Page 7 of Sundered By Fate

What did this mean? Was Malekith trying to reach him somehow? Or was it merely wishful thinking on Aric's part?

He clenched his fists against that thought. He'd made his choice; he'd fled for a reason. But now an unwelcome sense of guilt clawed at him nonetheless: what if Malekith truly was in danger? Just how much damage had Sylthris really inflicted?

It didn't matter, he told himself. Malekith wasn't his problem any longer. Thornhaven—Astaria—were his priorities now. It was the only way to help them both.

Still, he couldn't forget the look in the demon prince's eyes.

"Oi!" An elderly farmer waved at him from across the town's main square. "Could use another pair of hands over here."

Aric finished setting the last shingle in place on the healer's shop roof and hurried down. The farmer had the kind of squat, solid frame that spoke of a lifetime of hard labor, but his age was catching up to him. As he approached, Aric saw the sweat glistening on the farmer's brow, his face creased with lines of worry.

"What do you need?" Aric asked.

"I'm tryin' to figure out what's been messin' with my crops," the farmer said. "Somethin' strange out in the woods. Thought I saw movement last night, but when I went to check it out, it was gone."

Aric felt a chill race through him. "And you want me to investigate?"

The farmer hesitated, then nodded. "Figure someone with your . . . experience might be better equipped to handle it than us plainfolk."

Aric's mind immediately leapt to the idea of a demon out there causing mischief. But it wouldn't make sense for a demon raiding party to settle in at the edge of town without launching an attack.

Unless they were waiting for something.

"I'll take care of it," Aric promised. "You have my word."

The farmer wiped his forehead with a grimy cloth and glanced around nervously. "I won't deny I'm concerned 'bout having a demon-bound mage pokin' around our woods," he said gruffly.

"Then I'll take someone with me," Aric offered quickly, hoping to ease the man's doubts.

The farmer studied him for a long moment before nodding slowly. "All right then. I'll send my boy Tomas with you." He jabbed his chin toward a gangly young man stacking wood nearby.

Aric suppressed a wince as he spotted the kid staring up at him with wide-eyed fear. Hardly ideal conditions for tracking a potentially dangerous threat. But if that was what it took to prove himself . . .

"Thank you." He gave Tomas what he hoped was an encouraging smile as the boy trotted over.

The two set off together across rolling fields and pastures turned rich shades of copper by the setting sun, toward where they thought they'd seen movement among the tree line beyond. As darkness crept over Thornhaven, they picked their way into the thick forest underbrush.

Twigs snapped beneath their feet as their eyes slowly adjusted to the shadows.

As they ventured deeper into the woods, the shadows twisted and reached, forming shapes that weren't there when viewed directly. Aric's senses tingled with a lingering dread, the forest too still, too silent around them.

"This is where I saw it," Tomas said, gesturing to a small clearing ahead. "But now . . ."

Aric could see what he meant. The trees here were warped, their trunks twisting unnaturally. The underbrush was patchy, withered in some places, overgrown in others.

More worrying were the animal carcasses they found scattered about the clearing. A deer with its flesh shriveled and leathery, as though drained of all moisture. Birds fallen from the sky, their feathers brittle and discolored. A rabbit lying limp and cold with no apparent wound.

"What could have done this?" Tomas asked, voice trembling.

"I don't know." Aric knelt down to inspect the bodies closer.

The decay seemed to have set in far too quickly for any normal predator's work. And yet there was no visible trace of demonic magic that Aric could detect—not the distinctive sulfurous tang he associated with hellfire sorcery.

In truth, it reminded him more of something else: a spell gone wrong, much like the anomalous side effects of human magic destabilized during their campaign against demon forces—the very weapon that had brought about his capture.

But Thornhaven was too far removed from any direct battlefronts for Aric to imagine such magic reaching it here.

Aric stepped into the clearing, senses on high alert. But as he neared the tree line, another vision slammed into him like a tidal wave.

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