Clanless (Nameless #2)(65)
But Ikatou had made her a deal when she went searching for the monkshood. She’d sworn she would help him and agreed to the seal it in blood—whatever that meant. He’d kept his promise and now she would have to keep hers.
Ikatou removed a leather bundle from his pack and set it reverently into the open hands of another Kodiak. He unwrapped the leather, one fold at a time to reveal a beautiful curved knife. Zo had never seen a blade like it before. The metal didn’t look like metal at all. It wasn’t until Ikatou lifted it and tucked the narrow handle between two fingers that she realized what it was.
A bear claw. A massive bear claw secured to an intricately engraved stone handle. Ikatou raised the claw to the back of his hand, drawing a straight line from knuckle to wrist without breaking skin. “I will mark the back of your hands so with every action your promise is remembered.”
Zo’s tongue felt tacky against the roof of her mouth as she lifted her shaking hands over the fire.
“Repeat after me,” said Ikatou, taking hold of one of her hands. “I swear to do all that was promised in my own blood.”
Zo repeated the oath and Ikatou dragged the claw across her skin. Zo gasped in pain as the claw cut and tore a jagged line. When Ikatou finished, he turned her hand over so blood dripped down on the pile of stones.
“I do willingly tie my life and blood to the task of freeing the Nameless,” said Ikatou.
The words were even more terrifying than the claw. Still, she said them, and the second cut was made.
Zo staggered to one knee but held both hands out, allowing the stones to catch her blood.
“This seals our pact, Healer. We are allies until the day you break it.”
Chapter 26
The tracks led south, away from the Gate. At first Gryphon thought the Clanless altered their course, hoping to approach Ram’s Gate from a different angle, but now the truth was as clear as it was confusing. They hiked through the very forest from which they just came. Which also meant walking toward Zander and his mess brothers.
As a trained predator, Gryphon had little experience as prey. It might have been the excessive quiet or the thick clouds gathering overhead, but there was something strange about the woods as he led Joshua up the steep, graded mountainside. Even the trees seemed watchful today.
Or maybe it was just the hope of finally seeing Zo.
The shadows of the forest stretched long as night descended. Tracking was impossible without light. If they didn’t find her soon, they’d have to make camp and begin again tomorrow. Gryphon couldn’t stop thinking about the men that now had Zo. Without Boar and his motivation to sell her to the Ram, what would keep them from harming her? Yes, they were heading south, away from the Ram, but that didn’t mean she was safe. He’d heard too many stories about the wild Clanless that roamed these mountains.
“We have to find her tonight, kid.” Something terrible was coming. He felt it.
Joshua, who had been silent ever since finding the massacre by the river, nodded. “There isn’t much daylight.” His hair was more copper than fire in the low light. He sagged under the weight of his pack, but never complained.
In the distance, a new noise buzzed higher on the mountain. The inhuman sound reminded Gryphon of the steady roll and crash of the ocean against the cliffs on the western edge of Ram’s Gate, a sustained roar that barely breathed.
“What is it?” asked Joshua.
Gryphon answered him with a raised hand, signaling him to silence.
They stopped walking and just listened until, after several minutes, the sound died to nothing.
Joshua said, “Do you think … ?”
Gryphon redoubled his grip on his spear and hiked his pack higher on his shoulders. “Run with me, Joshua.”
If Gryphon and Joshua had heard the sound, that meant Zander had likely heard it too and would be drawn toward it. They raced through the trees up the mountainside, using the sparse light until there was no light at all. Gryphon’s eyes adjusted enough to make out the shapes of rocks and trees, but he and Joshua stumbled often.
“How do you know we’re going the right way?” grunted Joshua as he struggled to pull himself up over a rocky shelf. The ground grew so steep they spent as much time climbing as they did hiking.
The boy gave voice to Gryphon’s own concerns. “I don’t. It just feels right.” Only a fool traveled blindly in the night; he’d lectured the point to Joshua countless times. But Joshua didn’t balk or complain. He simply nodded as if what Gryphon said made perfect sense. “You’ll find her, Gryph. I know you will.”
Gryphon welcomed Joshua’s faith, but it did little to ease his rising panic. If he was wrong, they’d have a very difficult time retracing their steps to pick up on Zo’s trail. Valuable time would be lost—time Zo might not have.
“I think I smell … ” Joshua lifted his nose to the sky and sniffed the air like a hunting dog, “fire.”
Gryphon smelled it too. The air was thick with moisture from another impending spring storm, the night peaceful with little wind, which meant the fire had to be close. “It could be Zander and the mess unit,” Gryphon warned as he and Joshua followed the smell of campfire. “We can’t be too careful right now, kid.”
They crested yet another climb and froze.
Not fifty feet away, pushed up against the rocky mountainside, orange and red flames licked the wood of a campfire. Surrounding the fire were tall pillars of rock; each stretched twice the height of a man. It was too dark to make out the black forms lying on the ground but Gryphon imagined one of those forms as Zo.