Chapter Three
Derash outlands
They moved out of the keep territory. As they did not belong to Derash keep and were not visiting anyone there they could not hunt in the keeps territory. They could have asked Mavrik’s friends about hunting within the keep but that would have meant too much exposure and twice as many questions. Lon got down to the business of tracking the karakees. Mada had considered simply scanning the area with her mind but realized she would have to explain how, she who had never done any tracking in her life, had tracked and caught a karakee. Also she did not relish the prospect of scanning the whole area trying to figure out which were karakee minds. She had opted not to search for the karakees using her mind. Had she done so she would have known that they had company. The “easy” taming and training of it would still have to be explained. She would have to cross that bridge when and if the question was asked. Because the transportation was too good and easy to pass up. Lon as a good tracker and hunter soon found a group of karakees grazing by a lake. Mada could not decide which she wanted and which would be best suited for them. She decided on a mature female. The last thing she needed was a playful young mind which would be difficult to manage. She reached out to the one she wanted. She got it to come over. She did not have the time or desire to befriend it. To dominate it would be best. Anyway it was not a sentient being. It would not be traumatized by it she figured.
“Get back.” Lon whispered as he pulled Mada back.
“I do not think it will hurt us Mont…,’ He pulled out a dagger, ‘No!” Mada shouted as she tried to get it front of Lon.
“Please Mada this is not a game it is a wild animal.”
The karakee came and stood a few feet from them. Mada relaxed and as soon as Lon loosed his grip she ran to the karakee and patted its head. It was enormous. She wondered what Lon planned on doing with a dagger against a karakee.
“You are a good tracker indeed. What should we call her? Mumps I think. What do you think?”
At that very moment Lon could have been knocked over with a feather. Wild animals did not just walk up to people and let them pat them. It must be an escaped tame karakee. But tame karakees were not known to ever return to the wild even after being abandoned by their owners. They would loiter near arsheans or who ever had owned them till someone else took them or until they died.
“Mada please back away slowly from it, slowly.”
“It is perfectly tame. Come it will not hurt us.”
“If it is tame then it probably belongs to someo…”
“I do not mean it is tamed but that it is wild but friendly. This is great. Now we have transportation.”
After a lot of persuasion Lon finally agreed to come near the karakee. For the life of him he could not imagine what would have made it willingly leave its herd and come to them. And to top it all be willing to leave the herd and go with them. Mada spent every spare moment conditioning the karakees mind. She did not want to spend the rest of the journey working to keep a mental hold over the karakee. All minds were base. Even an animal mind was base at a certain level.
As they were making their way through the Derash outlands Lon suddenly cried out in pain and fell to his knees clutching his head. A moment later he was screaming and writhing on his side. Then he went completely still and quiet. She was certain he was dead. She ran and knelt at his side to check with a trembling hand for any sign of life. Through the mercy of the prime god and goddess he was alive. But barely. Then he seemed to be murmuring something. She lowered her ear to his mouth but before she could hear what he was saying he began screaming and writhing again.
“Lon what is it.” Mada asked trying to remove his hands from his head so she could see what was the matter.
She could not budge his hands and his rolling around did not make the task any easier. Then just as suddenly as he had started he stopped. All that was left to show that something had happened at all was his heavy breathing, a sweat beaded brow and a bloody nose. She opened her oilskin flask and gave him a drink. She knew what had happened. Someone had entered Lon’s mind. Sar had described to her what signs to look for. But the murmuring was new to her. Maybe having one’s mind invaded affected people in different ways. She made a quick search of the surrounding land with both her mind and eyes. She found Cas-hé. She was careful not to suddenly look in his direction. Her first inclination was to attack in some way but she held back. There might be others who had hidden themselves. But she felt no hostile feelings from him and she could sense no extraordinary power coming from him. Save his cloaking magic. It could not have been him who had just read Lon’s mind. She searched again and found nothing, whoever it was had closed their mind. All it took was calming your thoughts and blending in with your surroundings. She made another sweep and quickly turned her mind back to the karakee. The last thing they needed was to lose it. She felt exposed here. The sooner they returned to the Derash outskirts and joined other people the better. But who had it been. So she had not imagined the mind she had so briefly encountered last night.
“Are you okay?” she asked Lon as she helped him to his feet.
“I think so. I just had this sudden excruciating pain in my head. I have never felt anything like it… it… It was so strange. Let us get back to the others.”
“Here,’ She wiped the blood from his nose, ‘Are you sure you do not want to rest for a while?”
“No. I feel a little tired but whatever it was is gone. I can make it back.”
Ordinarily she would have insisted they rest but she did not want to be out here with a hostile mystic hiding in the bushes plotting his or her next move.
Cas-hé, who had followed them, watched all this with interest. From the capturing of the karakee, only with a lot less astonishment that Lon, to Lon’s strange illness. It had been confirmed to him she was a mystic. What kind of a mystic he still did not know. The wild karakee just left its herd and came to them without any visible sign of coaxing. Her brother had been frightened by it but she had been calm. How had she done it? Mind control? Cast a spell over the beast? Trivan was right, he had to be very carefull. He wondered what disease ailed the young man. He was not close enough to hear them talking. She had looked around as if she knew the attack had come from someone else. He had had to stand very still himself. He knew from experience that sometimes the best thing to do is stay put. Movement would most likely draw attention to you. He had looked around himself and he had seen no one. At first he had thought she had been the one hurting her brother.