A Ride Through Hell and Back Read online

conduit and gave the horse what I could, while I took on his injuries. I felt agony hit my legs and lungs.

  And we began moving again.

  I don't know how I stayed in the saddle, except my fear of falling to the Devildins overcame the agony. Childhood nightmares returned, and not the baseless fears of a boy told ghost stories. These nightmares belonged to someone who had been the only person to survive a raid on his village. I remembered, far too well, the sight of Devildins eating arms and legs, sometimes from the still living humans. I remembered how some people escaped by setting fire to their homes and dying there. The creatures hated fire and wouldn't try to get those people out of the burning buildings. I couldn't say they had a better death.

  The world had seemed cold as I hid in the shadows, protected (someone told me later) by my nascent magical ability.

  The king and army drove the Devildins from the land in the years after those raids. Apparently they had come back and I could feel new nightmares seeping into my dreams.

  The horse slogged through mud, slowed finally. I could hear nothing behind us and I took the moment to think as clearly. I needed to find the soldiers I knew were on patrol (I had timed the robbery to when they and the Governor General went out training in the woods, after all) and report the danger.

  The night changed to day. The horse started up another slope and I nearly couldn't hold on this time. Up and up and then down and --

  "Halt!"

  Soldiers. A camp.

  "Praise the gods," I whispered, my voice dry and barely heard. I saw three men coming towards me, all looking distrustful. "Thank the Gods I found you. Devildins. Hundreds. Back along the trail. Twenty miles from the city, in the hills."

  I leaned forward, the world going black as I began to fall.

  "You're the thief we're hunting for," someone said.

  "Yes." I managed to hold on a moment longer. "I came back to warn you. Devildins!"

  Blackness. I felt nothing as they took me from the horse.

  Someone made me wake up. I didn't want to so I fought the magic pulling me from emptiness back to the world.

  "Yes sir, enough power and ability to make things difficult."

  "Get him awake."

  Someone slapped my face and it angered me. My eyes snapped open and I caught the hand before the person hit again.

  "Don't," I said, my voice rough and my throat sore.

  "He's awake, sir."

  A man in a gray army uniform leaned over me. He didn't appear happy and I had the feeling the annoyance came from more than being soaked by the rain. "You're the thief who stole --"

  "Yes, yes," I said. "The jewels, I know. Did you find them on the horse?"

  He nodded, pensive.

  "Good. There's not time. Devildins --"

  "So you said."

  The man didn't believe me. I panicked. I thought about those creatures moving in on us, with me helpless among people who hadn't prepared to fight. I tried to sit up. The man -- a captain, from the insignia -- pushed me back down. We were in some tent, and a few other guards stood nearby. Someone, who might have been of higher rank, watched from the shadows to the right.

  This wasn't the time to rant and act like a fool. Besides I had neither the energy nor the resilience to shove back. Someone had bandaged my wounds and splinted my leg, which I thought a kindness, all things considered. I ached, but my mind remained clear.

  "There is a very large band of Devildins not far to the south," I said, as calmly as I could manage while my heart pounded and I wanted to run. "Several hundred at the least. I was traveling with the carriage to Adryas when the storm hit and a friendly farmer came to offer us sanctuary. I took the horse when we abandoned the carriage."

  "Why?"

  "Because I had hidden the jewels on the horse, and I wasn't about to abandon both to the flood. However, the horse proved recalcitrant. He must have sensed something we couldn't see and he saved my life. When I realized the farmer was not human, I shouted a warning and rode and barely escaped. Is the horse all right?"

  "Resting better than you," the captain said. He frowned. "You escaped and came back this way. Why?"

  "Because there are Devildins in the hills. Because my entire village was massacred when I was seven." I came close to babbling, so I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to get control. "Tell me why else I would come back," I said, looking back at the Captain.

  "Our guess is you got lost in the storm, stumbled back our way, and are telling us this tale to get us panicked and save your life until you might escape again."

  "I made certain I knew where the troops were before I grabbed the jewels. I knew most were out on patrol."

  "Which still doesn't mean you didn't get lost."

  "North is in that direction," I said, pointing at a wall of the tent. Rain and wind plastered against the waterproof cloth but did nothing to keep out the cold. "East, West, South. The city is there, and the Devildins are there." I lowered my trembling arm. "I have never been lost in my entire life, even on the darkest night or in the strongest storm."

  Silence. And then a soft voice spoke from the shadows. "Damn. I think he's telling the truth."

  The others nodded all around and I could almost feel the worry and panic increase with each breath.

  "You're going to need mages," I warned. I tried to sit up, but fell back with a gasp of pain. "You're going to need as many mages as you can get. Magic alone stopped the creatures the last time."

  "Hell." The man in the shadows came forward finally; a tall, lank, a thin goatee and dark eyes. Higher rank, yes: I recognized the Governor General of the province. After all, I'd watched his palace for some time before I stole the jewels from the hidden safety box. "I could have you hung, you know."

  "Yes," I said.

  "Why did you come back, knowing what would happen to you?"

  "I was the single survivor from my village. I saw what they did." I stopped and closed my eyes, but I couldn't banish the memory this time. "I couldn't let it happen again. I couldn't. . . ."

  "Shock sir. The wounds are serious." A damp cloth brushed against my face with a welcome feel; distracting and cool. "Fever as well. We pulled him up too quickly the last time."

  "There's no choice," Governor General Weblin said. "We don't dare stay here, not with what the scouts reported."

  "You found them," I said, forcing my eyes open. A medic stood close by in a blue tunic denoting his status, and a few soldiers had gathered in the tent. Everyone looked worried.

  "We did," Weblin agreed, coming to the cot. "And they found us. They'll be on us soon if we don't move quickly."

  Panic drove me up to my feet. Two soldiers grabbed me so I didn't fall and do myself more injury.

  "You shouldn't ride with those injuries," Weblin said..

  "Then kill me now." The steadiness in my voice surprised the man. "Don't take the chance that I might fall to them alive."

  "I can't decide if you're a fool, a madman or a saint."

  "No saint," I said. "I stole your jewels."

  "True. You look stronger. We'll get you on a horse."

  "Sir," the medic began. He stopped. "He had better ride with me. I might be able to keep him in the saddle."

  The Governor General nodded and left the tent without another comment. The soldiers let me sit back down and followed the Governor General out the tent opening. The rain fell harder outside, a wall of gray that muted the world beyond.

  "You don't know how lucky you are he didn't just kill you," the medic said. "Never tempt a man with a line like that."

  "I wasn't tempting Weblin. I don't want to be left behind alive." I met the man's eyes. "I saw Devildins tear the leg from my younger sister while she screamed. I saw --"

  "Calm," the medic said and swallowed. "Calm."

  "Don't let me fall to them."

  "I won't."

  We both understood what it meant.

  They drugged me, which was the only way I could even sit in the saddle, let al
one ride madcap toward the city. The medic held me tight and cursed as we rode, far and far. Surely we couldn't be that far from the city.

  "The plan is working sir," someone said nearby, the voice echoing oddly in my ears.

  I opened my eyes a slit to a world moving in ways which had nothing to do with the horse I rode. Damned drugs.

  "They're still following us," someone else said.

  "I thought they would. They don't want us to circle around and get behind them. Any sign of the mages?"

  "No sign at all, sir."

  "Damn."

  I lifted my head. We rode in a dark forest, but the shadows seemed to have odd dark colors and swirled. I didn't want to be here where anything might rush out and grab us.

  "We can't fight," I began, but even the words seemed painful. "Not here."

  "We know, boy, we know. You don't have to out think the army."

  I glanced at the Governor General, who was, in truth, a military officer of no little ability. "My -- par-don. I -- the shadows move."

  "Drugs, sir," the medic said.

  "Is he holding up?"

  "He's alive. He won't last through another ride like that one, though. I wish the mages would arrive."

  I frowned, disliking the way they talked about me. The medic pulled my head back and forced me to drink something bitter. Drugs, but I felt grateful because if the Devildins caught us, I might be too far gone to care.

  I just wished the shadows wouldn't move and change colors. I wondered if the mages had been cut off in their attempt to leave the city or if they decided to make their stand there, and abandoned us.

  "They're trying to circle, sir," someone said. "Tthey're in the forest, between us and the river."

  "Damned shame