Page 26 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I made it back to camp in much less time than the trip out, searching for Leiya. I needed something to do with my idle brain. If I wanted to find Fayzien and prevent a war, I had to get involved in the meetings Jana held. I needed to learn more about these people, or rather non-people, their kind, their motivations and capabilities.

I needed tonotthink about the Fae male I just left in the creek.

The camp was not as I had left it. People were buzzing around, but the tents were gone. Fae were sharpening blades, Witches were grinding powders on stones, or boiling small pots over various fires. I found Leiya with her ax in her lap, a sharpener in hand.

“When are we leaving?” I asked.

She regarded me with one eyebrow subtly raised, then looked back down at her blade. “Yer scent es very overbearin’ right now, Terra.”

I gaped at her, horrified, and sniffed my underarm. “Okay, well, I tried to clean myself in the creek, but I had no soap, and this place has no proper bath, and there’s no?—”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what do you mean?”

She just chuckled. “Well, when a female, eh, feels the pull te another, ye know the one, deep en the low belly, she gives a scent, te call the male, or female, te her. Ye have a very strong one, now. Ets a wonder ye canna smell et, because ets stuffin’ me nose right up.”

Heat rushed to my face, my mouth hanging ajar, and Leiya just laughed. “Ye shouldna worry, lass. The smell es, well awful te me, but from what I’ve heard, the right male or female well feel the need te feast en the scent like a traveler needs water en a desert,” she said, a mischievous look in her eyes. Then she cocked her head at me. “Ye know, I actually thenk I smelled et on the cliffs before I knocked Ezren en the head. But I didna thenk too much about et, I was a wee bit focused on somethin’ else at the time.”

I shut my gaping mouth and turned on my heel, leaving her deep chuckle and the scrape of her ax behind me.

I found Jana surrounded by Fae and Witch alike, accepting her orders. I approached her, self-conscious of whatever odor I was apparently omitting. But if she could smell it, or if anyone else could, they did not comment. Jana picked me out of the crowd and waved me over.

“Terra! Good, there you are, dear. We have to move today. We will do most of our traveling by night, on horseback. Given the Fae cannot portal and we Witches can only take one passenger at a time, we’ll conjure mounts. Fae with flight orlong-distance enabled shifts will shift, except Ezren of course. How are you with horses?”

I cleared my throat. “Em, descent, I suppose.”

“Excellent. You will ride in the middle of the caravan, next to Dane. He’ll be in the medic cart.” She paused and snapped thrice, and Sanah appeared out of nowhere next to her, as Dane and Ezren once had in the meeting tent. I marveled at the trick; there seemed to be a mist descending off her skin as she transitioned from a blur to a clear image in the blink of an eye. “Sanah will show you to a horse and accompany you and Dane. Leiya will fly above, and Leuffen will take his cougar form by your side. Sanah, make sure to get blinders for the horse’s bridles. You know how the beasts start at Leuffen’s shift.”

The afternoon passed in a haze. Sanah put me to work preparing the horses with supplies and loading Dane’s cart with blankets, pillows, and crates of dried herbs or pre-mixed potions. When the sun began its nightly descent, we set out for Viribrum—the Kingdom of the Fae, and my supposed childhood home.

I chose a sturdy jet-black gelding with a long, waving mane and a diamond of white on his forehead. Blackjack, Sanah called him. He gave an anxious prance when I mounted him, but I laid a soothing hand on his neck, and he quieted.

“Why do we go by night?” I asked Sanah, daunted by the impending sleep deprivation.

“It’s much harder to be found at night,” she replied. “No wandering traveler will spot us, nor one of Fayzien’s Witches on lookout. The horses and shifted Fae can see perfectly well, so they will guide us. Even those in Fae form should be able to see okay. Your Witch heritage doesn’t do you any favors with sight, but you’ll likely be able to see better than I, given the Fae blood you also have in your veins.”

She was right. I’d never thought about it, but I’d always been able to see better than my brothers in the dark. On this clear, crisp evening, the moonlight served as enough of a guide, and it shone through the occasional openings in the sky as we rode northeast through the dense forest.

The entire camp was not privy to our route—Jana preferred to keep that intelligence to her council. But Sanah told me we were heading to the southernmost border of the North Sea, a week’s journey by horse caravan at night. Our pace would be slowed by the limited dark hours—summer approached, which meant longer days and shorter nights. Then, Jana and her advisors would decide whether to cross through the Adimon mountains or go by boat through the North Sea. They deemed both treacherous, and it would be a grueling expedition.

Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, before the light crawled its first fingers up the horizon, we found a clearing and set out to make a small camp. Sanah left my side to attend Dane, whom they had immediately moved from the cart to a tent. We were forty strong, so the camp was tight, and quarters were close. My body ached from the long ride, but everyone else hurried around me with purpose, unloading here and setting up there. I felt awkward and out of place, waiting for directions no one else seemed to need. I wandered about, attempting to look busy, aware of every suspicious glance thrown my way. What did they think of me? Did they think me some pathetic rescue? Or an unremarkable, surprising key to stopping a war?

“Terra!” A familiar voice came from behind me. “Yer with me tonight. Just me luck, bunkin’ with the stinker,” Leiya said, more friendliness in her tone than her word choice suggested. She steered us to a tent on the eastern edge of camp, guarded on all sides but one, for escape access should we need it. Our tent was of equal proportion on the outside as the inside—just how theFae liked it, or so Leiya said. Only Witches with sufficient power to distort space slept in the luxurious accommodations.

We settled into the hard cots, canvas draped over our heads, wool laid over our bodies. “Leiya, can I ask you something?”

“Oh gods, are ye gonna require a bit of pillow talk?” she replied.

I ignored her retort. “Is… is it likely that Fayzien will find us?”Will we get a chance to kill him?

She paused, releasing a low exhale. “Yes, et es. He likely heard the Earth splet, and we still didna know ef he left a bit a’ his magic en ye. The Wetches have been usin’ every ounce a’ magic they can spare te conceal us, ye see, from findin’ spells and such. But he, well… ets a good sign he hasna found us yet. I know ye’ll want te take yer revenge—but he es one a’ the most powerful Wetches living today. I wouldna recommend et just yet.”

“You all promised to help me bring him to justice,” I growled. “Wouldn’t it be better if he just… showed up here?”

Leiya snorted. “I dinna think so. Fayzien doesna show up unless he has some advantage—leavin’ ye en the defensive. He’s calculated, cunning. He es not te be underestimated, Terra.”

She said the last words with a heaviness that hung in the small space between us. “Do you know him?”

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