Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(39)

"Just leave him alone - he takes on enough without you."

The boar laughed, his hoarse voice squealing high in merriment. "Am I so chance a comrade then, Jes?"

"Who is being dragged through the forest at your whim?" returned the Guardian roundly. "I should be helping my brother coax Skew over the fields rather than chasing off after some child."

"Not that kind of child," grunted the boar, scrambling over a largish log in his path. "I believe that she's older than you." He seemed to find amusement in something, for he snorted a while before continuing. "Child of Travelers she is, though not exactly like you or your brother either. She passed me by as I was eating my breakfast this morning and the smell of her magic intrigued me, so I followed her."

The Guardian waited until he was certain the boar wouldn't continue without prompting. "Where did she go?"

"Through my lands," said the forest king. "I almost stopped at the border, but by then I was curious. I followed her to a place where magic blackened the ground and a new rip in the earth contained the body of a horse - a grey mare who used to graze in your fields."

"You know where my father was killed," said the Guardian slowly.

"Your father is dead?" The boar considered it a moment. "I tell you what I saw: it is up to you to discover what you'll take from it. But first you must deal with the child - or allow me to do so."

The Guardian knew how the boar would deal with one he must have decided might be a threat. The Guardian recognized the same grim spirit lived inside of him as well - though he'd never killed anyone. Not yet. Never wanted to kill anyone - because he was afraid that by that act, something the daytime Jes could not comprehend, he would somehow sever the ties that held the two disparate parts of himself together.

"What did you find at my father's grave?" asked the Guardian. "My mother thinks that there was more to his death than we have been told."

"Your mother may be right," said the forest king. "But that is not for my judgment."

By this time, the Guardian was fairly confident he knew where the forest king was taking him. There weren't actually all that many places to store a person safely in the woods without worrying what might happen to them - even for a spirit as powerful as the forest king.

The old building was so covered in vines and surrounded by trees that it was impossible to see from the outside. It was, as far as he knew, the only building he'd ever been in that had been built before the reign of the Shadowed. The only entrance required some undignified scrambling for anything larger than the boar.

Not knowing exactly what he would face, the Guardian chose to stay in human form and crawled under the foliage, through the crumbling tunnel that had once held water and still bore the mark of ancient algae.

Inside, the boar waited with bright red eyes that glittered in the dark interior, standing over a sleeping person who certainly was no child. Pale Traveler's hair looked more silver than ash in the faint light that poured in through the leaves that guarded the barren rafters that must once have been thatched.

"Traveler," said the Guardian, crouching down and pushing her hair aside to reassure himself that it wasn't his mother who lay there. But the features of the woman who lay sleeping in the forest king's lair were those of a stranger, younger than his mother - but as the boar had said, older than Jes was. "You say she came from town?"

"Yes. She came from the town, walked almost directly to the place where the horse lay dead then started back." He paused. "She wasn't going back to town."

"Where then?" asked the Guardian.

The boar stared at the sleeping woman. "It looked to me as if she were headed directly toward your home. But there is dark magic about her, and power. Her path would have taken her through the heart of my lands, and I decided I preferred that she not trespass unguarded."

The Guardian contemplated the woman. Was it someone his mother knew? Seraph hadn't mentioned finding another Traveler in the village the day before yesterday. Surely she would have said something if she had.

"Will you awaken her?" said the Guardian finally, deciding that her mysteries would be better answered by the woman herself. "Or do you wish me to take her away from this place first?"

"Take her." The forest king turned back toward the entrance of the building. "When you are far enough from here, I'll lift the sleep from her."

The Guardian sighed; though the woman was slight, the tunnel was narrow. Still, he gathered her up and scrambled his way out with only a few extra bruises - on him. He managed to keep her safe from harm.

In the sunlight he could see what features she shared with his mother and what differences marked her. His mother was a smaller woman, and this woman had a thinner, longer nose that gave her face an arrogant beauty.

He'd never seen anyone except his family who bore Traveler blood. He wondered where her people were, if they were among those who were killed or if they awaited her somewhere.

Walking in the woods with the sun on his back, Jes slowly filtered into being, easing the Guardian to sleep. Untroubled by his burden he continued on toward home. Mother would know what to do with her.

They were close to the edge of the woods when she stiffened. He glanced down at her and saw that her eyes were open. He smiled into pale eyes that matched her hair and continued on, ignoring her attempts to get down. If she were on foot it would be harder to bring her home, and Jes knew that he needed to take her home so she would be safe from the forest king.