Page 86 of Blood of Ancients

We had no idea what we were looking for as we stepped around the structures and buildings still remaining in the camp. That was when we found the first bodies, half-buried.

My heart leapt to my throat and my stomach sank to my boots. I worried we would find Magnus among them. I needed answers, but now that I washere, I wasn’t prepared for what I might find. I started to hyperventilate.

Grim saw me losing my shit and came close to swaddle me in a tight embrace once we called the area clear and put our weapons away.

“Be brave, little sneak,” he whispered.

I sniffed once, hard. “I’m trying.”

Hersir Kelvar descended on the five bodies we found. They were circled around a specific cabin. Oddly, it wasn’t the cabin where the portal stood.

To me, it seemed like the men and women here had come to rest at night, perhaps when they first arrived, before planning on guarding the portal cabin the next day.

Obviously they never made it to the next day.

There were two women and three men. I was the first to move from one body to the next. With my throat tight and blood ringing in my ears, I stopped at each one, turning them to look at their faces if they were on their stomachs.

“Magnus isn’t here,” I whispered to myself, not realizing Sven had followed me.

“That’s a good sign, menace.”

I blinked at him, trying to fight past the sickness weighing me down. All I could do was nod dumbly. “Go.”

Sven nodded, lips firmed, and took off. He knew exactly what I needed from him, and he took Grim with him. The shifters stalked off toward the outskirts of the camp to look for more bodies while Kelvar, Arne, and I stayed to analyze these ones.

When our trackers returned, they told us they’d located others littered around the camp—six in all, more scattered than this congregation of corpses.

Magnus wasn’t among them. It made my heart stutter.

“It really was red slaughter in this place,” Arne muttered, frowning as he kneeled over one of the bodies. “I mean, gods, this man’s legs are right here but his feet are over there.” He looked up at our group with a pale face. “What kind of force would have the strength to do something like that?”

“A manmade force,” Sven quipped, “clearly. A man strong enough, with a sword sharp enough, could dismember a man’s shins from his feet. Just ask Grim here.”

The bear grunted, not finding any levity in the situation.

Our moods had gone bleak, worried.

Kelvar stood from one of the bodies—a woman who had been riddled with no less than five arrows in her chest, neck, and face. Crossing his arms, he said, “The arrows confirm that we are not dealing with a monster here.”

I scoffed. “Clearly we have a different definition ofmonster, Hersir.”

“Fair enough, Linmyrr. The truth remains evident on these bodies. Arrowheads and steel were the source of their downfall. Likely caught in a snowstorm, blinded by it, with little chance to defend themselves when they walked into an ambush.”

Sven said, “Judging by the swords, axes, and shields on the ground, I’d say they defended themselves, Whisperer. They just fared poorly.”

Arne scoffed. “Fared poorly? That’s an understatement.”

“They had no chance,” Grim said, shaking his head.

Kelvar pulled at his chin curiously, deep in thought. He paced from the bodies, inside the cabin, and back out. “There’s dried blood in the cabin.”

I crossed my arms. “Are you getting a better idea of what happened here, Hersir?”

“Starting to.” He gestured to the cabin. “That must have been the barracks where guards slept overnight while guarding the portal. It was likely the meet-up point for both parties.” His black gloves moved from the building to the snowy ground and corpses. “The approaching group likely had no idea the comrades they were coming to relieve of their shifts had been slaughtered already. The storms have been horrible, whichmeans they wouldn’t have seen the ambush coming, especially if they were arriving at night, which seems most likely.”

That was all well and good. I agreed with him. But there was an elephant in the room no one had recognized, and I was growing frustrated.

“What about Magnus?” I called out to the group, throwing up my arms. “He isn’t here!”

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