Clanless (Nameless #2)(67)
To call the watchman large was a gross understatement. With the fire at his back, his features were cast in heavy shadow. The outline of a full beard turned half his face black. He certainly didn’t fit the image Gryphon envisioned of the starving Clanless who roamed the land. This man had muscle to spare and, by the looks of him, ate like a chieftain.
He had to be a Kodiak, which meant Gryphon had more than met his match physically. He’d never fought a Kodiak outside of his mess unit’s phalanx formation. If Joshua missed his target that would all change tonight. But instead of fighting just one Kodiak with his fists, he’d be devoured by a whole group of them. He should have told Joshua to run away if his stone didn’t fell the Bear. Why hadn’t he thought to do that? It wasn’t like him not to think through a plan before putting it into motion. The thought of Zo sleeping so close by rattled every rationale he possessed.
Gryphon threw a rock twenty yards away, awakening the watchman from the trance men develop after hours spent staring at shadows. The Kodiak stepped away from his group to get a better vantage of the mountain. Above his head, he didn’t see Joshua perched atop one of the giant stone pillars.
Just a few more steps, Gryphon urged. They couldn’t afford for Joshua to fell the watchman so close to his men and risk the chance of waking the others. The untrained watchman might have heeded Gryphon’s mental urgings, but this Kodiak-sized Clanless showed his training by only glancing in all directions. He wouldn’t be lured from his post.
What were they thinking? He and Joshua couldn’t just walk up to a camp of wild Clanless and expect to fool them with only a decoy rock and a boy’s woolen sling. As big as this man was, the chances of Joshua hurling a small rock with enough force to knock him out was as likely as Commander Laden and the Allies accepting Gryphon with open arms.
Gryphon waved to get Joshua’s attention while not showing the Kodiak his position. They would just have to try again tomorrow, when Gryphon had time to craft a better plan that didn’t rely solely on rocks and slings, and trust that Zander and the mess were miles away.
When Joshua finally looked in his direction, Gryphon gave the signal for retreat. But instead of backing down off the pillar, Joshua shook his head and set a stone in the leather pouch of his sling.
That boy! Gryphon would kill him if they survived this.
Joshua let out a deep, silent breath, then whipped the sling over his head in one full rotation and released the stone. The entire motion happened in a blink. At the same time, Gryphon exploded toward the watchman, ready to kill the man if Joshua’s stone didn’t do its job. The rock whistled through the air and connected with the side of the Kodiak’s head. The large man toppled into Gryphon’s outstretched arms. He’d meant to break the man’s fall, but the Clanless was so large he took Gryphon to the ground along with him.
Definitely a Kodiak.
Joshua stood on the stone pillar above his prey in humble triumph. A man.
With some effort, Gryphon rolled out from under the Kodiak. He pressed his fingers to the man’s neck and found a pulse.
They didn’t have much time.
More nervous than ever, Gryphon stood with his back against the nearest stone pillar and inched toward the opening. He listened for any movement in the camp but only heard the simmering crackle of the fire. He reached the edge of the pillar and held his breath as he turned the corner.
Flickering light from the campfire reflected off the giant rocks, highlighting portions of the sleeping figures on the ground. Gryphon’s knees buckled when he spotted a smaller figure sleeping next to the fire, in the center of the group of Clanless. A blanket of shadow shrouded the figure’s face, but female hands rested in firelight.
The air flew out of Gryphon’s lungs, his hopes that she rested unharmed plummeted. Her hands—the hands that worked a miracle in healing Joshua and helped so many others—were crusted in blood.
Zo looked up, startled to see an enormous shadowed figure looming just outside the firelight. At first glance she assumed him to be Ikatou’s lookout, but this man carried himself differently than the other Kodiak. And none of them stared like this stranger. He stood as still as the pillars surrounding their little camp, but his gaze cut through the heat of the flames and his shroud of darkness.
Zo sat up, still a little fire blind from staring at the flames for so long. The knot of hair she’d tied on top of her head loosened and dark, tangled strands tumbled about her shoulders and down her back. She considered reaching over to wake Ikatou from his heavy sleep and warn him of the stranger. It would be easy. He slept close enough she could smell the ripeness of his feet.
The shadowed man didn’t seem to hold any weapons, typical of the Kodiak who preferred to kill with their bare hands. He was certainly large enough to be a Bear.
But he wasn’t. Somehow she knew it.
Zo didn’t understand the strange pull of her body as she pushed aside her tattered blanket and rose to her feet.
Who are you? She wanted to ask, but couldn’t manage the words.
He lifted a hand to the light and beckoned her to him. She shook her head but inched closer to the fire just the same. Again, he waved her toward him, this time with more urgency then before. Ikatou stirred, the fire cracked, and Zo stood frozen, not daring to move any closer.
The shadowed man dropped his hands by his sides and Zo had the distinct impression she’d let him down somehow. He shifted forward enough that a small amount of light touched his form. She blinked against the heat of the flames, searching the stranger’s darkened face, but the fire lit only his whiskered chin. The gleam of a short sword peeked through the folds of a dark, hooded cape. A Ram blade.