Page 166 of Sun Warrior

“Well, let’s get across the creek and up that ridge and see what’s waiting for us in the clearing. It’s probably a good idea if you send a prayer to that Goddess of yours asking for her help,” Nik said.

“Good idea.” Davis bowed his head and whispered an urgent prayer to the Great Earth Mother: “Please protect us, Great Goddess. It is our choice not to hurt anyone—to get to the Tribe and the Mother Plants without shedding any blood, be it Companion, Earth Walker, or even Skin Stealer. Please help us.”

Davis and Cammy followed Nik and Laru—much more quietly this time—back across the creek. Staying as silent as possible, they made their way up the ridge that overlooked Crawfish Creek and the Gathering Site, dropping to their stomachs as they reached the edge of the steep bank.

Nik peered over, hardly believing what he was seeing.

“Bloody beetle balls! That’s Wilkes with his Odin, and Claudia with her Mariah,” Davis whispered. He started to stand and call to the Companions, but Nik’s hand on his arm stayed him.

“They’re sick.” Nik kept his voice low. “Very sick. Look, Claudia is throwing up over there by that log. And I can see how flushed and feverish Wilkes is from here.”

“Oh, Goddess! Do you think they’ve been infected by the Skin Stealer disease?”

Nik stared at the two Companions. Wilkes was sitting with his back against a tree. Odin lay close beside him. Nik could see that the big Shepherd wasn’t taking his gaze from his Companion, which was a bad sign. The canine was obviously worried.

“Looks like it to—” Nik began, but Davis cut him off.

“Bloody beetle balls!” Davis whispered urgently. “Look at the idol of the Great Goddess. It’s been completely destroyed.”

Nik had to search to find what used to be a lovely idol of the reclining Earth Mother. Her body had been devastated—caved in and then mounded strangely. Most disturbing of all, the moss, ferns, grass, and even ivy had somehow been blighted. In a wide circle around the desecrated image, everything was marred, wilted, blackened.

“Could they have done that?” Davis said.

Nik’s eyes shifted to Claudia. The young woman had stopped throwing up and was staggering to the bank of the creek. Mariah was by her side, watching her with the same worried expression Odin kept trained on Wilkes. Claudia dropped heavily to her knees and carefully pushed up the sleeves of her stained tunic, and Nik heard Davis suck in a breath as they both recognized the angry pustules that clustered at the creases of her wrists and elbows.

Wincing in pain, Claudia rinsed off her arms before drinking thirstily. Then she turned to face Wilkes. The wind carried her voice over the water to them.

“Go on without me. If you find Mari, you can come back for me. I’m holding you up,” she said.

Wilkes shook his head weakly. “I’m as bad as you. I just haven’t started puking. Yet. No, we’ll go on together. We have to. Thaddeus will miss us sooner or later, and my best guess is that he’ll come after us—out of spite if for no other reason. Out here, away from everyone, he’ll kill us without a second thought.”

Claudia made a shaky gesture, pointing back to the log she’d been sick by and the bow and quiver of arrows that rested beside it with her travel satchel and cloak. “Then if he tracks us to here, I’ll hold him off so that you can get away. Finding Mari is our only chance.”

“Doesn’t sound like they destroyed the Goddess, and it doesn’t look like they had the energy to do it, even if they wanted to,” Nik said.

“But a Hunter is tracking Warriors?” Davis’s hushed voice was filled with shock. “How can that be?”

“Let’s find out.” Nik stood and waved his hands above his head, shouting a greeting: “Hello, Companions!”

“Nik?” Wilkes said, and then Davis stood, too, and Wilkes’s voice was filled with relief. “Nik! Itisyou! Oh, thank the Sun!”

Nik and Davis hurried down the steep bank with Laru and Cammy bounding down ahead of them. They jumped into the creek, swimming strongly, to be greeted by the Companions’ two excited Shepherds.

Not far behind the canines, Nik and Davis sloughed through the creek, fighting the stronger current. When they emerged from the water, Claudia and Wilkes were there, standing beside each other, looking as relieved as the canines and a lot more wobbly.

Wilkes went to Nik and threw his arms around the younger Companion, completely taking him by surprise.

“Damn, boy! I cannot tell you how good it is to see you!” Wilkes said.

“Is Mari with you?” Claudia asked, hugging the equally surprised Davis.

“No, it’s just us. Who else is with you?” Nik asked, looking around the clearing with the sharp eyes of a Warrior.

“No one. We left. We had to find you—and Mari,” Wilkes said. Then a wrenching cough had him breathless, bending at his waist, unable to continue.

“What has happened? Why are you here, and what happened to the Goddess image?” Nik asked, putting his arm around the Leader of the Warriors and helping him back to sit and lean against a tree as he struggled to catch his breath.

“Goddess image?” Wilkes gasped between coughs.