Ryan and Blood-sniffer made their way to a small bark lodge, which was identical to the image Krysty had transmitted to him. Also, as she had mentally communicated, there was only one sentry, a young man some distance away. He leaned on his lance, head bowed, either half-asleep, bored or depressed.
Blood-sniffer dropped into a crouch, belly almost on the ground, but Ryan touched him and shook his head. He had no doubt the wolf could take down the man, but he doubted Blood-sniffer could take him before he raised an outcry.
Ryan drew his panga and stepped out of the shadow of an overhanging branch, walking quietly, heel to toe. He intended to clamp a hand over the sentry’s mouth and slide the eighteen-inch blade of tooled steel between his third and fourth ribs. It was an act he had performed many times in the past, and he could have done it with patches over both eyes.
When he was within six feet of the man, he realized the sentry wasn’t a man at all, but a boy, a stripling maybe fourteen years old, only a few years older than Dean.
The boy shifted, uttering a sigh of ennui. Ryan swiftly reversed his grip on the knife and snapped the heavy pommel across the base of the boy’s skull, where it joined with the neck. The thud of impact was muffled, and consciousness fled his dark eyes with the suddenness of a candle being extinguished.
Ryan caught the body and lance before they hit the ground. Blood-sniffer padded up, sniffed briefly at the boy and yawned.
Gathering a fistful of deerskin tunic in one hand and holding the lance in the other, Ryan dragged both toward the lodge.
The blow to the nerve center at the base of his skull was probably good for ten minutes of uninterrupted unconsciousness. By the time the boy revived, he would be trussed up and gagged.
Pushing aside the pelt hanging over the doorway with the lance, Ryan hissed, “It’s me,” before entering. He didn’t want to be clubbed senseless by his friends.
Though everyone was happy to see him alive and apparently whole, there was no time for a reunion. J.B. bit back a startled curse when Blood-sniffer entered.
“It’s that double-crossing wolf!” he said in an angry whisper. “What’s it doing here?”
“Helping us,” Ryan answered, laying the sentry out on the ground.
Krysty knelt over the boy. “He’s alive,” she said in a mildly surprised tone.
Ryan grunted. “Tie him up and gag him.”
Krysty and Mildred attended to that, tearing strips from the boy’s breechclout to fashion a gag. Mildred quickly knotted the thongs that had previously bound the friends and hog-tied the young man, ankles to wrists.
J.B. and Doc eyed Blood-sniffer distrustfully and not a little fearfully.
“Joe’s got our blasters,” the Armorer said, not removing his gaze from the wolf. “He’s been trying to train his warriors how to use them.”
“I know,” Ryan replied.
After the sentry was tightly bound and gagged, the six people slipped from the lodge. Blood-sniffer followed the odor of gun oil and cordite through the dark avenues, and they followed at his heels.
The wolf went to the monstrous tree that had served as their guest quarters. While the humans waited in the underbrush, the animal circled the great trunk, casting for a scent of guards. After one circuit Blood-sniffer paused before the archway, looking toward them.
They joined the beast there and crept inside, the wolf pausing every few feet to sniff the air. The corridor was empty.
They came to a small room and found Joe and Little Mountain. They had a jug of liquid before them, and their faces in the flaring lamplight weren’t the faces of happy men. Laid neatly on a low table against the far wall were all of their weapons, including Jak’s knives, Doc’s swordstick, and the rucksack containing ammunition. Joe’s rifle rested at the edge of the table, within easy reach.
Blood-sniffer entered first, and when they saw him, they sprang up, grabbing for blasters. Ryan stepped in quickly, the SIG-Sauer leveled. Both men stopped, frozen in midmotion.
Joe let out a long, harsh breath. “Ochinee. I’m gratified you still live, but not gratified you sold us out to the Wolf Soldiers.”