Page 22 of Bonds of Blood
Perhaps even Baylor Wilde wasn’t mad enough to think that he could command a plague the way he could command his eidolons.
Sylvain held his hand over his eyes as he surveyed the landscape. “If only we knew where to begin. How does one go about tracking down a traitorous summoner? No offense meant, little human.”
“None taken,” I told him, similarly watching the terrain for traces of Baylor Wilde. “He’s dead to me. And by that I mean it would be really cool if he actually was dead already, but we know that’s not the case.”
Intense heat burned between us as Ember came fluttering forward, flying in an erratic zigzag. “I heartily agree. I’ve often wondered what it might be like to burn someone from the inside. You know, fly into their mouth, as innocent as an insect. Then ignite the flames from within.”
“Wow,” Bruna breathed. “A bit intense, Ember. I can see where you’re all coming from, but I have a feeling the Wispwood will want Baylor alive rather than dead.”
Namirah rolled her head along her shoulders, her neck popping and cracking. “Depends on how hard he plans to fight back. Now, listen. I’d volunteer to help track him — you know, follow his scent and all — except that I don’t exactly have anything to go on.”
“Sorry, Namirah. I don’t really have anything that might help, either.” I dug through my pockets, as if that would turn anything up. “There’s the Wilde grimoire, but it’s been with me so long. It’ll be totally useless for that.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Covered in all your Lochlann musk, I’d imagine.”
“What’s that over there?” Sylvain stood on the balls of his feet and pointed. “Do you see it?”
I squinted to make out the thing he’d found. About a hundred or so feet from our position was something we’d never seen in the Oriel of Earth before. A green disk of light spun in the air, like an emerald whirlpool standing on end, a hypnotic swirl of strange magic.
Ember and Namirah took off before I could get a single word out. The rest of us sprinted after them, Bruna literally holding on to her hat to keep it in place.
“You guys,” she called out, huffing as she ran. “Slow down, it could be dangerous. We don’t even know what it is.”
Ember stopped not a foot away from the spinning thing. My heart fell into my stomach with a sudden, terrified swoop. Good thing he had such fine control over his flight. He hovered in place as he stared into its depths. What depths, though? Observed from the side the spinning construct disappeared into nothing, as if it was only as thick as a sheet of paper. Tall as a man, though. Tall enough to step through.
Oh. Oh no.
“It’s a portal!” Ember cried out, flying in an excited pirouette. “I can tell from the smell.”
Sylvain gripped his knees, catching his breath. “What do you mean by that, little friend?”
“He’s right,” Namirah said, taking a cursory sniff. “Wherever it leads, it doesn’t smell like the Oriel of Earth. There’s just enough atmosphere emanating from it that I know it goes someplace else entirely, except I don’t know where that someplace elseis.”
I stepped up to the portal, staying a comfortable three or four feet away from its swirling surface, thanks very much. Definitely magical, just from the tingle of being near it. But I didn’t have Ember’s heightened senses, nor did I have Namirah’s refined shifter super-smell. I couldn’t make anything out in terms of odor.
My hands on my hips, I tilted to one side, trying to verify the portal’s lack of proper dimensions. Weird as hell. “Nicely spotted, Ember. Except — how are you so sure that it’s a portal? Did you guys see a lot of these in the Oriel of Fire?”
Hah. Speaking of fire, his hair and his cheeks began to burn a brighter red. He wrung his hands and twisted his foot on the ground, even though he was five feet in the air. Since meeting Satchel, I’d always found it interesting, observing the body language of winged people.
“Well, I, you see — fine! I’ve been spending so much time with Satchel — you know, in and out of his pocket dimensions — that I can sense if one is nearby even with my eyes closed.”
Sylvain stroked his chin and nodded wisely. “Ah, yes. In and out of Satchel’s, ah, ‘dimensions.’”
Poor Ember somehow turned even redder. Bruna smacked Sylvain across the arm. He yelped, then pouted as he rubbed at the sore spot. Very helpful of her, stepping in to sort out his shenanigans.
“This must be how Baylor did it.” Bruna peered closer, wrinkling her nose as she tried to smell for herself. “I can’t make out what you guys were sniffing, but I’m sure of it. This was how he took over the other oriels, by ripping the walls between this one and the next.”
“Stands to reason,” I said, tensing my muscles so I wouldn’t be tempted to reach out and touch the spinning disk. “Can’t argue that Baylor is a master of the elements. Almost literally, in this case.” My mouth fell open. “Satchel. Oh, gods. He’s using Satchel to tear these rifts open.”
Namirah growled under her breath. “That was why he abducted him. Stealing your medallion to disarm you was only a convenience. This was his plan all along.”
It was Satchel’s power, tinted, or more appropriately tainted by the oppressive emerald light of Baylor’s corrupting magics. The thought of Baylor forcing him to expend his essence like this made me sick. How badly would he mistreat his familiar in the old days, back before I knew that Satchel even existed?
With a violent whoosh of air, the flames in Ember’s hair rose to twice their size. “Then we have to go in and find them. Satchel can zip into his pocket dimension, no problem, but this thing — it’s huge! Baylor is going to wear his essence out. He’s going to kill him.”
I was afraid of this. Traveling through rifts and portals was nothing new to me, but I didn’t fancy the idea of using one when I didn’t know a thing about its destination. I could believe that Baylor had slashed this particular rift open in order to access another oriel — but which of the other three?
What if it opened to the bottom of the ocean, the lowest point of the Oriel of Water? Or the highest peak of a steep, jagged mountain in the Oriel of Air? Maybe even a lake of bubbling lava.
