Chapter 8 #2
They didn’t go far when the forest grew unnaturally quiet. Not the natural stillness of dawn before birds stirred awake, but the heavy silence of something listening.
Kaelan slowed instantly.
His hand tightened around Bria’s as his gaze swept through the dense greenery surrounding them. The alertness she had sensed in him moments earlier sharpened further now, every line of him suddenly taut with readiness.
Then he stepped slightly in front of her. Not enough to block her entirely but enough to shield her.
Bria’s pulse quickened. “What is it?”
Kaelan pressed his finger to his lips to warn her to be silent.
She remained quiet and that’s when she heard it… a branch snapped somewhere ahead. Leaves crunched beneath heavy footfalls and birds scattered from trees overhead. Bria moved closer to Kaelan’s back.
A moment later a man stepped from between the pale trees.
Bria’s breath caught softly.
She had no knowledge of what the inhabitants of Driochmor looked like, but she got the sense this man wasn’t one of them. And no one from the Kingdom of Scotara was allowed in Driochmor. No one. It was forbidden.
Yet the stranger stood there as though the forbidden land held no more concern for him than an ordinary woodland path.
He appeared several years older than Kaelan, lean and sharp-featured beneath travel-worn clothing stained from a long journey. Dark hair brushed the collar of his cloak, and watchful gray eyes missed very little as they settled first on Kaelan… then briefly on Bria.
At his feet trotted a strange little creature no larger than a small dog. Long floppy ears bounced as it moved, while enormous dark eyes peered curiously through thick pale fur. The odd little thing stayed close to the stranger at first, though its attention quickly drifted toward Bria.
The man smiled faintly, though something about it failed to warm his face.
“Well now,” he said smoothly. “I did not expect to see outsiders in Driochmor.”
“Nor I,” Kaelan said coldly.
The stranger looked briefly between them, sharp enough that Bria sensed he noticed far more than he revealed.
“Driochmor is a dangerous enough place for a man, let alone a woman,” he remarked casually.
Kaelan shifted subtly farther in front of Bria. “She has nothing to worry about. I will keep her safe. But if you know this is such a dangerous place, what are you, an outsider, doing here?”
“Private business for the king. And you? I am sure the king would like to know what two of his subjects are doing in Driochmor.”
Bria studied him. There was no ease in the man, he stood anxious, his temper just beneath the surface.
She supposed he could be on a mission for the king.
Perhaps he was sent into Driochmor to search for the healer who could defy death.
Still, there was something about him that just did not sit right with her.
The small creature, however, seemed far less wary.
It wandered away from the man entirely and trotted toward her, sniffing curiously at the hem of her skirt before rubbing against it affectionately.
A smile touched Bria despite the tension surrounding them.
“Well, you are a friendly little thing.”
She bent slightly to pet him—
“Do not touch him!”
The sharp command came not from Kaelan but from the stranger.
The little creature instantly darted beneath Bria’s skirts and pressed itself trembling against her leg.
Bria froze in surprise, sensing fear, and it was not her own. It was the little creature’s.
It shook violently where it hid against her, and the moment Bria realized that fear was for the man standing before them, her healer instincts took over without hesitation. She scooped the trembling thing into her arms.
“Easy now,” she soothed softly, one hand stroking through its thick fur while the other rested gently against its small racing heart.
At once, emotion flooded through her: confusion, loneliness, fear. And beneath it all… home. A desperate aching need to go home.
It was clear to her. She could feel his heartbreak. The creature had been taken, abducted from his home.
Bria looked sharply toward the stranger. “He fears you.”
“It has nothing to fear as long as it obeys me and it seldom does,” the man said annoyed. “Now hand it over. It belongs to me.”
The little creature buried himself tighter against Bria.
“Nay,” she said firmly. “He does not belong to you.”
The stranger’s gaze hardened. “Careful, woman, or you will find—”
Kaelan lurched forward then with such fierceness that the man jumped back and anger rumbled through his warning.
“Do not dare threaten my woman. Leave now… without the animal.”
The forest itself seemed to turn silent at his commanding warning.
The stranger held Kaelan’s gaze a moment too long, as though deciding whether to challenge him.
Then he stepped forward, only one step, then he abruptly stopped.
Bria saw the exact instant something changed.
The man’s bravado not only vanished but his face paled. His eyes fixed briefly on Kaelan with something very close to alarm before he quickly masked it again and took a careful step backward instead.
Kaelan remained perfectly still. Too still. She had never seen such control, not the slightest movement could be detected. It was as if he were waiting for the right moment to pounce.
The stranger forced a smile that barely curled his lips. “Take it. I have no further use for it.”
The little creature gave a soft, relieved sound against Bria’s chest.
The stranger’s eyes lingered on it briefly before returning to Kaelan once more. Then, without another word, he disappeared back into the forest.
Bria watched until the trees swallowed him completely.
Only then did she turn toward Kaelan. “What frightened him so badly that he stepped away from you?”
A faint shadow of amusement touched Kaelan’s mouth, though his eyes remained watchful on the forest around them.
“One look is all it takes.”
“You are telling me that one look frightened him off?” she asked, skeptical.
“It depends on the look,” he said with a grin.
The small creature suddenly wriggled free from her arms before landing lightly upon the ground.
Bria was quick to call out, “Wait—”
The little thing darted several steps ahead before stopping to look back at them expectantly.
His floppy ears twitched, then he scampered farther ahead.
“I think he wants us to follow him,” she said, tilting her head slightly and the little fellow doing the same.
“Should we trust you, little guy?” Kaelan asked.
The creature gave another soft bark-like sound and bounded ahead again.
“What do you think?” Bria asked Kaelan.
The little creature barked again impatiently.
Kaelan held his hand out to her and she took it, and they followed the little creature deeper into Driochmor.