A heightened awareness took hold as everyoneanticipated an attack.
As the morning wore on, the group movedfurther into revenant territory. The forest here was thin andsparse and the underbrush thick. It made it challenging to movequickly, especially since they were going out of their way to avoidmaking noise. The rolling hills made it difficult to see anydistance, which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing becauseit might hide them from the revenants but it would also preventthem from seeing the revenants approaching until it was toolate.
It was decided last night that riding horseswould make them easy pickings for the revenants as the creature wastoo small to hit with a sword from horseback but was perfectlycapable of leaping up to tear out a horse’s throat or drag a rideroff its back.
Sweat dampened Shea’s hair as she trailedbehind Eamon. They’d walked a fair amount, but not nearly as far asshe’d have liked. Having a large party like this made it difficultto move with speed, especially when they were trying to be asstealthy as possible.
They were heading west and slightly south,hoping to skirt along the edge of the beasts’ territory.
A low warble from the front of the linealerted Shea and the others. A man held up his closed fist,signaling them to stop and find cover if possible. He pointed atthe ridge running parallel to them.
A single revenant was silhouetted against thesky, its head lifted proudly as it glared out across its territory.Shea held her breath. If it let loose an ululating wail, they wereall dead.
A sigh went through the company when itdisappeared back into the brush.
“That’s it? That’s what everybody is soafraid of?” Sam asked. “It can’t be too difficult to kill thatthing.”
Eamon cuffed him on the back of his head.“Quiet.”
“It might be easy to kill one on one,” a mansaid softly from behind Shea, “but it hunts in packs. I’ve neverseen a more cunning animal.”
“Looks like your little berries worked, boy,”the man told Shea.
She glanced at her companions. “It worksbetter if you all would just. Quit. Talking.”
A choked noise came from Eamon.
She frowned at him. He looked away, but notbefore Shea caught a hint of a smile.
Thought it was funny, did he? Well, she’d seehow funny he thought it was when the revenant returned to check outall this noise. The berries disguised their scent. They didn’t masksound.
The march resumed. The men held themselves ina constant state of readiness, with hands clutched aroundweapons.
The first test was passed. If they were goingto retreat, now was the time.
The commander ordered them forward, furtherinto revenant territory.
The sounds of animal life were muted in thesewoods. That had less to do with the company’s presence and more todo with the revenants acting like a scourge on the earth. They hadno sense of self preservation. They killed and killed until therewas nothing left. Then they would move on like a pestilence.Intelligent they might be, but they had no sense of restraint. Theywere extremely aggressive to everything.
They had an amazing sense of smell, whichmade up for their poor eyesight. Pickleberries were one of the mostpungent smelling plants in the Highlands or Lowlands, and even ahuman could smell a small bush from a fair distance. Before theyhad set out that morning, each man had been instructed to rubcrushed pickleberries on his pulse points, neck, chest, groin, andunder the arms, in the hopes that the smell would conceal hisscent.
It was better to slip through unseen than tryto fight them off one by one.
And it seemed to be working too, until one ofthe beasts stumbled through the brush right on top of them.
Before Shea could move or shout, a man fromSaw Grass drew his blade and threw himself at the revenant. Two menfollowed, killing the beast before it could emit more than a painedyip.
“Shit,” Shea breathed.
There was a heartbeat of silence and then achorus of screeching howls mourned their pack mate’s death. The dinof dozens of revenants rose as they raced through the hills allaround them.
“That is not a small pack,” Shea observedsoftly, listening.
“Let’s move,” Perry’s low voice carried downthe ranks.
The men surged up the hill, breaking intoseveral smaller groups as they went, hoping that they could escapedetection from the revenant’s weak eyesight.
Shea’s legs pumped as she stayed with Eamonand Buck who ran parallel along the hill. She saw one of the menwho had slayed the revenant running to the right of them.
