Page 24 of Lucie
“Anything?” Hisfriend’s voice was barely audible.
“If you’re asking me if I can see or hear anything that you can’t, the answer is no.” Lucien glanced over at where the young man was pulling off his gloves with his teeth. “What are you doing?”
“I want to check your head wound.”
“Now? Can’t it wait?”
“It won’t take but a moment.”
“It’s toodark to see anything.”
“I don’t need to examine it. I just want to make sure the bandage is still dry.”
“It’s raining.”
“The trees are keeping the worst of the rain off of us.” Despite the near darkness, Iain’s irritation was evident.
Grimacing, Lucien carefully removed his helmet and turned around to let the physician do what he needed to do. A few yards away he could barelymake out his father deep in discussion withMastinandRenken, as well as a couple of captains of the guard. Like him, the battle lord had chosen a position to keep sight of the compound and not the road, leaving the route to be covered by his soldiers.
A pinprick of pain streaked through his head. Hissing through his teeth, Lucien ducked his head. “Are you done?”
“Sorry,” Iainapologized. “It’s still dry, thank goodness. You can put your helmet back on. I’d like to check your neck wound, but I’ll wait until morning to do that…Mister Grumpy.”
Lucien smiled, unable to help himself. It was a nickname Iain had tagged him with when they were kids growing up because Lucien had always been the serious one. The killjoy of the group of threeD’Jacqueschildrenplus their uncle, who was also their age.
Iain started to leave, but Lucien placed a hand on his arm to hold him back. “Where are you going?”
“I was toldFarger’scomplaining of a toothache. I thought I’d go check on him while we were stopped.” The physician leaned closer. “Any idea when we’ll pitch camp for the night?”
“I have the feeling we won’t be.We may remain here on watch until Mom and the others return.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know.”
Iain gave a disheartened sigh. “I take it there’ll be no fires, either, to help dry out and get warm by.”
“’Fraidnot. If Damaged have taken over the compound, we can’t let them know we’re here.”
“What if the compound’s empty? Whatif the Damaged overran it, then left?”
Lucien started to answer him, when Iain continued. “Or maybe the battle lord managed to defeat them, but he’s chosen to keep the compound in the dark to make it appear as if it’s been abandoned, and discourage any further Damaged from deciding to attack.”
It was a possibility that made sense.
“I think—”
A movement caught his eye. A shadow. Black upon black. A figure that scuttled from one distant tree to another. So quickly, it was almost impossible to tell if his eyes had played tricks on him. At the same time, those pinpricks of apprehension that had been plaguing him the entire time they’d been on the road became more pronounced.
“Luc—”
“Shh!”
Slowly, yet keeping his eyes on the area where he thought he’d seen the shadow, Lucien crawled over to the small knot of people where his father was located.
“—can’t take anything at face value,” the battle lord noted, then paused when his son joined them.
Lucien gave a little wave in the direction of the trees. “There’s something out there. I thought I saw somethingmove.”
