Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons (46 page)

Finally,
there was a sudden ruffle of feathers as the huge owl appeared from the darkness carrying a large rabbit in his beak.
"Calm down! I'm here. Don't get yourself worked up!"

"Why didn't you answer me?"

"I was busy concentrating on this rabbit."
Snowfeather answered calmly, landing on a moss covered boulder and ripping into the rabbit's belly.
"I knew you were close, and didn't realize you would panic if a took a moment to answer you."

"Sorry."
He apologized.
"I guess I'm just a little tense about allowing Tara to disappear with Susa. I
really
don't want to lose anyone else!"

They mounted their horses
and set off at a careful walk to avoid injuring their horses in darkness. They quickly located the road heading south, then sped up to a mile eating trot, with Snowfeather scouting ahead for any danger.

It was perhaps an hour later when the huge owl appeared from the darkness ahead, and hooted a warning.
"There's a dozen armored riders heading this way!"
He told Damion, gently landing on his shoulder.
"I think they're heading to Hthiss."

"How far away are they?"
Damion asked, reining Storm to a halt.

"About two miles. They didn't seem to be in any real hurry."

He thought quickly.
"Did you see anywhere that we could conceal ourselves?"

"Nothing large enough to conceal all of the horses."

"Damn!" He swore aloud, drawing concerned looks from the others.

"What's wrong?"
Veren asked, his face tired, but determined.

"The patrol that hooded man mentioned is headed this way, and there's nothing nearby large enough to conceal all of the horses."

Veren sighed wearily. "I guess that only leaves one thing option."

"Not
necessarily."
Snowfeather hooted.
"Remember how you learned how to create illusions when you were a child? You used to delight in terrorizing your aunt and that old wizard with insubstantial apparitions and oversized arachnids. You could use your magic to create an illusion to conceal yourselves and the horses from the patrol until they pass."

"That's genius!" He said aloud. He looked to the others. "Follow me!"
He quickly found a dry path through the muddy bog that split off from the main road, then led them along the path for several dozen yards. He finally stopped, then slipped from his saddle and handed Raven Storm's reins. "Try to keep the horses quiet. I'm going to create an illusion to hide everyone from the patrol. With a little luck, we can avoid bloodshed." He drew in his magic, then carefully formed the image of a thick grove of bushes in his mind and released his magic, allowing the image to reflect itself into the real world.

"Impressi
ve!" Veren exclaimed in an amazement, stepping outside of the illusion that was surrounding the others. "It looks solid when you're outside the image," He returned to Damion's side, then looked back at the road. "but it's transparent from inside."

"I can't believe my own eyes!" Raven
marveled, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"It's actually very simple." Damion shrugged modestly. "I used to create all sorts of different illu
sions as a child, then frighten anyone nearby, usually my poor Aunt Skie!" He laughed sheepishly. "She would chase me around the valley with her broomstick, screaming at the the top of her lungs, while Damarius would watch in amusement, usually from somewhere well out of her reach."

They waited for nearly ten minutes before the mounted patrol finally appeared
in the distance, moving at a casual walk as they slowly made their way towards Hthiss.

Damion
grit his teeth impatiently as he began to perspire from the exertion of holding the illusion. Holding the image itself wasn't difficult, but causing it to sway in time with the light breeze that periodically blew through the stagnant smelling swamp was far more challenging. He was soon sweating profusely as he watched the riders continue their slow pace down the road, chatting mindlessly amongst themselves.

After what seemed to be an eternity, nearly all of the men
had passed by, until only three stragglers remained. As the first of the three men reached the nearly invisible trail that led to their hiding place, he suddenly jerked his tired looking horse to a stop and stared intently at the ground.

"What is it, Gnaff?" One of the other stragglers asked as he drew closer. "You see something interesting?"

"There are tracks leading off in this direction," The first man followed the tracks along the trail with his eyes. "I've travelled this route a hundred times, and I swear I have never seen that grove of bushes before."

"
This is from the man that swears he knows
every
tree and
every
bush in Arleia by it's first name!" The second man guffawed in amusement. "What's the matter? Forget this bush's name?"

"Shut your face!"
The first armored man growled, throwing his friend a dirty look. He slipped down from his saddle and slowly began to follow the trail up to where Damion and the others were hiding behind the insubstantial image.

Raven
quietly drew her bow, while Veren slowly drew his sword from its sheath, preparing to kill the inquisitive man the instant he penetrated the illusion.

The armored man
was mere inches from penetrating the false grove, when Snowfeather suddenly leapt from Damion's shoulder, flying through the image and directly into the man's face, flapping his wings and hooting in mock terror. The man fell back in fear and let out a howl of terror, tripping over his own feet in his haste. He crashed to the ground cursing profusely as the huge owl disappeared into the safety of the canopy.

The man's friend was laughing
uproariously as he scrambled to his feet and stared up into the tree tops where Snowfeather disappeared. "That was one strange looking bird!"

"If you're done playing with the local wildlife,
" The last straggler grumbled, pointedly riding passed his companions. "there's an entire pouch of swamp weed waiting for me in Hthiss. If you don't mind, I'd like to get there before someone else smokes it."

"What about these tracks?" The first straggler protested.

"Let the next patrol worry about them if they wish." The last straggler yawned dismissively. "Or you can stay here and investigate it yourself, if you would like. Either way, I'm returning to the city."

The first man hesitated for a moment as he watched his friend continue down the road, then with on
e last glance at the bushes, he returned to his horse and hurried to catch up with the others.

Once the patrol finally disappeared from sight, Damion let go of the illusion
with a sigh of relief, and the image instantly wavered and vanished. He took several deep breaths, then wiped the sweat from his brow and looked around. "That certainly got a little tense for a moment!"

"
I thought he was going to discover us for sure!" Raven sighed, her voice shaking slightly. She looked at Damion with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Just a little winded." He smiled at her wearily. "It's been a while since I've done something like that. I forgot how much concentration it takes to hold such an illusion for more than a few minutes
. I could have used the Dragon Sword to help, but I feared alerting any nearby shadow dragons."

Veren
tossed the huge warrior a bottle of wine, which he opened and offered to Raven, who quickly declined. He shrugged, then drained the entire bottle in three gulps. He sighed in relief, then tossed the empty bottle back to Veren.

"You could have left me a little!" The one eared man whined, stomping over to uproot a large plant by the roots, and dropping the empty wine bottle into the resulting hole
. He replaced the plant, and stomped the roots back into place. "I only have five more bottles of that stuff!"

Raven
laughed, then pointedly climbed back into her saddle. "I think it should be safe to continue, wouldn't you say?"

Chapter 15

It was early evening, and they had decided to stop to rest and water their horses while they grabbed a sorely needed meal, when the sound of hoof beats appeared in the distance.

"
Someone is coming this way!" Raven warned in a barely audible whisper, staring down at the road from her hiding spot among the strange gnarled trees that surrounded the clearing where they were resting.

The clearing
, which Snowfeather had noticed while scouting, was mere yards from the road, allowing the young woman to keep watch for travelers while the others relaxed.

"Is it Tara?" Damion looked u
p hopefully, jumping to his feet.

Snowfeather, who had
been perched on his knee, squawked loudly in protest as he was suddenly dumped to the ground.
"Hey! A little warning next time, if you please!"

"Sorry about that!"
He apologized quickly, nimbly scampering up the tree adjoining the one concealing Raven, showing amazing agility for someone of his tremendous size. He found a concealed perch to watch the oncoming riders, then sat back and waited.

"
It's not Tara." Raven told him in a whisper. "It's two men on horseback, and they're coming from the west."

The travelers were moving at a slow
trot as they made their way up the trade road, seeming not to pay much attention to their surroundings while they spoke to one another in quiet voices.

Damion mot
ioned to Raven to be ready, then leaned forward and strained to hear what the men were discussing. These men, he noted absently, were
not
dressed in scaled armor, but rather clothing made up from animal skin, stitched together crudely with thick strands of sinew. Once they drew a little closer, his keen ears were able pick up the subject that the men were debating so intently.

"And I say we ignore
that scar faced hag!" One of the men snarled suddenly, reining in his horse to a stop less than a dozen yards from the trees in which he and Raven were hidden. "
I
say that we turn around and find that ugly wench! Once we slit her throat, we can take the girl for ourselves! Once we've had our fun, we can sell her!"

"You're crazy!" The other man growled, shaking his head stubbornly. "I'm not tangling with some crazed slave chaser! Besides, the last two girls you had your fun with didn't make it to the markets!"

"I still say that we ignore her." The first man insisted. "What do we care if some outsider is chasing her?"

"Because of the gold she promised us once we meet her in Daconia!"

The first man's face suddenly grew sly. "But if we turn around and hurry back, we can still catch her. The child is worth ten times what she promised us, not to mention the gold and valuables she was carrying." He grinned evilly. "And you can finally replace that tired old nag with that mare she was riding!"

The second man was quiet for a moment. "Do you really think we can catch back up with her? What if she decides not to make camp for the evening
, and continue on through the night until she reaches Daconia?"

"She won't
." The first one assured his friend. "Did you she how tired she and that child looked? They are going to look for some place safe to make camp and rest!" He smiled smugly. "And I think I know where she's going to go!"