Dancer's Lament: Path to Ascendancy Book 1 Read Free Page B

always renegades and outlaws. Still, this was awfully close to Hengan lands.
    Walking farther, he realized that it hadn’t been the Seti at all, whether war-party or outlaws. Wagons and carts lay torn apart. Loot glittered among the trampled grass: ironware, clothes, broken chests. Corpses still wore their personal possessions. He paused and knelt at one body. A single swipe of massive claws had torn the woman across the front as deep as her spine. She had twisted as she fell, her hips no longer in line with her shoulders; her viscera lay tossed about, congealing in the dirt. The only reason the organs and intestines remained was that – for the moment – the wild dogs, jackals, and carrion crows had more than enough to eat.
    Her wristlet, he noted, was of gold. This he unlatched and tucked away. Brushing his hands, he continued on. It seemed his earlier instincts regarding the curse of Li Heng, the man-eater’s presence, were well founded. Ryllandaras had rampaged through this caravan like the predator of humans he was. Some named him a giant wolf, others a hyena, or a jackal. Such distinctions were meaningless as far as Dorin was concerned. Ryllandaras was a beast who ate people . . . what more need one know?
    He kicked his way through the wreckage. At one point he stepped over a child’s severed arm. The noise of movement brought him round and his hands went to his baldric. One of the presumed corpses, a man – soldier or caravan guard – was levering himself erect from where he had lain propped up against an overturned wagon. Dorin coolly watched him do so.
    Weaving, stoop-shouldered, the fellow – dark, clothes and armour rent and bloodied – staggered towards him. He was a young man, muscular, half Dal Hon perhaps. His long wavy black hair hung like a curtain of night and Dorin felt a twinge of envy –
this one the girls must fawn over
. ‘Ryllandaras?’ he called to him.
    The man gave a curt nod.
    Something in that casual acknowledgement irked Dorin – too self-possessed by far. On a chance he asked, ‘You didn’t see anyone else come by, did you?’
    The youth nodded again. ‘Someone passed but I did not see him.’
    Now Dorin frowned. ‘You speak in riddles.’
    ‘I speak the truth. I saw no one go by but someone did. He was humming.’
    That’s him. Humming! Fits all too well. Li Heng for certain.
He gave an answering nod. ‘My thanks.’
    The young soldier lurched forward, suddenly animated. Something like a cross between disbelief and disgust twisted his mahogany features. ‘You are not walking away, are you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    The youth opened his arms to gesture all about. ‘But the dead . . . they must be seen to.’
    ‘See to them, then. I’ll not stop you.’
    Another lurched step, the lad’s face hardening. A hand settled on the longsword’s bloodied grip. ‘You’ll stay and help, or greet Hood.’
    Dorin’s hands went to his hips where he carried his heaviest fighting blades. What was troubling everyone lately? Was it some sort of fog of animus carried by the man-beast? ‘Reconsider, friend. There is no need to start a feud. The dead are dead. The crows and jackals will take care of them.’
    The lad drew and Dorin flinched backwards, actually taken by surprise –
so fast!
    But the youth staggered sideways, gasping his pain, one hand across his chest where the torn mail and leathers hung in tatters.
    Dorin eased his hands from his knife grips, began backing away. ‘Perhaps you should just rest – or join them yourself.’
    ‘The beast might return. He said we’d meet again.’
    ‘He said—’ Dorin froze. ‘You duelled the Curse of Quon? The man-eater?’
    The lad’s gaze was on the horizon, shadowed, as he rubbed his chest. ‘We fought all through the night.’
    Dorin laughed outright, sneering.
To think he almost had me believing.
‘Learn to temper your lies, hick. No one has ever faced him and lived.’
    A sullen glance from the other. ‘I care not what you think. I