By The Light Of The Moon

Chapter 31

The scrambling of claws on rock announced Shane's arrival. My cloak was mostly dry, so I put it on and tucked my shawl in a saddlebag.

"It looks safe enough," he said, coming into the trees. "I don't want to split up, and the meat should be done, so let's put out the fire and take the food with us."

I used my boot to scuff dirt over the fire while Shane grabbed the skewers. Once the fire was deeply buried and only the faintest wisps of smoke emerged, I grabbed Milly's reins and led her over to the trail.

She balked, not wanting to descend the slippery rocks in the fading light. After watching a few of my failed attempts to convince her, Shane came a few steps closer and huffed quietly. Milly's ears flicked back as she suddenly became much more interested in the path ahead.

It was trails like this that made me glad I'd picked a mule and not a horse. Milly was willing to jump across gaps, even though her hooves occasionally slipped on the boulders and rocks. I was relieved when we reached the bottom but didn't dare pause. I quickly guided her into some thick shrubs to the side.

Shane – now in human form – joined us. Milly nibbled on some leaves, unconcerned about the man now that he didn't have fur. The naïve mule had a second breakfast while Shane shared the meat with me.

"It's still not dark enough for my liking," he said. "We'll have to wait a while longer."

"I don't feel like getting caught, so that's fine with me. Milly won't be moving fast in the dark."

"Even better. There's less chance of them hearing her."

I nodded absently and bunted my toe against a nearby sapling. "There's probably not enough time for me to turn this thing into a spear. Although considering my track record, it might be best if I don't bother."

"I advise against it. The spear might have helped against wild animals, but you don't want those soldiers mistaking you for a fighter."

As much as I didn't want to consider the possibility of getting caught, there had been too many close calls. "Good point. I wonder how hard it would be to convince them that I was just a trader trying to cross the mountains..."

"You still have some trade goods, and if they asked the innkeeper, he would have confirmed it." He frowned as his gaze raked across the forest. "It's me they're after, but since we've been traveling together for so long, it won't be good if they catch you."

"And I don't stand a chance of getting across these mountains without you, so you better not get caught either," I added firmly, just in case he was having some sort of deranged, self-sacrificing thoughts.

He snorted. "I have no intentions of getting caught. Especially by war parties out for revenge."

"They won't pursue us past the guard posts in the foothills, and we can't be that far away, so we just have to make it that far."

"Assuming we aren't forced to make more detours, we'll be out of the mountains in three or four days, even at this pace."

Only a few days left... We just had to evade the soldiers for that long.

~

   "Stop," Shane's werewolf voice whispered through the darkness.

For the fifth time tonight, I reined Milly in and scratched behind her ears. My heart pounded as the crackling of broken branches disturbed the silence. It got louder as the riders approached – close enough for me to tell there were two horses – then they passed and the sounds faded.

I kept scratching Milly's ears, waiting for Shane to tell me when it was safe to continue. Last time, there had been silent men on foot trailing the mounted soldiers.

"You can keep going."

When I stopped the ear scratches, Milly ambled forward without being told, already getting used to the routine. My heartbeat slowed down, but I was still hypervigilant. Every cracking branch had my head turning.

Milly paused and eyed up the chest-high dirt embankment. Holding onto the saddle horn tightly, I tapped my heels into her sides.

"Go on, Milly. Jump."

This wasn't the first super steep section we'd encountered during our climb uphill, and I was sure it wouldn't be our last. Milly gathered herself, then jumped and clambered up.

"Good girl," I murmured, patting her neck.

At this point, I was wondering if the deer here had more in common with goats. The path Shane guided us along was narrow, and it twisted back and forth with frequent near-vertical climbs.

The slender crescent moon was high in the sky by the time Milly's feet encountered level ground. Ahead of us, the ground slanted down into the next valley.

"That's a lot of torches," I commented to Shane.

"At least they're all close to the main roads," he replied, standing on top of a nearby boulder, also examining the eight camps and dozen or so bobbing torches visible across the long valley.

"I wonder how many are in the valley ahead."

"Not sure, but we should be able to reach the next pass by sunrise."

"Is the trail here as steep as the one we just climbed? If it is, I'll have to dismount for parts of it, especially if they require Milly to jump."

"There's a few spots, but I'll try to find ones that aren't as steep."

"Thanks."

He jumped off the boulder and led the way. I was immediately reminded of why I detested descending mountain slopes in the dark. Pebbles, pine needles, and leaves slid under Milly's hooves, often sending her skidding downhill, sometimes dangerously close to a ridge or a drop-off. More than once, I dismounted to guide Milly, only to have her skid past me.

It was a good thing we weren't still in the other valley or one of the patrols would have heard the small avalanches of stones clattering downhill. Shane guided us from one trail to another, zigzagging his way down the slope. True to his word, there were no large drops or jumps like our climb had encountered.

"Why are we going so far downhill?" I quietly asked when Shane returned for the hundredth time.

"There's a large ridge that extends over halfway down the mountain. I can't climb it, so Milly won't be able to. We need to get around it before we can climb uphill and reach the pass. I'm going to check ahead again."

A shimmer of light from the shrubs beside me was the only reason I spotted the shadowy outline of a wolf disappear into the dark forest.

Milly followed the path as it leveled out. To the side, a wall of rock appeared, easily five times my height. Near its base, a creek burbled cheerfully over fallen chunks of rock. Milly headed toward it eagerly, more than ready for a drink after our harrowing descent.

Shane returned before she finished quenching her thirst. "Wait here. The ridge ends not far ahead, but it forms a natural bottleneck, so I want to check the area more thoroughly."

"Sure."

With another shimmer of light, Shane traded his werewolf form for his wolf one and trotted off. My muscles were still tight from all the earlier sliding, so I dismounted and stretched out while waiting. Milly finished her drink and decided to trim the clover by the water.

I walked back and forth while waiting for him, eventually sitting on a rock. It was taking him a really long time. With a sigh, I stretched out my legs and continued to watch the shrubs, expecting him to appear soon.

Milly lifted her head and sniffed the air a few times. After swishing her tail, she went back to grazing, only to lift her head again. I frowned at the forest but didn't see or hear anything amiss. The crickets chirped without any rustling branches to disturb them.

After a while, Milly went back to grazing, but I continued to watch the tree line suspiciously.