Free Oath Breaker by Michelle Paver, Geoff Taylor Page A

them nearer the camp, not farther away.
     
Soaked and shivering, he wondered what to do. Any moment now, the Aurochs would realize they'd been tricked and head back to the river, spreading out to hunt the unknown intruders. He and Renn would be trapped between them and the Forest Horses.
    Unless he could steer both sides away from them.
"Head downriver," he told Renn in a whisper. "Wait for me past that bend, I'll meet you there."
Her eyes widened. "Where are you going?"
"No time to explain! Watch out for traps!"
    Telling Wolf to stay with the pack-sister, he started toward the Auroch camp. When he was as close as he dared, he crouched and whipped two arrows from his quiver. Then he took out his medicine horn and quickly smeared the arrowshafts with earthblood. He had no idea what those red branches meant to the Aurochs, but they were easy to spot, which was all that mattered.
    Still crouching, he nocked the first arrow to his bow and waited.
He glimpsed a Forest Horse hunter coming ashore:
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stealthily, keeping upright so that the water ran noiselessly down his body rather than pattering on leaves.
Torak took aim. He wasn't as good a shot as Renn, but he didn't need to be. His arrow thudded into a holly a good distance away.
The tattooed head turned to follow it.
From the corner of his eye, Torak saw an Auroch hunter making for the river. His belly tightened. They were faster than he'd thought. He loosed his second red arrow and hit another tree.
     
Without waiting to see the response, he fled, running fast and low to where Renn was waiting. If his trick worked, both sides would make for those mysterious red arrows, and then ...
     
Shouts behind him, a clash of spears. He felt a spurt of savage joy. The Aurochs were fighting the Forest Horses, leaving him and Renn to cross the river and hunt Thiazzi.
     
Renn's shadowy figure beckoned from a dense stand of spruce, and he grabbed her hand. Her grasp was hot as ash as she led him through the gloom to the hidingplace she'd found: the hollow ruin of an enormous oak.
    Panting, he collapsed against the tree, and as her fingers slipped from his, he gave a shaky laugh. "That was too close!"
No reply. He was alone in the tree.
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Twenty paces away, Wolf emerged from a clump of willows, followed by Renn, dripping wet and furious. "Where," she whispered, "in the name of the Spirit have you been?"
     
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TWELVE
    Who was that?" hissed Torak. "Who was who?" demanded Renn. His disappearence had shaken her badly, and she was struggling not to show it. "Someone took my hand. I thought it was you."
"Well it wasn't."
He grabbed her hand. "Yours is cold, the other was hot."
"Of course I'm cold, I'm soaking wet! Where did you go?" From the Auroch camp came shouts, a scream of pain. 104 "Tell you later," said Torak. "Let's get across while we can."
Renn was so cold that the Blackwater felt almost warm. The sodden gear on her back weighed her down, and the river was strong. As she reached the midstream, it sucked her under. She kicked to the surface, spluttering and spitting out leaves. Torak and Wolf were ahead and didn't notice.
     
The south bank was a forbidding tangle of willows, and as she neared it, her spirit quailed. She pictured leaf-faced hunters taking aim. She thought, Out of the cookingskin and into the fire.
     
If the others were frightened, they gave no sign. Wolf scrambled up the bank, shook vigorously, and started casting for Thiazzi's scent. Torak waded noiselessly toward the willows.
     
Watching him scan the trees, Renn shivered. His disguise made him a creature of the Deep Forest: a dark-faced stranger with cold silver eyes. He flicked her a glance and nodded- clear --then vanished into the willows. As she struggled to free her leg from a tangle of waterweed, he reached out and pulled her in.
    "There's no one here," he said. "I think they've all crossed to attack the camp."
Hastily they dried themselves with grass, stuffing more down their boots and inside their