The Dragon's Rogue

Chapter 9

She sank to the ground in a faster version of what Thornic had done the night before. So quick that Cillumn felt the need to reach out and catch her.

"I can't believe you did that," he raised dark brows at me.

"She can hardly be responsible for my actions if she is unconscious," I defended.

I moved the lever that put a second dart into place. Five left, and I still had to deal with the Alpha. His tent, unfortunately was not on the edge of the camp, like mother's, but much closer to the center, where we were more likely to get noticed...and stopped.

"I will put her inside to rest, she will be sleeping for a while I take it?"

"Nearly twelve hours, but don't put her in there," I told him. There was no way, as the situation stood, that I would make it past the myriad of warriors in the camp to even get near the Alpha. They were all suspicious of me already. I was certain striding up to his dwelling unannounced and with Cillumn would not assuage their fears. No, I needed a distraction. And, since mother's tent was nearly empty, with her pious devotion to the pack, it made a perfect target. Nearly no harm done.

Except to my relationships. I looked at the limp woman in Cillumn's arms. My relationships were drifting quickly beyond repair.

"Put her over there, in that one," I pointed to the tent of an old widower. Mother helped him often, for his fingers shook too much for finer work. She laced the boots and tied the straps that he couldn't, he would be keen to help her.

Without looking to see if Cillumn replied, or just stood there and watched me as though my mind had fled my body I dug for the phial with the lantern oil. We were still alone in the small back area of the camp, but mother was a popular woman, or at least she was sought out whenever there was a problem, it was only a matter of time before one of the pack wondered back there to ask something of her.

With great caution I doused the corner of her tent, the wooden table inside, and the cot with drops of the lantern fluid, and enough of a trail to join the flames when I started them. I replaced the oil carefully and, using my flint struck firmly, aiming the spark to the corner of the door. The sparks jumped immediately and the extra efficiency of my special oil ensured that the flame caught and flared. So well actually, that I found myself stepping back.

A hand met the small of my back, the heat of it mirroring the flames now thriving at my front.

"I sense that you and your mother aren't getting along," Cillumn frowned at the growing flames.

"We have never gotten along, she keeps trying to make me into something I am not. But this has nothing to do with it, if we are going to claim that glyph, and subsequently, save my people from their own stupidity, I need the warriors distracted."

"Burning her tent though? Doesn't that send a harsh message for when your mother awakes?"

"If you want to wait until she wakes up and ask her which she would rather me burn her tent, or any of the belongings of the rest of the pack you may."

For me I was done talking about it. There was no time for guilt. It was quite clear that I would be getting no voluntary assistance from the pack, so I would have to do things the difficult way.

The flames were already drawing attention, the black smoke and curly waves of heat rising into the canopy. So I slipped into the woods at the back of the camp, sliding, as stealthily as I could manage, through the trees and as close as I could get to the Alpha's tent before re-entering the camp boundaries.

"Fire!" The cry rang up along side the smoke and flames.

Perfect. I dashed forward, aiming for the back of the Alpha's tent. Or I tried to, hand around my wrist halted my progress, pulling me back the opposite direction.