by Logan Jacobs
The final gryphon must have realized that this battle was not going as planned, because it turned in a final circle high above us before it attempted to fly off, back to the safety of the far-off mountains. Lavinia was faster, however, and the gryphon had barely been able to flap its wings before one of her arrows pieced it through the jaw and it fell.
There was a heavy whump as the last gryphon’s body collided with the hard-packed earth, and for a moment, no one moved.
“I’ll be damned,” Liam said in a hushed voice. He was bleeding from a gash on his arm, and as I looked around, I saw a few of the others were injured as well, though none so severely that they couldn’t stand.
Every single one of them was staring at us.
“I never--” one of the other guards started to say, but broke off with a shake of his head. “That was an entire flock.” He looked around with wide eyes at the dead gryphons and his companions before he turned back to us, or more accurately, to Lavinia.
“You killed four of them,” he breathed. “Who are you?”
Lavinia’s mouth quirked up in a proud smirk. “I’m a good shot.”
“I’ll say,” Uriel agreed.
“And you, I saw what you did,” Liam said, and I realized with a nervous spike in my gut that he was addressing me. “That was air magic?”
“Yes,” I lied. If he thought the gryphon’s panicked reaction to my illusion was actually a reaction to some sort of wind spell, I wasn’t going to correct him.
“You saved us,” he said then, his voice low. “Thank you.”
“Indeed.” Uriel rubbed the back of his neck. “Wish we could hire your guild as guards permanently. Never once in all my years have I seen a caravan survive a gryphon attack without losing anyone, and I’ve never heard of a whole flock being taken down. This desert just got a little bit safer, thanks to you all.”
“We’re just glad we could help,” I answered.
After that, Aerin helped heal the wounds the other guards and merchants had sustained while they all thanked us repeatedly. When everyone was patched up, we took our place at the water cart again, and a few minutes later, Uriel signaled for the caravan to start moving once more.
Even as we set off, though, I noticed that several of the other merchants in front of us kept leaning over and looking back to get a glimpse of us, and I supposed word of our involvement in the fight had spread quickly. I’d meant what I’d said about being happy just to help, but the recognition was nice, I had to admit.
The Shadow Foxes were making a name for ourselves.
Chapter 12
Thankfully, the rest of our journey through the desert passed without any more major incidents. As Clay had predicted, we saw more gryphons the farther east we traveled, but none of them ventured near enough to our caravan to be a cause for concern. I kept a close eye on them all the same, and all the while, the mountains loomed ever closer.
Even if it weren't for the mountains ahead marking the clear end to the desert, it was easy enough to tell that we were entering new terrain as we passed into the foothills. The first sign was the grass, and I was surprised by how strange it appeared to me after just a few days without it. It was yellow and dry, to be sure, but it was grass nonetheless, and it swayed gently in the breeze as our caravan trudged along.
Through that grass, two parallel lines of trampled dirt led the way across the plains, the path of the hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of wagons that had gone this way before us. It wasn't really a road, but even so, it was a comforting sight after the vast, barren desert, where every direction looked exactly the same.
Gradually, the stiff juniper scrub was replaced by real trees, and the real trees began to form actual forests. Spruce, pine, and many other trees I couldn't name grew up tall along either side of the trail, and the animal life was just as abundant. I saw squirrels and weasels, and once I thought I even glimpsed a few deer, though they disappeared before I could really be sure.
Merlin was much happier now that he could run freely alongside us without the risk of ending up covered in cactus spines, and with the cover of the trees, I was less worried about some bird of prey attempting to snatch him up. The puca would often run off into the forest in pursuit of songbirds or squirrels, but he would always reappear a few minutes later with a cheerful, catlike grin, sometimes with a few feathers sticking out of his mouth.
The trees provided shade, as well, but even without them, I could tell that the temperature had dropped significantly since we left the desert. It was a pleasant, autumn sort of coolness, though I knew it was still summer in this realm, and the air was fresh and sweet-smelling.
"You look happy," Lavinia remarked as we walked side by side behind the water cart. Maruk was driving, and Aerin and Lena were busy occupying Merlin's attention so that he would stop trying to dart beneath the oxen's legs, which he had apparently decided would be a very fun game.
"I am," I answered. "Shouldn't I be? We survived the desert, after all." I bumped her shoulder with mine. "Thanks to you."
The ladona woman's full lips turned up in a smile, and she raised her eyebrows. "I won't deny I was exceptionally badass back there, but we wouldn't have been able to take down the bandits, the dragon, or all those gryphons without your help." She leaned in to bump my shoulder back. "We're just a pair of badasses."
"Of course we are," I replied with a grin as I draped my arm over the beautiful woman's shoulder. "We're the Shadow Foxes."
Lavinia smiled proudly and wrapped her arm around my waist as we walked.
As my gaze wandered over the trees, I thought about the one drawback of the additional cover. We were no longer out in the open, exposed, but neither was the rogue mage we needed to find. It was no wonder Aurelius had been able to hide out for so long out here. Crossing the desert was difficult enough on its own, but even if a bounty hunter managed that, they could spend years combing through these forests and hiking across the Canterrose Mountains without ever discovering a sign of the mage, let alone the man himself.
"How long do you think it'll take us to find Aurelius?" I asked Lavinia.
Tracking him would be our next obstacle, and the ranger was the best tracker in our guild, perhaps the best tracker in all of Ovrista. I supposed what I was really asking was how would we find him because unfortunately, the information the Stewards collected pointed only to the Canterrose Mountains. I'd pored over the notes several times over the last day or so as I'd walked alongside the wagon, but there were no other hints as to precisely where among the mountain range that we ought to start our search.
I'd even asked Uriel and a few of the guards, but many of them hadn't even heard of Aurelius despite his infamy in the city. None of them had any idea where to find him, though Uriel suggested trying to make contact with some of the nomadic clans who lived in the mountains.
"He doesn't want to be found, and he's had a lot of time to figure out the best places to hide," Lavinia answered. Then she pursed her lips and nodded ahead to where Aerin was carrying Merlin like a baby. Aerin and Lena fawned over the puca while they walked, and as for Merlin, his eyes were slit with contentment, and his tail flicked idly. "Maybe your pet can track him down."
Lavinia's tone was somewhat teasing, but I still wondered if Merlin might be able to give us some sort of advantage. As I considered it, Lavinia's joking suggestion gave me another idea. I didn't know if Merlin had the capabilities to track Aurelius, but maybe I did.
As a manipulator, I could sense magic, after all. In the past, I'd always needed to be near enough to a mage or magical creature to see the light of their mana or else hear the unique sounds their magic made, like the bells I always heard when Aerin was using her magic to heal someone, but just then, a new realization occurred to me. Earlier on the trail, right before the gryphon attack, I'd had that strange moment of intuition, and I'd sensed the gryphons' approach even before I saw them flying closer. I hadn't thought anything of it at the time since I'd been so focused on actually fighting
the gryphons back, and I'd forgotten about it until now.
I knew my powers were getting stronger. Every time I cast a spell, it was easier, and I was gaining precision and greater control. Could this be another way my power was manifesting, that I now had some sort of sixth sense regarding magical creatures? I never heard of that being one of a manipulator's unique abilities, but given the Mage Academy's efforts to suppress almost all knowledge surrounding manipulator magic, this wasn't necessarily surprising.
Aurelius was supposed to be an incredibly powerful mage, and that was what people knew about him decades ago before he'd been forced into hiding. I doubted someone as ambitious as he was would have settled in for a quiet retirement in the mountains. He would still be practicing his dark magic out here, and hopefully I would be able to pick up on it.
As I considered the methods we might use to track down a power-hungry old mage with, the caravan slowly but steadily made its way through the foothills toward the mountain pass that led to the lands to the east. The merchants would continue on to sell their wares and trade at the cities on the other side of the Canterrose Mountains, but this was where we Foxes would break off from the group. Up ahead was one of the main junctions of the mountain paths, where the various trails into the mountains ran together into the valley and joined the pass the caravan would go through.
When Uriel called for a halt and a short rest, we gathered our belongings, said our goodbyes to the dwarf Clay and his fire-breathing toads, and approached the captain to let him know we would be taking our leave. The old man was feeding a sugar cube to one of the horses when we walked up, but he turned with his wiry eyebrows raised when he saw us.
"Something the matter?" he asked as his eyes flicked over us, and then he took in our gear.
"No," I answered. "Well, not with us, it's just that this is where we leave you."
Uriel's brow pinched in a regretful look, but then he nodded, and when he stuck out his hand to shake, I took it.
"Hate to see you all go, of course," the old man said with a sad smile. "You've been mighty helpful, but I know you didn't come along here to be caravan guards. Thank you again for what you've done for us and the lives you've saved on this trip. I wish you the favor of all the gods on your mission."
"Thank you, Uriel," I answered for the group, and that was all the ceremony any of us really had time for. The caravan had a schedule to keep, and we needed to make the most of our time as well, especially since we had no other leads at the moment to track down Aurelius. So, with one last wave goodbye, Aerin, Lavinia, Maruk, Lena, Merlin, and I turned for the trail into the mountains.
According to the map, the main trail we were on forked off into four other trails after a few miles, each of which forked off again and again like a network of veins on the pages, just tiny, winding threads of dark ink. We would have to make a decision at that first fork, but at least for the moment, there was only one clear path ahead of us.
Whether it was due to the more temperate weather or a renewed sense of purpose as we started on this next leg of our journey, everyone seemed to be in good spirits.
"What do you think, would these look better with red velvet or leather?" Maruk asked as he held up a few of the gryphon feathers that he'd collected as trophies after the fight. They were the flight feathers, each as long as my forearm at least, and they were banded with white and rich tawny colors.
"For what?" Lavinia asked.
"A cap, of course," the orc responded. "Feathered caps are becoming quite fashionable in the north. I want to get ahead of the trend before it reaches Ovrista."
"Hmm, leather, then," the ladona woman answered. "It's more daring."
"And don't you have a velvet hat already?" Aerin asked. "You never wear it because you think the lining is too itchy."
"You're right," Maruk admitted. "Leather it is, then, but what sort of brooch?"
"Did you take any of the talons?" I asked as I glanced back.
"Goodness, no!" Maruk exclaimed as he put a large green hand over his heart. Thanks to Lena's cream, his sunburn had faded quickly, and his skin was more or less back to its usual hue. "I have no inclination to wear some creature's toenails anywhere on my body, thank you very much. Although I suppose that would be more traditional. Come to think of it, I believe my mother used to have a necklace made of the teeth and claws of all the creatures she'd killed … or was it just the ones she strangled with her bare hands? I can never remember."
Lavinia laughed and shook her head. "When are you going to take us to meet your family, Maruk? I think your old lady could give us a few tips."
"Unless you want to learn how to execute a diving elbow drop on a ravenous sea monster, I'm not sure she'd have much to teach you," Maruk replied with a frown.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"It’s her special move," the orc sighed.
"Okay, but how--"
"Are any of them archers?" Lavinia interrupted me.
"They're pirates," Maruk said. "Finesse isn't exactly their modus operandi. I had a cousin who was good with a harpoon, but he retired after a shark bit off his other arm."
"Did you say his other arm?" I blinked.
"Well, he lost his right arm first, but since he was left-handed, it didn't really stop him."
"Gods of the Vales," Aerin breathed in exasperation. "I can't believe he went back after the first time."
"You know how rivalries are," Maruk said with a shrug.
"Wait, you mean it was the same shark?" I asked, bewildered.
"Oh, yes," the orc answered. "He had always sworn to slay it."
"Did he, in the end?" Lena's eyes were wide as she stared at Maruk, and the orc seemed pleased to have a captive audience.
"He did, as a matter of fact," he answered. "I believe he made it into some sort of stew."
I still had questions about Maruk’s family, but then we reached the first fork in the trail, and I decided to bring them up another time. There was a small post of weathered wood with a few markings of some sort carved into the face, but they'd been too worn down by the elements for me to make them out clearly. I supposed they were directions for the mountain trails, or perhaps sigils meant to protect travelers, but whatever purpose they were meant to serve, they meant little to any of our group now. Still, since we'd left the caravan behind, it was comforting to see another sign of people out here. Uriel had mentioned the nomadic clans that lived in the Canterrose Mountains, but it was still easy to feel as though we were all alone in this forest.
"Which way do we go?" Aerin asked as she came up on my left.
I scanned the map and the trails ahead, but there was nothing that really stood out to me. I wondered if I'd be able to sense Aurelius from here, or if we'd have to pick a trail and get further into the mountains before I'd be able to sense his magic.
Lavinia came up on my right and considered the four trails for a moment. "I say this one," she suggested as she gestured to the left-of-center trail. "Someone's been here recently, so at least we know we'll find some people. Probably they'll have a better idea of where Aurelius is holed up."
Maruk joined us at the trailhead and frowned. "Alright, now I think you're just making things up. These all look exactly the same, how do you know there were people here?"
Lavinia tossed him a cheeky grin as she sauntered a few feet up the trail she'd indicated, picked something up from the ground, and held it up for all of us to see.
"A pebble?" Aerin asked with a skeptical shake of her head. "Look, Lavinia, I trust you but--"
"It's not a pebble," Lavinia interrupted. "It's a bead. It must have fallen off someone's necklace or something."
"Okay," I said, "but what makes you think they were here recently?"
Merlin ran up the trail after Lavinia, and the ranger nodded to him pointedly as he snuffled at the ground.
"These beads are made from dried berries," she explained. "If they'd been here long, animals would have eaten them."
"Alright, impressive ded
uction, Sherlock," I said with a grin.
"I'm going to assume that's a compliment in your culture," Lavinia replied with a proud toss of her head, and I laughed.
"I meant it as a compliment," I assured her, "and I agree that we should take this trail. Anyone object?"
"I suppose not," Maruk replied with a sniff.
"On we go, then," I replied as I followed Lavinia and Merlin up the trail.
The afternoon sun filtered through the trees and dappled the path in mosaics of golden light as we followed the path through the trees. A thick carpet of rust-colored pine needles made the ground soft underfoot, and in the distance, I could hear birds calling to one another. The air was cool and refreshing, and although the path led us steadily upward into the foothills, the slope was easy.
Here and there along the trail, I caught sight of thick bushes heavy with dark purple berries that resembled blackberries. I wondered if they were edible just as Merlin stripped off several in his little raccoon-like paw and stuffed them into his mouth.
"Wait!" I called to the puca, too late.
He turned to me, his bright green eyes wide in bewilderment as he slowly chewed. A bit of dark purplish juice ran down his furry chin.
"Well, you'd better hope those aren't poisonous," I told him sternly, though I figured his instincts were probably a lot better than mine.
"Oh, no, it's alright," Lena assured me as she walked over to the bush where Merlin was crouched. "I recognize these. The berries are perfectly safe. The roots are good to eat, too, but only if you prepare them correctly, otherwise they'll give you terrible cramps." As she spoke, she gathered a handful of berries into her cupped palm and brought them over to the rest of us.
"Thanks," I said as I took one and popped it into my mouth. I'd been expecting the slight tartness of a blackberry, but the fruit was as sweet as sugar, and it was no wonder to me why Merlin liked them.