Elsewhere on the island, Daelen caught up with Catriona, who was studying the ground, intently. She had her staff out, and her bow and arrows on her back, prepared to deal with any trouble in the most expedient way possible.
“Have you found her yet?” he asked.
Fear for her friend brought out her sarcastic streak, as she replied, “Yes, Daelen, of course I’ve found her. That’s why I’m standing here, staring at the ground.”
Daelen let that go in favour of trying to offer helpful suggestions. “What about your sympathic connection?”
“It isn’t a tracker,” Cat sighed, regretfully, “or even a direction finder. While Mandalee’s so distressed, it’s hard to get any clear readings from her anyway. Now she’s shut me out.”
“Why would she do that?”
“The last thing I sensed was her gearing up for a fight. She couldn’t afford to have me in her head, distracting her. She needed to focus. It’s not like she could give me a location, anyway. I mean, what’s she supposed to send – an image of a tree? That’d narrow it down! That’s why I’m staring at the ground: I’m trying to track her the old-fashioned way.”
“Maybe you could scout around from the air as a falcon,” Daelen suggested.
Cat shook her head. “Given that most of this island is a forest, her position is likely to be hidden from the sky.”
“What about following her scent as a wolf?”
Again, Cat shook her head. “Mandalee can move fast when she has to, and at that speed, her scent will scatter on the wind. No, I’ve run through every magical power I know, but nothing helps. This isn’t a magic situation. We’re going to have to track her the old-fashioned way. Just stay behind me, so you don’t crowd me or destroy any vital clues. I’ll ask the animals hereabouts to help us, too. I can’t communicate with them as well as Mandalee can, but every little helps. Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”
With that, they set off, slowly and carefully at first, moving more quickly once a clear direction had been established. The animals of the forest helped a lot. Sympathic communication was limited, but it was enough to confirm that Mandalee had indeed passed this way in a hurry. After what seemed like hours, they reached the clearing where Mandalee had killed the force that had come to StormClaw.
“She did all this by herself?” Daelen breathed in wonder.
“To save Shyleen?” Cat returned. “You bet she did.”
“She’s been holding back in our training sessions.”
A patch of dried blood was evidence of a vicious attack on the leopard. A bit more tracking and Cat found the merest trace of footprints leading to another, smaller patch. Daelen took her word for it on the tracks – he could see nothing at all.
“No, you wouldn’t,” Cat agreed, nodding as she crouched down to examine the site more closely. “She’s a Cleric of Nature – she knows how to conceal…her…movements.” She trailed off as another thought struck her. “Oh, Mandalee,” she gasped, “you are so smart!”
“Why? What has she done?”
Cat stood and faced Daelen. “She’s a Cleric of Nature – she knows how to conceal her movements,” she reiterated, “even from me if she wants to,” she added. “But I can see them.”
“So?”
“So, she got down to some serious fighting here,” she continued.
“Obviously,” Daelen agreed, still not quite seeing what she was getting at.
“But I couldn’t see a single trace of her movements anywhere in that clearing. They must have felt like they were fighting a ghost.”
At last, the shadow warrior caught on. “And yet she left just enough evidence for you to follow her tracks here.”
Cat nodded. “This is where she moved Shyleen out of harm’s way. That way, even if she died in the battle, her feline friend would have remained concealed from anyone but me. Then even if I was too late to help Mandalee, I could still save Shyleen.”
“So, what happened?”
“Well,” Cat considered, thinking it through. “If Shyleen had died, Mandalee would have buried her, and she would have either returned to us or stayed here, relying on my ability to track her. If Mandalee had simply healed Shyleen and everything was fine, again she would have returned to us or waited here. Therefore, the only reasonable conclusion is that healing an animal who was so severely injured took every drop of energy she had left and so Shyleen returned her love by taking Mandalee away to another hiding place.”
“Why wouldn’t Shyleen have stayed here?”
“Probably because Mandalee didn’t have time to tell Shyleen the plan, but if we’re lucky,” she continued, searching all around, “Shyleen didn’t bother to cover her tracks. There,” Cat pointed out paw prints heading away from the area.
“If you say so,” Daelen accepted, entirely out of his element with this and sensibly deferring to one who knew nature so well. “Where do we go from here?”
“Now we can use one of your original ideas. Shyleen won’t risk moving very fast or very far with Mandalee so hurt and drained, so if I change to my wolf form, I should be able to pick up a dual scent of leopard and human. That should lead me to them. Daelen, I need you to fly discreetly overhead.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to stay with you?”
The druidess shook her head. “Shyleen is likely to be spooked enough with a wolf suddenly appearing on the scene without you blundering in, adding to the problems. I will make no effort to conceal myself so you can keep track of where I’m going. Shyleen will be able to sense me coming a mile off and hopefully won’t attack me as a potential threat. If she does attack me, though, let me handle it. I can get myself out of trouble without harming her; you might kill her with your power if you get agitated. Any questions? No? Good. Now go away.”
Daelen wasted no time arguing, and simply took to the sky.
In her wolf form, the combined scent of leopard and human was sharp, so following the trail was no problem. Cat glanced up occasionally to make sure Daelen was following in the air. After a few minutes, the scent grew even stronger, telling her that she was very close to Shyleen’s hiding place. She slowed her pace to a level that would appear non-threatening and wouldn’t seem like stalking. A moment later, the trail ended in a shady spot beneath an overhanging cliff. A pair of eyes glowed in the soft light, and they moved closer to reveal a great leopard, hackles raised and growling softly. This was the bit that needed to be handled carefully. Cat came to a halt a few feet away from Shyleen and adopted a submissive, non-threatening pose while sending out sympathic impressions of ‘peace, healing, concern, friendship.’
Shyleen cocked her head, relaxing slightly and returned ‘questioning, puzzlement, patience.’ Clearly, she had never before met a wolf that could or wanted to communicate in such a way.
Trying to explain, Cat sent, ‘wolf camouflage. Human of nature concealed.’ Now was not the time to quibble over being half-Faery.
Shyleen relaxed further and offered, ‘invitation, reveal human.’ Cat shifted to her human form. She expected Shyleen to recognise her, but the leopard seemed even more agitated than before. She sent, ‘weapons, questioning.’
Cat was also getting waves of pain, and she understood. The part of Shyleen that was from a higher plane couldn’t think clearly because of how much Mandalee was hurting. The part that was actually a leopard was running on little more than instinct.
Cat continued to explain, sympathically, ‘defence, protection, like claws.’
Shyleen accepted this, but insisted, ‘retract claws’ – an order for Cat to disarm, which the druidess complied with fully, laying bow, arrows, staff and all spell components on the ground. In return, Shyleen retracted her own claws and sat down, though she still guarded the path to Mandalee.
Reverting to human speech, Cat urged, “Shyleen, it’s me, Catriona – Cat. I’m your friend. I’m Mandalee’s friend. Please let me past you so I can heal her. Please, Shyleen. I know you hurt terribly, but you must fight through it and recognise me.”
Shyleen brightened at that, getting up and walking over to rub her flank against the druid. After a good sniff, Shyleen sent a new sympathic message. ‘Mandalee scent on Cat. Friendship confirmation/acceptance.’
Catriona smiled at the sudden warmth from the big cat and asked, “Will you let me see Mandalee now? I will try to heal her.”
Shyleen nudged Catriona towards the spot where Mandalee lay quiet, pale and still. She was alive but drained of all energy. Shyleen sent ‘trust, protection’ and resumed her guard duty. As far as she was concerned, she now had two humans to defend.
Catriona’s examination revealed something off in her friend’s system. It didn’t seem like poison. Rather, her magic seemed to indicate an infection that Mandalee had absorbed from Shyleen. Cat took out her water skin and poured out a little into a carefully cupped hand, so she could begin sprinkling droplets on the assassin’s body, thinking to use the healing properties of water to draw out the infection. She didn’t dare bring it into herself as she would if it were poison. What if her Faery side was more susceptible to whatever it was? She would be no use to Mandalee if she got sick and died. She would have to use water. It was less efficient, but it was the better option under the circumstances.
Clearly, though, this wasn’t going to be so easy, as her first attempt had no effect. Thinking it through for a moment, Catriona hit on an idea and sent out a message to Shyleen, ‘staff.’ The leopard understood and obediently went to fetch it. Cat could have just willed it to her hand, but she was worried about scaring Shyleen. Using the staff would aid her focus. To heal Mandalee without draining herself as severely as her friend, she was going to need every bit of help she could get. Taking the staff from Shyleen, she used her druid magic to shape the ground a little. Next, she poured some of her drinking water into the newly shaped area and multiplied that small amount into a human-sized shallow pool.
Cat then stripped Mandalee of her clothes, saying, “Don’t worry, my friend, I’m not just fulfilling some secret fantasy about seeing you naked again. I need to bathe you in nature’s healing water, and I can’t do that while you’re wearing clothes made from stupid magically resistant synthetic super-fabric.”
Catriona asked the leopard to help her move Mandalee carefully into the water. Shyleen wasn’t too keen on water, but she could see it was barely more than paw-deep at the edge and she didn’t mind a bit of wet fur if it would help Mandalee. Once in the water, Catriona set about bathing her friend, enhancing the healing properties of the pool, and asking the surrounding soil to absorb the tainted water at the same rate as she replenished it with fresh, clean, pure water. She also sprinkled a little into Mandalee’s mouth and induced the swallow reflex to ensure it would not go the wrong way and enter her lungs. There was no point clearing Mandalee’s infection, only to drown her instead. Once the trickle of water was in the right place inside her, she could carefully multiply that, too, so it could begin the healing from the inside out as well as the outside in.
Cat knew she had to take her time, healing gradually to avoid draining her own strength or taxing the healing reserves of Mandalee’s body, but she could afford to relax a bit, now. Mandalee was no longer in any immediate danger. It was just a matter of time.