Secrets and Guardians: Devious Intentions - H. Chambers (drm ebook reader TXT) 📗
- Author: H. Chambers
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Lowe groaned and reached for her back, 'Oh that hurt,' she said winded.
Glint and Ami helped her to her feet.
'Anything broken?' asked Glint.
Lowe stretched her back and felt around her ribs.
'Don't think so,' she replied, sitting back down again, 'give me just a minute,' she added.
'Listen,' said Ami.
They all listened, then looked at each other, no sound of dogs.
'Snapper?' Lowe said, 'Where's Snapper?' Only just realising he wasn't there.
Glint looked down at the ground, not sure how to tell Lowe, especially the bit where he left him to face the dogs by himself.
'When we were in the clearing, Snapper wouldn't follow us, I called him, shouted at him, but he wouldn't come,' said Glint feeling somehow responsible.
'He intended to take on the hounds?' asked Ami in disbelief.
Glint shrugged sadly, the image of Snapper being torn apart, came into his mind.
'He was probably trying to give us more time, I did try and get him to follow,' said Glint.
'It's all right Glint, whatever happened seems to have worked, no one appears to be following us now,' said Lowe.
'I wonder what has happened. Do you think the others have come back?' asked Ami.
'I don't think we should go back to find out, just in case. The plan was to try and get to Riftdale, wasn’t it?' said Glint.
'The plan was to save the Princess, there was no real plan for us after that,' said Lowe.
'Please just call me Ami,' said Ami.
They were quiet for a moment, what had happened to the rest? In their haste to follow the 'plan', reality was only now beginning to sink in.
'Can you 'see' anything,' asked Glint hopefully to Lowe.
'It's strange the moment I entered the forest, I knew I would not be able to 'see' anything. When I'm out there,' she said gesturing with her hand, 'the forest appears like a shadow in my mind, not evil or bad, just nothing'.
'What does it feel like now?' asked Ami.
Lowe paused and looked around, 'Now I’m here, it feels beautiful, full of life, it's nice,' she said.
Mankin grunted. When they turned to look at him he gestured that he would go and look for somewhere to rest. Without waiting for an answer he bounded off down the slope. Taking it slowly and with the help of Glint and Ami, Lowe edged her way down after Mankin, wincing now and again at the pain in her ribs. Mankin returned in a matter of minutes, he gently lifted Lowe and carried her down to a small stream. On the other side there was a grassy bank, carrying her over the stream he laid her down carefully. Glint and Ami took off their boots and waded across, it was not very deep, but icy cold. Once they were settled on the other side, Glint shared out some of the biscuits Bella had given him. They would not last them long. Lowe and Ami lay down on the grass and Glint put his cloak over them. It would be good if they could both get some rest, the journey to the Riftdale was going to be a long walk.
Ami and Lowe were woken by a wet tongue licking their faces.
'Snapper!' cried Lowe as she tried to sit up quickly, pain shot through her chest.
Ami saw Lowe flinch.
'Bad?' questioned Ami.
Lowe took some gentle breaths and the pain began to ease.
'I'll be all right as long I don't have to move for the next few weeks and don't have to breathe much,' she said smiling and scratching Snapper behind the ears.
A few minutes later Glint and Mankin appeared, they were walking up the stream, Glint had his breaches rolled up and his boots were tied across his neck. They were looking very pleased with themselves. Mankin was carrying a pointed stick which held four good sized fish. When he saw Snapper he grunted and Snapper ran and leapt off the bank straight at Mankin. He caught him with his free arm and was rewarded with slobbery wet kisses all over his face. Climbing out of the stream Glint could see Lowe holding her side.
'How are your ribs?' he asked.
'Sore,' Lowe replied.
'Why don't we stay here tonight, we have plenty of fish to eat and biscuits and then we can see how you are in the morning,' said Glint.
Gadolin and Igmy watched as they ate their meal and then settled down for the night. Gadolin worried about Lowe and knew what he needed to do. Leaving Igmy to watch over them, he headed into the forest to talk to Rona.
The following morning when they awoke, Ami saw a flask with a note attached. Picking up the flask she showed the rest and read the note.
Lowe, use the cap as a measure
Two caps three times a day.
Opening up the flask Ami sniffed the contents.
'It smells sweet,' she said.
Glint looked around, 'How? Who?' he said scratching his head, trying to work out where the flask had come from.
'Do you think it's safe?' asked Ami.
'If they had wanted to kill her, they could have easily done that while we were sleeping,' said Glint.
Lowe was sitting, she was not only sore but stiff as well. Unless she did take something to help her, she would not make it very far. Even if Mankin carried her, the thought of being jostled about made her cringe. Ami poured out a cap of the syrupy sweet smelling liquid and passed it to Lowe. Tentatively she took a sip, it tasted of rose hips, but sweeter. It was really nice. When she had finished the two caps she lay back, her whole body began to feel warm; she could feel the pain gently easing. Taking a deep breath she sighed and then smiled up at the rest. Mankin sat beside her and stroked her hair, making 'chuff' 'chuff' noises. Lowe got up and sitting on his lap, cuddled into him. His huge arms enveloped her and he began to rock gently backwards and forwards. Glint and Ami looked at each other and then gave each other a hug.
High up in a tree Gadolin looked at Igmy sitting next to him. Igmy had little happy tears in his eyes.
'You big soft lump,' said Gadolin and gave Igmy a hug.
Later that morning, with everyone suitably cuddled, Gadolin and Igmy watched the group gather up their things and set off at a gentle pace in the direction of Riftdale. Once they had gone Gadolin helped Igmy down from the tree. A lot of trees in Pandean were very tall, this had never bothered Gadolin; he would think nothing of climbing a hundred and thirty foot tree just for fun. Igmy though, wasn't enjoying the tree climbing, he didn't like heights and his misshapen body was not as light and agile as Gadolin’s. Gadolin looked across at his new friend, who was now sitting on a log picking at his lumps of fungus.
'It will take a while for you to get used to your new body, so don't worry about the trees, we'll just follow on foot,' said Gadolin.
Igmy stood up and stretched his arms, then did a little lop sided dance.
'It's really strange not feeling any pain, when I was up in the tree I was afraid in case I fell, don't know why as it doesn't hurt,' said Igmy.
'Come on, we had better get going, I promised Rona we’d keep an eye on them while they are in the forest,' said Gadolin.
'What happens when they leave the forest, can we follow them?' asked Igmy.
'Well apart from it looking very strange, a tree trunk and a piece of deadwood wandering around the countryside, there is another problem. We would not survive very long outside the forest, few hours, a day if we didn't move much,' said Gadolin.
'That's fine with me, I like it here,' said Igmy looking around for something to eat.
The explosion in the sky could be heard for miles around, which was just as well as the soldier waiting for the signal was fast asleep. He had been posted to this little nondescript hill two weeks ago and apart from having someone in the nearby village bring him food and drink, he had not spoken to anyone or done anything in particular. He had taken his horse for the odd trot around, whittled a few bits of wood into various creatures, exercised, thrown lots of small stones at a big rock, talked to himself and talked to his horse. He had no idea as to how long he was to wait for the signal, another week? A month? He had been told if he heard a 'big bang' coming from Brinkton he was to ride just as fast as he could to another poor bored soldier twenty odd miles south west of him. The other soldier was apparently guarding a beacon, which he would then light, which would then be seen by another soldier who would then light his beacon and so on all the way to Landra. He had wondered just how many soldiers were sitting around bored on hill tops, talking to their horses or throwing stones at rocks. Going to sleep that night he wished Brinkton would hurry up and get invaded, just to give him something to do.
The 'big bang' brought him instantly out of his sleep and looking across at Brinkton he could see what appeared to be stars floating down from the sky. Trying to saddle a totally freaked out horse, while he himself believed the sky was about to fall on him was not easy; but soon they were heading south west probably a lot faster than he had originally thought.
The following day Aberrling and Hylaw sat opposite each other. For the last twenty minutes they had neither spoken nor looked at each other. They had both known this was going to happen, never exactly sure when or where, it could have been Landra, it could have been anywhere along the coast. It could even have been both Landra and Brinkton. Aberrling had thought Brinkton, hoped with all his hard work he had convinced Kerdred. It meant a better chance of winning, as remote as that still was, it was the best chance they had.
Hylaw was thinking about Darius and Ami. He had told Nathe to warn Darius of the danger, to tell him to leave at the first sign of trouble. Hylaw didn't think Darius would go, he wondered if he was still alive. Kerdred would want Darius alive, Hylaw winced inside as he thought of what Kerdred might do to him. Ami on the other hand, would have escaped, he had to believe that. Nathe and his men knew the dangers, knew what they had to do, they should be well on their way to Riftdale. He and Aberrling had tried to come up with a different plan for Ami, but in the end this was the only real option. At least she would be safe at Riftdale, for now.
Finally Aberrling turned to Hylaw. 'Your Highness, it's time to call all the able bodied men to arms. You need to be riding out of here within the week, Kerdred will be preparing for your arrival.'
'And Tremlin and Hawke will be preparing for my departure,' said Hylaw.
'As will I,' said Aberrling smiling slyly
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