Voidhawk - the White Lady Page 15

  He regained his feet when he was struck again. One of the gajrin hunters that had joined the chase drove his spear into Logan’s leg. Logan spun, shattering the shaft of the spear with another clawed swipe. He fell, the damaged muscles not supporting him, but rolled to gather his good leg under him. He considered a complete shift, that would give him three legs to run on. Awkward, but possible.

  A roar stopped him. Ragnar towered over him, a paw raised with claws fully extended. Logan snarled at him.

  “Stop!” He roared again. “Your bitch lives. You violated the field of honor. For this you should die! You harmed my huntress without cause, for this you will die!”

  Logan growled. Already the pain had faded from his leg. He just had to keep Ragnar talking another few moments and he’d be able to use it again.

  “Chieftain, Varixxa is dying!”

  Ragnar looked at the wounded huntress. Logan glanced as well, unable to stop himself. He’d clawed deeply across her abdomen with one hand and her shoulder and neck with the other. Blood spurted from her neck and coated the fine fur on her chest red.

  “Heal her,” Haley called out.

  “Silence!” Ragnar shouted. He turned about in a circle, eyeing the three humans. “Kill them. Kill them all!”

  “Wait,” Haley persisted. “Logan can heal her!”

  Ragnar turned to stare at the wolfen man. “Is this true, dog-man?”

  Logan swallowed down his ire and looked over to see Bailynn cradling her side. She’d climbed to her knees but remained where Ragnar had defeated her. Ragnar’s cheek still dripped blood. Logan nodded. “I can try,” he said in a guttural voice.

  “Her life and yours are bound together,” Ragnar snarled.

  Logan pushed the wolf away. He climbed to his feet, his leg healed enough for him to walk. Inside of the four steps it took him to reach Varissa his limp disappeared. He dropped next to her and studied the wound. The force of the eruptions of blood were lessening. A glance at her eyes showed a mixture of fear and hatred. He refocused on her wounds, ignoring everything else.

  His hands were coated in blood as soon as he touched her. He ignored the heat and the stink of it. She reeked of fear and death, something he’d seldom noticed before. He wondered if it was another talent acquired from the wolf within him.

  As with Haley, Logan had to push his magic into her in order to understand her wounds. They were grievous. Death was coming quick. Even with his aid he might be too late. He pushed more power into her, fixing the shredded arteries first and then channeling what energy that remained into knitting tissues back together.

  The weariness grew so great in him that he had to back away. He slumped, exhausted, then felt Bailynn touch him on the back of the neck. The simple act of making contact, her skin against his, refreshed his connection with her and pushed his fatigue away. He felt the pains in her side and arm, as well as bruising and damage from having Ragnar lying on top of her. With barely a thought he was able to erase the damage in her, then realized that healing Bailynn hadn’t taken any of his energy. It may have even strengthened it.

  He straightened, then leaned back in and put his hands against Varissa again. His efforts ended quickly, the recharge fleeting. It was enough, he thought, to get her through. Logan rose to his feet, Bailynn standing close by to offer support if need be. “She needs to rest, to eat, and to learn when not to interfere.”

  Ragnar hissed at him and pawed the ground. “It would seem she’s not the only one. I spared Little Mouse for her bravery and skill. I will spare you for undoing the harm you caused.”

  “And Haley?” Bailynn pressed.

  Ragnar snarled. “I’ve no use for her. Take her and be gone.”

  “Ragnar! I challenge you!”

  Ragnar turned to address the new threat. Another gajrin hunter, as large as Ragnar if not as seasoned, stood with his chest thrust out and spear held proudly. “You grow soft, letting humans escape. It is not our way!”

  “I decide our way!” Ragnar spat at him.

  Logan and Bailynn edged away from the confrontation, her spear forgotten and discarded on the field of honor. Haley joined them, the gajrin pushing forward to watch the growing confrontation. Words and roars were shouted then cheering erupted.

  “We need to go while they’re distracted. Should Ragnar fall…”

  Logan nodded and stripped out of his clothing without delay. Bailynn grabbed it and shoved it in his pack, then tossed the pack to Haley. When she turned back his transformation was complete. He dropped low for her to climb on but she shook her head.

  “I’m fine, we can make better time if we all run. Until I tire, that is.”

  Logan nodded and rose up, then he was off. Haley and Bailynn followed, putting as much distance between themselves and the battle behind them as possible.

  Chapter 11

  “How are we going to find her?” Bailynn asked. After leaving the borders of the grajin’s lands they’d rested the few hours of the night that remained.

  “I’ve heard of The White Lady, but only in passing and it’s been many months.”

  “I meant Bekka.”

  Haley shrugged. “If it’s as you say, find the White Lady and we’ll find Bekka.”

  Logan nodded. “Where were you when you heard of her, with Ragnar?”

  “No, I was on a mission for him. Some distance to the southwest.”

  “What sort of mission?”

  “Stalking and punishing thieves that had stolen from him. Does that matter?” Haley stared at Logan but for the first time, Logan felt as though she was open to discussion instead of challenging him.

  He was about to respond when he realized that his responses might not matter. The way he’d been raised and the beliefs he’d held dear were based on a religion that no longer applied. If ever it had applied! He shrugged. “I suppose that’s up to you, not me.”

  Bailynn looked at him, her head twisted a little. Logan returned her gaze with a faint smile. “I don’t heal people based on divine right. What duty is it of mine to preach teachings that have never truly mattered?”

  “You never preached to anyone,” Bailynn said softly. “You always helped. You listened and you made people believe they could be better than they were.”

  “Better?” Logan’s tone was sour.

  “Aye, better. Not better at causing pain or hardship, better at understanding themselves and making good decisions.”

  Logan kept his snort as quiet as possible. “Perhaps, I still feel I lived my life playing the fool.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of time to make up for it,” Bailynn winked at him, drawing attention to the fact that she’d used the word ‘we.’

  “Bacon?” Haley asked, holding up a strip of the boragin meat on a stick.

  Logan and Bailynn were drawn to each other. They laughed, but that didn’t stop Logan from accepting the snack and shoving it into his mouth. He tried to speak but had to wait until he’d swallowed the meat. “Haley, when you’d heard of the White Lady, do you recall where she was or who’d said it?”

  “A mercenary that hired on with caravans as a guard,” she said, spearing a few more pieces of meat and holding the over the fire. “He’d come down from the north. All he’d said was that the people lay in fear every night of the White Lady. Having a daughter was a terror for a father, it was said. Until the daughter was wed there was always the fear that her army would come and steal her.”

  “Until she was wed?” Logan echoed.

  “Of course!” Bailynn snapped her fingers, then grimaced. Logan saw blood well up on her palm.

  “What happened?” Logan asked, reaching over to take her hand and study it. The moment of contact proved all the studying he needed. He smiled at her as he mended the scratch. She closed her eyes and shivered.

  “Triggered my claws when I snapped my fingers,” she explained. “What I meant was—”

  “Wait, you triggered your claws? You’re not wearing your gloves right now?”

>   Bailynn gasped, her hand going to her mouth. “I never told you! I’m sorry, so much happened it just slipped away from me When I realized I couldn’t have what I wanted I took the next best thing, I got my own beast back.”

  Bailynn’s grin only added to Logan’s confusion. “What you wanted most? I don’t understand…well, I don’t understand any of it!”

  “For such a wise and responsible man you can be thick as the hull on a ship at times. I wanted you, silly. When have I been shy about that. They offered you to me, but it wasn’t the real you. When I realized I could only have you if you wanted me too, I realized I had to make myself happy. Then if you were a fool and spurned me I’d still have myself.”

  Logan smirked. “A fool, eh?”

  “It’s been hard getting through to you,” she reminded him. His smirk turned to a chuckle. “So I’m not like I was before the elders healed me, but they merged the gloves the elders had given me with me, allowing me to control them much as I did before. My transformation isn’t as impressive as yours, nor is it even as dangerous as my own used to be, but you’ve seen what I can do again.”

  Logan nodded. She was a very dangerous opponent and not one he’d recommend anyone ever cross. “That explains a lot. I kept wondering how you had your claws without putting your gloves on.”

  She grinned and held up her hands. Before his eyes her fingers shifted and morphed into razor sharp points. A moment later they were gone, returning to her small and feminine hands. Logan shook his head, amazed. “Now then, what did you snap your fingers for?”

  “Oh! The reason why they go after unwed girls. The same reason they went after Bekka and myself.”

  Logan stared at her, not getting it. “Why would being married have anything to do with it? You think the White Lady doesn’t want to upset husbands?”

  Bailynn stared at him. Haley laughed from where she roasted the last of the meat from Pigtooth. Logan glanced at both of them until Haley sighed and said, “I don’t know about the hull of a ship, but I think your head might rival some rocks around here. Maidens. This White Lady only wants to steal virgins.”

  “Oh!” Logan gasped. He found himself glancing around for a rock and wondered if Haley was right.

  Bailynn giggled again. “Want to protect me from her wicked army?”

  Logan blushed, then grabbed a cooked piece of meat and shoved it in his mouth to spare him further embarrassment.

  “The inn you stayed in, they seemed to know much of her,” Haley continued, sparing him from Bailynn’s continued directness. Bailynn sighed before grabbing some of the meat for herself.

  “Aye, we’ll head there first. We’ll ask along the way, but if nothing else turns up, we force an answer out of them.”

  “Then let’s finish up and be on our way. It’s been what, 3 days so far?” Haley asked. “The inn you mentioned is another 3 or 4 days from here?”

  “Less, we’ll run.”

  “As much as I love wrapping my legs around you, I don’t think a wolf jogging down the road is a wise idea.”

  Logan choked on the piece of meat he was chewing. After he could breathe clearly again he saw the twinkle in Bailynn’s eye. “Good point. We can still run, but on two feet instead of four.”

  * * * *

  They learned quickly that running up to travelers to ask about the White Lady was ill advised. Logan had nearly been run through and Haley had stared down the length of a cocked crossbow bolt. After the first couple of incidents they learned to ask their questions with more subtlety. For their troubles they’d learned next to nothing. No one knew where the White Lady lived.

  The next caravan they encountered had them slowing as it approached. A guard on horseback moved to keep himself between them. Logan hailed him, raising his hand to show he meant no harm.

  “Move along, traveler, we’re bound southward and on a schedule.”

  “Aye, I’ve no interest in detaining you,” Logan countered, staring up at the man. The horse whickered nervously and refused to stand still with Logan so close. “A man such as you must see a lot of miles.”

  He chuckled, then cursed as his horse shied away from Logan. “Might want to step back, she’s never been skittish like this but there’s something about you she’s not liking.”

  “I get that from women no matter their race,” Logan joked.

  The guard laughed with him. “Show them coin, that keeps them interested longer!”

  Logan shared a laugh with the man even though it was forced. “We’ve heard tell these are dangerous lands at night to travel with a young lady. I need to keep my sister safe, do you know anything about the rumors I’ve heard?”

  “Rumors? Of what?” The man asked, glancing behind as the lead wagon reached him and started to pass. The driver yelled at him to get back to his position. The guard waved him off.

  “Evil minions stealing maidens in the middle of the night for someone called the White Lady?” The horse whinnied. “Seems your horse knows something.”

  He laughed, then leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I never seen nothing, mind you, but I heard them stories too. Seems like people from all the way west to Cleval got some fear of her in them. I even heard they leave sacrifices once a month when both moons are full.”

  “Sacrifices?” Logan asked, appalled.

  “Livestock, gold, wine…perfectly good things that are gone in the morning.”

  “So from here to Cleval. How far is that?”

  “Four days travel west, but that’s by the roads that have to go around the Wyvern Rifts between here and there.”

  “Wyvern Rifts?” Suddenly the White Lady didn’t sound like the most dangerous threat.

  The guard looked behind him as another driver shouted. The third and final wagon as passing him. He made a rude gesture and turned back to Logan. “I’ve got to be going, friend. Take care of your sister and good luck!”

  “Wait, what are the Wyvern Rifts? We’re from the south, past the swamplands.”

  “Set of canyons and hills to the west a day or so. Filled with them flying lizards. I seen ‘em once. Damn thing was big enough to carry off a pony!”

  Logan’s eyes stretched in appreciation of how big the wyvern must have been to do such a thing. A flying lizard. Why not, he’d already fought off a swimming lizard. “My thanks, good journeys to you as well.”

  The guard saluted and was off at a gallop to reclaim his position at the head of the caravan. The other guards chided him as he passed them. Logan turned back to Haley and Bailynn.

  “The Wyvern Rifts?” Bailynn asked.

  “Heard of them,” Haley said. Seeing two sets of eyes staring expectantly at her she said, “What he said covers it. Cliffs and chasms dotted with caves. Some birds but mostly lizards live there. Wyverns are said to be a cross between the two. I’ve never seen one.”

  Logan grunted while Bailynn stared off to the west. “This road runs north and south. I don’t remember any major roads heading to the west off of it.”

  “You think she’s in the Wyvern Rifts?” Logan asked.

  “Her armies move at night. The walking dead don’t tire or stop for food, so they can make better time than a regular force could. It sounds like the area the White Lady terrorizes is only a few days across. She must be in the middle of it.”

  The logistics made sense. He nodded thoughtfully, then turned to follow Bailynn’s line of sight. All they saw was trees in the distance, but the land had a slight rise to it. “All right, let’s try it. Let’s move quickly, but no running this time. We need to be ready for whatever we encounter.”

  Without a word Haley turned and headed off the road into the countryside, prompting the others to follow or be left behind.

  * * * *

  An unexpected benefit of vicious claws capable of piercing steel is the ease of climbing a tree. Bailynn had saved them hours of walking in circles when Haley suggested someone climb a tree to get an idea of where they needed to go to reach the Wyvern Rifts. Bailynn, being th
e smallest and lightest, volunteered. She’d seen hills to the northwest. With that to go on, they’d amended their course and set out.

  The trees were diminishing as they continued their hike. The sun was setting as well, making it hard to see given the heavy cloud cover overhead. Logan sniffed, smelling the dew that was settling on to the ground. “We’ve bumbled enough in the day, we won’t be trying to find this place in the dark.”

  Bailynn nodded. Haley hesitated, staring ahead. She scowled and knelt down, studying the ground.

  “Haley?”

  Haley sighed. “It’s too dark. If the sky was clear or if we had torches.”

  “If we had torches we’d be a target for those wyverns,” Logan reminded her.

  She shrugged. “Perhaps. I don’t know of any nighttime flying predators.”

  “Bats.”

  “I meant large ones.”

  “I’m sure there’s a giant bat somewhere in the void.”

  Haley scowled at him.

  “I’ll start a fire,” Bailynn said.

  Haley stared at the ground and the hills ahead before rising back to her feet. “You barely know us,” Logan observed, “yet you seem troubled by the delay.”

  Haley’s lips curled up into a smile. “It’s not what you think. Bekka wishes otherwise, but I don’t have such interests in her.”

  Logan held up his hand. “That’s between you and her.”

  “Most religions types frown upon such things.”

  “Religion and I haven’t been seeing eye to eye on things lately,” Logan offered. “So you’ve no interest in romancing her.”

  Haley barked out a laugh. “No, nothing of the sort. She shared so much and asked so many questions of me I think she became a friend.”

  “You think?”

  “It’s been many years since I had a friend.”

  Logan found himself grimacing as he tried to imagine what her life had been like. “Ragnar said something when we took him that pig’s head. He asked if—”

  “Ragnar killed my son in front of me, then he tortured me in front of my husband. When my husband tried to save me Ragnar forced me to watch while he was slowly killed. He cried and begged for mercy before he died. Ragnar wouldn’t give it – he rewards strength, not weakness.”