Witch Bane (8 page)

“
To include pretending they are Red
Guard so they can draw us further into their conflict and spare
their own forces.” Sebastian sighed. “I should have seen it coming,
as well.”

“
How would you?” his father asked.
“I’ve kept you sequestered your entire life, so this is my failure
to sow. You know only combat, not people…all thanks to me and my
foolish notion that I could protect you from the callous stupidity
that runs so rampant in the realm.” He gnashed his teeth, a
whispered curse slipping from between them. “I gave no thought to
the world we’d return to once your training was complete, but only
of your mother and the sweetness of the revenge we’d bestow upon
her murderers. I thought only of myself.” Darius turned away, his
eyes misted silver. “I’m sorry, son.”

Sebastian set a hand on his father’s
shoulder. “I hold no ill will towards you for what you’ve made me.”
He tugged Darius around to face him. “You’ve kept me alive and
protected me from the fate that has taken the rest of my kind. For
all your yearning for revenge, you were there for me as no other
could have been. I could ask for no greater father than you.” He
painted a cruel smile across his lips. “And I, too, want what you
want; more than anything. I want to see the entrails of the witches
splayed across my sword. If there is a different life to be had, it
will wait for me on the other side of what we must do. When
mother’s spirit has been sated, we can begin again and worry then
of the fools that litter Mynistiria.”

A tear spilled from Darius’ eye and carved a
trail down the dust that colored his cheek. He pulled Sebastian to
him and hugged him tight, finally letting him loose with a hardy
slap on his back. “And so we shall, my son.” He wiped the tear
away, smearing his face with a streak of dirt. “Come now, let’s get
moving. We’ve a ways to go before we reach the next shining example
of humanity.”

Sebastian chuckled as they marched on. After
a while, Darius pulled ahead once more and Sebastian slowed. He was
tired, and his steps were leaden. It had taken a lot more energy
than he’d been prepared to expend to conjure the fireball he’d used
to ignite the wood pile at Deliton.

Though his father had been an expert teacher
when it came to the arts of war, a general who had stood behind his
sword far longer than Sebastian had been alive, his knowledge of
spell casting was limited to what he had gleaned from Sebastian’s
mother. It wasn’t enough.

After Darius’ defeat at the hands of the Red
Guard army, their might bolstered by the witches of the High
Council, he was enslaved and forced to serve the witches. When
Sebastian’s mother had come to power years later, he had become her
personal servant, bound to her whims through the use of magical
sigils drawn into his flesh. His servitude slowly became
companionship, in secret, and the sigils were removed in secret as
their trust blossomed into love. He learned much in the ten years
they’d been together, and that knowledge was what Darius had
drilled into Sebastian.

Though it was a good foundation, much of
what he had been exposed to was beyond him. Darius was no warlock
and had never experienced the intricacies of magic firsthand. He
was, however, a warrior-bred, through and through. He began to
teach Sebastian to fight as soon as he could walk, doing the best
he could with regards to the magical aspects. It was difficult for
both of them. Rather than risk doing harm to Sebastian by pushing
him toward a goal Darius couldn’t comprehend, he focused his
training on the military arts, letting Sebastian come largely into
his own as far as his magic was concerned.

In doing so, Sebastian had never
learned the lessons most witches learned early in their life.
Though he had inherited his mother’s power, he was twice cursed by
being male on top of his father’s lack of knowledge. Slower to gain
mastery than women, warlocks came into their strength later in
life, the subtlety of dexterous use mostly beyond them. So, while
Sebastian might one day grow to surpass the greatest of the witches
in pure power, he found himself limited by his age
and
his gender. The tiny ball of
fire he’d summoned, a task so easily performed by the captain he’d
killed, was the equivalent to climbing a small mountain for
him.

His feet dragged in the humus, his
boots scraping an obvious trail behind him as he walked. He
adjusted his cloak to take the weight from his shoulders when he
stumbled over a buried root. Sebastian caught himself before he
fell, cursing under his breath as he felt a twinge of pain at his
ankle, his foot slightly twisted as he regained his balance. He
bent down to examine his ankle when he heard a sharp
snap
come from the woods, somewhere
behind him. His father still in sight ahead, it wasn’t him that had
made the sound.

Adrenaline sparked in Sebastian’s veins, but
he stayed where he knelt, shifting only slightly to widen his field
of view, scanning the trees to the edge of his peripheral vision.
He rubbed at his ankle with more animation than it needed,
complaining out loud as he searched for the source of the
noise.

He could hear nothing but the quiet sounds
of the distant forest. It told him as much as if he had heard
someone call out. Sebastian clenched his teeth, but kept his
frustration from his face, smoothing his emotions away as he rose
to his feet. Exaggerating a slight limp, he hobbled off after his
father, calling out to him to slow so he could catch up.

Darius turned and Sebastian faked a stumble,
drawing his father to him quickly. Darius ran to him and wrapped an
arm around his shoulder for support, concern evident in his wide
eyes.

“
We’re being followed,” Sebastian
whispered as he shifted his weight to be near his father’s
ear.

“
Come on, boy. Let’s find a place to
set camp so we can get a good look at that leg of yours,” Darius
answered loudly, tapping Sebastian’s side twice to let him know he
had heard and understood the warning.

Sebastian shifted again and hid his hand
from being seen from behind as he pointed out the general direction
he believed their follower to be.

Darius gave the shallowest of nods. “We
can’t break off without arousing suspicion. Ready for a fight?” His
words were little more than a soft exhalation.

“
No,” Sebastian whispered back. Though
his ankle was nothing more than an annoyance, the hard travel and
previous battles had taken their toll on him. He could fight if he
must, but he didn’t believe he had to.

A man who believes he has the advantage
doesn’t track his enemy, he engages. Only someone uncertain would
expend the energy necessary to follow someone through a forest
given the effort it takes to remain unseen. Had their follower
intended to do them harm, and felt capable of it, they would likely
have already been attacked. He knew his father was thinking the
same, for it was he that taught Sebastian such wisdom.

The two moved slow through the woods without
another word, each casting furtive glances back in hopes of spying
whoever it was that trailed them. Sebastian could see no one, but
the widespread silence of the insects beyond their immediate
vicinity assured him he was still there. The bugs never lied.

While the trip was made more tedious by
their closeness, the fake limp an aggravation to them both, they
stayed together, the whole of their senses trained on the forest
around them. No one showed their face, and they continued on until
the sun began its slow descent below the trees. At last, they
settled for the night, pitching a small camp but starting no fire.
The watcher still unseen, they settled beneath a concealing web of
foliage that hung from a cluster of giant trees. The greenery
providing a good measure of cover from the eyes that had lurked
behind them for hours, they sat more comfortably, the weight of
miles fading slowly from their weary bones.

Sebastian peered off in one direction, his
father the other. Through the fugue of weariness, Sebastian kept
his eyes on the trees despite his wish for sleep. His sword at the
ready, he stared off into the silent darkness and waited. It would
be yet another long night.

Nine

Morning was slow to come. Sebastian and his
father had slept in fitful bouts, each taking turns at watch.
Whoever followed them had kept his distance, never approaching the
camp. The fact that he remained in hiding could be interpreted in
different ways, the majority of the possibilities having flitted
through Sebastian’s mind hundreds of times over the course of the
night. Either he was correct in assuming the tracker was afraid of
them, or he knew they were aware he was there and he’d stayed away
simply to wear them down, their weariness becoming a disadvantage
at some later point in their travels. Sadly, assumptions were all
Sebastian had.

To add to their misery, a number of Red
Guard patrols had crisscrossed the dark skies above their
encampment. The piercing screeches of griffons shattered the
silence, startling Sebastian and Darius from their languid slumber
several times. The night was full of their sounds, and it did
nothing to ease Sebastian’s mind as he sat tense, waiting for
someone to leap from the bushes.

At the first hint of orange in the sky, he
saw his father climb to his feet and stretch. A yawned groan
floated in the morning air, punctuated by the muffled pops of his
knees. Sebastian smiled but he knew he’d sound no better when he
got up, the cold comfort of the earth a horrible substitute for a
feathered mattress and warmed rushes. He tested his ankle to find
it was a little sore, but nothing that would limit his motion.

Sebastian got up slow, knowing his father
would be impatient to leave, but unwilling to rush. His blurry eyes
were on the trees. Hidden as the pair was by the mass of foliage,
it was unlikely they could even be seen, but he had no desire to be
proven wrong. It was far too early to be worrying about being
killed.

He heard his father watering the trees
and waited until he was finished, giving him another moment to
secure his pants before Sebastian followed suit. He chuckled as he
relieved himself behind the broad shelter of a tree trunk.
Now would be the perfect time for an
ambush.

Grateful he got to finish his task without
interruption, he turned back to find his father. A short distance
away, Darius stared at the lightening sky through the shifting
canopy.

“
I suspect we’ll see more patrols
today. After all the excitement, they’ll be thick in the area,” he
whispered, his voice barely carrying to Sebastian’s ear. “We’ll
stick to the deeper woods to keep their eyes off our
backs.”

Sebastian yawned and gave a halfhearted nod.
His day had just become more tedious. While the thick forest might
protect them from being spotted by the soldiers, it made it that
much easier for their follower to draw closer without being seen,
and that much harder for them to navigate. Though he preferred the
certainty of the Red Guard to the unknown threat that lurked behind
them, he said nothing. It was also too early to provoke his
father.

Sebastian retrieved his equipment and passed
his father a piece of salted beef he’d pulled from his small pack.
He grumbled as he gnawed at the leathery meat, slivers of it
getting caught between his teeth. They hadn’t been ready for a long
journey, and their quick departure from Deliton had left them
unprepared for more than just a few days in the wilderness. They
had not claimed the supplies promised them by Jonas, setting off
without them. Fortunately, they’d reach the village of Cammpras
before the day’s light failed. They could buy what they needed
there, or scavenge it; whatever they deemed most appropriate at the
time.

Barely awake, Sebastian set his mind on the
task ahead and focused his senses once more on their surroundings.
Their unwanted companion had all night to re-position for a fresh
start, so until they could pick him out of the background noise of
the forest, it was best to stay alert.

His father looked over at him and
motioned to Sebastian’s leg with his eyes. Sebastian waved him off.
“If he didn’t take the bait when it was
fresh
, he’s not likely to do it now,” he
whispered.

Darius shrugged in agreement and slipped
between the foliage cover, and out into the woods. Sebastian
followed, adjusting his scabbard for ease of access just in case he
was wrong. No longer pretending his injuring to be limiting, it
felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
He could move freely until they reached the deeper forest.

They moved through the clustered trees, not
bothering to hide their trail or quiet their passage. It had taken
only minutes for Sebastian to pick out the telltale sounds of their
shadowy friend. He smiled when he realized he had done it before
his father had. Darius gave him a furtive glance over his shoulder
when he’d spied the tracker, and caught Sebastian smiling.
Sebastian winked and continued on. His father slowed just enough to
nudge him in the side with a sharp elbow. Sebastian covered his
laugh with a cough and pulled ahead so Darius couldn’t see the grin
that was still plastered on his face.

Several hours later, the grin had melted
away, replaced by a fine sheen of sweat, which misted his face and
stung his eyes. The space between the trees had shrunken, the
trunks growing incestuously close together. Gnarled roots and vines
tugged at their feet to make every step a challenge. Sebastian
wiped the moisture from his brow and mumbled a curse as he
gracelessly slipped between two massive tree trunks.