With almost inhuman speed, Tommy grabbed an arrow, nocked it and drew back the string. He loosed, and the arrow was a blur for half a second before it settled to a stop right in front of Andriel.
He turned and ran for the nearest tree, using the distraction to find cover. Pushing his shoulder up against the bark, Tommy panted. Oh, he was in it now. Miri would not be there to help him this time. “Not bad, boy!” Andriel called out to him. “I must commend Desa’s training.”
Training.
He fell back on everything he had learned. Desa had taught him to listen, to rely on his ears as much as his eyes. The chirping of birds, the sighing of the wind: it was so hard to find anything specific in all that noise. But what was that? The slight slurp of a boot in the mud? He couldn’t place it exactly, b
