“From the bridge garrison?” Mala asked him, tightening her armor. Her dark hair hung long and wet over her shoulders.
“No.” Kavik had spotted the dogs running ahead of the soldiers. “They’ve tracked us.”
Her full lips twisted with irritation. “Sent by Barin?”
“We’ll find out.”
Not by waiting at camp for them to arrive—their position would be too much of a disadvantage. Mounted, they rode out to meet the soldiers. Only a dozen of them. If Barin meant to kill Kavik and Mala, he’d have sent more.
The company leader slowed at their approach and Kavik recognized the captain of the citadel guard. Red-faced and sweating, Heddiq was more accustomed to sitting for meals in the citadel garrison than hard riding.
At two hundred paces, Heddiq rose his fist and shouted across the distance, “Halt! We have a message for the questing one.”
For Mala. When Kavik looked to her, she was regarding the soldiers with pursed lips. Finally she murmured something to Shim, who slowed to a walk. Kavik reined in his gelding.
She slid him an amused glance. “It seems that whatever the message is, they do not want to be too near us when they deliver it.” Lifting her voice, she called out, “What is this message?”
“It is of two parts, and from our glorious Lord Barin!” Heddiq shouted. “He wishes you to know that a cleansed river will only bring the demon tusker from his den more often! You do not help anyone, and many will likely die when the demon emerges!”
Her expression flattened. “And the second part?”
Heddiq’s horse pranced uneasily and backed up, as if the man’s hands were hard and nervous on the bit. “Our glorious lord grows weary of waiting! You must bring the tamed beast to his hall by the new moon.”
“And if I do not?”
“He will kill the son of Karn and you will fail your quest!”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. She glanced to Kavik. “The king’s son still lives? Why would his death affect my quest?”
His heart a burning weight, he could only return her gaze. Her lips suddenly parted and she sucked in a sharp breath. Abruptly Shim reared and pivoted. Mala’s red cloak flared open over his back, and Kavik had never seen anything so fierce and beautiful as when she faced the soldiers again.
“Return this message!” she shouted. “The goddess Vela guides my blade, and when her hand is upon my sword, it will cut even a sorcerer’s neck from his shoulders! And to make sure the message is delivered properly, piss on him as you speak it! Now, run!”
The captain of the guard only hesitated a moment before giving the signal. With a thunder of hooves, the company started south. Mala stared after them with clenched jaw.
“Heddiq won’t piss on Barin,” Kavik said. The guard would probably be too afraid to relay her message at all. “But he likely just pissed on himself.”
“Heddiq?” She whirled to face him. “That was the captain of the citadel guard?”
“He is.”
Rare indecision warred upon her features. “I had never seen him. But I warned those raping pig guards that if ever I did, I would kill him.” She looked to Kavik. “Barin must have known that when he sent him. It can’t be usual for a guard to ride with mounted soldiers.”
“It’s not.”
“More of Barin’s amusements, perhaps,” she said softly. “He must have expected me to kill him. But I will not be yanked by a leash any more than you will. So Heddiq has a reprieve. Now that I know his face, however, he will not have one again.” She looked to the river. “Is it true what he said of the demon tusker—that it will emerge early to foul the waters again?”
“It might be.” Kavik nudged his mount back toward camp. “Or Barin might hope to stop you from cleansing them again. His concern is not for the people, but how to control them—though I don’t know how he knew to send the message when you cleansed the river only today.”
“Shortly after I began following you, I cleansed the river just north of Perca,” she said. “Shim was thirsty.”
Kavik frowned. “Did you tell anyone?”
She shook her head. “It would do more harm than good if people knew and began to use the waters, then they were befouled again. I would not have said anything of it until we slew the demon tusker. We need to return to the city. If Barin spoke true, then the demon will soon come to that river.”
“Or this one.”
But even as he said it, Kavik knew there was little choice. If Barin spoke truth, then many villages north of Perca would be in the demon’s path. Far fewer people lived near this river. So instead of leading her away from the demon tusker, Kavik would ride with her toward it.
“We will have to gamble,” she said, then suddenly grinned. “I prefer the city, because we will be more likely to find a soft bed to pass my moon night in.”
Kavik’s chest tightened. And he would be more likely to find the help he needed to persuade her that he could not be tamed. She might not abandon her quest, but if she did not touch him, he could continue standing firm.
Her grin faded when she glanced at his face. “Kavik?”
He forced himself to nod, his voice rough. “I agree. A soft bed.”
She watched him a moment longer. “You are truly Karn’s son?”
“I am.”
“And so that is why Barin amused himself with you.” With a sigh, she looked ahead. “My mother spoke well of your father. They met once when she was young. Before the Destroyer. Was that who killed him?”
“No.” Kavik stared at the river, seeing nothing. “Barin came to Blackmoor ahead of the Destroyer. He was instructed to persuade my father to give him the location of a passageway beneath the mountains. My ancestors had trapped the demon there during the time of the ancients. Barin said the Destroyer wanted to use the demon’s power, and such an alliance might save Blackmoor, but my father refused. At first.”
“He was tortured?” Mala’s dark gaze was solemn upon his face. “But that is not all Barin does to those he wants to hurt.”
Of course she understood. Though the details were not always the same, this story was a common one from during the time of the Destroyer. “I had brothers, a mother. Barin gave them to his soldiers. My father revealed the passageway’s location, hoping to save them.”
“Did he?”
His throat burning, Kavik shook his head. “She had been heavy with child—with me. I was all that Barin returned to him. Then he let us go.”
“Because it amused him,” Mala said flatly.
“It did.”
“Where did you go?”
“The Weeping Forest. Not as I live there now. There was an inn at the edge of the forest. My father still had gold, a few servants. But Barin had taken most of his fingers and he couldn’t hold a sword. So I held it for him the first time I returned to the citadel.”
Jaw clenched, she looked ahead again, but held her tongue. He knew what she would say. His father must have been mad. Kavik had only seen eight winters then.
“He was mad,” Kavik said softly. “But the hope of freeing Blackmoor from Barin’s reign was all that he had. And I knew nothing else. Nothing but trying to discover a way to kill him.”