Page 49 of The Lost Guard's Healer

I begin my long journey home.

And I pretend that I don’t regret every step.

Chapter twenty

Rourk

Iwalk for over an hour without looking back. I have to keep my focus on the future. On getting back to my daughter, my brother, my soldiers. My people.

I’ve already begun to imagine my reunion with May and Arthur. If all goes well, I will be with them again in a week. And yet, I can’t deny something is pulling me backward. There’s energy in the air that feels like it’s almost calling to me, but I can’t fully detect what it is. It might not even be there. It’s as though the more I focus on it, the less I feel it, and when I try to empty my mind or think of other things, that energy is there lurking in the back of my mind. It’s lingering in the air, all around.

Freddick’s pained face sticks in my mind. I hate I had to leave him like that.

I’ve been wondering if the growing danger that Freddick mentioned is related to whatever Aldus and the others had been discussing. I’ve never heard of a thoro-seer before and guess it’s a device of some kind. A secret of the Shanti People.

It was odd that they hadn’t wanted to involve the elders. Maybe they were going behind the elder’s backs. Could they be looking to overthrow the elders? No, that doesn’t feel right.

Whatever the case is, I’m sure I shouldn’t care. The Shanti People will keep their secrets and I will go on my way.

As I cross through a field of yellow grass, my thoughts shift to Galene. She has been a constant presence in my mind, lingering in the back at all times. I can’t deny how alive I’d felt in her presence these last few days.

I tell myself this has just been a moment in time. Something I’ll have to move on from. You are an Oathlander, Rourk. “All Oathlanders sicken me. I could never befriend someone like you.” Her words echo through my mind and churn my stomach. Images of her are replaced with that seething hatred she’d shown in our last meeting this morning.

My boots squelch in the soft mud. I take a look at Aldus’s map to be sure I’m going the right way. The recent rain might have shifted the land a little, meaning I would have to adjust my bearing slightly. The last thing I want is to divert my course without realizing it and add more time to my journey.

From the look of the map, it seems that I’m going to have to cross this muddy area. I take a few more steps before I stop again.

A print in the mud gives me pause. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I’m looking at, and my pulse rises. A large indentation is in the mud, in the shape of an animal footprint. Except it is larger than any animal I’ve ever seen. There is a distinct shape of a wide round paw and four individual toe prints. Sharp lines from the toes tell me the paw has long claws.

A second paw print is nearby. I inspect the prints and find a partial third print. These indentations are fresh, and they are pointing north. I check the map and realize the prints are leading toward the fields to the north, where I was told Leila and the boys would be. Where Galene was heading.

This could be a coincidence, and the large animal may have changed course between here and the crops. But I can’t take that chance. Not with Galene, the only woman who has ever reminded me of my wife. The only woman who—

I cut the thought off.

My heart races now at the thought of Galene, Leila, and her sons being in danger.

I don’t know if I can make it in time to help them, but I have to try. I can’t just keep going home now. I can’t ignore this.

The Oathlands are going to have to wait.

I break into a run, heading north to intercept the giant animal. I just hope I’ll make it before anyone gets hurt.

Chapter twenty-one

Galene

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk?” Leila asks me.

I give her a tired look. “I’m fine. Really. Why is it so odd that I wanted to come and spend time with my sister and nephews?”

She narrows her eyes. “Alright. You keep your secrets. We won’t talk about how you probably didn’t want to say goodbye to Tarin. He likely would be gone by now, so you can head back if you like.”

“I couldn’t care less about Tarin,” I say, a little too heatedly.

I can see from her knowing look that she knows this is about Tarin. About Rourk.

I had just wanted to go for a long walk to clear my head, and spend some time beyond the village. Rourk will have left by now so I can begin putting him behind me. A familiar warmth washes over me when I think of our close moment in the mountains. How passionate we had been. It had felt more like a dream than anything real, so I have decided to keep it that way. It was just a strange moment that had happened, exactly like a dream.

---