James Wyatt - In the Claws of the Tiger

Janik walked in silence for some time. Auftane chewed on his lip, waiting for Janik to answer the question.

“Maija and I were married just before we all took our first trip to Xen’drik, fifteen years ago. I had been in love with her for years, since long before she introduced me to Dania. So Dania was always just a good friend-a very good friend, even more than Mathas, and in some ways, more than Maija. At least that’s how I looked at our relationship. I always had Maija, my true love, my wife, and I had a wonderful friendship with Dania. The best of both worlds, you might say.

“Well, Dania’s perspective is a little different. She’s a couple years older than I am, but she’s never been married, she’s never really had anyone-anyone except this group of friends and allies. I get the sense that when she was in the army, she felt like she needed to be tougher than all the men in her unit, and that put off any possible suitors. Plus, she comes from a noble family, which almost certainly was not true of her comrades-at-arms. Anyway, when I met her, she’d never really been in love or had a lover.

“Look, there are some tracks.” They had reached the place where the boat had been hidden, and Janik pointed at the sand nearby. He led Auftane to the spot and knelt down to examine the tracks more closely. After a moment, he got to his feet. “Let’s follow them a little way. I want to see where the tracks go into the scrub-that’ll make it easier to judge how old they are.”

Janik led Auftane around the dune and farther inland, then picked up his story where he left off. “So it sounds bad for me to say this, but Dania pretty much fell in love with me as soon as Maija introduced us. It was terribly awkward for her, because Maija was probably her best friend up to that point. And to her credit, she hid it quite well. I don’t think Maija or I ever knew until she told me later.” Janik heaved a sigh. “So after our first expedition to Mel-Aqat … you know what happened there?”

“I think I’ve pieced together most of the story,” Auftane said. “Maija betrayed you to Krael and left with him?”

“I took that pretty hard. Sea of Fire, we all did, Mathas and Dania, too. I guess it was natural for me to look for comfort from my best friend, and it was natural for her finally to confess the love she’d kept inside for twelve years. But what we did-well, it was a mistake.”

“You became lovers?”

“Exactly. My feelings for Maija didn’t change-they still haven’t. And when we got back to Sharn, well, I just sort of disappeared. I don’t think she took that very well. Eventually she left Sharn and went to Karrnath. So the first time I saw her since we got back was just before we started this expedition. Which might explain why there was some tension between us at the start of the trip.”

“Right,” Auftane said. “Good thing that tension is completely dissipated now.”

“Right,” Janik said through clenched teeth.

By the time Janik and Auftane returned to the keelboat, Dania and Mathas had loaded the supplies for the overland journey. Four heavy backpacks were piled on the bank beside the boat. They had seen no sign of monsters or Emerald Claw agents. Janik related the story of finding the boat and killing its defenders, and explained what they had done with the boat-and the bodies of their foes-after the fight.

“I hardly expect they’d give us the same consideration,” Mathas said.

“No,” Janik said. “If Krael ever gets the upper hand on us, I fully expect to end up as a zombie marching at his command.”

“If not a vampire,” Dania said.

Janik scowled. “Promise you’ll kill me before that happens.”

“I promise,” Dania said, without a hint of a smile. “I’m sure you’d do the same for me.”

Auftane interjected, “We also figured out which way they went into the plains-or Janik did, right?”

Janik scowled briefly at Dania before responding. “Right,” he said. “There’s a seasonal riverbed running parallel to this inlet. They started following it eastward.”

“How long ago?” Dania asked.

“During the night, as we expected. It’s hard to say for sure, especially since everything’s so dry once you get away from the beach, but I’d guess they set out about eight or ten hours ago.”

“What’s your recommendation, Janik?”

Janik ran his hands through his hair, thinking for a moment. “I think we should follow this inlet east-chances are it turns into another dry riverbed pretty soon.”

“Can’t your map tell us that?” Auftane asked.

“My map is my best attempt to sketch the shoreline as we rowed along it last time. No other maps of this area exist, unfortunately. Anyway, we’ve got a good six hours until nightfall, and I don’t think they could have traveled more than four hours before dawn. If they stopped and camped at dawn, we’ll pass them-hopefully at a good distance, assuming the riverbeds run parallel for a while and don’t meet up right away.”

“It’s a plan,” Dania said.

“Not to say it’s a good plan,” Janik said, frowning. “But I guess it’s the best we have.” He sighed heavily as he bent to pick up his pack, and grunted as he settled it on his shoulders. The others did the same, and with a last look at the keelboat-which Dania and Mathas had tried to cover with loose foliage-Janik led the way eastward along the inlet.

Just as he had predicted, the inlet quickly dried up into a seasonal riverbed. While Khorvaire was enjoying its summer and autumn, the winds off the ocean would bring endless rain to this part of Xen’drik, and these riverbeds would churn with water rushing to the sea. Now, in Khorvaire’s midwinter, the beds were dry as bone, the shrubs on their banks parched and dry.

The group walked mostly along the bottom of the riverbed, but Janik climbed the bank every half-hour or so to survey the surrounding plain. It was easy to see how the Wasting Plain had acquired its name: nothing grew that seemed at all vibrant or healthy. Blackened grasses stood in thick clumps above a layer of brown thatch that was occasionally interrupted by more of the same dry shrubs that dotted the riverbanks. The sky was obscured by a brownish haze that hung over the ground, as if the earth were emitting some vile gas that clouded the air.

After about four hours of trudging along the dry bed, another branch joined it from the left. Janik presumed it was the route that Krael’s party had followed, and after a short time scanning the ground, he spotted sure signs that his group was now following the trail of the Emerald Claw force.

Janik was uneasy. “If I’m right,” he said, “and they traveled about four hours before the sun came up and they were forced to make camp, then we could stumble on their camp around the next bend.” He cast his gaze at the banks above, alert for guards.

“Right,” Dania said. “As long as we’re following their path, there’s no easy way for us to get past them. That could mean they’re in the lead all the way to Mel-Aqat.”

“Unless we find their camp and attack first,” Auftane said.

“There’s too many of them,” Janik said, shaking his head.

“I’m not convinced of that,” Auftane retorted. “The two of us took four of them down and barely broke a sweat.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Janik said. “I was sweating pretty hard, and my back is still sore from where that flail hit me. Besides, four is a lot different from fourteen-or twenty, or thirty. I’m not sure how many they have.”

“Don’t forget Krael,” Dania muttered.

“I’m not forgetting Krael,” Janik shot back, “or that warforged friend of his. We could probably handle fourteen of his soldiers, but they’d distract us from the real threat. No, I don’t think we can risk attacking them.”