“I slept fine,” I said. “Thanks very much.”
He pushed gently on his branch and dropped the ten feet to the ground like it was ten inches. “Of course, little Realm Keeper. Rest is all-important to the healthy mind. One’s best thinking is often done in the space between slumber and wakefulness.”
His eyes locked with mine as he spoke, widening slightly as if with excitement. Okay, now he was definitely saying more than he was saying—or, you know what I mean. Could he know about my dreams? I knew he was powerful in Mind, probably way more powerful than I was. But I was certain I would have at least felt it if he was probing around in my thoughts. And besides, doing so would have been against the Elven laws. He wouldn’t break those.
Would he?
Sarah apparently didn’t notice my discomfort, because she kept talking to Yinnilith as though nothing were happening. “We can’t thank you enough for your guidance. And for saving our lives.”
“It has been my honor to meet the three of you,” he said. He turned to her with a bow, and I felt a wash of relief as his gaze left me. “It has been centuries beyond counting since last I have met the Realm Keepers. And the last time was not so…entertaining.”
“We do tend to cause excitement wherever we go,” Sarah said with a wry smile.
Yinnilith’s laugh rang out. “I should say so.” Sarah reached out a hand for his, and he gave it a warm shake. Then he stepped forward, and I saw Sarah’s eyes widen with surprise as he wrapped her in an embrace. Then he stepped back slightly, still keeping one hand on her shoulder, and pressed his lips to his fingers. Then he placed the fingers on her forehead.
“May your path be ever lit by the silver and gold of moon and sun,” he said.
“Um, thanks,” said Sarah, clearly not sure how to respond.
Yinnilith laughed again. Then he turned to me and repeated the embrace, but not the prayer. I nearly died from blushing when his arms wrapped around me. I wasn’t exactly big on public displays of affection, even hugs. As he stepped back, I saw his eyes go to the bow on my back. It had been a gift from him after the battle. It was beautiful, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it were a bit magical.
“Thank you again for the gift,” I said, ducking my head. “I promise I’ll take very good care of the bow.”
“Oh, I do not doubt it,” he said. He gave a smile that was smaller than his usual grin, and yet somehow warmer. “There are no hands I’d sooner see it in.”
“Yeah, well…thanks,” I said, not sure how else to respond.
“Fare you well, oh mighty protectors of the sacred Realm Keepers!” he called out, looking over my shoulder and waving. Nora, Barius and Darren were standing in a small group a few yards back, allowing us our privacy. Darren and Nora smiled and waved back eagerly. Barius gave only a curt nod. He wasn’t big on Elves.
“What, I don’t get a good-bye?” said Raven sullenly, her brush continuing on the horse’s coat.
With a single leap, Yinnilith flew twenty feet through the air to land beside her. He wrapped her in a big bear hug and lifted her from her feet, then did the same thing of kissing his fingers and placing them to her forehead. “Go with the speed of lightning and the roll of thunder at your heels, little pouty one,” he said. He gave a mischievous glance at Barius. “And take care of that old one. You humans grow more frail with age than we do.”
I could almost see Barius’ hackles raise, but to his credit he stayed silent. Raven merely laughed and gave Yinnilith a shove. “I’m not pouty,” she said. “I’m realistic.”
Yinnilith laughed again and leapt again, this time into the branches above us. “Fare well, young Realm Keepers!” he said. “Fare well, brave Runegard! The mountain awaits you, and the worms are impatient. Your people need you, and mayhap mine as well. Answer their summons as quickly as you can! Fare well!” Then he turned and vanished into the green without a sound.
Raven shook her head as she stared into the empty space where he’d stood. “That guy is totally crazy yet totally awesome.”
“I wish he were coming with us,” said Sarah softly. It sounded like maybe she hadn’t even meant to say it out loud, it was so quiet.
“Me too,” I said, surprising myself slightly. It had made me nervous when Yinnilith seemed to be hinting so broadly about my dreams. But at the same time, he was a strong fighter, and he seemed to really want to help us. I would have felt a lot safer if he was by our side the rest of the way to Wyrmspire.
I sighed. Our lives were rarely as safe as I wished they were, or as easy. Not since we’d come to Midrealm.
“The smoke has died away a little bit,” said Sarah. “We’d better hurry before it disappears.” On the eastern horizon there was barely any sign left of the thick column of smoke we’d seen the day before. But it still made a good beacon, and it was where we’d agreed to meet the boys, who’d escaped from beneath a mountain the night before.
“It’s in no danger of going anywhere,” said Barius, his deep voice booming out as he cinched the straps that held his saddlebags. “That’s the smoke of burning buildings, or I am a fool. If no one’s moved to put them out yet, they won’t be doing it at all. And a town can take days to burn down.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t know how Barius knew that, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know.
We were soon saddled and emerged from the trees on to the dirt path that we had been following through the woods. The Fairgreen forest, the Elves had called it. Several days of travel under its branches hadn’t dimmed its beauty. The path was a sharp line that divided the Elven kingdom on our right from the human one to our left. In the Fairgreen, the birdsong was sweeter. The trees were taller, thicker and more alive. The air was sweeter to breathe. The forest to our left seemed downright drab in comparison.
We mounted our horses and rode on through the woods at an easy canter. I wrapped the saddle horn in my fingers with a death grip, terrified I’d go tumbling off. Nora rode right next to me, ready to snatch my reins if she had to. She was used to my riding competency by now. The smoke disappeared from sight every time the land sloped upward, then slid back into view as we crested each rise and rode down again. Our path seemed to be leading us straight to it.
After three hours of riding, we took a brief break to eat a midday meal. I dismounted with relief. I still got sore any time we rode for a long time. Raven had told me I’d get used to it, but it didn’t seem to be getting any easier. Privately, where the others couldn’t hear, Nora had told me that it was because I sat too tense in the saddle. She encouraged me to try loosening up a bit. She might as well have told me to stop breathing. I wasn’t meant to go around on horseback. I didn’t even know how to drive a car yet. How could I handle a living creature?
Nora took my horse’s reins and tethered it to a tree beside her own as we found seats on the grass with the others. We ate in the dull forest. If any Elves happened to pass by, we didn’t want to aggravate them by being in their section of the woods. They were more dangerous than they looked. The more powerful ones could even block our powers with their minds. At least, they could before I figured out the trick to stop them. Now I was pretty confident I could keep that from happening. Still, there was no reason to hang out in their woods looking for a fight.
“What’s on the menu?” Sarah asked.
“More chicken, I’m afraid, my Lady,” said Darren.
“Ugh. Of course it is,” she said with a smile. “Tell you what. I don’t like dark meat, and you don’t like white. I’ll trade you mine for yours.”
“But there’s less dark meat than white,” said Darren, narrowing his eyes. “Are you trying to cheat me?”
Sarah grinned. “Hey, you can choke down all you want. I’m just offering you a solution.”
“That’s highway robbery, my Lady,” said Darren, sniffing and looking offended. Sarah laughed.
I looked again at the smoke in the distance. It was visible between the two trees that marked the next bend in the path. The closer we got,
the more certain I was that we were heading right for it.
“Is the smoke on the road?” I asked softly.
Barius glanced over and gave a brief nod. “It seems that way.” He looked back at his food, his eyes uneasy. Sarah was caught up talking to Darren and didn’t notice.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, drawing Barius’ gaze back to me. Raven, too, looked up, her interest piqued by my tone. I flushed with the extra attention and hid behind my hair a little more.
“I am not certain,” said Barius. “But we are not far from the next town we planned to stop in, a place called Frith. It’s the last place we’ll stop before we enter the western outlands—miles and miles of countryside where we can expect to find no settlements to speak of.”
It dawned on me. “You think the smoke is from the town we were heading toward?”
Barius shrugged. “I do not know. Perhaps I have become disoriented thanks to the long detour we took with the Elves.”
Sarah had finally looked over as we continued talking. “What if you’re not, though?” she asked. “What if that is the town? What are we going to do about supplies?”
Barius shrugged and ripped another hunk of chicken off the bone with his teeth. His face was grim. “I suppose we had better hope that I am wrong,” he said.
I felt a ball of nerves start to build in my stomach, killing my appetite. I took a final delicate bite of chicken and started wrapping the rest up to go back into my pack.
A hand on my arm stopped me. I looked over to see Nora looking at me, concerned.
“Are you all right, my Lady?” she asked quietly. “You should eat. We will need our strength on the road.”
“Fine,” I said. “Just…not super hungry.”
“Don’t worry about what we’ll find ahead,” she said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, eat. You must take care of yourself.”
I gave a halfhearted little smile and nibbled a bit more. But it was just to please her. I still wasn’t hungry.
After our meal, we mounted up again. Sarah paused before setting off.
“We’re coming up on the fire now,” she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to find there, so we’re going to approach slow. Keep as quiet and still as possible. For all we know, Shadows could have ravaged the town. If that’s the case, we can’t let them see us.”
“Shadows never come this far out,” said Darren.
“That’s what we said when they hit Yarvan,” said Barius. His face had grown dark, and his voice had a few extra layers of gravel. I didn’t know what Yarvan was.
“We can’t be too careful,” said Sarah. “And remember: we can’t let anyone see us use our powers. As far as the world is concerned, the Realm Keepers are back in Morrowdust. That’s what Terrence has to believe, or we’re all toast.”
“Got it,” said Raven. “Can we go now?”
Sarah smirked and wheeled her horse around, heading down the path again. Her smirk reminded me of Blade, and I felt a pang in my chest. I hoped he, Miles and Calvin were okay. At school they’d told us they were alive, but they sounded haggard. There was a haunted look in their eyes, and I hadn’t heard more than a smattering of details of their escape from the mountain.
We moved on down the road toward the column of smoke that still climbed into the sky, looking like a tower of blackness as it loomed over us.
FRITH
TESS
SOON THE SMOKE SEEMED RIGHT on top of us. I could smell its acidic burning on the air. The path curved around right, sweeping sharply south and away from the smoke’s source. Sarah quietly gestured us into the woods on our left, and we picked our way among the trees as we approached a clearing just visible ahead.
We came to the edge of the trees. The first line of charred buildings was easily visible before us. Beyond that, deserted streets stretched away and out of sight into the town. We couldn’t see more than a dozen or so buildings, but I could see that the town was much bigger than that.
“It looks empty,” said Raven. Her voice was muted, almost lost in the whisper of the wind through the trees. A wind that carried the smell of wood smoke, and something else. Burnt flesh.
“Give it a minute,” said Sarah. “Let’s not go rushing in. Tess, can you feel anything?”
I probed with my mind. The world became a foggy, ethereal thing, the way it did when I used my magic. But there were no sparks, no points of bright light within the fog that marked the presence of another mind. I blinked, and the world went back to normal. “Nothing I can see,” I said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
“Got it,” said Sarah with a nod. “Okay, let’s move in. Slow. Remember to be quiet.”
We left our horses at the edge of the wood, tied to branches and out of sight of the buildings. Then we crept up to the first line of buildings. Sarah had her sword out, and I held a nocked arrow to my bow. Its cool, flexible wood felt comforting in my hand. Much more comforting than my old sword had ever felt.
We crept up behind a building that had seemed to have been a home. Its roof had collapsed from the flames. Piles of charred wood sat within like funeral pyres. Smoke still poured out through the gaping ceiling. Barius was right. This place had clearly been destroyed days ago, but it was still gushing black smoke.
We crept around it and dashed across the street to the next one. The Runegard stayed before us, shields held at the ready. Every so often I probed with my magic, but I still didn’t feel anybody in the town.
We were about five buildings into the town when we came across the first dead body. I nearly tripped over it. I peered around the corner of a building when my foot caught on something and I almost went down. I scrambled back behind cover, terrified I’d made a noise that someone could hear. That’s when I looked down to see what my foot had struck. What I’d thought was a discarded pile of black rags was a body wrapped in clothes that were scorched beyond recognition. The body was facedown, but the head was turned to the side. Empty eye sockets gazed into eternity from within charred flesh.
I managed not to scream as I backed away, quick as my legs could carry me. Nora saw the body and came to me, turning me away from it and going with me to the building’s opposite corner. Barius approached the corpse and knelt, inspecting it. Darren joined him after making sure Sarah and Raven were with me and Nora.
They came back to us after a few minutes. “Well, I don’t think this is Shadow’s work,” said Barius, his voice low.
“How can you be sure?” said Sarah.
“For one thing, I haven’t seen a piece of armor anywhere,” he said. “You’ve seen that when Shadows die, their armor falls away empty. They don’t bother to recover it. They’ve got smiths around the world making them more suits than they can use, and they don’t have camp followers to carry the suits for them. I find it hard to believe that Shadows could overrun a town this size without losing even one of their number.”
“We shouldn’t rule it out completely,” said Sarah, her face doubtful.
“There’s something else,” said Barius heavily. “There’s drag marks in the streets. Marks the size of bodies. Shadows don’t drag bodies around. They just kill them.”
“Why would anyone drag bodies around, though?” said Raven.
“For a mass grave,” said Barius. “Or a pyre. Or to send a message.”
I thought I might be sick. My gaze kept drifting back to the body I’d stumbled over. I felt sorry for whoever it had been. I’d never know, now, the person that that charred corpse used to be. Perhaps no one would. I didn’t even know if it was a man or a woman. Did they have family beyond this town? Or would all knowledge of them drift away on the wind with the black smoke of their burning home?
“Let’s keep moving,” said Sarah. “Somebody’s got to be alive in all this.”
“Yes, my Lady,” said Darren. But I didn’t have to read his mind to see the doubt in his eyes.
We moved building to building, edging toward the center of the to
wn. The smoke grew thicker in the air. I began to stifle a cough. Barius had us all soak cloth in water and wrap it around our mouths. It helped with the breathing, but my eyes still watered.
We saw more bodies as we went. All of them were burned. I noticed, though, that they didn’t look like they’d died from the fire. They’d been cut down while they were running, their bodies consumed by the flames long afterward.
They were all running away from the center of Frith.
Just as I realized that, there was a crash as a chunk of wall fell in right beside me. I yelped with fear and leapt away from it, throwing up a wall of force in front of me. Nora, Barius and Darren leapt forward with blades drawn, and Sarah and Raven took position behind them with their weapons held ready.
A fresh gout of black smoke billowed out from the wall, but once it cleared there was nothing there. The wall had just fallen in after days of slowly burning away.
My face flushed with embarrassment. I looked around at the others, too ashamed to look them in the eye. “Sorry,” I muttered.
“It’s all right, Tess,” said Sarah. “I’m scared, too.”
That’s when we heard a sharp cry in the distance, toward the center of the town where the smoke rose thickest.
I looked around for a moment before speaking, not wanting to embarrass myself further. “Everyone else heard that, right?”
“Aye,” said Barius.
“I did, too,” said Darren.
“Okay, quiet,” said Sarah. “Tess, can you do anything to cloak us as we go in?”
“I can try,” I said. “But it won’t work if there’s too many of them.” I tapped my power and probed for other minds. Greystone had shown me how to conceal my presence from people, but I’d never tried to hide a group this big.
“Okay, so stay hidden regardless,” said Sarah. “Here we go.”
We ran quietly from building to building, looking around each corner before we moved forward. There were no more noises ahead of us.
“I still don’t see anything,” I began to whisper. But then suddenly, six sparks showed up in the fog of my vision. They flared like flames for a moment, and I jerked back.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 34