock.

Emotions torrented through me: anger for what she had done to Sten; triumph at the fact that we had found her at last; and fear, for Mag was not there to assist me, and I had no idea where she had gone.

“Mag!” I screamed, my voice echoing off the hard land. “I have her!”

The weremage cried out in pain as she dragged the arrow through the back of her arm. Her eyes flashed again as she sealed the wound. I drew and fired, but she cowered behind the rock, and I missed.

I stopped in my tracks, drawing another arrow. She could not hide forever. Slowly I backed up, step by step, risking only the briefest glances to see my footing.

Another flash of magelight.

The mountain lion with the white tail sprang into view. It was the form she had used to kill Sten. A fresh surge of anger struck me, throwing off my next shot. The mountain lion snarled and leaped to the side, the arrow missing by almost a pace.

I threw the bow aside and drew my sword from my belt. The weremage stalked closer, hackles up, a low growl rumbling from her throat. Fear now joined anger in my gut, churning it, threatening to make me vomit.

“Do it!” I screamed, forcing the terror away. “Do it, you sow!”

The lion roared. It sank back onto its haunches, ready to pounce.

And then a furious stream of barking made us both pause. Oku had abandoned his pursuit of the Shade to help me. He streaked in from the left, a blur of brown and black fur. Teeth flashed in the dull grey sunlight as he drove the mountain lion back a pace. She swiped at him, and Oku dodged it, barking louder.

Then Mag came dashing into view. She was higher up on the slope down which the other Shade had come. I watched as she