Page 96 of Sun Warrior

“Yeah! And there’s more in the rest of the satchels, as well as a fairly large amount of herbs and tinctures. See? Lucky find! Right, Storyteller? This would make a great tale, don’t you think?” Thaddeus’s men nodded with their Leader, but Wilkes noticed none of them were as animated as him.

“I’m not sure,” Ralina said, her voice hard and flat. “Great tales need heroism and heart.”

“Perfect! We have plenty of that!” Thaddeus spoke as if he were onstage, putting on a show for his men.

Ralina didn’t answer but turned her face from him in disgust.

“Of course there are a few supplies missing. I used them to pack Odysseus’s wound. He’ll be good as new soon! Won’t you, boy?” He bent to pat the little Terrier on the head, but the canine wasn’t by his side—which Thaddeus seemed to just notice. He stood and whistled sharply.A yip came from the trees behind the group of Hunters. “Odysseus! Come on! Hurry up!”

Wilkes watched the little Terrier limp into the clearing. He went to his Companion and collapsed by Thaddeus’s feet.

“Have you had one of the apprentice Healers check out Odysseus’s wound?” Ralina asked. “His limp looks pretty bad.”

“Ah, he’ll be fine—especially after I doctored him with those medicines.”

“Where did you find them? I thought the infirmary burned,” Wilkes said.

“It did! But the Healers loaded as much as they could onto their Shepherds, and then sent them out of the infirmary. We found them not far from here.”

Wilkes looked behind the group but saw nothing. He glanced at Odin and Bear, who weren’t giving any sign that there were Shepherds to greet. Feeling sick, he met Thaddeus’s gaze. “Where are the Shepherds now?”

“Back there where we found them. I was going to drop off the supplies at the meditation platform and then find you to see what you wanted to do about them,” Thaddeus said.

“But I don’t understand. Why didn’t they come with you?” Ralina asked.

“Because they are all dead,” Wilkes said.

Thaddeus nodded. “Yeah, you guessed it. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen. The Shepherds were curled up together. Thought they were sleeping at first. But they were already stiff. Been dead since last night, but they weren’t burned, and I didn’t see any wounds on them, either.”

Wilkes forced himself to control his anger. Slowly, he stepped over the log and approached Thaddeus. Wilkes could feel Odin by his side. He could also feel the rage that burned within his Companion, mirroring his own. He stopped a hand span from the Hunter. Wilkes noticed that even before he spoke the other Hunters had moved back and were watching him warily.

“Howdareyou come here laughing and joking. Those Shepherds—those heroes—willed themselves to die because they couldn’t bear the horror of the deaths of their Companions.They felt their Companions suffer and burn!Can you even imagine the agony of that? And still they brought medicine to us—still they thought of the Tribe, even in the immensity of their grief and pain. What is wrong with you, Thaddeus?” Wilkes said.

“What’s wrong with all of you?” Ralina’s red-eyed glare took in the group of the Hunters as she hurled words at the men. “Theyare the heroes! Not you! Their sacrifice is the stuff of legends and bittersweet tales,and you came here laughing and joking after discovering their bodies!” The Hunters behind Thaddeus looked away, unable to meet Ralina’s gaze.

Thaddeus had no such problem. “We found medicine! Things that willhelpour Tribe. That’s what we were celebrating. I didn’t realize we needed to check with the Tribe’s Storyteller or the Leader of the Warriors first!” Thaddeus puffed up his chest and balled his fists by his sides.

Wilkes stared at him in disgust. “You don’t get it at all, do you? Sunfire! You were truly not affected by the deaths of those canines.”

“They’redead.Nothing can bring them back. I choose to focus on the living. So do my Hunters.”

“This isn’t the way of the Tribe. This isyourway, Thaddeus,” Ralina said.

“And your way is disgusting,” Wilkes added.

“It’s a new time, Warrior. Get used to it,” Thaddeus said with a sneer.

He started to brush past Wilkes, bumping him hard with his shoulder, obviously trying to throw him off balance. In his hand a knife suddenly appeared, and he brandished it at Wilkes.

Ralina cried, “He has a blade!”

Wilkes moved with the instincts of a well-trained Warrior. In an instant he had Thaddeus’s arm bent behind his back, twisting it until the knife fell harmlessly to the ground. Then, with one quick kick, heknocked the Hunter’s legs out from under him, sending him to sprawl, face-first, on the forest floor.

Odysseus snarled, and as the Hunters gasped in shock the little Terrier launched himself at Wilkes. In a movement so swift that his body blurred, Odin intercepted the canine, knocking him over, rolling him, and then pinning him to the ground, his huge jaws open and ready to rip out the Terrier’s exposed underbelly.

“Submit!” Wilkes’s abused voice growled along with his Shepherd. “Or I will let Odin kill him.”

Wilkes watched Thaddeus’s anger-filled gaze flick to his downed Terrier, and for a moment he actually thought the Hunter would refuse and cause his Companion’s death—and as Wilkes realized that, he finally understood just how dangerous Thaddeus had become and how very badly he needed to be banished from the Tribe.