“Neeko Aquin, ‘pyforial mage,’ and ‘terrislak slayer.’ I don’t think you can add ‘hero of diymas’ to your list.”
“You forgot ‘heart-stealer of beautiful women.’ ”
“Why do you keep saying
women
!”
There was a snap. The light on Shara’s wand disappeared for a breath. I found her with my hand and stepped in front of her. Her wand came alive once again.
“Lost my focus,” she whispered as she moved the cone of light from one side of the darkness to the other, revealing nothing but trees and shadows.
“I think it’s time we shut up,” I said.
“I agree.”
Unable to see anything other than where Shara pointed her wand, we walked until the ground felt dry enough not to soak through our blanket. We decided against a fire, covered Casp, and huddled close together.
My mind was a raging river of thoughts. In order to sleep, I felt like I was trying to dam it, chucking in rocks and sticks just to watch them be carried off. It wasn’t the strain of my task that kept me awake but the feeling there must be something I could do to protect both the capital and the villages.
Shara and I had crossed by villages like the ones that would be attacked. Their weapons were mere tools for farming. Their roofs were made of thatch. Their only hope would be to run, but there wouldn’t be anything left when they returned.
“Can’t sleep?” Shara whispered.
“How did you know?” I was behind her, my arm tucked around her side.
“You breathe differently.” She turned and kissed my lips.
I let my hand roam through her hair and over her scalp. She let out a soft moan of pleasure as she placed her palm on my cheek and kissed me again, holding her soft lips against mine for the span of two calm breaths.
“Pleasant thoughts, Neeko. Pleasant thoughts.”
In the cold morning, we began our trek to the river. Although the trees mostly kept the rain out, the air was still wet. I could feel it against my face and in my lungs as we rode Casp at a trot.
I’d gotten used to the constant pang of hunger by then.
Shara spoke with no preamble. “I can’t keep it to myself any longer. Neeko, you’re not the only one Quince sent here. You’re one of five scouts. I’m sure the rest will arrive soon, though you’ll probably never see them.”
“What are they doing?”
“The same thing that you are.”
Of course,
I thought,
why put the task in one man’s hands when it can be shared by more?
“That’s somewhat of a relief.”
“That’s why he didn’t want you to know. He wanted you to feel the full weight of this responsibility, and he would have me ousted if he found out I told you.”
“He’ll never know. I don’t feel any different, though. I’m still going to watch the army until they choose a direction.”
“Just remember the other scouts are out there. Maybe it will change your mind if you encounter dire circumstances.” It wasn’t just worry that I heard in her tone. There was fear.
“Shara, let me show you something.” I halted Casp and slid off his back, then I took Shara’s hand to help her off. The trees above us looked to be about twenty yards tall. Rain came down between the gaps in the canopy, where leaves fought for light. There was plenty of space for me to soar through.
I drew in pyforial energy from the air—there was more of it here than in the armory. I wondered if the trees had anything to do with that. I lifted my arms and packed the py beneath them, something I’d practiced hundreds of times by now. Securing myself had become just as easy as going up. It was moving laterally or back down that sometimes still gave me trouble.
I soared up at about the speed I could run, the lurch always making my stomach flutter. Shara gasped and then uttered something I was too far away to hear. I closed my eyes as I came to the wet layers of leaves. They slapped against my head and shoulders. I opened my eyes to see I now hovered above the forest.
Trees cascaded out in waves as I carried myself higher. They climbed up to a hill a good mile out, preventing me from seeing the rest.
I had the mind to go higher to see over it but I still had to get back down. So I let my weight take me, drifting downward through the leaves until I reached the ground.
I found I wasn’t in the same place as before. Not a surprise, as I wasn’t sure I’d ever have complete control over my direction. Wrapping pyforial energy around someone’s leg was one thing, but using it to lift and then move my entire body was another. It was like throwing a rock at a tree compared to throwing two rocks at once at two different trees…while running.
Where is she?
“Shara,” I called out.
Nothing.
“Shara!”
“Neeko,” I heard from behind a line of trees.
We met, Shara shaking her head with an open-mouthed smile. “Two hells, Neeko.”
“I thought you should see how easily I could get away if trouble found me.”
“But now I’m just worried you’re going to soar head-first into a tree branch and knock yourself out. Do you know how close you were to hitting one?”
I had looked up as I’d ascended, but I hadn’t noticed being too close to any thick branches. “It’s hard to control,” I admitted. “I must’ve careened without realizing it.”
Her mouth closed, her smile remaining. “It
is
something, though. I see why Jaymes thought you would do well spying on the army. You could hide in the trees where no one would expect to look.”
I suddenly realized the rope I’d brought was to hold me in place while I slept up there. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to that.
“How far is the river from here?” I asked. “I didn’t see it while I was above the trees.”
“There are hills in the way. It’s two to three miles, perhaps. I’d wager ten ruffs that I know the exact location of Marteph’s men. There used to be two rivers west of here, but one is now a ravine. There’s a mountain range near it. If I were them, I would stay between the ravine and the mountains. There’s only one entryway to that spot and it’s about a half-mile past the river, leaving them close enough for water in case collecting the rain isn’t enough. It’s the best place for a waiting army.”
“It doesn’t sound like it’ll be easy for any of the other scouts to get eyes on them without being seen.”
“Impossible, I’d say, especially given they’ll have patrols on the lookout for our troops.” Shara stopped walking. “It’s going to be dangerous even for someone who can do what you just showed me. Remember your promise. You just have to figure out where they’re going. Then come back.”
When I imagined watching ten thousand enemies march off without doing one thing to stop them, I began to regret my promise to Shara.
It wasn’t long before we arrived at the raging river, the days of rain adding to its power. It split the entire forest, making it easy to find yet difficult to ford. I could lift myself and Shara over it with pyforial energy. But our horse, not even close.
We spent a few hours riding downhill, following nature’s watery beast until it became wide enough to flow calmly. Once on the other side, I drew my seescope. There weren’t many clear lanes through the trees. I spotted someone a half-mile out. He had his own seescope, looking elsewhere while turning toward me.
I cursed and grabbed Shara’s hand. “Move, there’s an enemy scout.”
Casp tossed his head, fractious from the force at which Shara pulled him down the hill. Gods, it took too long to get the horse out of sight, and the scout had been seconds away from seeing me before I let down my seescope.
“You need to go back now,” I told Shara. “They’re sending someone after us.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, but I’m not willing to risk it.” I took the birdcage from her hand, set it on the grass, and lifted her up onto the horse’s back. “This area you described before, between the ravine and mountain range, it’s up ahead isn’t it?”
“Yes.” She pointed in the same direction as the scout.
“I’m sure I’ll find them, then. Go. I’ll hide in the trees.”
She bit her lip.
“Go!” I said again.
“Be safe!” she whispered in haste. She drove her heels against Casp’s sides and was off, the river splashing in complaint from each slap of the animal’s hooves. She shot one quick look over her shoulder, her eyes telling me how much she hated to leave.
She wasn’t even out of sight before I found a swordsman on horseback coming at me from the west. Another man rode behind him, an archer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I perched on a branch high in a tree. My arm held onto the trunk for balance as I searched below.
The archer had gone on east, in the direction I’d first run before diverting behind a rocky hillside. I’d lifted myself up to the tor and caught my breath. From there, I soared above the trees.
After choosing one at random, I had come down through its leafy top and nearly split my body in two as my ass crashed against a branch—the same branch I was aiming for, yet I couldn’t seem to slow myself enough before I reached it.
The swordsman on horseback was nowhere in sight, although I could hear the patter of hoofs somewhere west of me. I waited in the tree until the pain in my rear subsided and my thrashing heart finally pacified.
I was alone.
I thought of the act of killing. I might need to before my task was done. They would kill Shara, given the chance, and they certainly would kill me.
I’d killed that rapist. I could do it again.
I adjusted my grip on the birdcage.
It won’t be as easy as in the prison, especially while holding onto this thing.
I needed to get somewhere I could see the army without being caught. The mountain range would be my next step.
I’d get as far west as I could on foot because the effort it took to lift myself with py was worse than running, and I couldn’t go much faster.
Jogging, I looked over my shoulder so often it made me dizzy. I went on for an hour without a break, constantly feeling the weight of enemy eyes on me whether or not they really were. My path led me to an incline that stretched on for about a hundred yards before evening out.
Halfway up, I heard boots pressing against the wet dirt.
Just as I stopped, so did whoever wore the boots. I drew my knife and stifled my labored breaths, creeping toward the edge of a thick line of blackberry bushes between us.
A man wearing a black jerkin jumped out. We each had the same reflex, reeling back for a blink and holding our weapons up in defense. His was a sword, mine just a dagger.
He looked down at the covered birdcage, his eyes going wide. “Scout!” he screamed for anyone else nearby. He charged before I could get pyforial energy beneath my arms. Leading with his sword, he seemed to be aiming at my chest. I jumped to the side and used the py I’d gathered to throw him back. It was as easy as scooping up a child. He crashed into the blackberry bushes yet bounced right off them.
The use of py didn’t shock him. He lunged with a quick slash that surely would’ve sliced through my neck if I hadn’t ducked. I dropped the birdcage and rolled before he could bring down his weapon into my back. A battle cry tore out of his throat as he yanked his weapon free from the wet dirt.
From my knees, I got py around his sword and pried it backward, twisting his wrist. He let go, the bloodthirst in his eyes never diminishing as he leapt on top of me. He pressed down on my wrist, practically burying it in the soft ground, my dagger as well. Our other arms fought for leverage while my legs flailed.
He slammed his forehead into mine, my whole body lurching in reaction to the sting of pain. He grabbed his own dagger from his belt. As he raised it over my chest, I flung him off me with py, toppling him backward.
Before I gave him the chance to get up, I pinned his weapon arm with py and fell down onto him with my dagger, driving it into his heart.
An arrow pierced the blackberry bush behind me before my current enemy stopped struggling.
The archer was loading another arrow as I turned and found him and two mages through the trees downhill, fifty yards out. I snatched the fallen birdcage and squeezed my body into the blackberry bush, twisting through deeper as I heard another arrow slice into it.
Just as I came out the other side, an explosion cracked—a fireball striking the bushes. A wave of heat knocked me to my knees.
I popped back up and ran, following the incline of the forest.
Soon I’d put myself behind a thick tree and gathered py. Then I hoisted myself up. I stayed behind the trunk as I rose, keeping my eyes on it to make sure I went straight. They wouldn’t see me.
I broke through the forest canopy and carried myself west, following the incline of the treetops beneath me. I moved through the air as quickly as I could, soaring for nearly a minute before exhaustion mandated I start my descent.
I came down through the trees, clinging onto the py with my mind in the same way my hands would grasp the ledge of a cliff from which I was about to fall. I barely had the strength to slow myself, so I aimed for a patch of grass and nearly let myself go completely.
The ground came at me too quickly. I put all of my efforts into one last upward lurch. My momentum came to a complete stop, pain biting my arms and shoulders as the weight of my body tugged on them. The py slipped out, breaking free of my mind’s hold. Luckily, my legs and one free hand managed to keep me from falling onto my head as well as keep the birdcage from crashing into the ground.
I realized where I was and puttered forward, fearful the archer and two mages might find me if I didn’t keep moving. The middle of my back felt like it had been pelted with a rock. Then I realized I’d been wrestled to the ground with my bag on; my spine must’ve crushed my seescope.
Please don’t be cracked.
When I was far enough to feel safe again, I checked on the bird first. It seemed scared, its little head darting about, but it didn’t look injured. The bronze scope seemed fine, but then I looked at the glass at its tip. Cracked.
I looked through it for a test. The image of the forest was too distorted for me to tell the difference between trees and bushes no farther than twenty yards out.