Don Bassingthwaite - The Binding Stone

She pressed her palms together and bent her body toward the shifter. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Geth stared at her, his eyes wide, but Singe drew a deep breath. “Virikhad?” he asked. “Medalashana?”

“Dead if they’re lucky.”

“Why did Dah’mir do this to you? Why does he want you back so badly?”

Dandra’s stomach clenched. “I’ve asked myself that a thousand times.” She felt her cheeks burn. “I don’t know!”

“Maybe,” growled Geth, “we should go and ask him.”

He said it so bluntly that for a moment all Dandra could do was blink and stare at him. “Revenge?” she asked finally. Geth nodded. Dandra felt numb-even Tetkashtai flinched at the idea. “Geth, you can’t do that. Dah’mir is … powerful.” She touched her chest. “He held three kalashtar in his grasp!”

“I’m not a kalashtar. I’ll put my steel against whatever power he has. And I can’t think of a better memorial to Adolan and the other Hollowers than snuffing out a cult of the Dragon Below!” The shifter closed his gauntleted fist with a clash of metal.

Dandra flung up her arm to point behind them. “But the hunters and the dolgrims are still after us!”

“I haven’t seen a sign of them since dawn and even that was a long way back.” Geth’s lips curled back from his teeth. “We hurt them last night and they don’t have horses. They’ll need to rest and regroup. We’ll ride through the day and be well ahead of them.”

“I don’t know where the Bonetree camp and the mound are!” she blurted. “Dah’mir had us all in a daze on the way there and I was lost on the way out.”

“Then we’ll start where you met Dah’mir-Zarash’ak.” Singe stepped forward. “I’m with Geth.”

Geth shot a dark look at him. “No,” he growled.

“You’re going to do this yourself?” the Aundairian asked. “You’re not that good, Geth. I owe this to Toller.” His eyes narrowed. “Not to mention that I’ve been looking for you since Narath. Do you think I’m going to let you out of my sight now?”

Dandra heard the growl that rose in Geth’s throat, but she also caught the flash of white as his eyes opened-just for a moment-wide in fear. Singe leaned a little closer to him. “You need me for this, Geth. And I need you. Neither of us has any choice.”

They’re both mad , thought Tetkashtai. The presence was trembling, her emotions raw from the flood of memories. Dandra, when they have you well away from the Bonetree hunters, leave these fools to get themselves killed .

No , said Dandra. They’re not mad . There was a new fire growing inside her. She had been running for so long that there hadn’t seemed to be any other choice. But she had stood against the Bonetree at the circle of the Bull Hole and faced down Hruucan at Bull Hollow.

She looked up at both Singe and Geth. “I’m coming, too.”

Tetkashtai’s presence radiated shock. Dandra, you can’t do that!

After what Dah’mir has done? How can I not?

I’m not going back to that mound!

Dandra’s jaw tightened. Tetkashtai, running didn’t get us away from the Bonetree hunters or the dolgrims. This isn’t just revenge for us. Dah’mir isn’t going to give up unless we make him. He’ll keep hunting us. You know he will. I’m not running any more .

Tetkashtai wavered, fear tearing at her.

What if , Dandra suggested, there was something at the mound that could show us how to reverse what Dah’mir’s mind flayers did to us?

The question left the presence speechless. With a grim sense of triumph, Dandra looked back to Geth. “What are we waiting for?” she asked. “An escort from the Bonetree hunters?”

The shifter gave her a thin smile and turned to his horse, swinging up into the saddle. “We’ll head to Yrlag,” he said, nodding to the southwest. “It’s a little more than week’s ride and we should be able to find a ship there that will take us to Zarash’ak.”

The grass of the hillside had been crushed down in a wide patch. The round dung balls of three horses were clustered in neat piles nearby and the summer grass cropped in patches. Ashi rose and walked back to where Ner, Breff, and Hruucan were waiting for her. Ner had squatting down and was tapping the hilt of his sword against his chin in thought. Breff was inspecting the bloody bandage that covered the wolf bite sunk deep into his right calf. Hruucan, once again shrouded in his cloak and cowl, simply stood still. The dolgaunt moved awkwardly and the stench of charred flesh clung to him. The wizard had burned him more badly than he would admit. Ashi looked away from him as she made her report. “They stopped for a time. They rested, but they’re staying on the move.” She pointed. “Their trail turns on the slope of the hill. I think they’re heading toward Yrlag.” “When were they here?” asked Ner.

Ashi glanced at the sun. It stood just past its zenith, baking the hillside in warmth. “Midmorning,” she estimated.

“A quarter of a day,” Hruucan rasped at Ner. “And drawing further away all the time.” He gestured toward the trees in the bottom of the valley where the other hunters waited with the dolgrims. “Less than a third of your surviving hunters would be able to keep pace, let alone catch them!”

Ashi drew breath and glared at the dolgaunt in spite of herself. “More than half of the children of Khyber under your command didn’t walk off the battlefield at all.” She bit her tongue as Hruucan’s cowled head swung toward her.

“Ashi’s anger leads her, Hand of the Revered,” said Ner swiftly. The huntmaster looked up at her. “If we rest now, Ashi, how many hunters will still be fit for the pursuit?”

Behind Ner, Breff held up five fingers. Ashi looked back to the huntmaster. “Four,” she said.

Breff scowled. “Five!”

Ner reached out with his sword and tapped the flat of the scabbard against Breff’s injured calf. The hunter yelped and hopped awkwardly. “Four,” Ner repeated. He looked back to Ashi. “Who?”

“Mukur, Sita, Pado, and me,” she said. She flicked her tongue across the rings in her lip hesitantly, then added, “Even if we can catch her, though, Ner, we’d need surprise and luck to take them. They’re good fighters. You faced the shifter yourself.”

Ner scowled and tapped his sword against his chin once more. Hruucan’s grating voice broke the silence. “Dah’mir needs to be told, Ner. You must contact Medala.”

For a long moment, none of the hunters moved, then Ner shifted one arm, and reached into the pouch on his hip. His hand emerged with the glittering band of copper wire and crystals that Dah’mir had given to him. He held out his sword to Ashi. She took it and stepped back as the huntmaster rose, spread the band wide, and pulled it over the top of his head. The crystals caught the sunlight and scattered bright flashes across the hillside. Ner turned to face in the direction of the Shadow Marches and the distant ancestor mound.

“Medala!” he said loudly. “Ner calls you!” He waited a moment, then said again. “Medala! Ner calls-”

His voice fell silent as a blankness washed across his face. Ashi shifted uncomfortably. In the month of their pursuit, Ner had used Dah’mir’s device only a few times. Each time it had been like this. Ner had told her that it was like dreaming, that he had no awareness of his body while he spoke with the outclanner woman. He simply heard her in his head and replied to her by thinking his response. Sometimes, he had said, her manner was rough, wrenching the thoughts from his head before they were fully formed.

The communication never seemed to last long-after only a few moments, awareness would return to Ner’s expression and he would pull the crystal device from his head as quickly as he could. Ashi waited.