Rollan ran toward him. The weasel scrambled up Tarik’s face. In that moment, the bald Conqueror tossed the serpent. Blinded by the weasel, Tarik didn’t immediately understand this new threat.
“Tarik!” Rollan shouted. “It’s the snake!”
The Greencloak’s hands tightened around the serpent. Too late. The snake’s fangs sank into his arm. Tarik shook off the weasel and ripped the snake from himself, but he staggered. In this moment of vulnerability, the bald Conqueror raised his sword, about to deliver a killing blow.
There wasn’t enough time for Rollan to reach him before the sword fell.
“Essix!” he yelled. Surely she would come through for him when it was really important.
The falcon dove, claws outstretched. She landed on the enemy’s bald head a moment before he swung the sword. As the Conqueror flailed, nothing but feathers in his view, Rollan scrambled to seize the man’s sword.
“Get it off of me!” the man screamed. His eyes were shut tight; Essix’s talons were inches away from them.
Rollan clutched the sword threateningly. “If I do, will you leave us alone?”
“Anything!” the man said. “Trust me!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Rollan glimpsed the snake slither into the bald Conqueror’s open hand.
“Unfortunately for you,” said Rollan, “I don’t trust anyone.”
The Conqueror threw the serpent forward, but Rollan was ready. He swung the sword. The heavy blade sliced the snake neatly in two and kept on swinging.
Right into the Conqueror’s leg.
Both Rollan and the bald man howled — the Conqueror in pain, Rollan in surprise. It was the first time Rollan had ever struck a human with a proper sword, and unbelievably, no one had been around to notice it. Well, except Essix, Rollan thought as the falcon flapped into the air with a dry, approving cry. He gave the falcon a hasty one-finger salute as he spun to deal with the remaining spirit animal. The weasel, however, had slunk into the trees. It must have been looking for its human partner.
The Conqueror continued wailing.
“Don’t move a muscle,” Rollan warned, sword still pointed at him. “You try to slither your way out of this one, you might lose something precious to you — like your life.”
A cry pierced the air from where Conor had been fighting his foe. Without removing the sword’s tip from his prisoner, Rollan glanced toward the commotion. Briggan held a Conqueror’s spirit animal in his jaws — the badger Rollan had seen earlier. The Conqueror watched anxiously from the edge of the woods. With a growl, the wolf opened his jaws; the badger fell lifeless to the ground.
The Conqueror threw up his arm, trying to call the badger back to him. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing. No tattoo would form. The man let out an anguished cry. No one moved against him as he shifted to claim the badger. Without even a glance for the others, he disappeared with it into the forest.
Conor did not follow. There was a curious sadness in his face.
Rollan was unsympathetic. The Conqueror should have known: Don’t bring a badger to a Great Beast fight.
Rollan turned his attention to Tarik, whose clothing was tattered and bloodstained.
“It looks worse than it is,” Tarik muttered, teeth clenched in pain.
“That snake —” Rollan began.
“A Euran adder. I need to get the herbal antidote for the venom. Unfortunately, it will only get worse.”
This sounded alarming to Rollan. “Have you been bit before?”
Tarik answered calmly, “No. But I have seen others.”
“Can you walk?”
The Greencloak winced. “Is my horse gone?”
Nearby, Conor nodded grimly. Gone. In fact, aside from the Conqueror’s groans, which Rollan thought were uncalled for, the forest had fallen uneasily silent.
Rollan called out for Meilin, Abeke, and Finn.
There was no reply.
“Where’d they go?” he asked Conor.
Conor pointed. “The others galloped that way. But we’d never catch up. Our horses are gone.” Even Tarik’s well-behaved steed had vanished, spooked by the combat.
“Well, this is a grand adventure,” remarked Rollan. “Three missing and one chewed on. What do we do now?”
With a grimace, Tarik pushed himself onto an elbow. In a low voice so that the Conqueror couldn’t hear, he whispered, “There’s a Greencloak near here. An old informant. I think that’s the best place to go. Finn knows her, and she will have the antidote. I’m afraid you’ll have to help me walk, though.”
Conor and Rollan each took one of Tarik’s arms and hauled him up. Lumeo stood by his side, his coat uneven and sodden from the fight in the damp underbrush. His normally playful expression was keen, trying to anticipate what Tarik might need from him.
“It’s all right, old friend,” Tarik said to his spirit animal. He was shivering in an alarming sort of way. “Don’t worry.”
“Do you think the others are okay?” Conor asked. “You said Finn was just a scout. He doesn’t fight, does he?”
“But Meilin does,” Tarik said. “Very well, as we keep finding out. And Finn still has his wits. I am optimistic. But we’d better get going. It’s not far. But with me like this, it will probably feel that way.”
Tarik tried to be valiant, but it was clear that his condition was darkening with the evening. By the time night had fallen, he was quivering and clammy. Rollan wondered just how fast this antidote would work.
Finally, Tarik breathed, “There. There it is.”
Conor exclaimed, “That’s a castle!”
Rollan squinted at the single tower, gray and ghostly in the rainy dark. There was only one very short door and no discernible window openings. It looked like the sort of building an unimaginative child would build. “If it’s a castle, where’s the rest of it?”
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Tarik said. “Help me down the path.”
At the small door, he did a complicated knock.
Nothing happened.
He did it again. He told them, “Sometimes she pretends to be deaf.”
The door opened. An old woman, tiny and as wizened as an ancient fruit tree, stood on the other side. She said, “I am deaf.”
Rollan and Conor exchanged a look behind Tarik’s head.
“Tarit,” croaked the old woman. She had a voice like wood shavings. A faded green cloak hung on a peg just beside the door, but it looked as if it hadn’t been moved for quite a while. “It’s been a long time.”