‘I remember,’ Krystal replied. She pushed her way past a bush and came to a stop. ‘But that isn’t an animal or a fallen branch.’
‘No, it certainly isn’t,’ Jesse replied, scowling at the dam they had discovered.
Someone, and it had to be someone intelligent, had gathered stones together to form a wall in the streambed. A pond of sorts had formed in the natural bowl behind the wall, with only a thin trickle of water escaping through gaps in the rocks. The rest of the stream had found another outlet and was running off to the north, bound for who-knew-where.
‘What on Draconia was someone thinking when they built that?’ Jesse asked, though it was obviously rhetorical.
‘That they wanted a dam?’ Krystal suggested.
‘Well, it’s got to go.’ Jesse took a step toward the structure and then ground to a halt, frowning. She dropped to her knees, peering at something half-hidden in the leaflitter. ‘That is a tripwire,’ she said. ‘Someone’s trapped the thing. Would you go back to the others and get Xanthe up here? She knows traps.’
‘Okay. You’ll be all right up here on your own?’
‘As long as I don’t step on any of these trips, I should be fine, but make it quick, would you? Oh, and don’t worry about the water on the way back.’
~~~
‘It’s sort of a valid hunting tactic,’ Xanthe said when they were setting off again after lunch and trap-disarming. ‘Make a waterhole. Animals come to drink. Animals get hit with poisoned dart from a small crossbow. Then you come back later and gather up your kills.’
‘But?’ Krystal asked.
‘But… Well, I’ve never heard of anyone using that in the forest. Poison is a terrible way to kill things for the pot. Oh, and there were only two traps, one on either side of the stream. The actual pool wasn’t covered, so it would only catch something coming up the streambed the way you two did.’
‘That sounds more like a military tactic than a hunting one,’ Ramona said.
‘Huh?’ Trudy, beside her, asked.
‘Well, it’s the kind of tactics they talk about when you’re fighting in a disadvantaged condition.’
‘That sounded like something out of an army manual.’
‘Probably is. Uh, say you belong to a family’s military and your home ground has been overrun by an enemy force. You’re alone or have small numbers. You can’t mount a real offensive against them, so you try to make it as annoying as possible for them to hold the ground. One tactic is to find something your enemies want and set traps around it. I heard that a big favourite during the Majesty War was to kill or wound one dragon and then boobytrap his body with an explosive charm. When his friends come to get him, boom. You turn one kill into four or six.’
‘During the Majesty War?’ Krystal queried. ‘You mean, right around here?’
‘I guess so, yeah. This was where the Armonia family were fought to extinction. And they could have made explosive charms like no one else except the Nightskys.’
‘Yes, but I don’t believe we just found some holdover from the Majesty War’s attempt to kill those in their territory,’ Felicia said. ‘The war was over and done a thousand years ago. Dragons who were alive then would be long dead.’
‘Except maybe Shastin Nightsky,’ Krystal replied, ‘though that’s just rumour and scare stories.’
‘I don’t know the name, darling.’
‘Oh, he was a necromancer, and he was alive during the war. He vowed revenge upon the people who “persecuted” him for doing bad things with magic and his name still comes up as the man behind various atrocities.’
‘He wants to take over the world,’ Trudy added.
‘He sounds like a truly laudable dragon,’ Felicia said, ‘but if he’s a Nightsky, I do not think he would be laying traps to defend what was once Armonia territory.’
‘I don’t know,’ Jesse said. ‘Presumably, were he still alive, he would need to hide out somewhere. Tangleroots is a great place to hide. That said, this is the first time I’ve seen anything like that trap. Xan?’
‘No. First time for me too.’
‘So, if this Nightsky has come here, he’s come here recently.’
‘Somehow,’ Krystal said, ‘I think it’s unlikely. I’m sure the only thing about him that’s survived is his name. So, assuming that those traps weren’t a badly conceived hunting tactic, there’s someone else out here who doesn’t want visitors.’
‘The witch?’ Charlotte asked.
‘She’s never had to resort to tricks like that before,’ Xanthe replied. ‘I think this is someone else.’
~~~
‘We’re going to have two of us awake at all times through the night,’ Xanthe said as they sat around the campfire. Around them, it was the kind of dark you got in caves or cellars. The canopy above them was now so thick that, outside the circle of firelight, it was dark. ‘We’ll overlap things as much as possible so there’s usually someone fresh on duty. Krystal, we’d like you to take the early morning slot again and we’ll spare the extra food so you can use your dracoform. You can see in the pitch-black in scales, right?’
Krystal nodded. ‘Are you sure we can spare the rations?’
‘If the traps I set work, we’ll be fine. If not, I’ll do a little hunting and we’ll need to forage a bit more tomorrow.’
‘We won’t get as far tomorrow anyway,’ Jesse said. ‘I think we covered a good twenty-five miles today, which means we should easily get to the outskirts of the old city tomorrow, probably a little after lunch. No one goes in there if they can help it so there are no tracks. We’ll be cutting back bushes and scrabbling over fallen stones.’
‘Wonderful, darling,’ Felicia said. ‘I’m not sure how much use I’ll be chopping at the undergrowth. I haven’t even learned to chop vegetables yet.’
‘Well, the big advantage here is that you don’t have to worry about how you chop these vegetables, Flis,’ Ramona said. ‘Maybe a little instruction on how not to chop through anyone’s limbs, especially yours, would be in order.’ She hefted one of the machetes they had brought with them. ‘You can get a lot of momentum behind these. We’ve got three, right?’
‘Yes,’ Jesse replied.
‘So, we’ll have two people up front clearing the undergrowth, swap them around every so often because it’s tiring, and we have a spare blade in case of accidents. That sound right?’
Jesse grinned. ‘That sounds more or less exactly right, yes. Have you done this before?’
‘Huh, no. I’m no soldier, but I’ve been around plenty of them and cutting through forest isn’t that much different to planning a long offensive. Always keep fresh troops in reserve. Have spare weapons if possible. Make sure you pace yourself where you can.’
‘Well, it is an offensive. We’re fighting centuries of growth in vines and bushes, and most of the enemies won’t fight back, but they will put up plenty of resistance.’
‘Most of them won’t fight back?’ Trudy asked.
‘Most, yes. I’m going to be right behind the cutting crew, keeping an eye out for the things that might fight back. There are some fairly dangerous plants in Tangleroots and a lot of them can be found around those ruins.’
‘And this is your idea of a nice place to find solitude and relaxation?’ Felicia asked.
Jesse gave a small shrug. ‘Yes. I like this forest. Uh, though it’s not like I trek into the ruins for fun and frolics. I told Krystal about them when we first met. The old city… doesn’t feel right. The plants feel wrong. The stones just… I don’t know. There’s something not quite right about the place.’
‘This whole forest has something a little off about it,’ Krystal said. ‘I noticed it last night. There’s a feeling of magic here. Everywhere. It doesn’t feel quite like enchantment, or normal magic, or… anything I’ve felt before. It’s just there. I think it’s getting stronger too.’
‘Magic could explain those weird air currents over the trees,’ Charlotte said.
‘And som
e of the plant oddities in the ruins,’ Jesse agreed.
‘Almost like the city is still trying to defend itself,’ Ramona said, ‘even a thousand years after the war.’
‘What a delightful thought,’ Felicia said. ‘One can hope it doesn’t feel the need to defend itself too enthusiastically against us.’
7th Day of Highsummer.
‘You know what I really want to do?’ Trudy said, keeping her voice low to avoid waking anyone else.
‘Since I’m not fond of guessing games, not until you tell me,’ Krystal replied. As requested, she was in scales and it made quite a difference to how she saw things. Sensed them, really. Her sense of smell was a little more acute as well as her eyes working perfectly in the dark. There was still a pretty solid limit to how far she could see, because the thick undergrowth was basically impenetrable to any form of vision, but she was a lot happier than she had been the night before.
‘I want to sneak off into the bushes and fuck,’ Trudy said, smirking. ‘Like a couple of animals. Just… go out there and get naked and dirty.’
‘Somehow, I doubt that would be nearly as sexy, or pleasant, as it sounds.’
‘I know. I think it’s the fresh air. You realise I’m not used to air without the smell of dead cows and their by-products in it? Or at least city air. This is like… pure, natural air. I’ve been horny as one of Narra’s firstborn since we got out here.’
‘That bad, huh?’ Narra, the ancestral yellow dragon, was known as the ‘Mother of Beasts,’ and it was said that her first offspring had populated the entire world very quickly due to unnatural fecundity and insatiable sexual appetite. ‘You know that’s a myth, right? We’ve scientific evidence to indicate that pretty much every species on the planet was here before any of the dragons, never mind just yellow ones.’
‘I know. I am mythically horny. Heroically horny. I think all this fresh air and greenery has brought out my inner animal. Plus, I’ve got you in scales for a couple more hours and you know how I feel about your scales.’
‘Yeah, you used to hate rainbow scales.’
‘I still do. I’m just a little more selective about how I apply my hatred. When you’re in scales, I just want to see how much pleasure we can take before we go nuts.’
‘Right… well, I think–’ Krystal stopped as she detected movement out of the corner of her eye. She snapped her head around to look…
‘Krys?’ Trudy asked, looking the same way Krystal was but seeing nothing more than darkness.
‘I thought I saw…’ Krystal lifted her head and looked around at the trees. ‘The birds have gone quiet again.’
‘Yeah… That’s not spooky at all. What did you see?’
The birds began calling again, apparently happy that whatever threat there had been was gone. Krystal shrugged. ‘A shadow. A shape. Something moved and I saw… something.’
‘A wolf?’
‘No. Don’t think so. I mean, it looked like it was dragon-shaped. Maybe in a cloak or something. Maybe carrying a staff.’
‘Maybe the witch?’
Krystal frowned at the darkness. ‘Well, I guess it’s possible.’
‘Do you think we should wake the others?’
‘No, it’s gone. Whatever it was, it’s gone. Let them finish sleeping and we’ll talk it over when they’re up.’
~~~
‘A dark shape in the night, huh?’ Charlotte said. ‘That’s… annoyingly non-specific. The witch?’
‘Even my night vision has limits,’ Krystal replied. ‘I get the feeling there was something obscuring the details, but… Well, the more I think about it, the more I think it looked male.’
‘Our mysterious setter of traps then,’ Xanthe said. ‘I don’t like the idea that someone like that is watching us.’
‘Possibly for longer than last night. The animals went quiet when I saw him last night. The same thing happened on my watch the night before, but I wasn’t in scales and didn’t see anything. I even tried a spell to see whether I could sense anything, but nothing showed up.’
‘You didn’t think to mention that yesterday?’
‘Uh, well, nothing showed up. I figured it was some passing predator and I’d forgotten about it by the time you guys woke up. It may not have been the same “figure.” I just find the coincidence a little strange.’
Xanthe nodded. ‘It could’ve been a wolf or something nearby.’
‘Or not,’ Ramona said. ‘We have to assume it wasn’t and that some nut who traps water sources is following us. Right?’
‘Yeah… Yeah, we do. So, we take extra care going forward. We’ll be getting to the outer edges of the old city this afternoon and that’ll slow us down anyway.’
‘And we’ll be wanting to watch out for some of the more dangerous flora too,’ Jesse said. ‘I’d say by late morning we could be getting to areas where the plants can fight back.’
‘I must say, darling, that I’m finding it difficult to believe in a plant which can purposefully do us harm,’ Felicia said. ‘I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that I can’t imagine such a thing. Not without resorting to very silly imagery.’
‘Well, “purposefully” might not be exactly the right word, but… Just wait until you see them.’
~~~
‘Stop!’
Everyone came to a halt at Jesse’s shout, though no one was sure what the cause of the sudden command was. They had started off along the track thirty minutes or so ago, after stopping for lunch in the slightly clear area caused by a fallen tree. The forest was closing in around them, fairly obviously, and the last few miles had taken them down tracks which looked more like the pathways used by animals than anything purposefully made by dragons.
It was not that long after noon, but the light drifting down through the thick canopy was dim and dappled. No one really had a shadow, but there were shadows everywhere and the entire place had a slightly oppressive feel to it, as though Tangleroots did not want them to be there. To Krystal, walking just behind Jesse since there was only really room for single-file travel now, the feeling of oppression was added to by the weird feeling of magic around them. And the magic did feel weird: it was thick and there was a feeling of power to it, but somehow she could not quite bring herself to believe it was malign, or even opposed to their passage through the forest. To Krystal, it actually felt… sort of friendly.
‘What’s up?’ Krystal asked, peering over Jesse’s shoulder. It was not hard to peer over Jesse’s shoulder.
‘You see that vine trailing over the path? Pale green with red thorns?’
Krystal looked and she did see a thin stem lying across the track. It was an unhealthy sort of green for a plant, as though it lacked much in the way of chlorophyll, and there were some quite large blood-red thorns sticking up from it at intervals of about three inches. Interestingly, the thorns came in threes, spaced evenly around the vine so that one of each trio was always pointing straight up. ‘I see it. I wouldn’t want one of those thorns in my foot, but I think our boots would stop them.’
‘Yes, and no,’ Jesse replied. ‘The spines are poisonous, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it weren’t for the other trick that stuff has. If you crush the stem, it reacts and wraps itself around whatever crushed it, or tries to.’
‘And the barbs would probably penetrate our clothes. How poisonous?’
‘It’s a paralytic. You might survive it. Large doses often kill, by suffocation. With all of us here, you’d stand a chance. On your own… Well, you’d probably be plant food. The vine is strong enough to pull you into the bushes as it contracts closer to the root system. No one would find you.’
‘Uh, right. Do we just step over it?’
‘I’d rather not leave it in the track,’ Jesse replied, and she raised a hand toward the stem. Krystal felt magic being shaped and knew that Jesse was working a spell. Suddenly, the vine sprang to life, whipping upward from the ground in a whirling motion before tightening like a spring as it pulled back into
the bushes at the side of the track.
‘Ancestors!’ Krystal yelped. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plant move like that.’
‘As far as I know, no one’s ever dissected one to find out how it does it, but it’s very effective.’
‘Yeah. You damaged the plant?’
Jesse grinned. ‘Bruised the vine where it was coming out of the bushes, so it curled around that point. Okay, we’re good to go.’ She looked back along the track. ‘Everyone keep an eye out for firethorn vines. Pale-green stem, red thorns. Stay well away from any you see.’
‘That’s really well away from them,’ Krystal added. ‘It looks like dragon-made traps aren’t the only kind in this forest.’
~~~
There were another three firethorn vines stretched across the track before they made it to the edge of the ruins. More worryingly, they found a fourth vine at ankle eight which Xanthe traced to a deadfall trap rigged into one of the trees beside the track. It seemed that their mysterious trap builder had been up to his tricks again and it was starting to feel a little personal.
Then they had come to a point where the track suddenly turned to the right with no warning. Before them was a wall of greenery with no obvious way through, but there was also a block of stone sticking through the foliage. Krystal bent down and ran her fingers over the rough stone. It was rough, but it had also been cut with tools and smoothed before a thousand years of weathering had turned it into an oddly regular boulder.
‘And here we are at the edge of the ruins,’ Jesse said. ‘Who wants to take the first crack at carving our way in?’
‘We should move down the track a little way,’ Krystal said.
‘We should?’
‘Well, this is part of a wall. If we move a little way down, we may find what’s left of a road. If it was paved, or cobbled, it might be easier going and it will definitely be less uneven.’
Maybe fifteen feet down the track they found lumpy, worn stones embedded in the ground. Jesse glanced at Krystal and grinned. ‘Cobbles.’
Ramona and Trudy, the latter taking practice swings with the broad-bladed knife she was carrying, walked up to the wall of greenery. ‘Guess it’s our turn then,’ Trudy said.
Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Page 15