After my two days of practice, Kerrick announced we’d all play a game of hide-and-seek. “If she can find everyone, she wins.”

“Sweet,” Flea said.

“The rules are…” Kerrick waited for everyone’s attention. “You can’t stay in one hiding place too long. You have to switch spots to give her a chance to hear you.” He paused dramatically for a moment. “Ready. Set. Go!”

Chapter 10

The game of hide-and-seek was on. The men scattered into the woods. I turned my back to the forest, facing the outer rock wall of the cave.

“And no cheating,” Quain called. “Make sure you count to a hundred before seeking.”

“Don’t forget to shout out the ‘Ready or not’ at the end,” Loren said.

Half of me felt foolish, the other half reverted to my childhood days—when no other worries sullied the pure thrill of the hunt. I embraced my childish side, pushing away the dull adult sensibilities. I counted faster. Long-forgotten strategies surfaced in my mind. Too bad all the…boys—couldn’t call them men when playing this game—wore gray, black or dark brown clothing. It made sense for blending in with the winter landscape, but it gave them an advantage for now.

“Ready or not, here I come.” I spun around, hoping to catch a flash of movement as one of the boys dashed to a hiding spot. Nothing. Not even a branch swayed. I listened to the forest for a moment. Off to my right, an unnatural off-note sounded.

Despite the cold air, I removed my cloak. I wore my black clothes, but I had taken the time to smear gray clay I had found at the bottom of a shallow pool in the caves over sections of my shirt and pants, equalizing the playing field.

Instead of going right, I walked with the special—what to call it?—gait straight for a while before veering right, hoping to come in behind the unnatural spot. I stopped often to make sure my quarry hadn’t moved. As I drew closer, I noted a dense little thicket that would be perfect to hide behind. I stood nearby and waited. Sure enough, Flea slipped out, searching for another spot. I followed.

Once Flea found a place to hide, I crept up on him and pounced. His yell of surprise echoed throughout the forest.

Sputtering with indignation, he said, “You didn’t have to scare me!”

I feigned innocence. “I thought you heard me.”

“Yeah, right. You have that evil gleam in your eyes. Have you’ve been pretending to be noisy all this time?”

“No. But you don’t know everything about me. Like the fact that when I was younger, no one could hide from me. I was Queen Seeker.” I had grown up in a small city, but a few of the strategies for seeking someone in an urban environment worked out here, as well.

Flea grumbled, but I shooed him back to the cave. “Hurry up so I can find the rest.”

“You won’t find Kerrick,” he said.

I waited until the forest settled, then honed in on another off-key area. This time I caught Quain.

“At least I’m not the first one,” he said. He wore a gray wool cap over his bald head. “You’re a fast learner, but you won’t find Kerrick.”

If Quain and Flea had been trying to discourage me, they failed. I continued to stop and listen. But when I encountered the perfect hiding spot—a dried creek bed hidden under the branches of a fallen tree, I knew one of the boys wouldn’t be able to resist this place. I squirmed below the thickest part of the branches and pressed against the bank. My years on the run hadn’t been a total waste. A couple of the skills I had learned aided me today. The biggest one was patience.

After twenty or thirty minutes, Loren slid under the tree.

“Ah, hell,” he said. “I should have known this spot was too good to be true.”

Three down, two to go. I made half-circle sweeps farther and farther from the cave and, on my tenth pass, I sensed a strangeness. Boulders jutted from the ground. A few were in mounds while others stood alone. As my gaze traveled over the area, something seemed wrong. Not the color, not the size, but one shape kept snagging my attention. One large boulder had soft lines and a symmetry to it.

When I touched the boulder, it chuckled. Belen peeked out from under his cloak.

“With my size, I didn’t have a lot of choices,” he said.

“You blended in,” I said. “But one thing I did learn as a healer’s apprentice was to be observant. A rash could be just an ordinary rash, but if it had blurry edges, it was a sign of a more serious illness.”

“I knew you were smart, so I’m not surprised you found the four of us. But—”

“I won’t find Kerrick. Everyone seems to delight in telling me that.”

“Don’t take it the wrong way,” Belen, ever the peacemaker, said. “His ability to disappear in the forest is impressive. We’re just proud of him.”

As Belen returned to the cave, I wondered if they’d still be proud of him if they knew about his magic.

I considered the problem. Kerrick wouldn’t make any noise, and the forest wouldn’t give him away with out-of-tune notes. He would be camouflaged, but not by magic. That wouldn’t be fair unless he used it unconsciously, keeping contact with the forest just in case. I might be able to feel it and follow it to him.

Except I only felt it when we touched. Skin to skin. I searched my memories. Something Kerrick had done…when he knew about the mercs… An image formed in my mind of him crouched down, touching the ground with his hand.