When Ravens Call: The Fourth Book in the Small Gods Epic Fantasy Series (The Books of the Small Gods by Bruce Blake (books under 200 pages txt) 📗

With the sun approaching its zenith, all but three of the robe-wearers left, trudging toward the forest with not a sound from anyone. If their leaving surprised or upset Birk, he made no sign of it. As his captor continued preparing their meal, the man from across the sea watched plump flies flit around the corpse, landing in the dead man's open wounds to dine before taking drunkenly to the air again. He avoided inhaling too deeply for fear he'd smell or taste the ripening flesh wafting to him. Staring at the blind eyes and knotted beard, he recalled the prison-barn and its sundry contents—the shelves packed full, the mysterious barrels. What sort of fellow possessed such a collection?

A lonely one.

The voice in his head belonged to Ailyssa, so clear he almost looked up expecting to find she'd crept up behind him. He didn't, knowing she'd gone, led away by a ferocious-looking beast and leaving him alone in this foreign world, a place he knew neither how he'd gotten to or where he'd come from. He remembered nothing of himself before being in the sea as a monster rose to destroy a ship and then waking on the beach, Jud-dah standing over him.

The chain affixed to his ankle clanked as he shifted on the log in search of a more comfortable position. He leaned over and grasped a handful of links, picked it up and rattled it, the loose end attached to nothing. The sound attracted Birk's attention and their eyes met. The nameless man frowned, held the restraint out toward his captor and shook it again. If it served no purpose, why should it continue chafing his skin and weighing him down?

Birk crossed the space between them, crouched in front of him. His lips curled upward but lacked both humor and happiness, the angle of his mouth suggesting a crueler mindset. He reached out and grasped the chain near his ankle.

"Nod gunna cumov." The smile became a grin, like he kept a secret no one knew and he refused to tell. "Idsalok widnokee."

The nameless man tilted his head and frowned. Why did he understand the words with Ailyssa's touch on him but at no other time?

Birk let the constraint drop to the ground with a clank. "Yer daman frumac rossdasee."

A knee popped as he stood. He winced, shook the discomfort from his leg. The nameless man seized the opportunity, lunging forward and grabbing his captor's wrist. Startled, Birk jumped back, jerked his arm to get away, but the prisoner held on.

"Ledgo," he cried, his voice higher pitched than before. "Gidim offamee."

Discouraged to find grasping Birk didn't offer the same effect as did Ailyssa's touch, he let go as his captor yanked again. Momentum sent him stumbling backward. The nameless man recognized the opportunity to overpower him and escape, but more hands grabbed him, forced him back on his log.

***

They stopped once during the next leg of their journey. Fellick pulled rations out of his pack, handed out cured meat and chewy bread to everyone without a word, and they ate in silence. With no chance to relate what she'd seen to Evalal, Danya began to wonder if she might have imagined what she saw. When they finished eating, Ive produced a wine skin he passed around. She hesitated when it got to her, but thirst overcame reluctance and she felt relieved when she found it contained water instead of wine. She gulped two mouthfuls before the tall man took it back, and they set out on their way again.

Not long after they paused for the brief repast, Danya spied the first robed figure.

He stood at the edge of the forest beside the thick trunk of a massive cedar, his form near invisible in the shadows. The princess squinted at the silhouette, not sure if she should trust her eyes in the late afternoon light. Three heartbeats later, Evalal elbowed her in the side and nodded toward the shape. Their captors gave no sign they'd seen him.

The robed man did not follow them and, when Danya strained to look back over her shoulder, he'd either left or the shadows had swallowed him whole.

She wiped nervous perspiration from her palms onto the front of her breeches. The green, the woman and beast, now the watcher in the woods, all of it increased her discomfort.

"Mr. Fellick says we are getting close," Ive said, again without so much as a grunt from his stocky partner.

Danya split her efforts between looking back for the robe-wearing follower and attempting to see past their captor-guides at what lay in their path. For a while, she spied nothing but trees and brush, grass and rocks. Until a movement at the edge of the woods caught her attention. She touched Evalal's forearm and gestured at a spot ahead of them.

Another figure wearing the same garb as the first—or perhaps the same fellow—stood by a leafy bush. His black clothes made him appear a man-shaped gap in the verdant leaves. Nothing differentiated him from the original fellow. If he'd hurried, he might have gotten ahead and waited for them, but this fellow's bearing didn't suggest someone who'd rushed to his place.

Danya slowed her pace, letting her hand drop from Evalal's arm. When she reached Ive's side, the tall fellow raised one brow but said nothing.

The princess leaned toward him. "I think we're being followed."

She nodded at the man standing in front of the bush; they'd drawn even with him. Ive gazed across the grass to the edge of the forest, watched the figure for a heartbeat before returning his eyes to the path ahead. Danya expected a response from him right away, but he made her wait. He swallowed, the prominent lump in his throat rising and falling.

"No need to worry, princess. They are here for us."

As if awaiting Ive's cue, the