A twig snapped and I froze.
“Aella?”
Chapter Three
I spun, gasping with relief at the sight of a bedraggled Zayana leading a limping horse.
“I thought I was alone,” I said.
“So did I,” she said, rubbing her arms as she tried to warm herself. Her brown eyes were wide, flitting from one point to the next across the forest floor.
“Did you see what happened to Wing Ivo?” I asked.
She shook her head. Her attention still skittered across the landscape, her bottom lip trembling.
“Ivo?” she called.
I threw my hand up, shaking my head urgently. “Don’t call! We’re not out of danger yet!”
She rolled her eyes but at least her disdain seemed to shake her out of her anxiety. “What’s worse? Being caught or being so lost that we never find our way out of this forest?”
“Being caught,” I said firmly. A shiver of fear rushed through me along with memories of Osprey’s agonized face and Juste’s delighted one. I mustn’t let him catch me. I mustn’t let them ever see me again. “You have no idea what they’ll do to me.”
But I had to pause as a memory from the snake people seared itself across my mind.
The vision was of two young warriors, lost in a forest like this one. One of them was speaking to the other. We need to find the entrance to the undertrails in the forest. We can use them to get away from these strange intruders.
The other shook his head vehemently.
I blinked and it was gone. Just one of their memories. No wonder it was triggered when it was so close to what Zayana and I were fighting about right now.
“Wing Ivo!” she called again. Clearly, being lost was more terrifying to her than being caught.
I reached into my cuff, heart pounding, but to my relief, it was still just a dull warmth against my fingers.
I squinted at the sun, rising slowly in a streak of gold broken up by trunks of trees.
“Glorious Ingvar is southwest of here,” I told Zayana. “And there are many settlements here in the south of Far Stones. We’ll just chart a southwest course and we’ll find a road or a town soon enough.”
Her eyes lit with hope. “Have you traveled through this forest then?”
They faded with my reply. “No.”
But what else was there to do?
We led our horses over the crumpled leaf carpet. It turned out I’d hurt my horse’s mouth with my foolishness and Zayana’s horse had a bad limp. Even if they’d been fine, we’d still have to navigate the thick trees and that meant walking. And it meant slow going. By noon, we both felt like we’d hardly made any progress at all and the worry I felt inside intensified with every moment that passed. I was going to be caught. And when I was caught, I was going to regret not finding some clever way to get away while I still could.
“Quite the chase we’re giving Osprey,” Zayana said. “A slow meander through the woods. A child could find us like this.”
I held my tongue. Forests were difficult to navigate and the trees above us were thick. But wandering around in circles wasn’t going to help us get away. Even if all my instincts were screaming at me to just run in any direction and not look back.
We rested at what we thought must be noon and ate a little of the bread from the saddlebags. It had stayed dry in its oil-cloth wrapping, unlike our cloaks and clothing. Despite the warmth of the day, I was chilled from being soaked through and I couldn’t seem to warm myself. Worse, I felt as if someone was following us. And of course, someone was, though Os’s feather remained cool to the touch.
I also had the strangest sensation that I was being drawn along, as if I was hearing voices just on the edge of sound, but when I walked over the next rise or around the next tree, they were gone.
I leaned against a stone structure we’d found and tried to stop worrying, running my hand down the unnaturally straight line of the stone. It felt almost as if it were cut by humans. Strange how nature could fool you from time to time.
Zayana began to hum from where she was around the curve of the rock. Surprised, I crept around the corner of the rock and stole a glance at her. She was dancing and humming to herself as her spirit-cardinal hovered in the air nearby. Her dance moved around him, not quite in a circle, more like a many-pointed star. With each pass, he seemed to brighten just a little. He’d grown since I’d met them. Now, he was about the size of my two hands together.
I watched her for a moment. How interesting. Osprey caressed his bird. Ivo gave his grand speeches. Zayana danced – and her dance was so graceful, she seemed almost to fly from point to point. It was hard to begrudge the Winged Empire praise for the delightful manifestations it produced. And despite loving my bees and finding a certain comfort in their contrary nature, I still felt a little ashamed that what came out of my heart was buzzing rage instead of this soaring beauty.
In my mind a mental image flared – one of my bees, reporting in. It was only a flash of my sister Raquella smiling over the edge of a steaming tin mug, but it was enough to make my heart leap. Raquella was alive out there somewhere and she had enough reason to smile. Warmth filled me at the thought.
And then another bee stole my vision. This time, I was very close to whoever was being watched. Close enough to see that he was changing the dressing on a blood-soaked bandage. His dark skin was taut over corded muscles that flexed tight when he flinched from the pain. I still couldn’t see his face, but I knew who it was before the hand snatched toward my bee and his voice carried to me.
“What are you doing here, little bee? Where is your keeper?”
I gasped and the vision shattered. Osprey. I’d thought I’d left my bee with Juste but had it attached itself to Osprey instead?
I cleared my throat, as my vision returned to Zayana. “We should keep going.”
Her bird flared as she startled, his red light splashing over the rock – so bright that it nearly blinded me. But it didn’t blind me completely. Instead, it showed very faint markings in the stone formation. So faint and worn that I couldn’t see them at all under the lichen and could barely make them out in Flame’s bright light.
“Did you see that?” I asked, hurrying to trace my finger over the markings.
“I saw nothing.”
“It was here ...” I ran my fingers further along it, but if the markings meant something, I couldn’t make it out. My brow furrowed as I studied them.
“Look, what you saw just now ... can you keep it between us?” Zayana twisted her hands together nervously. “It’s not precisely forbidden, but the Wings prefer that I use words to invoke traits in Flame. And they are right, of course. Words have great power. Look at how calling yourselves revolutionaries has changed you and Ivo, pitting you against the authorities. Your words are so powerful that I doubt you could wipe them away even if you changed your mind and dropped the name tomorrow. And that’s why the other Wings would frown on such an unorthodox approach. But you see, the dancing ... it is my words. It’s my way of showing my heart.”
I was barely listening.
As she spoke, a vision flashed over my eyes. A second vision of those two young warriors standing before this stone. Only that mossy fallen log hadn’t been there and the top of the stone had been higher. I scrambled toward the spot where they paused before it and as I watched them caress the door, I wrenched the log from in front of it away. It crumbled, stinking of old rot, insect eggs tumbling from the masses.
This was the first time I’d ever been able to move while having one of their visions. Dizziness washed over me and I fought it, concentrating.
Something rumbled in the distance – more thunder, perhaps.
“Are you listening?” Zayana asked.
“I’m great at keeping secrets,” I said as I leaned down and dug at the moss and loose earth that blocked what I just knew was a door. “You can trust me.”
“Well, you kept from me the secret that you and Ivo were working against the crow
n prince,” she said huffily. “You got me entangled in something I didn’t choose, and I don’t want!”
“Can you shine the light of that bird over here?” I asked. “I think I see something.”
“Flame is not a torch to be used to light your path!” But her bird flared and I could see better.
It was a door! I could see the outline of it. I pulled my belt knife out and traced the line of it through the lichen. A door to the undertrails – whatever those were. A little shiver stole over me at the thrill of it. My visions were true. And the one I’d seen was actually helpful. That meant the general was out there somewhere, too.
This must be why the Hissan had told Juste to keep me close. They would likely envision me sharing these insights with him, guiding his path along the way. Only because of his cowardice, this help was mine now, instead of his.
I shook my head.
I had an advantage that I’d give up in a heartbeat if I could. But I’d be a fool not to use it, wouldn’t I?
I began to scrape the lichen off the rock, but even when I removed a patch, the markings were too faint to see what was under it. Only Flame’s brilliant scarlet light brought out dark shadows that showed the outlines of what had been there before.
My vision came back. The warriors standing here, with straight backs and flowing hair. One touched a spot at the top right corner. Then another spot at waist height – which was about where the door reached the ground now.
I dropped to my knees, fingers dancing along the rock as I tried to find the same spot.
“It’s like you aren’t even listening to me, Aella. I saw a tree growing out of the fallen remains of two other trees. It’s a clear sign that I’m on the wrong path.”
I looked up at that. “I’m listening. You don’t want to go against the crown prince. And now you’re stuck with us.”
“Yes.” She seemed almost relieved. “That’s exactly my problem.”
“And you think that if you can find some way to get back to them and please them, then they won’t harm your sister, who they have as a captive.”
“Yes!”
“You’re wrong.” This spot. I was nearly sure of it. I scraped the lichen off to mark the place. “I tried that, and they just continued to torment my family.”
“Yes, but you’re ... difficult. Enraging. The crown prince hates you in particular.”
I met her eyes. “And do you think he wouldn’t hate you if you could just find a way to please him? He slit the throats of his own Claws and used their blood to fight the Forbidding back. He’d slit yours just as easily.”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not asking to be exalted to a named position, Aella. I just don’t want to be on the run from the Empire. I’ll travel with you, but if Osprey comes for us again, I plan to let him find me. It was a mistake to run with you and Ivo. A terrible risk that I shouldn’t have taken.”
Well, that explained all the calling in the forest even after I’d warned her.
“If you keep second-guessing yourself like that, your bird will stay tiny. You need to take a risk once in a while, Zayana. You know that we’re right. That what we’re doing is the right thing. You should be on our side.”
I tried to tap one symbol and then the other. Nothing. I frowned.
She scoffed. “Running for your lives from the most powerful Empire of the world is the ‘right thing’? Tell yourself whatever you want, Aella, but you’re all fools. The only way to deal with the Empire of War and Wings is to keep your head down and your mouth shut, and you don’t seem capable of either of those things.”
I stretched, reaching to touch both symbols at once as the rain began again, pouring so suddenly from the sky that Zayana let out a little shriek. Her bird disappeared.
The moment my hands touched both spots, the lichen-encrusted door swung inward with a groan. The smell of mildew and decay swirled out to meet us.
“See?” I said through the pouring rain. “I am capable of other things. I just opened a secret door.”
Chapter Four
“I’m not going in there.” Zayana looked mulish. “The horses won’t even fit.”
“I think there are tunnels here that lead other places,” I said hopefully.
She looked up at the sky and I followed her gaze, worried about what she was seeing. Had Osprey found us? I slapped my hand to the leather cuff, but it wasn’t hot enough for that and when I looked back, Zayana was just shaking her head.
“You, Aella, are the most head-strong, frustrating girl on the planet. There is a hidden moldy door that leads into darkness. You don’t know where it goes. But you’re certain that’s the path. Meanwhile, we have horses and a clear plan out here.”
“A clear plan? We’ve taken all day to go maybe a couple of miles. Maybe. We’re not exactly lost, but it’s close. This door might be a chance for something better.”
Plus, maybe it would be a chance to stay clear of the one hunting me, in particular. I clenched my jaw and forced that fear from my mind.
“Or, the door will close behind us when we go inside and we’ll be trapped in a stone room to die together,” Zayana said. She had mounted her horse while we spoke, as if to emphasize her conclusion.
“I just want to look inside,” I pressed. “Come look with me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Well, I’ll look, then.”
It wasn’t easy to get in the door. Not only was the top half narrow, but the ground fell abruptly into the open door. I ended up going in backward, legs dangling into the hole until they found the ground. My cloak was muddy by the time I got into the doorway, wrinkling my nose at the mildew scent of the place.
I opened my palm in the darkness.
“Bees?”
They poured into my palm like honey, golden and liquid, their buzz almost a purr. Oh, look who is so well behaved now? I almost rolled my eyes, but I was too occupied with wonder.
“Let’s see what we have here!”
I was in a little room. It was obviously made by the Hissan people – it had their endless snake motif everywhere – along the edge of the floors, crawling up to unlit sconces and wrapping up the pedestal in the center of the little room right before me. I walked up to the pedestal and brushed dust away from a plaque sitting on it. I could not read the unfamiliar words on the plaque but after a moment, I recognized the shape. It was a map of Far Stones. A lot more map than I was used to. It stretched deep into the lands taken by the Forbidding, lands we didn’t even know the shape of.
There were carved symbols on various points of the map. One that must be where we were – just a little larger than the rest. And if it was our location shown there then we’d made very little progress traveling today. There were other points, too. Some of them were far from the known parts of the continent, deep into the tangled Forbidding north of here. Others, were not far from locations I knew. There was one near the great bridge that led to Far Reach. Another near Far Port. Another yet that was a few miles – if the scale was accurate – from one of the Pincher Towers. There were dozens of locations on both the known and unknown portions of the Far Stones continent. There was even one close to Glorious Ingvar.
Now, if I could just have another vision showing me how to make this next part work. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. Nothing. Okay. I’d have to work this out for myself.
I looked up to where three paths branched out from the room I was in and then back to the plaque where three lines led out from this marker to three other markers. One of them was inland from Astar Harbor. It had a line going from it to Glorious Ingvar – or close to that city. I looked back up at the branching trails. Easy enough. Take the trail on the left and we’d get there, right?
I felt my heart pounding at that. I hadn’t been wrong. I was sure of it. These undertrails really could take us where we needed to go. And Osprey couldn’t hunt us while we were in here. He wouldn’t even know this place existed. We could meet Ivo in Ingvar and find those records and if we were r
eally lucky, we might even find that one of these trails led to where the general was held – and then we’d rescue him and raise our army. I was already halfway through the daydream when Zayana called into the little room.
“Are you dead?”
“Not yet.”
I scrambled out of the door, up the bank of crumbling earth. Clearly, I was more terrified of being caught than I was of walking underground.
“I think that there are trails here, under the ground,” I said. “We can go almost all the way to Glorious Ingvar using them! No rain. No Osprey. No chance of being caught.”
She raised a hand with a skeptical look on her face. “Tunnel collapses.” She turned a finger down. “Poisonous gases.” Another finger. “No water.” Another. “No air.” A fourth finger. “No way out when we get there.” That was the last finger. She stuck up her thumb and immediately pushed it down, too. “No light if our magic doesn’t work. Oh, and we might get lost with no way to navigate. And it might take longer than it would out here. We could wander lost until we die. There’s no way I’m going in there.”
I swallowed. I couldn’t leave her here, but my plan was better.
“Without me, you can’t navigate,” I said. “You don’t know this land, and your woodcraft is terrible.”
Her face went stony.
I crossed my arms. “And I’m taking this underground trail.”
“At least think it through, you stubborn girl!” Her cheeks flushed with emotion.
“I have. And I’m going.”
I pulled the saddlebags and saddle from my horse, setting them on the ground, and began to remove the bridle. She nickered happily at the freedom.
The problem was, Zayana wasn’t wrong. Any one of those things could happen. I wasn’t even sure this was a good idea, but what else was I going to do? I felt this constant pressure weighing on me, like it was up to me to turn everything right and I hadn’t done it yet. And that meant that I needed to take some risks, right? I needed to try things other people hadn’t tried. I needed to succeed, or everything would be lost.
Wing Magic Page 3