Clanless Read Free

impending Ram attack.
    Unless Zo put him up to it.
    Ajax walked back to the mess and dared a glance up into the high branches of the tree over their heads. Rain pelted his face. He wiped it away before looking Gryphon in the eye. What his old friend tried to convey in that shared glance, Gryphon couldn’t be certain. But he had a feeling it was important.
    Ajax frowned and looked down at his hands as he repositioned himself on the wet ground. He grit his teeth and grabbed hold of his pant legs. He seemed to flex every muscle in his body. Then he nodded, jaw tensed in anticipation. The familiar zipping sound of an arrow flew down from the tree. The arrow sank deep into Ajax’s thigh.
    Ajax rolled and wailed, pointing in the opposite direction of the arrow. “Raven!” he half shouted, half growled.
    “Link!” Zander called his men to order, as they all searched the trees in the opposite direction. Metal and wood scraped together as round shields were raised to form a perfect wall of defense.
    I could kill Zander , thought Gryphon. I could end him like he ordered Ajax to kill Zo. He wanted to kill him as much as he wanted his freedom. But right now he couldn’t have both.
    Gryphon took his chance. Using the dagger gifted to him by the hidden ally in the tree, he sliced through the tight ropes around his ankles in one fluid motion and jumped to his feet.
    Gryphon leapt over a bush and raced around a tree. Then another. He didn’t get more than twenty strides before Zander shouted, “Stop him!”
    Gryphon took off at a wild sprint into the dark forest. A spear shot past him within inches of his head. Arrows flew behind him, likely Gabe helping to cover his escape. Men shouted in pain. Gryphon didn’t turn around. He ran as hard as he’d ever run, pushing through the absolute darkness as if the wings of hell beat at his heels.
    After a couple hundred yards, the earth fell out from beneath him and he plummeted, rolling down the sheer side of the mountain. Rocks bruised his body. Brush and foliage scratched wicked gashes into his skin. He used his arms to protect his head as he tumbled, end over end, into the belly of a rocky gorge.
    He landed hard in a freezing stream of mountain water that came up to his waist. In the distance Zander wailed with frustration. The ghostly sound cut through the pouring rain and echoed off the walls of the gorge. It was no small miracle Gryphon survived the fall. Now Zander’s men would have to backtrack half a mile to a nearby ridge to get down into the ravine. He struggled to his feet then fell back into the water after his first step, clutching his head to clear away the dizzy spell that robbed him of precious time.
    He lifted a hand to the back of his head and found a lump forming. He must have hit it in the fall, but didn’t remember.
    He pushed himself up onto his battered hands and knees and crawled through the stream until the dizziness in his head cleared. Pulling himself out of the water, he collapsed on the black soil to catch a couple of breaths, then forced his weary body to stand. He kept his pace slow but consistent, heading northeast in the direction of the Raven settlement even though he wanted nothing more than to run back to the tree to see if Zo was alive and to check on Joshua and the others.
    Until Zander and Chief Barnabas captured him or met their own end, Gryphon and the people he cared for would never be safe again. Their only chance for survival now was to follow the initial plan: warn the Raven. He’d promised Zo that he would help them evacuate the elusive Nest before the Ram raided and destroyed the clan.
    He’d keep his promise and pray that those he loved were kept safe while he led his mess away from them.
    From now on, Gryphon was a hunted man.
     
     

     
     
    Zo scrambled out from under the tree to find Eva on the ground and a dripping gash on the intruder’s arm. In the darkness it looked more like spilled ink than blood.
    “Gabe!” Zo flung