Chapter 171 - The Vampire Thief part 5

We raced through the snow to where our quarry's footprints vanished, then leapt to the nearest bough. I landed in a crouch, grabbing the limb above my head to keep my balance. A moment later, Ilio was perched beside me. The limb bobbed beneath our weight. Clumps of snow plopped to the ground below.

"How will we follow him in the trees?" Ilio asked quietly, glancing back at the withdrawing Tanti. They were too far away to hear him now. Their torches winked between the tree trunks. Shadowy claws raked the hillside as if trying to erase their tracks.

"There will be a trail to follow, even up here," I answered. "It won't be as obvious as those footprints in the snow, but… Ah! There! Do you see the bark scraped away from that limb? And there: a broken branch."

"Yes!"

"This way!"

Perched upon the limb I had pointed out to Ilio, I cast my gaze about. The canopy of a nearby tree looked as though it had been disturbed recently. The snow had been jarred from its branches so that the patterns of light and dark did not match the whole.

Calling out to Ilio, I leapt across the space between the trees. I moved quickly through the maze of leafless tree limbs, ducking some, climbing over others, following the faint trail with my eyes.

The limbs were icy and slick, and twice I nearly lost my purchase and fell to the ground below. The next tree over, I picked up the scent of the mortal child. I found a scrap of torn clothing on a sharp pointed branch, a droplet of blood where the limb had gouged his skin. Poor little Pudhu… I had been dragged through the treetops like this once when I was a mortal man. It is not a pleasant experience.

I quickened my pace.

The land sloped down, the trees more closely spaced. It was becoming easier to follow the child's scent. We were closing the gap. I heard tree branches snap in the valley below, the sound echoing in the snow-padded hush. I froze, gesturing for Ilio to halt, and listened intently. Another snapping tree branch. And then the child whimpered. Faint. Distant. The boy was still alive!

I slithered forward through the trees, Ilio at my heel, moving as quickly and as quietly as I could. As we drew nearer, the sound of the vampire's flight through the forest grew more distinct, the boy's scent stronger. I wasn't even paying attention to the fiend's trail now. I was following him by ear. By ear and by nose.

"We've almost got him!" Ilio whispered at my side, and I hissed, holding up a hand to silence him.

But I knew it was too late the moment the words left his lips. If I could hear the Tanti child's whimpers, our quarry could certainly hear Ilio.

I listened. Our quarry listened, too. The forest was silent but for little Pudhu's whimpers.

A voice called out somewhere to the north of us, not far from our position. It was not speech-- not any kind of speech I understood, anyway-- but a series of rapid clicks that echoed within the encircling hills.

What was the meaning of such a sound?

I did not know, but I did not intend to respond to it. I stayed still, and made sure with a gesture that Ilio did not reply to it either.

Again, the strange clicking. It was the sound a man can make by popping his tongue against the inside of his cheek, but what did it mean?

The other blood drinker let out an inquisitive grunt, and then I heard him scrambling through the treetops again, racing away from us. The child yelped, began to wail.

I shot forward, careless of any noises I might be making. It didn't matter now. The other blood drinker knew we were pursuing it. He might have even guessed that we were T'sukuru, like him. I had no idea how keen his senses were, or the meaning of the strange sounds he had made, but he had surely heard us flying through the treetops, and no mortal man could move in such a manner.

He was fast. He raced through the trees like a storm wind, breaking branches, limbs still swaying as we followed in his wake, but we were faster, and we narrowed the gap between us even further.

Suddenly, our quarry stopped. I heard a soft snapping sound, and the vampire's young captive let out a piercing howl. A moment later there was a thud, as if a large fruit had fallen to the ground, and then the blood drinker was racing away through the forest again. I could hear the swish and crackle of his flight, growing ever fainter, but the mortal child's wailing did not wane.

I flew forward, grinning with sudden optimism.

Thank you, Ancestors…!

Little Pudhu lay at the base of an alder, sprawled in a hump of snow.

He was crying loudly, his left leg bent unnaturally just below the knee, but he was alive. The vampire had broken his leg and abandoned him—or the boy's leg had broken when he fell from the tree. Thinking of the snapping sound I had heard, and the child's immediate cries, I deduced it was the former, and our quarry had done it to distract us from further pursuit, but no matter. The child lived! That was all I cared about.

Ilio and I descended from the trees.

The child wailed even louder as we approached. He could not see who we were in the dark, only our shapes closing in on him. He clamped his hands over his eyes, his lower lip quivering.

"It's all right, Pudhu," I said gently. "It is Thest. We're going to take you back to your mama."

"Mama?" the boy snuffled, his chest hitching.

"Yes, Mama is waiting for you at home," I crooned, kneeling down beside him. I examined his leg without touching him, scowling at his injury. I had seen my father set bones when I was a boy, but I'd never done it myself.

"Thest, he's getting away," Ilio hissed at my shoulder, looking to the north.

"I know. It does not matter."

"Is Pudhu going to be okay?" Ilio asked, coming around to the other side of the boy. He kneeled down and tried to sooth the child. "Ssshhh, Pudhu. You are safe now."

"Ilio?" the little boy sobbed.

"Yes, it is Ilio."

"I want my mama, Ilio! I want to go home!"

"I know."

"Will you take me home now?"

"Yes, yes, just lay still for a moment."

Ilio stroked the little boy's hair, looking at me with a fretful expression. I was digging through all my pockets, then the satchels attached to my belt. I pulled out medicinal herbs, sharp flakes of flint, which I used for cutting, some bone fishing hooks, an awl, but no string. I sat on my butt and took off my shoes, then pulled the laces out of them.

"What are you doing?" Ilio asked.

"I am going to set the bone," I said. "It is a long way back to the village. We can't have his little broken leg flopping the whole way back."

"Can't you use the Blood?"

"And have the bone heal crooked?"

"Oh."

"His injuries are not serious enough to use the living blood. Just comfort the child," I said, rising. The snow and wet mulch of the forest floor squelched between my bare toes, but it felt good. I listened for the retreating raider-- the vampire thief-- but he had passed out of earshot. He was no longer a danger to us or the child. Putting the T'sukuru out of my thoughts, I broke off a couple tree branches and returned to the child.

"Pudhu, are you listening?" I asked, kneeling back down.

"Yes," the boy sniffed.

"This is Thest. Do you remember me?"

"Yes."

"That bad man hurt your leg. I have to fix it before we take you home."

"Okay," he said shakily.

"It is going to hurt," I told him. "Can you be brave for a few moments longer?"

"Yes."

"Good. You're a good boy."

I used my superhuman senses to determine how the bone was broken underneath the flesh, and then I grasped the boy's limb and repositioned it. He screamed and went limp, fainting from the pain, and I placed the wood splints on either side of his leg and fixed them in place with the laces of my moccasins.

I scooped the trembling child into my arms and rose. His head rolled back limply and I cupped the base of his skull in my palm.

"Can you find your way back to the village from here?" I asked Ilio.

"Yes, but why?"

I put the boy into Ilio's arms. "Return with the boy quickly. Protect his body from the wind as you go."

"Thest--! What are you planning to do?"

"Don't argue with me," I said sternly. "Return the child to his parents. Tell Valas what has transpired, and that I have gone on in pursuit of the T'sukuru."

"Come back with me, Thest," Ilio pled. "We can chase after the blood drinker together, after we have returned Pudhu."

"If I return to the village with you, our enemy will escape. Don't worry, boy. I will be careful."

Ilio sputtered and complained, but he was a good son. He obeyed. "Keep to the ground," I called after him as he pelted away. "Do not drag that poor child through the treetops a second time tonight!" I saw him nod as he reached the top of the hill, and then he rounded it and vanished, and I was on my own.

I looked in the direction the vampire thief had fled, smiling faintly. Narrowing my eyes, I dropped my mental shields and searched for the little beast with my powerful vampire senses. There! The greedy thing was far away now, moving at great speed… but not too far away! Not fast enough to escape me!

With a great lunge, I flew to the very top of the alder, and set off in pursuit.