Makers

Prologue

Tam al Tan walked openly, almost brazenly, down the game path. There was no recent spoor and she really didn't feel like hunting in any case. Her mind was turning furiously over new maddening concepts Pate had introduced to her.

A decade and more of her life had been dedicated to the destruction of the priests of Elod. Her hate of the Pellian clergy had driven and sustained her, a burning fire in her core that fed and warmed her. Now it felt like her fire was being extinguished.

Had the Elodite's weregelt been paid? Her vengeance and her oath had both been just when her clan was betrayed and destroyed by the Elodites. She knew that without a shred of a doubt. But when was the Elodite debt paid? How many priests must be killed to pay price for the loss of her clan?

How many of the men and women she had slain in her pursuit had been more like Pate rather than the inhuman monster that had engineered her clan's destruction? How many good people had she killed in her indiscriminate vengeance?

Her oath had been her complete focus for so long she had become it. If vengeance was removed from Tam al Tan, would there be anything left?

"Where is your caution, Tam al Tan? Were this day three years previous you would lie dead upon that trail." The voice accosting her was deep, quiet, and very close.

Tam stopped walking and turned towards the familiar voice. She had been embarrassingly startled but was not about to give the speaker the benefit of seeing how much.

"Doubtful. How would a single Cree tracker prevail where a brace could not?" she replied calmly. As she spoke she sent out dozens of tendrils of light, invisible to all but the few creatures sensitive to the high bands she was using. These snaked their way around trees, branches and leaves in every direction, pulsing back their findings to her waiting master weave to be interpreted and fed back to her.

By the time her statement concluded Tam had a comprehensive view of everything in the area. The giant Cree hunter hidden in the confines of an elder magnolia off the game trail now stood out like a beacon, as he should have initially were Tam not acting like a citybound fool instead of the Orly warrior that she was.

"Why have you sought me out, Bata?" she asked. The odds of simply wandering into the Cree on a random trail hours from Caddaway were vanishingly small. He had engineered this meeting, she was sure.

Part of the magnolia separated itself and walked towards Tam and the trail. The big Cree hunter was so covered in leaves and ground camouflage that he looked like a walking tree himself.

The big man stopped just out of arm's reach, as was polite, and cleared his throat. "Forgive this one, Tam al Tan. I am come to sing you the death of Cree ene Taith. Are you well to hear it?"

Cree ene Taith had at one time been Tam ene Taith, a cousin and member of her tribe. After the Elodites destroyed clan Tam the remnants had been offered succor by the neighboring Cree. Clan Tam had accepted and had become Cree. All except Tam al Tan, who chose instead to pursue the path of vengeance.

Tam felt her breath catch in her throat as weakness washed over her body in a foul wave. Ene Taith had been her closest friend as a child. More adored than even the brother she so idolized. Ene Taith had been a precocious amalgamation of kindness and mischief, and the general instigator for most of Tam's youthful misadventures. Tam tried to breathe and found she couldn't, as if the pain in her heart had paralyzed her lungs.

Bata took a step forward to close the distance with her and grabbed her shoulders, steadying her. "Relax, little one" he said soothingly. "Relax and I will help."

She felt the air in her lungs expanding, forcing itself past the choking blockage of her throat and then reverse, drawing back in super-oxygenated air. Bata continued using his gift helping Tam to breath by manipulating the air around and in her, until she was able to gasp on her own and break the lock that her emotions had placed on her lungs. After several more deep clearing breaths she was able to steady herself.