Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(25)

“She looks a little less goofy than she did before,” I offered halfheartedly.

Fenris gave me a skeptical look. “She’ll be useless for at least a few hours, and after those drugs wear off she’ll be exhausted. Besides, we need sleep too. There is little point in charging into a Resistance camp tired and hungry. We need our wits about us, and you have not eaten enough.”

I sighed, then looked down at my empty clay dish. I’d already eaten two helpings and meant to get more, but in the beginning we’d been chatted up a storm by everyone, including the chieftain, and afterwards I’d been so caught up watching the ceremonial dancing that I’d forgotten about food.

“If I scarfed down a bit more right now and changed into beast form, I could make it there to at least check it out while everyone is asleep.”

“Sunaya.” Fenris placed a hand on my shoulder and met my eyes. “Consult your serapha charm. What does it say?”

I closed my eyes and focused in on the amulet. It felt warm against my chest, and I wondered if onlookers would see it glowing brightly through my shirt. The familiar tug sprang to life inside me, and I followed it with my mind, seeking out the direction it was coming from.

I let out a breath that was half disappointed, half relieved. “The amulet is pointing northwest.”

Fenris inclined his head. “Then that is where we will go. Finding Iannis is our priority. The camp the shaman was talking about may well be the Resistance, and it’s plausible they may have captured some of the delegates. But if Iannis is not with them, we cannot waste time going there first.”

“I hope this means he escaped when the Resistance came in and captured everyone.” If that was even what happened. “How did they know to be here, though? This is only one of many territories that the airship was flying over. Did the Resistance somehow bring down the ship from the ground?”

“I know as much as you do,” Fenris said regretfully. “Which unfortunately is very little. I doubt we’ll get any answers until we find Iannis and he explains what happened.”

“All the more reason to locate him, then.”

“Yes. But for now, you should do as the shaman says and enjoy the celebration they’ve put together for us.” Fenris smiled and patted my thigh one last time before he removed his hand. “I’m reasonably sure that venison is calling your name, and just because you can’t get high doesn’t mean you can’t dance around the fire.”

“In that case, I think you ought to take your own advice,” I said, grinning a little as I grabbed Fenris by his hands. He yelped as I pulled him to his feet, and with more than a little glee I dragged him out to dance with me by the bonfire.





9





“Please remind me never to smoke a Coazi pipe again,” Annia groaned, clutching her head with one hand as we trekked forward across the desert plains. “I don’t know what the hell they put in that thing, but it’s lethal.”

I snorted as Fenris shook his head at her. “At least they have a remedy for it,” I told her. “Pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to revive you if we hadn’t forced that hangover concoction they gave us down your throat.”

“Yeah well it’s no wonder the stuff worked.” Annia glared at the water skin clutched in her hand, which the Coazi had filled with more of the herbal potion to take on the journey. “This stuff tastes so horrible it would wake the dead.” But she lifted it to her lips and took another swig nonetheless.

I simply shook my head and returned my attention to the landscape in front of us, glad that I was a shifter and that my system was unaffected by narcotics. If we’d all been as incapacitated as Annia was this morning, it would have slowed us down significantly.

Ahead, the rolling plains began to disappear into clusters of evergreen trees that encroached on either side of the vast landscape, leaving only a small stretch of plains in between the two forests. The sight ahead made me nervous, because people could be lurking within the darkness and safety of the trees, and we would be sitting ducks if we passed through the open space there.

Thankfully, the necklace tugged me toward the trees on the right side of the plains, so I led Fenris and Annia in that direction. After a quick consultation with Fenris, we both changed into beast form before venturing into the forest – we could move more quietly on paws than on booted feet, and could sneak up on anyone lurking beneath the evergreen limbs.

The shade of the forest was welcome after the hot sun that had continuously beaten down on us from the plains. The scents of woodland creatures met my nose, and I could hear them scampering around, both overhead as tree branches rustled and on the ground, darting between the meager shrubbery. The trees were spaced far enough apart that it was easy enough to walk a path through them, although there was still plenty of cover provided by the branches. If not for my keen sense of smell, we could easily walk past someone and never know about it.

I took the lead, with Fenris bringing up the rear and Annia in between. She had her short sword out and was scanning the trees with her dark eyes, forced to rely on her sight rather than the elevated sense of smell and hearing Fenris and I possessed. It was strange to be in a position where Annia actually envied me – usually I was jealous of her for leading the easy and relatively uncomplicated life of a human. But this time my shifter abilities gave me a clear advantage over her.