Shit.
“Good,” he said quickly. “I should have known that our leaders would prepare you for this. Very good. Well, then…” Ronen’s voice warmed. His eyes crinkled into a smile and his lips curled up on one side. “You have your instructions, Furyknight Kearney. Go and be blessed.”
Despite whatever other dread I might feel, hearing my official title still brought a smile to my face.
I saluted him. “Yes, Sir!”
I blinked back to the present, still scanning the dark little clearing, and frowned.
Here I was, on time, and without revealing the meeting even to Donavyn. But where were my instructions? Ronen had been tight lipped about who would be waiting for me.
A shadow flickered on the edge of my vision and I snapped to a defensive stance, inhaling sharply. Then froze.
A man with the build and posture of a Furyknight, armed with a blade at each hip, and swathed in a half-cloak with a hood so deep I could only see his chin, turned away from me. The cloak whirled, then he disappeared into the deep shadows of the forest behind him.
For a split second, I gaped, waiting for the attack—then it hit me.These were my orders.
Panicking that I might have already lost him, I sprinted after him, into the dark, only to be forced to pause again and let my eyes adjust to the midnight shadows under the trees, until I caught movement just ahead.
For the next forty minutes, I ran, then paused, ran, then stopped, each time my heart banging in my chest from nerves, afraid I’d lost sight of my silent guide. I knew better than to callout, or demand answers. If I’d been told to receive orders in secret, then I would receive them in silence as well.
This was either a test, or some kind of training. Either way, I couldn’t give up.
Keeping my eyes peeled for the shifting shadow of the man’s movement, I ran as fast as I could.
Finally, we entered another small clearing, every blade of grass and hanging leaf silvered in moonlight. My guide had paused on the clearing’s other side, waiting for me. Yet, the moment I entered the moonlight, he darted behind an ancient tree, so large its trunk was wide enough to obscure him completely.
Hissing a curse, I ran to the tree and around its great trunk, then hesitated again, scanning the forest, heart pounding in my ears.
But,shit.
For the first time, there was nothing. No quick flicker of movement. No deepening shadow, or silhouette of a man.
Nothing.
I made myself breathe deep and concentrate. He’d likely stopped moving. Now I needed to find him and approach.
But after slowly scanning the forest twice, even circling the tree…nothing.
Shit!
Had I failed? Was I supposed to have done or said something? Or was he intentionally obscuring his position? Was this some fucked up game of hide and seek?
Figure shit out.
Ronen’s voice echoed in my head, from months of training, and studying to become a Furyknight.
No matter how prepared you are, no matter how well-equipped, every mission will bring unanticipated obstacles.When you reach a wall that you can’t climb, it’s time to burrow under. Fly. Whatever.
Figure. Shit. Out.
I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and refocus.
My guide was a big guy—undoubtedly a Furyknight, though along with the cloak, he wore the thick, fur-lined leathers that obscured a body’s form, so I couldn’t recognize him.
No matter how skilled he was, a man that size couldn’t just lay on the ground and remain undetected. He must have gone somewhere. Was there a hollow in the earth nearby?
Had he somehow hauled himself up the tree?
