No problem. I just had to take one from an enemy. I cursed at the thought.
After some consideration, I decided I’d still get to the mountain range Shara had talked about. I needed to find it first, nothing a simple lift out of the forest couldn’t accomplish.
I took to the sky. Above the trees, a bird passing by let out an annoyed squawk as if complaining I didn’t belong there. The river flowed north and then twisted to the east. Two mountains lay a mile or two to the west from its bend.
I decided to go back to the river, refill my water pouch, and then follow the current. It would lead me to the mountains. Somewhere on the other side of them had to be the enemy camp, so long as Shara was right.
I floated down and began my trek, staying vigilant. By the time I reached the bend of the river, evening had set in. The rain had become a nuisance by then, but the wind was my worst enemy for the moment. I told myself I’d find shelter near the mountains and picked up my pace.
Night came too quickly, a blanket of darkness falling upon the forest. Without light, I was almost entirely helpless. Luckily I was at the peak of one of the mountains by then, pyforial energy carrying me all the way from its base to its top. The terrain was too treacherous, though, wet and rocky with no even surfaces. This made the mountain impossible for my enemies to climb, I realized, putting me at ease when I’d found a spot just level enough for my feet. I was surrounded by rocks jutting out, one leaning far enough over me to create some shelter from the rain.
I fed the bird some seed, ate a bit of bread, then attempted to sleep. Images of the man I’d killed fought to appear behind my closed eyes, the feeling of my knife piercing his heart bubbling up with them. I wrestled them back, putting Shara there instead.
She would have made camp somewhere out of the forest by now. I liked to think I was in her thoughts.
A fear came that something had happened to her before she’d made it out of the forest, but I shooed it away. There was no point in letting it bother me, for there was nothing I could do about it.
The rain greeted me in the morning as it had each of the countless times I’d awoken during the night. A light stream ran over the rock above me, arcing and splattering a few feet past my little sanctuary.
In the morning light, I realized I could see above the forest from here. A sea of mist seeped through the treetops. There was no seeing below it, no way to tell if anyone might be on the ground.
I stretched my sore spine, then began my descent. I floated slowly through the mist, unable to spot branches until they were near enough to touch. Coming through the treetops, I found myself to be descending above a doe and her kin. The mother fled at the sound of me, though slow enough for her fawn to keep up with an inelegant run.
I walked along the base of the mountains for hours, following the same direction as the path through the ranges would’ve led me if I’d been bold enough, or perhaps stupid enough, to take that route.
After figuring I’d gone about three miles, I lifted myself up once again. The morning mist was gone, allowing me a clear view as I hovered above the mountains.
A man leaned against a tree watching the only route between the ranges. I was behind him by a few hundred feet. He held a seescope to his eye, a bow strapped to his back.
I found a place to land on the mountain peak and searched for signs of anyone else. Trees and other forest growth blocked my view deeper down the path. I couldn’t imagine anyone physically able to climb the mountains surrounding the path, but I checked anyway. There was no one.
I hardly made a sound as I floated down toward the only person in sight. I’d never descended at such an oblique angle before. After the initial push of my mind to get the py moving forward, it wasn’t difficult to maintain. All of my focus went toward keeping myself on track to slam into him, not slowing as I’d normally do when landing.
He spun just as I got there, nearly jumping out of the way as I came down on him feet first.
“Scout!” he screamed.
I drove my knife into his chest before he could stick me with his weapon. His struggling lasted for a breath. Remembering what happened last time, I looked behind me. No one. I spun around to check the mountains. No one. But that didn’t mean they weren’t coming.
I pried the seescope out of his dead hand and grabbed his bag. It didn’t take longer than a minute to float up and get back on the other side of the mountain, where I found my birdcage.
I searched inside his bag—food and water. A voice of guilt tried to torment me for killing him as I bit into the dried beef, but I just scoffed.
This is war. They’ve marched all this way to kill us. Save your regret for something that matters.
Usually my guilt had absolute power over me, shaming me whenever it spoke about Eizle or my mother. Now, however, it cowered like the fawn, slinking off until it was out of my mind.
It seemed that these men knew there were scouts like me searching for them. Did they just assume that would be the case? I hoped so. The alternative was that someone had told them.
I walked along the outer base of the mountain range for a few hours more, then floated up to see what I could glimpse over it. The ravine Shara had mentioned caused the whole forest to dip about three miles out. The mountain range on my side continued all the way to the ravine, where it fishhooked around the ravine’s edge. The other range ran parallel to the mountains beneath my feet, but it ended just one mile more from where I hovered, becoming small hills.
I counted four men and one woman in the few miles of clear land that stretched out beneath me. I was certain ten thousand more were somewhere behind them, probably exactly where Shara said they’d be.
I decided to stop exerting myself and just walk all the way to where the mountains curved around the ravine.
Eventually I made it and lifted myself into the air. I rose quickly until I neared the apex of my mountains. Then I slowed and looked for somewhere to land. My feet found little purchase along a slight incline with rain running down its slope. I tried to steady myself, but then I fell sideways and grabbed onto a rock with my only free hand. I could hear the bird coo as the cage wobbled in my other fist.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
After I regained my confidence that I wasn’t going to fall, I climbed the short distance to the top. The peak of this mountain wasn’t even much of a peak, just a series of treacherous bumps, all either too sharp or too slick to stand on. I made a bed of py, lay on it with the bird cage dangling over the side, and hovered until I found a place that seemed suitable enough to stand.
I removed both seescopes from my bag, discarded the broken one, and peered through the good one with a relieving lack of guilt. I was losing grasp over my old self, unsure if it was the war, the killings, or a combination of Swenn and everything I’d been through. Whatever it was, I embraced it.
I could see only through small pockets between the tree branches below me, but in every pocket I found at least one enemy.
There are ten thousand of them
, I reminded myself. This had to be their camp. Now all I had to do was wait and prevent them from seeing me.
I found a more suitable spot nearby where I could sit and be completely hidden. Whenever I wanted a look, I just needed to lean and stretch my neck to peer around the rectangular slab of mountain sticking up in front of me.
The men and women of Marteph’s army always seemed to be busy with something every time I saw them, though I couldn’t tell exactly what they were doing because trees prevented me from fully seeing more than two people at a time. It wasn’t long before night settled in and nothing could be deciphered below, ending my task for the day.
I awoke many times, as usual, always rubbing my eyes and then peering down to see what I could find. There was nothing but a few fires and some people scattered around them.
By morning I was certain they’d found the man I’d killed in the path between the mountain ranges because they’d doubled their efforts to search for scouts. Unless there was a pyforial mage among them who could lift himself with energy, I wouldn’t be found. But I still worried for the safety of my fellow scouts, wherever they may be.
Near midday, the rain stopped. I waited, dubious the storm finally was over. Below me, Marteph’s men held out their hands and looked to the sky.
Is that Swenn?
My mind put him there, but I doubted it was actually him. Whoever it was conferred with a man in a red robe. As both walked together, I tried to keep my eyes on them, losing them for longer periods of time than I’d find them again. The man in red appeared to be a priest. He held a long staff in his right hand like the man Eizle and I had killed with the diymas.
So I’d found the leader of this battalion. Unfortunately, it would require more than a little luck to keep him in sight with all the trees in the way.
He and the man who resembled Swenn stopped when someone approached them. They exchanged a few words before a fourth man was thrown at the red priest’s feet, his arms bound behind him with rope. My stomach twisted when I noticed someone handing the red priest an uncovered birdcage. This was a scout who’d been captured. What could I do? The answer came quickly—only watch.
Swenn’s lookalike grabbed the scout by his hair and said something. The scout spit in his face. Swenn’s lookalike jerked a knife out of its holder. Driven by what looked to be fury, he plunged it into the scout’s chest five times without pause, then tossed his body to the ground and kicked it twice before Marteph’s men pulled him away.
My gods.
This
was
Swenn, his actions making it clear even though I still couldn’t see him well enough to identify his facial features. He’d come here after being expelled from the castle.
He wanted to be king, he’d told me.
“But I’ll settle for being the master of coin.”
When had Swenn settled for anything? That had been a lie. He was working with Marteph’s men the whole time, I presumed. That meant my enemies would know everything he knew. They would know how many men we had, how many archers, mages, swordsman…how many pyforial mages.
They know about me.
That’s why those I fought weren’t surprised at my use of the energy.
Would they refuse to march until they found me, knowing I would reveal their direction otherwise?
The terrislaks already are moving west. If the enemy waits, it’ll give our army time to fight off the creatures.
But Marteph’s men didn’t appear ready to give up on me. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of them scattered out from the trees.
I’m safe here
, I reminded myself.
Don’t move.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Lightning flashed. The mountains rumbled from the thunder’s power. Rain followed, coming down hard as if to tease anyone who might’ve thought it had stopped for good.
I huddled against my knees atop the mountain, the birdcage beneath my legs. They were searching for me. I could feel it like a game of seek from my childhood. I’d always had trouble keeping myself from peering out from my hiding spot, and even though I hadn’t played for ten years, this desire hadn’t left me. But I was certain everyone with seescopes were searching the mountains and the trees around them. A look would get me nothing but caught.
Instead, I watched the sky with a hand over my brow to keep the rain out of my eyes. They needed a pyforial mage to reach me, and he would come from above if at all.
As the day dragged on, my legs and back ached and the storm worsened. But time was on my side. As slow as it passed, it did pass. Hours and hours I sat there with nothing but my own worries and the miserable weather to distract me. I didn’t know which was worse between the two.
Finally I felt I’d waited long enough. I needed to make sure the army hadn’t moved. A quick look showed me they were still there. The sight was just what I imagined—countless people peering out from their camp with seescopes. Fearful I could be seen, I decided to look down only once an hour.
Evening came.
So they’ll spend another night here. Hopefully this will be the last.
Still, I checked on them. My tension was relieved when I noticed those who’d left returning.
I’d barely moved the entire day. Under the cover of night, I stood and stretched, rubbing out the soreness in my legs and back.
They have to leave tomorrow
, I reassured myself.
They have to
.
Unable to sleep, I took Shara’s advice and thought of pleasant things. It was really only one thing, actually: floating down there, finding Swenn’s tent, and killing him. He’d wake up and see me just long enough to realize he was going to die before I drove my blade into his chest. The fantasy repeated as I shivered in and out of sleep.
In the early morning, it became clear they were gathering to move as they tested their weapons, put out fires, and packed away their tents. They seemed to have given up looking for me and the other scouts, for no one used a seescope.
There were two ways out, north and south. If they went north, then Glaine was the target—Shara, the castle, and the city. Everyone there would be in danger, yet the poorer people in the villages would be in an even worse situation with no one to defend them from the terrislaks. If Marteph’s men went south, however, nearly our entire army could stand against them and the terrislaks in a battle unlike any other in Sumar.
South was a better choice for us, but which was a more strategic move for them? It seemed to me they would lose no matter the target. Glaine would be the more difficult of the two, however, as it was protected by a wall. Hopefully this meant they’d choose south.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. They started north, endless streams of men and some women flowing out from the trees. I muttered a curse as I uncovered the birdcage. Then I prepared my scroll, ink, and quill, protecting everything as best I could from the rain with my blanket stretched between the rocks.