Page 8 of Of Blood and Fire
I tucked the viewer back into my pack, then deepened the connection between us. There was a fleeting moment of... not disorientation, more a gentle shift, which was very different to every other time we’d done this, and that surely had to be a result of us now being bound.
Through the deeper connection, I could see the ground with pinpoint sharpness. The marshlands stretched out in all directions, wild and empty except for the blot of magically anchored fog. There was no evidence of watchers, though they would be down there somewhere. The Mareritt would know we had scouts out watching their movements, so maybe they were also using magic to protect their sentry posts. It might explain why my old team had almost run into one. It wasn’t any sort of inattention—though I knew them all too well to think that would ever be the case—they simply hadn’t known it was there until it was almost too late.
As we returned to our original position, I said,Drop down and run your claws briefly through that fog. Let’s see what happens.
Might warn them.
It might, but I’d rather that than dropping through it and discovering a trap.We’d almost been trapped once before—though by the gilded riders, not the Mareritt—and I definitely did not want to go through that hell again. My wound might have healed but it had left me with a rather nasty scar—and I really had more than enough of them already.
She dropped lower, then shifted her wing position so that she could run her rear claws through the fog. Ripples ran away from her touch but quickly settled down.
Is wrong,she said after a moment.
In what way?
Sting like gilded ones’ fog.
Meaning this was likely something else the fucking riders had shared with our foe. I thrust a gloved hand through my hair and blew out a frustrated breath, my gaze—still lightly connected to hers—skimming the area below.Drop height and fly around the base of the fog, as close as the trees and the ground will allow. Let’s see if there’s another way in.
Not go in alone.
I won’t.
Maybe a few days ago I might have, but my entire world had been turned upside down since then. As Jarin had noted, neither Esan nor indeed our drakkons could afford to lose another ruler, especially if it meant Aric gaining control through whatever diabolical threat he was holding over his oldest son to force obedience.
Kaia swept down, her wingtips skimming the ground, leaving little whirls of debris in our wake. I scanned the base of the fog and, after a few minutes, noticed something odd. Where the fog met trees, there was a small gap. Not enough to slip a drakkon through, but certainly big enough for someone thin and tall—which was what all of us strega witches tended to be. Mom had once suggested the inner fires meant we just couldn’t keep meat on our bones.
Eat more,Kaia said.Problem solved.
According to Mom, eating was not the problem.
Is now.
Are you nagging again?
Will if you no eat.
I snorted but nevertheless reached for the sack containing the Hutzelbrot.We can come back tonight with Kele and Yara; we’ll slip inside and check the situation out while you two keep watch.
And if we could find the pins that were anchoring the magic, we could destroy them. That should bring the fog wall down and give the drakkons a chance to flame whatever it was the Mareritt were hiding.
Like this plan,Kaia said.
You’d like any plan that involves flaming the enemy.
Truth.
I chuckled softly and lightly tapped her neck.Let’s get out of here.
Go home?
No. We’ve a missing scout team to find first.
I might not be able to do anything about the team we’d lost contact with just before the attack, but I’d be damned if I’d let Cate’s team go without at least seeing what had happened to them.
Where?
North to the Barrain Forest, then west, toward the big river.
