Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(21)

“Little grey dots,” Annia repeated. A hot gust of wind blew straight at us, rustling the grasses at our feet and sending Annia’s hair flying. Not for the first time, I was grateful for the decision to tie my hair back. “So, what are those supposed to be? Little tents or something?”

Fenris shrugged. “They could be, though they would have to be rather large for us to see them at this distance. I’m not sure what sort of dwellings the Coazi use – these people may all look the same to us, but from what I understand, they actually differ from tribe to tribe in numerous ways.”

“You seem to understand a lot,” I commented, my eyes still scanning the landscape. Now that I looked more closely, I could see the dwellings in more than one location across the landscape. “It looks like they’ve got several settlements out here. Is that normal?”

“It’s not unusual,” Fenris confirmed. “Tribes have been known to split off into different clans, especially when their territory covers such great distances. Each one will likely have its own chieftain and shaman, and there is probably a central clan as well.”

“Sounds like politics exist even amongst savages,” Annia said, huffing out a breath.

Fenris turned a narrowed gaze in her direction. “Do not make the mistake of thinking these people are simple,” he warned. “They may not speak our language or practice our customs, but their minds are as sharp as yours or mine. It wouldn’t do to treat them like children or idiots and inadvertently insult them if we run across them.”

“What do you think we should do if we do run across them?” I chewed my lower lip, worried about the possibility. “Do we fight first and ask questions later? That reference book Comenius dug up said their shamans can be very powerful, and I’d hate to be at the mercy of one.”

Fenris sighed. “It’s hard to know. Some of them might be friendlier than others, and it would be a shame to make an enemy when we could find an ally instead. We’ll have to reserve judgment until the moment actually arrives.”

“Well, it’s certainly not going to if we stay on this hill,” I decided, squaring my shoulders. “Let’s move on.”

We trekked for another mile or so across the rolling hills, following the tug from the serapha charm’s spell. It seemed to be a little stronger now that we were out of the mountains, and I was hoping that meant we would run across Iannis soon. Was he with one of the Coazi clans, wearing buckskin tunics and making clay pottery with his manicured hands? The idea made my lips twitch in amusement, and was far more appealing than the possibility that the Coazi were holding him hostage. Though admittedly I couldn’t see either one of those things happening – Iannis was both too proud and too powerful.

And what about the other delegates and their flunkies who had been aboard the airship? Were they with the Coazi? Or had they all struck out together, perhaps even building a shelter of their own as they tried to figure out how to alert the Federal authorities to their plight? Were they all still alive? I had no idea how the airship had gone down – for all I knew it had gone up in flames and only Iannis had figured out how to survive, while everyone else had plunged into a fiery death.

A shudder went through my spine at the thought of dying by both air and fire. With the recent storm and crash we’d experienced, I was glad that I had both feet firmly on the ground. I just hoped they stayed that way until we found Iannis.





8





The serapha charm had us cutting across the plains diagonally. Up ahead I could see two large evergreen forests cutting into the plains and narrowing them into a small path that wound between the large swathes of trees. With luck that was where we’d find Iannis, hiding in the cool, dark safety of the pine boughs as he figured out his next move. That’s what I would want to do if I were in his shoes. But then again, I was a panther shifter, and my beast was more comfortable in the mountains and trees than on these wide, open plains where there was very little cover.

The wind shifted direction. Fenris and I stiffened as an amalgamation of scents hit our nostrils. Clay, dried meat, bread, and…humans.

“Get down!” I hissed.

Annia immediately dropped onto her stomach between Fenris and myself, right at the base of a grassy knoll. I cursed inwardly at the tall grass, which would rustle whether we crawled or walked. My nose told me that the humans we’d scented weren’t very far, and if they were trained warriors they would hear us coming. The air current had been shifting their scent away from us until it had changed direction – if not for that, we would have had more warning.

“We can’t just lie here,” Fenris murmured. “Unless you want to wait for who knows how long and risk them finding us, we need to get up that hillock and find out who we’re dealing with.”

I nodded, my lips pressed together. Turning to face Annia, I gave her a pointed look and jerked my head in the direction of the hillock. She nodded, and the three of us crawled up the side of the knoll as quietly as we could. We peered over the top of the crest to see a group of humans sitting cross-legged at the base of the knoll, enjoying a small meal of flatbread and dried meat. They had long, dark hair and brown skin with a reddish tint that I imagined was what chocolate would look like if it were mixed with magma. There were four men and three women, all dressed in beaded buckskin with moccasins on their feet. The women wore their hair in braids on either side of their heads with a part that fell in the middle, and the men either wore their hair loose, or in a topknot at the back of their heads, with bangs. Two of the men had red and white feathers woven into their fine black hair, and by their build and the weapons they had strapped to their persons I gathered they were the two warriors of the bunch, sent along to protect the party from strangers like us. Next to each of the non-warriors was a woven basket with a lid, meant to be carried like a backpack, and the smears of red on the weave drew my attention.