She pointed to Toman. "We have seen that condition before. The creature in the Forest of the Dead. The one you claimed was a natural evolution for the environment."
"The quilled rodent?"
"Yes. Tyrus and I saw rats at Fairview that were the same. Bloated and misshapen. I believe it is a byproduct of the magics. I killed one with my dagger and Tyrus insisted on cleaning it to be safe. You ought to do the same."
He nodded and began wiping it on the grass as she retrieved her daggers from the dead shadow stalker.
"This is not one of the bandits," she said.
Gavril looked closer at the shadow-stalker-abandoned corpse. "You are correct," he said, as if with some surprise.
She gave him a look. "Thank you. So it seems we are stuck in the middle--sorry, the edge of the steppes--with no horses and a useless wagon and a landscape populated by shadow stalkers. If they are indeed raised by some confederate of your father's, then we should be safe enough. We simply need to find this sorcerer and turn ourselves in to him to be returned to your father and resume our original mission. However, the fact that it"--Moria waved at the shadow stalker--"attempted to attack you suggests we are not safe at all. What is going on here, Kitsune?"
"I . . . I'm thinking."
"If you do it aloud, perhaps I can help. Unless you still think me a dull-witted Northerner."
"I only said that to needle you."
"You also did it in front of your father."
"As I said, it was to convince him you were not intellectually capable . . ." He stopped and scowled at her. "You're needling me now, Keeper. Playing on my guilt to make me share my thoughts."
"I do not believe I am intellectually capable of such cunning--"
"Enough. You asked who else could do this, and that is the problem I am working out. As far as I know, the magics are my father's alone. He spent three summers living well beyond the empire's borders to learn this particular sorcery, and he claims to have killed the man who taught him."
"Were there other students?"
"Others who would spend over thirty moons studying for one purpose? Who would have the power and the will to do such a thing? Very few, and no chance that another has coincidentally arrived in the empire and begun also raising shadow stalkers."
"So it must be your father."
"But how? Why?" He brushed back his braids impatiently. "This makes no sense, Moria." He waved at the dead shadow stalker. "He makes no sense. Where did he come from? My father carefully guards the warriors he has raised."
"Where are they?"
"I don't know. The point--"
She stepped in front of him. "No, the point is exactly what I'm asking, Kitsune. This man is not dressed as one would expect in this climate. Is it reasonable to think he might have come from Fairview?"
"Yes, but--"
"Then he did not simply wander off from the others and appear here. You say you do not know where your father keeps his army of the undead?" She waved across the land. "How about here?"
"I cannot imagine we have stumbled . . ."
He trailed off as she started back toward the wagon.
Gavril stalked after her. "What have I done now?"
"Nothing, which is the problem. It is night. There are shadow stalkers. Discussing the situation with you has proved tedious. I am taking action. Food, water, perhaps a lantern if I can find it. Then I am walking until I find a settlement. If you wish to be useful, help me find supplies. Including a sharpening stone or another sword for you. We will almost certainly encounter more shadow stalkers, and the only ways to stop them are banishment and hacking them to bits. We must be ready."
TWENTY
Gavril did as he was told. But the moment they set out, as dawn began coloring the horizon, he renewed their conversation as if they hadn't paused.
"My problem with your scenario is that it lacks plausibility and probability, Keeper," he said as they passed the wagon driver, the shadow stalker still seemingly caught within his battered corpse.