Page 131 of Of Nine So Bold

But it didn’t do much for how the giants continued staring at me or murmuring among themselves with distrustful looks on their faces.

At long last, the final few Erenlians made their way through the gap, leaving only us. Keeping me at the center of their line, my friends trailed the giants, protectiveness radiating from them like predators on high alert.

They were behaving like bodyguards—for me and Gwyneira both—and I appreciated it beyond words, at least where she was concerned.

My own safety was nothing compared to protecting her.

The wall whispered louder as I passed through the gap I’d somehow made. So many voices overlapped each other from within its gray fog, it was impossible to understand any words. The murk was at least six feet thick, smooth like glass, not that I dared touch it again. A tingling sensation rushed around my skin in a wave when I stepped through to the other side, the prickling there and then gone.

And then we were in Erenelle.

I looked over my shoulder as the tingling faded. Behind me, the opening in the wall was sealing shut, but the gray murk didn’t look the same as it had on the other side. Instead of fog obscuring my view, there was opalescent glass, through which I could see the expanse of Aneira stretching away beneath the blue winter sky.

I stared. It was as if we stood inside a shimmering soap bubble so massive, it could surround the entire nation. The wall stretched away from me on either side as far as my eyes could see, and it rose into the sky higher than birds could fly, until at last it curved back toward the heart of my nation.

“It’s beautiful,” Gwyneira whispered.

I would have agreed, if not for how it still whispered with far-off cries of pain.

“Can you hear them?” I whispered back.

Her confused look was answer enough.

“Never mind.” I ducked my head, hurrying away from the wall.

From the corners of my eyes, I saw the curious looks my friends gave me, but they didn’t press for more. Falling in around me like bodyguards again, they turned their attention to the giants and the terrain.

Not that the latter presented much of a threat. Yes, I picked up on a few larger animals here and there—a pack of wolves, some elk, and something that felt like a bobcat quite a distance away in the forest—but none were interested in approaching a group as numerous as ours. Other than that, there were only sleeping plants resting beneath the winter snow and small creatures who might run or might willingly be food.

But no people.

“Anybody else feel like we’re walking in a graveyard?” Clay whispered.

Murmurs of agreement passed among my friends, while up ahead, the larger giants huddled together with pained or apprehensive expressions. Even the duke seemed on edge. Nature had flourished in the years since the wall rose, and I could only assume some strange twist of the spell allowed sunlight, snow, and the wind to penetrate the barrier even if nothing else could. But if anyone had survived the war within our nation’s borders, they weren’t anywhere my magic could perceive.

“Do you think they’re hiding?” Gwyneira asked, her voice low like the silence of this place made her nervous.

Dex glanced at me, an unspoken question in his eyes.

“I’m only picking up on animals,” I admitted. “No people.”

Grim looks settled on my friends’ faces. “Let us know if that changes,” was all Dex said.

Ignatius slowed his steps. “I take it you have an affinity for nature?”

I supposed there was little point in hiding it, given what I’d just told my friends. “Yes.”

“And your companions?”

The others hesitated, but finally, Dex sighed. “Growth.” He twitched his head at us.

“Wood,” Roan said.

Ignatius’s brow rose. “Possibly some form of demonic fire too, I suspect?” At Roan’s shrug, he made a thoughtful sound. “Interesting. Flame and its fuel. Yet did you know that some of our oldest stories speak of wood that will not burn, even when surrounded by a blaze? I’ve always understood that as a metaphor for life that persists even at the heart of that which should have consumed it. Quite the inspiring image.”

When Roan said nothing, he merely smiled and turned to Ozias. “And you?”

“Stone.”

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