Page 23 of Of Blood and Fire
Sense no magic on ground, Kaia said.Would if close.
Is there magic under the fog?
Faint.
Meaning Túxn might well be smiling favorably on us today. We’d know for sure if our luck held and we got in and out of that barrier in one piece.Land atop the hill so Kele and I can dismount, then rise and wait for our signal to attack.
Kaia immediately swept down, landing lightly amongst the sawn stumps of what had once been a forest. I grabbed my gear, then slithered down her leg, ducking under her wings so that she could rise and allow Yara to come in.
I hunkered down then raised the long viewer and carefully checked the base of the nearest trees that ran along the fog bank’s edge. As before, there remained the smallest gap between the fog and the ground. Which was odd, as there’d been no gap in the barrier they’d used to protect the large tube siege engines they’d been building. But the magic behind that one had felt Mareritten in origin; this did not.
As Yara rose and joined Kaia in the sky, Kele scampered over and hunkered down beside me. “What’s the plan?”
I tucked the long viewer away, then pointed to the large tree to our left. “You see the gap between the fog and the barrier?”
She nodded. “Tight squeeze, even for string beans like us.”
I smiled. “I’ll go through and check the situation while you keep watch from this side.”
Another flash of green rolled across the right side of the fog, and her expression became uneasy. “Is the fog dangerous?”
“Likely acidic, so draw your scarf over your nose and don’t choose the wrong moment to bob your head up.”
She snorted softly. “That I can guarantee.”
“Let’s go.”
We ran down the slope, keeping low and doing our best to be silent. We made it to the trees without raising an alarm or tripping any ground traps, but my nerves were bow-string tight, and I couldn’t escape the notion that trouble was about to unleash all over us.
I dropped onto my stomach close to the trees and peered under the fog. The slope continued on, but several thickish brambles blocked any view of what lay below. Which, while annoying, also meant it less likely anyone would spot us.
Unless, of course, they were standing three feet on the other side of the tree, beyond my line of sight.
Another flash of green.
I waited until it had faded again, then glanced at Kele. “Ready?”
She nodded and untied her sword. I tugged the scarf over my nose, flexed my fingers in a vague attempt to ease the tension, then carefully belly crawled forward. The fog pressed across the top of my head, an unpleasant sensation that made me want to scratch, but I kept moving. Magic skimmed my spine and my legs, then I was free from it. The brambles continued to block everything ahead from sight, but there was nothing to the left or the right other than more tree stumps and brambles.
“Kele,” I whispered, “come through and keep watch.”
As she tucked in beside me, I pulled out the long viewer again and pressed it through the thinnest section of the brambles. Small thorns scratched at the uncovered portion of my face as I pressed my eye to the viewer, but I paid them no heed, my attention on the hive of activity below.
At the base of the hill directly below us were eight earthen domes that suggested facilities had been built underground, and each one had a rather odd slab of stone jutting out of it to form a small portico. They were far more permanent-looking structures than what the Mareritt usually built for their war camps, but given the magic that tingled across my skin, even from this distance, these were perhaps constructed for the riders’ mages. Maybe they didn’t like standing in the rain while they put their boots on. I doubted they were for the riders themselves, because,aside from the fact there were no birds leashed nearby, they had to date used metal tents.
Beyond these—forming a squarish C-shape on the flatter section of ground—were the usual types of buildings found in a Mareritten camp—temporary tent shelters, a large kitchen, and a roughly constructed eating area. To the right of these were a number of long wooden buildings that housed the bathroom and privy facilities. To the left were the workshops for woodworkers and forges for the smiths. Beyond were a series of wooden crates similar to ones we’d found up in the Beak’s cavern. I suspected these might hold tubs of acid more than the weapons that fired it, because not only were there multiple mobile platforms in various stages of production, but the smiths were also crafting metal into the long tubular shapes that would eventually be mounted on them.
Then there were the mages—I could see four of them below us, but I had no doubt there’d be more down there, especially if the eight earthen shelters were theirs. The four currently in sight were kneeling in pairs on either side of the two long, open-topped kilns that burned with foul-looking green flames. Each had their hands pressed against the stone, their fingers glowing the same sort of green as the fire. In the front of the nearest kiln, a Mareritten worker using a long-handled clamp to remove tubes from the kiln, the metal glowing the same vibrant green as the flames. The worker at the other kiln was loading the tubes into the flames
“What’s happening?” Kele whispered. “What’s that weird green fire?”
“Mage fire.”
“But Mareritten magic isn’t?—”
“Not Mareritten,” I cut in. “Rider.”
“The bastardsareworking together.”
