Chapter 18

The Hunters

 

 

The great black horse stomped and snorted. Musuka looked over his shoulder at the beast. Fiery red eyes glowered back at him, and Musuka smiled. “B-b-b-beautiful,” he whispered.

The brush behind the horse shuttered and a pair of game birds, pheasants, Musuka thought, shot out of the thicket like they’d been fired from a cannon. Akandu’s helmet appeared over the brush, and a moment later the giant burst from the thickets, his gray skin impervious to the thorns that would rip Musuka’s thin furry hide to shreds.

Akandu was dragging two men by their hair. The men were naked except for loin cloths and covered with blue tattoos. Neither of the men were resisting; not that it would have done them any good. As they neared, Musuka saw the bloody holes in the men’s chests. The men weren’t resigned to their fate, they were dead. Judging by the wounds, Akandu had shot the pair with his bow, and given the giant’s immense strength, the arrows had passed through the men like hot knives through butter.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?” Musuka asked.

Akandu raised his arms, lifting the bodies over his head. “Hunting.”

“I ca-ca-can see that, but why? These two aren’t wh-wh-worth the arrows.”

“Then find me something better, Mouse,” Akandu snarled. “I’m bored.” He dropped his prey and sat down on a boulder. “And I’m sick of waiting.”

Musuka turned his back on the giant and lifted his spyglass to his eye. He and Akandu had set up on the hill overlooking the road leading from the do-gooder wizard’s town to the gate near the big lake. The road looped around a collection of low rocky hills before it followed the lake’s shore to the gate. A path ran through the hills, offering a more direct route to the gate. It cut almost four miles off the distance, but hills were full of the nasty tattooed creatures like those Akandu had shot. Only the skilled and foolish took the path. The elf they were hunting was no fool.

A popping sound made Musuka look behind him. Akandu was pulling the limbs off the dead men. Bored. Musuka resumed his scan. Four travelers came around a bend. Three were hooded. He worked the spy glass tubes to focus on the one that wasn’t. A she-elf, but not the one they were looking for.

Musuka aimed the glass at the leader. Large; not Akandu large, but bigger than the other three. Musuka couldn’t make out the leader’s features through the cloak, but whatever it was, it was too bulky to be an elf. It was carrying a large shield and longsword. Most likely a warrior, he thought. It and a hundred like it would be no match for Akandu.

He moved the glass to the slight figure behind the warrior. This one wore no travel cloak over its plain brown robe. Spellcaster, probably a cleric or a mage; no match for the magic Musuka carried.

Finally, Musuka zoomed in on the figure bringing up the rear. This one was taller than the rest and strode confidently in high black boots, ranger boots. Musuka smiled. This was the one they’d take soon. Not today, though. It wasn’t time. They weren’t ready in his world. He wasn’t ready. Besides, they had to visit a wizard first.

Musuka studied the tall traveler for a few more moments. “Soon,” he said out loud. The “S” flowed off his tongue without a hint of a stutter.

“What did you say?” the sulking giant demanded.

“I-i-i-t’s time to go,” Musuka said as he shoved his spy glass into his pack.

Akandu sprang to his feet. The giant could move with frightening speed. “We go to the road?”

Musuka plucked a white teleportation orb from his spell pouch. “No. We go to Blackwood.” No stutter. Soon, he wouldn’t need the giant.