Oath Breaker by Michelle Paver, Geoff Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

Clan."
"What?" The Raven Leader was incredulous.
"I thought they were going to help me," said Gaup. "They gave me food. Told me to rest by their fire. Then they said I was in league with the Forest Horses. Accused 71
me of stealing one of their children."
More stolen children, thought Torak. Thiazzi's flight to the Deep Forest seemed to be turning into something else.
    "They said the Forest Horses started it," Gaup went on. "The Forest Horses planted a curse stick, and claimed the land between the Blackwater and the Windriver as their range. The Aurochs burned the curse stick. Then the Forest Horse Mage died of a sickness, and the new Mage found a dart in the corpse. Now all the clans have taken sides. Everyone has to wear a headband: green for Auroch and Lynx, brown for Forest Horse and Bat." He peered suspiciously at Torak's buckskin headband.
"When you were with the Aurochs," said Torak, "was there a big man among them?"
     
"Why do you keep asking?" said Gaup. Awkwardly, he crawled toward the doorway. "I've wasted enough time. I'm going to fetch my clan. We'll make them give her back!"
    "Gaup, wait," commanded Fin-Kedinn. "We'll go together. You and me."
Renn and Torak stared at him. So did Gaup.
"We'll find your clan," said the Raven Leader, "and we'll find mine. We'll get your daughter back--without shedding more blood."
"How?" demanded Gaup. "They won't listen, they're not like us!"
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"Gaup," Fin-Kedinn said firmly. "This is what we will do."
Gaup's shoulders sagged. Suddenly he was just an injured man who needed someone else to make the decisions.
After that, things happened fast. Torak fetched one of the canoes, and he and Renn helped Fin-Kedinn down to the river. Renn made him as comfortable as she could in the canoe, giving him willow bast to chew against fever and hazelnuts to keep up his strength. Torak could see that she was sick with worry.
    "How will you manage?" she asked her uncle when Gaup was out of earshot.
"We're heading downriver," said Fin-Kedinn. "The current will take us."
"And if Gaup gets ill and is too weak to paddle?"
"He'll be all right," Torak told her. "You're a better healer than you think."
"You only say that because you want this," she retorted. "Because it leaves you free to hunt Thiazzi."
Torak did not reply. She was right.
Renn threw him a look and marched up to the canoe. "I'm coming with you," she told Fin-Kedinn.
"No," he said. "Torak needs you more." Torak was astonished. "You'd let her come with me? After I nearly got you killed when I didn't see that trap?" 73 "You made a mistake," said Fin-Kedinn. "Don't make another."
"But you can barely walk!" cried Renn. "What if something happens? What if ..." She couldn't bring herself to go on.
"Renn," said Fin-Kedinn. "Can't you see that there's more at stake now than me or you or Torak? Thiazzi isn't merely hiding in the Deep Forest, he's up to something. It's Torak's destiny to stop him. He'll need your help."
    He spoke in the tone that brooked no refusal, and Renn didn't argue. But soon afterward she ran off, unable to watch him leave.
"What will you do?" Torak asked his foster father when she'd gone.
"Try to stop a war," said Fin-Kedinn.
War. Torak hardly knew what it meant. "You think it's as bad as that?"
    "Don't you? The Deep Forest clans no longer trust the Open, not after the sickness and the demon bear. If the Salmon Clan moves against them, it could be the spark that lights the tinder." A spasm of pain took hold, and he gripped the side of the canoe. "Listen to me, Torak. Find the Red Deer Clan. For your mother's sake, they'll help you. If you can't find them, find the Auroch Mage. His clan acted savagely, but I'm certain he didn't sanction it. I know him. He's a good man."
    Gaup returned, impatient to be off, and Torak
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helped him into the canoe.
    "Find your mother's clan," repeated Fin-Kedinn. "Till you do, stay hidden. Climb trees if you have to: Deep Forest people are like deer; they seldom look up. And do not harm any of