Chapter 230: Old Acquaintances

Midmorning, freezing rain started to fall. At first, I was suspicious of the weather, as I was tracking a water mage, but the compass indicated the target was still extremely far away. It was just bad luck. Fortunately, I had a large oiled cloak for myself and a similarly treated blanket for the mount. The terrible thing about the rain was that the noise of the icy drops hitting my hood deprived me of one of my senses as I moved through the wild.

“You know I only took you to make Hercule walk back to the city,” I told the horse as we jogged along. “I usually name my mounts. How do you like Rusty? Your coat is reddish-brown and fits.” The horse didn’t seem very talkative today. I missed Ginger. She would have at least given me some response—or nudged me for an apple.

Soon, the ground was coated in a thin layer of ice, making it difficult to use my earth speak spell form. This caused me to slow down and be more cautious as I moved south. My prey had at least a day’s head start and could be as much as forty miles further south. They might have traveled even more if the mage had some type of movement ability or if they had horses themselves. Hercule hadn’t mentioned it.

As the sun faded, the rain turned to icy droplets, and the temperature dropped quickly. I pulled out my Hound thermal stone and secured it under my Hound jacket. When the sun disappeared, I put on my night vision goggles, channeling a constant thread of aether into them as I moved, and constantly wiping the lenses. Rusty was not happy with moving in the cold night, but I felt the compass pull slowly getting stronger. The quicker I finished my task, the better.

The dense woods turned into rocky, hilly terrain, and the clouds kept the forest dark. Rusty started pulling back on the lead, unhappy with the darkness since he did not have the same night sight.I either had to release the mount or take shelter until morning. I slowed to a walk and moved toward a rocky hill, looking for shelter for the night. Fortunately, I found a shallow cave just as the sleet changed to snow.

Rusty was relieved by the shelter as I removed his horse blanket and used my Raelia’s thermal stone to heat the cave. Snow accumulated a few feet away outside the cave as I rubbed Rusty down and made him comfortable. The warhorse grew much more comfortable as night settled in; we were sheltered, and I gave him some grain and an apple for dinner.

I settled into the cave and fingered the blood compass. The strength of the pull remained constant, indicating my prey was resting too. Perhaps they were also trapped in the snowstorm. I took short naps at night and was annoyed by Centurion Sergius asking for a progress report. I wrote that I had moved about fifty miles southwest and was closing in.

Rusty neighed early in the morning; it was still dark, but the snow was tapering off. The snowfall was about a foot deep, and I listened carefully. The crunching of compacting snow was distant but getting closer. “Quiet down, Rusty.” I rubbed his head reassuringly, and the warhorse calmed. The crunching slowly got closer and louder. Whatever it was, it sounded big. Rusty was tense, and his body language told me he wanted to flee.

My mind was running through what large creature would be active during winter. A variety of giants were the most likely choice. I stepped out into the snow and used the spyglass to scan the woods. It only took me a moment to find the creature. It was tracking our trail even under the snow. It was not as large as the one I had faced in the Shimmering Labyrinth, but it was definitely an owlbear. It was much too early in the fall for owlbears to be out of hibernation—but I didn’t think to argue with the creature.

I watched it approach and scanned the surrounding woods with the night vision and spyglass, glad I took them with me. It looked like the owlbear was my only foe. “Rusty, stay here. I will take care of this.” Rusty’s large brown eyes looked at me doubtfully. He pulled on his tether line, indicating we should run, but he didn’t panic.

I walked out into the snow, slowly walking toward the owlbear, which finally noticed me and charged with a shriek. Rusty neighed a warning behind me, but I was focused on the creature. It plowed through the snow on all fours, throwing up white powder as it growled and hissed. It was trying to get me to run so it could take me down from behind.

I removed the collector and then dodged as I removed the owlbear’s head. The body slid on the snowy and icy ground past me. The snow quickly turned red with a steady flow of blood as the body exsanguinated itself with a still-pumping heart. That wasn’t so difficult.

I examined the beast and frowned. The owlbear had poorly healed wounds on its haunches: large claw marks, a day or two old by the scabbing. Something had forced this powerful beast out of its hibernation. I doubted the owlbear had been victorious or it wouldn’t be hunting us. I scanned the woods and sky while waiting for my aether to recover.

I used the collector when my aether recovered, obtaining a major power essence. I placed the power essence in my mouth and savored it as its warmth spread through me. I dropped the head of the owlbear a few minutes later next to the corpse and retreated to the cave.

Rusty seemed confused at my victory, having trouble processing what I had done to kill the dangerous predator. I reassured him with an apple and rubbed his head, “You got lucky getting stuck with me, Rusty. There are not many things that give me trouble.” He nuzzled me affectionately, recognizing me as the alpha predator.

I saddled Rusty and led him away from the owlbear. When the sun grayed the sky, I mounted Rusty and continued my pursuit. It was the first time I had ridden Rusty, and the large warhorse responded eagerly to my commands.

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The ice under the snow was a concern, but I slowly spurred Rusty faster as we moved further south. During the morning, we crossed a handful of tracks in the snow, nothing that alarmed me. Resting at midday to feed and water Rusty, we had closed the distance to my target. So much so that I could feel the changing direction of the prey’s pull on the compass. She was south of me but moving west. I changed my direction and pushed Rusty into a run.

I planned to get ahead of the group and have them come to me. I doubted they were fleeing to the Boutan Caliphate as they would have sought a ship if they were. More likely, they were trying to flee south and head to empires that were hundreds of miles to the south through the mountains. A dangerous route this time of year.

By evening, I was riding parallel to the target with just a thin dusting of snow on the ground. They were definitely on foot, and I raced ahead of them. Rusty was tired from the hard day of riding and ready for a rest. Tonight, clear skies and Neptune’s Tear would give us plenty of light for an ambush. I dismounted and joged with Rusty as we circled wide to get ahead of them.

They continued moving into the night but were moving much slower than me. I found a good place to ambush them based on their path and set up behind a boulder. I tied off Rusty, “Okay, time to be quiet, Rusty.” I fed him an apple and pulled out my bow and arrows from my dimensional space.

My plan was simple: take them out from a distance with the arrows rather than risk an engagement. It was half an hour before I spotted them with the spyglass. I had chosen a decent position, and they would pass fifty yards. The three women were bundled up and moving at a walk. Two were wearing legionnaire armor that had been painted black, probably to make it easier to hide.

I drew my bow and decided the mage was the most dangerous opponent. They walked into my firing line, unaware as I released. The twang of the bow had them immediately on alert. A blue screen flashed around the female mage, and I cursed. Of course, she had an aether shield amulet. I couldn’t get one, but she had one.

“The Hounds found us!” one of the legionnaires barked, standing in front of the mage and looking for the threat. I pulled another paralytic arrow and targeted the legionnaire, knowing she didn’t have an amulet. The arrow was on target but hit a protective bubble, stopping it. The minimal blue light of the moon made it difficult for them to locate me, but my two arrows gave them my general location.

“How many?” the mage asked nervously. “Is it the same one?”

The legionnaire responded, narrowing her focus on the rock I was using as cover, “Only one so far. It may be the same Hound.”

Things started going sideways. The mage cast a hail of ice spikes at me, forcing me to take cover. The shards fractured on the rocks, echoing like shattering glass in the night. I could hear the pounding of feet as the legionnaires rushed my position under cover of the mage’s hail of ice. I used earth speak to watch them approach. Rusty warned me from fifty feet away of the incoming danger. They were planning to come around both sides of the rock by their movements.

One had a spear, and the other a staff. They moved in concert, and I reached into my pouch and pulled three pellets. I timed it to smash them into the frozen ground on one side while I engaged the legionnaire with the spear. I set an air shield on the ground and watched as she ran full sprint into it. To her credit, she turned the trip into a roll. My black blade was already coming down on her. I caught her wrist, removing her hand.

She let out a low, angry, pained scream. The other legionnaire had charged through the cloud, and it had blinded her, but she had been smart enough to hold her breath but not close her eyes. Her staff swung where she expected me to be but passed through empty air.

Her closeness allowed me to see her face, which was a familiar face. Helena? It had been over a year, but it was definitely her face under the helm. There were so few female legionnaires that I should have realized the possibility. There was no way she would recognize me in the low light, especially wearing the goggles.

I didn’t have eyes on the mage, which was a concern. I turned on the one-handed spear wielder, who feebly tried to use the spear from her knees in the dark. I flicked the spear aside and bashed her helmet with a heavy sword swing, knocking her out and cutting into her collarbone on the rebound. She would bleed out from the amputation in time, and I turned to face the blinded Helena.

She was trying to blink and wipe the slime coating her eyes. She yelled in desperation, “Sylph! Where is he? I can’t see!” Her partner was not going to respond—her eyes were rolled up in unconsciousness, blood pooling beneath her from two wounds.

There was still one more threat. I sent out an earth pulse, and the mage had not approached; maybe she had been wise and fled. “Sylph has been neutralized. Drop your staff, Helena,” I said evenly.

“Who are you?” Anger laced her words but she was tracking my voice. She thought I had just killed her companion because there had been no response.

“It has been a long time, but I hope you will recognize my voice from our training,” I responded calmly. Helena had helped me get through the legionnaire training, and maybe we had been friends. At least, that was how I looked at our relationship. After I killed the mage, I would give her the chance to run. I had not been ordered to kill the legionnaires after all, just the mage.

Helena’s mind was racing as she held up her staff in a defensive posture. “The clumsy foreigner?” Helena finally said uncertainly. That was how she remembered me?

I heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching and pulsed earth speak. The mage was rushing to my position. She could hear us and see Helena clearly struggling in the moonlight. She must have assumed I was facing Helena and was going to surprise me from behind. As she rushed around the rock, I turned and was shocked to see—nothing.

My mind raced quickly, solving the riddle, and I pulsed earth speak—there was definitely someone there. Trusting my earth speak, I outlined the figure and sent it into my dimensional space. My aether bottomed out indicating success. I had puzzled out that the mage had been using an invisibility spell form. It had fooled the night vision goggles but couldn’t fool my earth speak spell form.

Helena was struggling to make sense of the lack of sounds around her and finally yelled. “Don’t attack, Selene! I know the Hound! We might be able to reason with him.” If Helena wanted to talk and reason with me, I was more than welcome to converse.

I turned back to Helena and asked, “So, Helena, how have you been?”

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