Heights of the Depths Read Free Page A

to the head by his perpetually dyspeptic mother. When the Travelers had first arrived, credit Zerena with at least attempting to provide some manner of resistance. She hadn’t realized that they had been coming after Jepp; she was just trying to defend herself and her tribe. Had she realized that their target was the single human among them, she likely would have stood aside and told them to do with her whatever they wanted.
    Karsen had barely had enough strength to lift his head when Jepp was carried away, his eyes narrow slits rather than open. Nevertheless he saw Jepp reaching toward him, screaming, trying to escape the firm grip of the Traveler who had ensnared her. Her screams seemed to echo in the still air long after she was gone.
    As he continued his attempts to track her across the rocky surface, he remembered his mother raging at him, “That girl has done something to you!” as he prepared to take his leave of them. It hadn’t been his first choice. He would have far preferred the Bottom Feeders to come with him. The task he had set himself was indeed daunting and he could have used his long-time allies along with him, watching his back.
    But that had never been an option. His mother was too intransigent, too disapproving of Jepp and too determined to keep her clan as free from trouble as possible, even if it meant allowing her only son to head off into the wilderness on his own.
    That girl has done something to you!
    The damning thing was, he knew his mother was right. He knew perfectly well that Jepp had done something. And it wasn’t even a matter of his not caring. He had, instead, embraced it.
    So caught up was he in his musings that he almost missed it. But then his head snapped back and he retraced his steps a few feet.
    There was a chip off a small section of stone, such as might have been left by a passing creature. The draquons had extremely hard feet, judging by the thunderous sound they made as they galloped across the land and their fabled imperviousness to injury of any sort. It was possible that the passing draquons had caused it to chip away.
    And there. A second piece, also broken off. He held the chip closely to his nostrils. The faint but distinctive acrid aroma of a draquon wafted from it.
    He continued to move a few yards more, and then his incredibly sharp eyes perceived a thin strand of hair lying on the ground. He picked it up delicately and he didn’t even have to take a whiff of it to know that the black strand had fallen from Jepp’s head.
    Jepp and her abductors had come a long way by this point. Was she still struggling in their grasp? Was she screaming for help? Her throat would be raw and she’d probably have no voice left. But the mental image of her writhing in their grasp, trying to break free and not even coming close, drove him on.
    He began to run again, convinced that he was moving in the right direction. His hooves beat a steady tattoo on the rocks as he sped across the barren plains, spurred on by the hope that he might somehow catch a glimpse of them. That was all he would need, a glimpse. And when he saw them, then pure adrenaline would enable him to overtake them.
    And then…
    Then what, you idiot?
    It was his mother’s voice, sounding in his head. The disdain, the contempt for him was so realistic that she might well have been right beside him, rather than riding along like an unwanted passenger in his imagination.
    Then what are you going to do? Zerena’s voice persisted. You’re going to fight a group of Travelers? Travelers, the good right arm of the Overseer here on the Damned World? You’re going to challenge them with that hammer on your back? How stupid are you? Or, more to the point, how stupid has that girl made you? The absolute worst thing that could happen to you is that you in fact catch up with them. Because you will, in your dementia, stand up to them and try to fight them. I attempted that, only because I thought they were attacking, and they