Adina climbed up out of the cupola onto the top of the bearcat where Asher was scanning the horizon with binoculars. He looked like some kind of black clad statue silhouetted against the burning bright landscape and blue sky.
The faded and dingy white of the longhunter emblem on his pauldrons stood out starkly in the bright sun. The helmet with crossed pistol and sword beneath, all bracketed between wings seemed to almost burn against his dark armored shoulder.
"Anything?"
Asher dropped his hands but continued to stare out across the dusty, empty expanse. "Nothing," he answered sourly. When he turned to her, his face was like a mask; hard, thoughtful, his expression locked in concern and concentration. Adina could feel the anger that lay just beneath it. His expression had barely changed since they'd left the camp two days ago searching for Nat.
Just as the boy Teppi had said, faint tracks led from the camp in a direction no one from the camp would normally go.
It felt like weeks had passed since they stood on the quarry camp's outskirts and Asher had stopped Omar when the big man began organizing a search party.
"We'll follow the tracks," he'd told Omar. "We're better suited to deal with it if something's happened." Asher held Omar's eyes. "Search the camp. Make sure he's not here." It was a kind expression, not a command.
Omar stewed angrily for a few moments before Priav approached and laid her hand on his arm. Adina remembered thinking Priav's red brown complexion framed within the curtain of her grey and white braids seemed especially striking in that moment.
Priav looked up into Omar's face, holding his hand in hers. "We need to make certain he isn't here, that something hasn't happened to him in camp." She watched Omar's eyes and nodded to Asher without looking away. "He's right. Let them do what they do. You do what you are her to do." She squeezed his hands. "Protecting our camp."
Omar looked no happier. His jaw cabled, the damaged muscles in the right side of his face sagging and pulling. He nodded his head, then turned to Asher.
"Find who did this, Myrmidon." Omar's words were bitten off and harsh. Adina could see Omar didn't believe Nat was anywhere in camp. Omar watched Asher's lapis blue eyes for a moment, then turned away. Priav lingered watching Omar as he walked away. She didn't say anything, she just turned and watched Asher with old eyes, her expression neutral, but Adina could feel the resigned tension behind it.
She doesn't think Nat is in camp either
.
Priav turned and raised her arms shepherding those who'd gathered back toward the rest of the camp. "We must search the camp! Nat may be here!" Priav looked to someone pointed. "Put your swimmers into the quarry! If something has happened and he is there, we need to know!"
Adina's heart crashed to rocky bottom, the image of Nat floating face down in the quarry's beautiful waters was like a dagger stabbing her in the chest.
Asher had all but pulled her along by her elbow as he strode back to the bearcat.
"He isn't here." And in those three words she could hear everything; anger, heartbreak, fear.
Less than an hour after Teppi had found them at the bluff, Adina was sitting in the driver's seat of the bearcat as they rolled out of camp. Asher leaned out of the passenger door, following the faint trail. It ended in a ravine half a mile away that was empty save for the remains of a small fire and set of tire tracks heading west.
"Why take Nat?" she'd asked as Asher squatted studying the tire tracks.
He shook his head. "Just a slave maybe. Maybe someone that could tell them about the camp's defenses." He glared westward, then he got up and walked back to the bearcat. "We need to go. They have at least a whole night's head start on us."
Standing on top of the bearcat, Adina wrapped a hand around Asher's leather clad, armored sleeve. "We'll find him."
He finally turned his eyes to her. They were so hard it hurt her heart. The severe cut of his short cropped white hair and beard only intensified the effect. He just watched her eyes, then put a hand gently on her cheek. "I hope so. But you need to be prepared. Even if we do find him." He looked in the direction they had been heading. "It could be bad."
Adina kissed his dusty sleeve. "But we're going to find him. No matter what," she told him with absolute certainty. He didn't look back at her and she could hear his emotion in the way he swallowed hard. He nodded.
Adina hadn't realized how fond Asher was of Nat until the boy went missing. It might have just been that Nat was a child. The image of Asher's joyous face as he played with the children at the water's edge was a bitter irony compared to the harshness of his expression now. But Asher's reaction had been so sudden and extreme. He was genuinely fond of Nat.
After that Asher had closed up on her like a door slamming shut. He'd barely talked to her since they'd left. She tugged on his arm slightly to try and get him to look at her. When he didn't, she reached up and put a hand on his cheek and turned his face to hers.
"Please don't shut me out, Asher." She watched his eyes. "I can feel how upset you are. But we're in this together." She leaned up and gave him a kiss. Then just watched his eyes. "Alright?"
He swallowed again and nodded. "We should get moving." He climbed down into the cupola leaving her standing alone on top of the bearcat staring out in the sun scorched, empty plain.
