Page 30 of The Rising Wave

There were exclamations of concern, and Luc guessed they'd been injured.

He snapped out of the doze he'd been in, ready to give his full attention to what was going on.

“What happened?” The general didn't sound worried, he sounded annoyed.

“The dogs, sir. Something's spelled them.” The hunt master sounded beside himself. “They wouldn't come to me when I called, even ones I raised from pups. They stopped to drink and we caught up with them, and they wouldn't mind me, and when I tried to force one back, they attacked us. Attacked me.”

“Juni?”

“Something's wrong with them, sir. I don't know what. But the hunt master's right. They ignored him, and I've never seen them do that. When they'd drunk from the stream, they ran off again. Spooky quiet, sir, and fast. They just disappeared into the bush. We couldn't catch them.”

“And Ava?”

“No sign of her. And to be frank, I don't see how she could have been faster than us. We'd have caught her if she went that way.”

The general was silent.

“Do you think they were spelled, sir?” A soldier asked. “The dogs, I mean.”

“No.” The general moved toward Luc.

Luc could hear his steps, and then sensed him crouch near his side. “No, something's spooked them, or they've got the scent of something more interesting.”

“Sir—” The hunt master started to speak, then thought better of it.

No dog pack behaved the way Juni and the hunt master were describing. And the general was lying. Even Luc, with his eyes closed, could hear it.

“Wake up.” The general shook him, then hit him across the face, but Luc had expected something like this when the general settled in beside him, and he didn't react at all.

But there would be worse. A shake and a slap were child's play.

When he felt the tip of the knife jabbing into his side, he made himself go even looser.

Never react, never show pain.

He'd learned the lessons of the Chosen camps well.

“Is he dead?” someone asked.

“No. He's bleeding where I stabbed him.” The general made a sound of disgust as he moved back and stood. “I'll have to question him in the morning, no matter what, and then we start picking this countryside apart, looking for the woman.” He paused. “Because if we go back without her, I can assure you, not even I will walk away from the Herald's wrath.”

“But I thought—” Juni's voice trailed off.

“Thought what, soldier?”

There was a hesitation. “Thought the Herald wanted her . . . gone.”

“No. He wanted her dead. Not running around the countryside, alive.”

“But you said . . .” The soldier who spoke's voice trailed off.

“I said we had to go back with her. I didn't say she had to be alive when we did.”

Chapter 9

The afternoon seemed to drag on.

Ava was too afraid to move, so she was stuck in an uncomfortable position deep in the brush beside the river.

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