34. The Chase.

The three of them entered the forest around the keep. Stopping to listen, trying to hear the two men they were following.

On a branch near Maria’s head, Theodore stood on his hind legs stretching his body out, his eyes closed, listening.

"They are good." his voice said inside Maria’s head. "I can’t tell where they are."

"I expected that of Eachann." she said. "He has a lot of experience. Bowen though is a bit of a surprise. I figured he would be tramping around like a bull elephant."

"Fear has a way of making you do things you were not capable of before." came his answer.

"See if you can’t spot them from higher up. Paul and I will start a ground search, They can’t have got to far and they dare not move too quickly. They know we are on their heels." she said.

"Right." he said and disappeared up the tree.

Maria turned to Paul speaking in a low voice.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better now that we are in fresh air." he answered. "I am awake enough to know I want to strangle a certain someone right now."

His eyes narrowed as he thought about doing just that to Eachann.

"We need him alive." she said.

Maria could swear a look of disappointment showed on Paul’s face for a split second, before he showed her a neutral stare.

"Fine." was all he said.

"Good. Now let’s start." she said.

She pointed off to the left.

"I’ll try this way." she told Paul. "You go the other. Standard flanking manoeuvre. They may have split up, we should tell that by any signs we find. Standard signals."

Paul moved off in the direction he was told.

She felt she was being presumptuous, after all she was younger and less experienced then he. But this was her job in a sense, just with an added complication. Hunting rabbits and hunting humans were very different things, and in that respect she had more experience and a better teacher.

She silently thanked him for being helpful, knowing that he was more upset at the turn of events than he showed.

She moved off in the other direction.

"Theodore. Anything?" she asked.

"Nothing." was his answer. "I am trying to sniff a scent but I never got a good whiff of them, so it is a little hard to filter them out of everything else."

"Just smell for the dirtiest thing here and I bet you that will be Bowen. The man looks like he hadn’t bathed since he was two." said Maria.

"Tried that." said Theodore. "Didn’t help much. Ended up nearly sprayed by a skunk."

Maria heard a shrill whistle. Too other ears it would probably sound like any other bird whistle. But Maria heard the underlying pattern.

When she and the others hunted for game, they used whistles and other sounds to indicate if they found anything and to co-ordinate a trap. That way the animals weren’t spooked by the sound of human voices.

Here it would work just the same. She doubted Eachann would realise the significance of the sounds, since this trick was brought over by their boss, Harold Treeborn, from his native land.

Bowen, she felt was too thick to even wrap his brain around the idea, let alone be able to recognise it.

Paul signalled that he had found some marks.

She signalled back through trills and clicks her position and asking a direction to go in.

He answered her.

"This way." she told Theodore. "They aren’t heading to the main road. That makes sense as they would be more visible out there. Paul has them going off this way."

"Right behind you." said Theodore.

Maria slowly crept in the direction indicated by Paul.

After a bit she saw a few broken branches. Small and nearly insignificant, but she could tell they were freshly made and the height at which they were broken, ruled out a normal sized animal.

She bent down for a closer inspection of the ground. There were some marks. They were not very prominent on this kind of hard packed ground but she could tell the size of this print well enough to guess it to be Eachann, as he was the larger of the two men by a foot at least.

"They have split up." she told Theodore. "Probably to minimise any tracks left behind."

She signalled Paul, telling him what she had found.

From his confirmation she could hear that he was closer to her now.

The two men were probably planning to meet up with each other later on at a particular point, and were now beginning to get together.

She followed the trail of Eachann for a little while. He was being extra careful.

Soon she began to hear the movements of her prey. Now that she was within hearing distance she gave out one last call to Paul.

This signal was one for Paul to locate her and to let him know she was close and that she would be silent until she really needed him.

He sent back his acknowledgement and a signal that he too was close.

She could hear how close he was and realised that she was now beginning to pick up the sounds of Bowen.

They were meeting up, just as she had thought.

She followed Eachann who she could begin to catch glimpses of everyonce in a while.

She and Paul would wait until they were together and feeling like they had escaped before springing their surprise on them.

"There is a small stream up ahead." said Theodore. "They seem to be heading there."

"Good." thought Maria. "We can hit them with less obstructions."

She could hear the stream and soon she was at the edge of the trees near it.

She could see that Eachann was standing near the water, waiting.

Soon Bowen emerged from the forest and joined him.

"I think we are in the clear." he said to Eachann. "Do you really want to go to him though?"

"Do you want to take on those two alone?" he asked. "They will be coming after us, don’t you doubt that. We need help and he is the only one we have right now."

"All right, but he scares me almost as much as those two." said Bowen.

They turned their backs on their pursuers too continue on their way.

Maria gave the signal to attack.

Paul yelled out a battle cry and ran at the men.

This caused them both to turn on him, leaving Eachann, who was closer to Maria, open and unable to see her coming towards him.

She moved by Eachann, swinging out with her forearm and connecting with his temple. He dropped to the ground.

Bowen, instead of trying to defend himself with his fists was trying to remove his sword from its sheath.

Paul just ran his shoulder into Bowen’s chest. Knocking him off his feet and causing him to hit the ground hard on his back.

Both men lay there stunned.

When they could see straight, they looked up at the points of two swords, being held by two very unhappy looking people.