Page 30 of Arrows and Gems
“You know you can’t resist,” his friend teased. “The truth—”
He broke off as a breeze swirled around them, lifting the dark hair on his head and drifting through Cap’s beard.
Cap’s scalp prickled. “That’s not a normal breeze.”
“No, it isn’t.” The light-heartedness vanished as Jean-haut spunin atightcircle. Hespokein asoft whisper.“If the user is close enough, the air will carry words back to him.”
“Can we follow it?”
The forester shot him a sharp look. “If it’s the king’s sapphire, your arrows will be useless against its wind.”
But General Valentin claimed that the king’s murderer had stolen the sapphire. If Cap could find it, he would have his culprit.
Jean-haut was right, though; he needed more information, not to mention a plan. If Cap showed up in Laurier with the king’s enchanted sapphire, the powerful wind gryphon, General Valentin would accusehimof the murder unless he had irrefutable proof.
And if Jean-haut was correct that General Valentin was responsible, then Cap would need to be extra careful. Marielle had confirmed that one of the General’s aides and his maid sweetheart had been responsible for Daphne’s troubles in Castellia. That meant the General had trusted underlings. Ones who might not care if he had the wind gryphon, let alone performed a search with it.
A search...
The unnatural wind had died down. Keeping his voice low, Cap leaned toward Jean-haut. “Do you think he was searching for us? Or our unwanted guest?”
“Hard to say.” Jean-haut shrugged uneasily, glancing back toward camp. “To answer your next question: I don’t think he can get a precise location, but if he knows the path he sent the wind on, he would have a route to follow.”
The information sank in as Cap stood there, his mind working. “We should move,” he murmured. “Except that we don’t know the path to avoid.”
“Even if he heard us, we could be any Amitians hunting in the forest.” The forester offered a voice of reason, but his pinched eyebrows suggested that he didn’t believe it.
“But the breeze may also have passed through camp,” Cap observed with a sigh. “And the others may have said anything.”
Including intelligence reports. Perhaps that was how Margit communicated with her employer.
Assuming she really was a spy.
As they hurried back to camp, Cap shoved the matter from his mind. One problem at a time. Right now, he needed a new home for his people.
CHAPTER 13
Helena
Helena studied the cane suspiciously. For nine days, she’d been stuck relying on one of her companions to help her walk. No one had mentioned a prop.
Until Rouge had suddenly announced they were leaving. The rest of the group scurried about, packing their few belongings and dismantling their tents. When Le Capuchon and Jean-haut jogged into camp a few minutes later, Jean-haut presented Helena with a cane. As if he’d found the smooth, straight piece of wood lying in the forest.
A faint tingle tickled her fingers when she touched it the first time, just like that disturbing breeze earlier. Maybe she was overly sensitive because of her curse and the trials her brother and his wife had undergone in the last year, but she would have sworn a magic-user had sent it.
“Come on, Margit, time to go.” Helena’s new taskmaster tied a green handkerchief over her distinctive hair before tossing Helena’s satchel to her. Dropping the cane, Helena threw her hands up to catch it.
“Planning to tell me where we’re going?” Helena retrieved her cane and pushed herself to her feet. “Or am I expected to blindly follow?”
“Even if I tell you, you’ll be blindly following.” A week ago, Helena would have called Rouge’s smirk mocking. Now, there was something friendly about it. “But I don’t know ourdestination. Where Cap leads is where we’ll go.”
“You have a lot of faith in your captain. Following him without question like that.”
A scoff heralded Laurent’s arrival. “You wouldn’t understand,” he interjected, his voice dripping with disdain. “A foreign noblewoman, and a runaway to boot.”
Helena’s spine stiffened, and she glared at him while throwing her satchel over her shoulder. “If you’re out in the woods with Le Capuchon, doesn’t that mean you’re a runaway as well?”
His lip curled. “My reasons are none of your business. If I didn’t think you’d turn us all in, I would vote for returning you to where you came from at once. A pampered noblewoman has no place here.”
