The Lost and the Hounds (Book Three of the Ranger and The Thief series)

Chapter Thirteen

Everyone had gone to bed and the camp was silent when Bente stood and walked through the rows of people who survived the fire. But she was only looking for one person. She searched through the people trying to find where Quint was, until she finally spotted him. He was laying on his side, staring at a rock by his head.

"Quint?" She whispered. His eyes flickered up to hers and he sat up. She sat down next to him and they looked at each other for a few moments.

"Can't sleep?" He asked. She nodded.

"I still can't believe he would do something like that to me." She said.

"Well, in his defense, You were suppose to be getting married." He said.

"Yes, but I didn't realize he'd move on from me so quickly!" She hissed. "It's like he wasn't even hurt by our breakup." She mumbled sadly.

"Emmy is an amazing girl. If I had known Willy liked her, I would have taken her myself. Nobody expected those two to date. They fight like cat and dog." Quint said.

"Then why are they together? Why would they put up with each other?" She asked.

"I don't know. None of us knew they were together until this morning, the same time you were told. It's like he thought it up that minute just to hurt you." Quint thought aloud.

"So you're saying their just doing this to get back at me? It wasn't my fault I had to marry Preston! I barely even escaped a loveless marriage!" She whispered.

"I don't know. There have only been rare occasions when Willy cared about Emmy. Like the time I chained the two of them together for a day and a night and it made Emmy's wrist bleed. He tackled me and forced me to apoligize. Or when she was going to sell herself into slavery to save Lynn. He kept making excuses like Erak would kill him if she got hurt." He said. "And then there was the fire. Come to think of it, That might be where he truely cared. She was out cold for five days straight." Quint told Bente. She bit her lip and covered her eyes with her hands to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.

"He really does love her then. They've been through that much together." She said. Quint took Bente's hands and pulled them away from her face.

"But you two went through a lot together too. You were captured together and he was willing to be sold into slavery for you." Quint said. Bente let out a sigh.

"He's a mystery to me." She mumbled. She stood.

"Goodnight, Quint." She said. She then went back to her bed roll.

***

The next morning, MJ and Willy woke Lynn and Emmy before anyone else had woken. They gathered up their weapons and made their way down the mountian, to the smouldering village below. The smoke was still really heavy, so they covered their mouths so they could enter the village without chokeing.

"Let's split up in groups of two and search for them, it'll cover more ground and we could be done before nightfall." Willy said. The others agreed and Emmy went with Willy, and MJ and Lynn went the opposite way.

    Emmy and Willy walked along what used to be the main road as they traveled up towards the great hall. Before the fire, they would have been able to see the Stormwhite to their right, and straw thatched buildings to their left.

"Everything is gone." Emmy said saddly. Willy gave her a sad smile and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

They both looked around nervously as a noise caused a commotion a few ways down. Willy slowly drew his sword and they continued on towards the sound.

"Is anyone out there?" Emmy called warily. There was no responds. "Hello? Don't be frightened, we're here to help." 

"It must have been the wind, Em." Willy said. But the fact that he didn't sheath his sword made her doubt his words. "Come on." They walked a little farther before the noise happened again. Emmy glared at Willy.

"That was not the wind." She said sternly. Willy bit his lip and nodded in agreement. They turned back and searched through the rubble of an old house.

"Is anybody in here?" Willy called. He looked around to find that Emmy was no longer by his side.

"Em? Where are you?" He started to panick. Last time she was no longer by his side, she had almost been killed by the fire. The memory of her sobbing because of the heat was enough to make him forget the reason they were there and to look for Emmy. He found her in a matter of seconds, unharmed, much to his relief. "You nearly gave me a heartattack." He said. She glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him a small smile.

"Well, come look and see who was making all that noise." She said. Willy knelt down in the ashes beside her. A small gray kitten was curled up and shaking in Emmy's lap. "She was scared to death. She has burns here and here." She said pointing too the cats leg and behind her ear.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to care for her then." Willy said. He took out his salve from his pack and his canteen full of water. He poured the water gently over the kittens burns and applied the salve lightly. He then carefully wrapped some bandage around it to keep the wounds from getting infected. Willy stored away his medical supplies and helped Emmy stand as she cradled the kitten in her arms. "What are you going to name her then?" Emmy thought for a moment before giving him a sad smile.

"Ash." Willy let out a small scoff at the unfortunate name. He scratched the kitten on her head.

"What a horrible way to earn a name, Ash." He said. Emmy smiled a bit.

"Come on, let's go search for others."

***

While Emmy and Willy were searching the East side of Hallasholm, Lynn and MJ were searching the West, which didn't help much since there was nothing left in that area. They didn't have their bows at the ready, but their saxe knifes were always ready to be used.

"I don't think anything is out here." Lynn said. There was no way for them to track a person anyway, and the smoke as starting to seep through the cloths that were draped across their mouths for protection.

"Let's find Willy and Emmy and get out of here." MJ said before letting out a cough. The smoke seemed thicker here then it was anywhere else. Lynn nodded and they began to head back towards the base of the mountian. But before Lynn could go very far, there was a sharp pain in the  back of her leg, and she saw a glint of metal being pulled away from her leg. The hot blood could already be felt running down her leg. "Lynn!" She could feintly hear MJ yell. She slid her Saxe and her throwing knives out of their sheaths and used her saxe to block another sword blow from the Arraidan behind her, as she threw her throwing knife. Since she only had a month to train, her aim was a little off, and the knife hit his shoulder, not sticking, only shocking him a bit. He charged her again, and she was prepared to jab her Saxe into his chest with all her might, but he stopped before he could reach her. An arrow with a black arrowshaft was buried deep in his chest. He fell to the ground dead. 

   The whole world spun around her and she stumbled as she tried to find her master. She felt MJ's arms go around her waist and he lifted her up into bridal hold before she slipped out of consiousness.