The House Of Gaian

wine. The guard captain’s uneasiness didn’t please him, but he would hear the man out before deciding what discipline was required. “Well?”

    “The guards managed to get deep into Baron Liam’s estate, almost to the water that divides his land and the Old Place.”
    “But they didn’t get to the Old Place?”
    The guard captain shook his head. “They didn’t dare move closer. They said there was a strange light.
    Not torches or a campfire. They said it looked like a circle of moonlight rising up from the ground. And there were men guarding the place. Then...” He hesitated. “One of the creatures roused sooner than expected, bit the guard on the forearm, and escaped. The sounds alerted the guards on the other side of the water.”
    “What happened to the other four creatures?” Adolfo asked quietly.
    “They were released in the field. The guards rode away. They’re certain the creatures weren’t seen.”
    Adolfo thought this over and finally nodded. “They are close enough, and when they wake, the fresh prey within sight will keep them close to the water. That is adequate. Tomorrow we will attack. We’ll set our catapults on the low rise beyond the field with the tumbled stones and fire on them as the enemy moves to meet us.”
    “As you will.” The guard captain turned to leave the tent. He stopped and turned back. “Master Adolfo, the guard who was bitten ... In the time it took to return to camp, the flesh around the wound turned putrid and the rot is spreading. The physicians don’t know how to stop it. I wondered . ..”
    “Tell the physicians to take the arm.”
    The guard captain tensed. “But the bite itself wasn’t that serious!”
    “There is nothing that can be done. He can lose an arm or lose his life.” Adolfo smiled horribly. “And what is an arm compared to crushing this enemy once and for all?”

 

     
     

Chapter 47

 

     
     

     
    waning moon
     
    Ashk stepped out of Liam’s house, annoyed with herself because she’d slept past first light. As Aiden had pointed out, the sun was barely up, but she couldn’t shake the dream she’d had last night that she’d tried to catch something fragile and it had slipped through her fingers and shattered all around her, couldn
    ’t shake the feeling that this small delay would make a difference ... somehow.
    “Ashk?”
    She turned to look at Selena and almost smiled. The Huntress was dressed in soft gray trousers and a short-sleeved tunic. The tunic had been done up hastily, revealing the white camisole she wore beneath it.
    Not practical garb for a hunt, since the light color would make her too visible in the woods. But...
    Shadow hound colors , Ashk thought suddenly, studying the gray clothing and the black hair carelessly tied back with a ribbon. And the dark and light of the moon. Perhaps the Huntress was right after all in her choice of garb, since she would usually partake in a very different kind of hunt .
    Then something shivered through her. She turned away from the house and walked toward the grass and trees that formed a park on one side of the house.
    “Ashk?” Selena said again.
    She raised her hand to acknowledge that she’d heard and kept walking until she reached a big shade tree. She paused there and rested her palm against the tree. Now that she was away from human things and human noises, her senses sharpened, her gift flooded her with messages.
    Something wrong nearby. Something unnatural. Something that doesn’t belong in the woods.
    She swore silently. She’d hoped they’d cleared out all the nighthunters when they’d found that nest, but there were more of them out there. But this shiver beneath the land’s skin hadn’t been there since they’d cleaned out the nest. Had the Black Coats marching toward them created more of the creatures and managed to capture and transport them somewhere close by? Was that what Aiden had heard in the field last night? From the information she’d gotten from the Inquisitors who had been captured at Bretonwood, the magic they drew from an Old Place and twisted struck randomly when it was released, and its manifestation could range from a good well suddenly going dry to small creatures in the woods being changed into nighthunters. They simply unleashed that magic with no way to control it. But what if one of them had learned to contain that power while twisting it so that it flooded a particular place?
    A hint of sound made her look up just as something