(I skipped last week due to Mother's Day.)
7.
For almost two years now, Gabriel had allowed his Hunt their human forms. And as they flourished--and as he learned to trust them--he had relaxed his hold on their minds through the bond they shared. He did not leave them alone, but he trusted them enough not to hover over their every thought and watch their every action.
Perhaps this was why he didn't realize something had happened to Josiah until Malachi appeared in the library doorway, his face white.
"My lord, Josiah is gone."
Gabriel immediately opened the bond and felt--not quite nothing, but as close to nothing as he had sensed since the Council's binding. He rose from his chair before he realized he had moved, and centered his whole awareness on the absence of his youngest Hound.
It should not have been possible for anyone to smother the bond, but he could not push past the spell or whatever it was that hid Josiah from his sight. And even as he tried, something seared across his inner vision and severed any hope he had of finding his Hound again.
For a moment, all he could do was stand there, fearful of falling to his knees. He groped for the table and held on for dear life as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.
Josiah wasn't--he wasn't dead. No. Gabriel could still feel the others, and the bond would have crumbled under the strain of a death.
"My lord?" Malachi's voice brought him back to the library.
Gabriel opened his eyes. "Where are the others?" His voice came out harsher than he intended, because Malachi flinched back at his tone.
"They are all here, my lord." His voice shook. "What--What happened?"
"I don't know," Gabriel said with a deepening sense of alarm. "I don't know." Did he dare send the others out to search for Josiah? What if-- He shook his head to clear it. "Were you speaking to Josiah when he vanished?"
Malachi flushed. "No. Not--Not exactly. But he was near the waterfall, and then he was gone. Just--Just gone."
"You kept tabs on him?" Gabriel asked, forcing any shred of blame from his voice.
"I--I--Yes." Malachi stared at his feet. "I kept tabs on him, my lord. And he was not aware of it."
"And did you sense anything at all before he vanished? Anything?" The trail--if there was a trail--would grow cold before long. Without waiting for Malachi's reply, Gabriel tried again to find his missing Hound through the bond.
Nothing. Not even a hint of his presence, this time.
"I didn't keep that close of tabs on him," Malachi said, almost defensively. "I didn't intrude on his thoughts. I just saw he was on his way here and I--I left him alone. If I had--" Guilt charged his words.
"No. This is not your fault." Gabriel tried again to push past the barrier to what lay behind it. This time, at least, he felt something--something alien and strange, but something nonetheless. But the backlash almost brought him to his knees.
"Who would have done such a thing?" Malachi whispered.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out," Gabriel said. "I want you to take two of the others and search the banks of the river along the waterfall where you felt him last."
"Perhaps he fell in the river," Malachi said, glancing up at Gabriel to see if this could possibly be true.
Gabriel hesitated before replying. "He would have shouted for help through the bond," he said. "I am sure of that. And I felt nothing. I feel nothing. There is some barrier blocking him from me. And that would take a wizard's--" He stopped as the thought that had been lurking in the back of his mind suddenly bloomed.
It would take a wizard--a powerful wizard--to keep him from his Hound. And the only wizard who knew Josiah was a Hound--
At first, he dismissed it as ludicrous, but it would not go away. But why--Why would Lucas do such a thing?
By the look on Malachi's face, he was not far behind Gabriel's line of thinking. "My lord--No. Josiah would never condone such a thing!"
"I'm not saying that he did," Gabriel said, and felt a strange sense of dislocation shroud his thoughts. Lucas was the only one who knew the Hunt's dearest secret. Had his years of careful plotting finally paid off? Had he been after the Hounds all along?
It had been so long since he had been truly furious that he almost didn't recognize it for what it was. Malachi had not forgotten, however, and Gabriel remembered the fear in his gaze far too well.
"Take two of the others and go," he said, and could not help the harshness in his tone of voice.
Malachi fell to his knees. "My lord--"
"Go."
Gabriel's first inclination was to confront Lucas--to demand the return of his Hound. But he did not want to act rashly. The Council did, after all, hold him bound. And he did not want to anger them with only a handful of years left of his sentence to serve.
But this--they had gone far enough. Surely he had some recourse for retaliation.
"My lord--" Malachi still knelt in the doorway, his gaze on the floor. Trembling, as if he expected to be killed. "My lord, I--I can't see the Council attempting such a thing."
Gabriel almost lashed out at him, but he caught himself at the last second. "Go now," he said, struggling to hold his temper in check. "Go. Now." He backed his words with power, driving his Hound away.
When the door swung shut behind him, it sounded like a death knell, far too final for Gabriel's liking.
What was he supposed to do? Sit and wait for word? Gabriel had little patience for waiting, especially where the Council was concerned. And Josiah was his. How dare they--
He stopped that thought before it could continue. He had no proof, of course. And he could not directly confront the Council without risking their wrath.
The spectre of Magdalen briefly crossed his mind, but in truth, he knew what she wanted. And it did not make sense at all that she might kidnap Josiah and hold him for until the Counci's binding was over and done with. She was not that patient. And he had seen no sign of her since the Hunt was bound.
He couldn't even venture out to search for Josiah himself, just in case someone put two and two together and figured out what the Hunt had been hiding for almost a hundred years.
With a curse, he slammed his fist into the nearest wall. He wanted the wall to be whoever had stolen his Hound, but it was a poor substitute for the real thing.
He did not like this sense of helplessness.
There was a Hound outside the door now, hesitant and wary--Nathaniel. When Gabriel opened the door, he stepped back, raising his arms automatically to protect his face from any blow.
"My lord, what happened?" He spoke quickly, as if he expected Gabriel to punish him for asking such a simple question. "Malachi took Seth and Zechariah with him, but he wouldn't tell us what happened."
"Where is Josiah?" Thomas stepped up behind Nathaniel, his gaze intense.
He did not share Nathaniel's fear of punishment. Perhaps he knew that Gabriel had no intention of punishing his Hounds for this.
"Josiah is gone," Gabriel said. There was no reason not to tell them the truth. "I sent Malachi to attempt to find his trail, but I fear he will not be successful."
"Gone?" Nathaniel repeated, shock--and something else, something as if he had expected something like this--in his gaze.
"Do you know something about this?" Gabriel asked. Had Nathaniel kept tabs on Josiah too? Had he seen something?
"No! I--I--" Nathaniel closed his eyes, tensing for a blow that would not come.
"You thought something like this would happen?" Gabriel guessed. He kept his voice soft. "He did not vanish of his own free will. Whoever has stolen him is blocking the bond."
Malachi and the others had reached the river now. It did not take them long to find Josiah's trail, but the trail abruptly ended near the bank of the river, and no amount of searching found it again.
He is gone, my lord. Malachi's thoughts ran raw with grief and worry.
Keep looking, Gabriel instructed, knowing they would not find any sign of his missing Hound. On a whim--just in case--he had them draw closer to Lucas' house in their search, taking pains not to be seen.
"What would you have us do, my lord?" Nathaniel had straightened up now, and some of the wariness had left his gaze.
If he told his Hounds that he did not know, what would they do? Was the Hunt under attack, or had the target just been Josiah all along? "Stay here." He could think of nothing more to tell them. If the Hunt was under attack, then Malachi and the others would have to return soon as well.
And then he would have to wait and see if the Council--if Lucas--admitted Josiah's absence, and whether or not he had any recourse for any hope of a response.
He closed the door before either Nathaniel or Thomas could respond, and leaned against it. After a moment's hesitation, he ordered Malachi home, ignoring his protests. If he did not obey, Gabriel would force him to return.
His fury had fled, leaving a sickening nausea behind. Where was Josiah?
Just two years ago, he had contemplated retreating; forcing his Hounds to abandon their human forms and living out the rest of his sentence without seeing their human faces again. He had decided against that path, believing he had made the right decision when Josiah--and the others--blossomed under the little freedoms he had allowed them.
He had lost Emle, after all. He did not want to lose his Hounds as well.
Had he made the wrong decision, then? Was it now too late for retreat? His heart ached to make such a drastic decision, but Josiah's disappearance warranted drastic measures.
He would have to ensure Malachi would not be able to shift shape. He had been the instigator of this entire allowance, after all, and he would be the first to protest.
Gabriel did not want to make such a decision, but what choice did he have? How long would it take for Josiah's captors to discover that he was a Hound if they did not already know?
Josiah's disappearance had left him with no choice. Perhaps he had made a mistake. He shouldn't have allowed them their human forms in the first place--and this would not have happened.
At least he could console himself of that.
Next update: May 25th
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