War of the Races

Chapter 40- Spiders in the Forest

Inhaling deeply, Sinaan blinked his eyes. It struck him as odd that transference through the mirror smelled like ozone and tasted like water. Slipping his daggers back into the enchanted pockets of his cloak, he leaned down and picked up the mirror off of the ground.

What was it doing out here? He wondered as he turned the mirror over in his hands. The last he saw it, it was on a desk in the Faline brother's tent. Suddenly feeling exposed he pulled one of his knives out again as he turned in a full circle while scanning the area. His eyes widened when he found a body lying on the ground.

Two quick steps and he was kneeling beside the svartalf. It was Gunngrul, face down on the ground dead. Turning him over Sinaan's sharp eyes took in everything. Every bloody stab wound before glancing up at Gunngrul's lifeless eyes. Quickly he scanned the area for whoever killed Gunngrul. That was when he found enough tracks and signs that he could tell that a host of at least five hundred men or more had come to a stop, and then, for some reason, turned around and left. No doubt it was because Gunngrul was dead.

By the time he retraced his steps back to Gunngrul's corpse Forelain, Sulabha, Ra'Shaal, Fjallindae, and Forelain's honor guard of personal maids were standing around Gunngrul's body.

"Well, there will be no more rebellions from him," Sinaan said as he stepped out from behind a tree.

Forelain was kneeling over Gunngrul combing a lock of his silvery-white hair away from his face while Sulabha watched with an expression of pure hate. Forelain though, seemed remorseful. Approaching Forelain, he put a hand on her shoulder before cutting his gaze from Sulabha to Beinbalkr and announcing, "Be on guard. Gunngrul was not alone. There were nearly five hundred men out here in these woods. They must have been doing something out here, Gunngrul is dead, and we don't know the reason, yet."

"Are you sure?" Forelain signed as she stood up alongside Sinaan.

"The tracks lead here and end," Sinaan answered.

"Then Gunngrul's death was the end of the march," Sulabha proposed, "Either that was the point, or..."

"Gunngrul was out here with nearly all of House Faline's soldiers sent on this expedition, and the reason for it is still up ahead," Beinbalkr finished as she hefted an oversized maul named the Tenderizer..

"My thoughts exactly," Sinaan agreed with a nod before walking off in the direction he figured Gunngrul and the men who were either with him or chasing him were heading.

As best as he could figure, the battalion stopped a hundred yards behind where Gunngrul died. It was another twenty-five yards beyond Gunngrul that Sinaan found Hayden Faline and his private guard.

"There was a vicious battle here," Istas mumbled as she sniffed the air, "The smell of blood is everywhere, but more than that, the scent of sex is so pungent it almost overwhelms everything else. Whatever was happening here, it went on for hours."

"Look," Svartsilki said as she pointed towards three sets of four stakes driven into the ground, "Three people were restrained here. The smells are female, and they smell like Sinaan."

"Kin," Gloa mumbled, "Relatives. Most likely your sisters."

"No doubt Hayden and his men were having their way with them before killing them. However, someone must have noticed your sister's absence, came looking, and rescued them. Otherwise, it would be your sister's bodies here on the ground and not Hayden and his men," Deild growled as she subconsciously rubbed her belly, a legacy of the Faline brothers.

"There's a woman over here," Gloa said loudly as she gently picked up the body and carried it over to Forelain and Sinaan. As Gloa put the dead girl down she mumbled, "She feels lighter than usual for a corpse."