Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
FOX
The blood monkey attack had given Fox exactly what he needed—a way to slow the army down, and if he was lucky, convince the general it was too dangerous to keep up this death march toward the mountains.
His secret little book had an entire list of faeries that lived in the woods, and from what he’d read, the scent of blood drew plenty of them.
The biggest problem was that Nesto was too afraid to let Fox walk into the forest alone after the attack.
Even when Fox insisted he needed to relieve himself, Nesto would follow, keeping watch on the other side of the tree.
Fox had gotten good at nicking his wrist just deep enough to bleed, smearing it across the tree and relieving himself before Nesto got suspicious.
Thank the dragon gods the weather was just getting colder and colder, allowing Fox to hide the new set of bandages he’d taken to wearing on his arm. He didn’t know how he’d explain them to Nesto or the others.
It had become a ritual every night after dinner; most mornings they woke up to the screams of soldiers.
Sometimes it was more blood monkeys, but there were other faeries, too.
One morning, the two men who had died looked completely untouched, as if their souls had simply been sucked from their bodies.
The next day, Fox glimpsed the four soldiers who’d been killed.
Their chests had been flayed open, their hearts gone.
After that, Fox had purposefully stopped looking at the bodies, unable to face the reality of what he was doing.
It wasn’t just the creatures of the forest killing these men—it was Fox.
Fox was using them as a weapon. He’d taken to praying every night to Quelia and the dragons.
He’d never been a religious person, but he’d seen the dragons for himself, and out here, it was hard to not believe.
He even dreamed of them sometimes—of feathers and wings and soaring above the icy peaks of the mountains. And always the smell of the sea, as if his brain couldn’t comprehend what the mountains might smell like. The sea was all he’d ever known.
“We’ll be hitting the foothills by the end of the day,” Nesto said, coming up behind Fox as they walked. It was approaching midday, and the sun was warmer than it had been in a few days. Not enough to take off his cloak, but enough that he hadn’t needed to tuck his hands away in his pockets.
“How long are we going to be in the foothills?” Fox asked, staring into the distance, as if he could see the landscape through the canopy of trees.
“Based on the shitty maps I’ve been given? And if we just walk straight through and to the mountains? A few days at most. The mountains here are abrupt, at least how they’re drawn. It also means that the path is going to get steep fast.”
“Assuming we go straight through,” he said.
“Exactly,” Nesto agreed. “We won’t. I’ve already talked to General Luna.
I need to survey the foothills to understand where exactly in the mountains we’re going, which is challenging since there are only a few true passes according to the maps.
He wants to unveil the dragon and see if it reacts at all.
” He whispered the last part, as if he were afraid to mention the creature tucked in the cage.
“And even once we get the heading, we’ll be stopping and waiting for instructions from the chief commander. ”
Fox’s stomach sank. At least thirty men had died in the past week, and the general hadn’t blinked. It was only thirty out of well over a hundred. There had to be something he could do, but he was one small man against an army. He’d been killing his own brothers-in-arms, and yet he’d still failed.
Nesto was wrong, though. Before they’d even stopped for the midday meal, the ground had started to slope up, each step becoming harder after days of marching.
If these were the hills, Fox dreaded to know what the hike through the mountains would entail.
The trees had thinned out enough that the mountains were easily seen, shooting into the sky and blocking out the view of anything else.
They were like nothing he’d ever seen: the peaks sharp and jagged, stretching upward as if they could slice open the sky above them.
What that might bring, he wasn’t sure. Crystalline snow painted the stone peaks, and he knew they’d be marching through it soon enough if they continued through.
Even General Luna took a moment to appreciate the mountains, his grim face looking up at the peaks with just the slightest expression of awe.
And then he was barking orders, calling Nesto over along with the young boy carrying the maps and books.
Fox wasn’t invited to the gathering, but he edged closer, setting down his pack as if he were taking stock of what was in it.
“Show me on the map where we are,” General Luna said, grabbing one map before the boy could even unravel it for him. Fox heard the tear of paper and Nesto’s sharp intake of breath. Nesto looked a little pale as he took the map from General Luna, furtively checking it for damage as he spread it out.
“Well, sir, we’ll need to find a landmark to understand exactly where we are. Assuming the landmarks are even correct.”
“The damned mountains are towering over us,” General Luna said. “Is that not a good enough landmark for you?”
“We know we’re along this stretch,” Nesto said, running his finger along the map, “and somewhere toward the east given our trajectory, but we need more precision if we are to begin understanding where along the mountain ridge we are and where the dragons might be.”
“So stop talking and get it done,” Luna said.
Nesto’s face went pale and then pink. “Of course, sir. We can settle camp here and send out scouts. Or we can march west and hope—”
He snapped his mouth shut at the glare General Luna was giving him. “I’ll send out scouts to see our best next steps,” Nesto said, trying to sound confident and failing.
“I’m pulling out the fucking dragon,” General Luna said, barely paying attention to Nesto now. “It’s time that thing pulled its own weight.”
When Luna was gone and Nesto was left helping the boy roll up the maps, Fox joined them. He didn’t bother pretending he hadn’t been eavesdropping.
“What do you need to find out where we are and where we need to go?”
“I need a mountain peak to match up with something on the map. A river, landmark, anything. The rivers are above ground here, so it’s not an impossible task, but it’s still just hoping the maps are accurate.”
“I agree,” Fox said. “We should scout out the area.”
“What about General Luna and the dragon?” Nesto asked, looking after where the general had stormed off toward the front of the march.
“We’ll see if his plan works, but either way we should scout around and see where we are. Chief Commander Harlow will want updated maps after all of this.” The thought of that had Fox’s stomach turning, dreading how far this war would go if both sides had dragons.
Either way, he wanted an excuse to look around and come up with his next plan, and sending out scouts afforded him that opportunity. If he were lucky, the dragon would attack Luna and get this all done with.
The dragon did attack the general, but the man threw one of his specialists in front of him.
Blood sprayed the air as the young soldier fell to the ground screaming, clutching his chest. Another soldier jumped in to subdue the beast and was gutted in the process.
It was a horrifying sight, and Fox had to look away as a brave soldier slit both of their throats, making their deaths quick.
Fox’s attention was drawn by the dragon, now pulling at the chains.
It had a collar and cuffs locked around his front feet, and with a sick twist of his stomach, Fox saw its wings were tightly chained down, wrapping around its body.
The poor creature had been chained like that in the cage for days now, and he wondered if they’d even bothered to feed it.
Everyone held their breaths as they watched the dragon, his handlers loosening the chains just enough to let it pull.
It didn’t move for a minute, eyes warily darting around.
Then he tugged, neck stretching out. General Luna gave a nod, and the soldiers holding its chain stepped forward, following its tugging until it was clear what direction it was trying to move.
“Northwest,” General Luna hissed, barely acknowledging that he’d just lost two soldiers.
Fox tasted metal on his tongue. But this changed nothing. Who knew if the dragon was truly leading them, and they still had a mountain range to traverse.
“Sir,” Fox said, stepping forward. “I’d like to scout ahead to help with Nesto’s mapping.”
Luna agreed, but then shouted for a few other men Fox didn’t know, and he tried not to let his annoyance show. He’d have preferred to go alone. And then Nesto was there, directly behind him, holding his notebook and pen.
“Let’s go!” he said, pushing past Fox with a bounce, as if they were headed out for an adventure.
“Find your damned landmarks,” Luna said, turning back to the chaos of the dragon.
Fox stayed just long enough to see him sneering down at the dead bodies as if they’d personally offended him, and then turned and followed the others with grim determination.
He couldn’t let them impede his mission.
Not if the baby dragon truly was leading them to the nesting grounds.
For the first time in days, Nesto was actually quiet as he walked, focusing on the peaks that towered over them, staring at every creek and boulder as if they held the answer to the universe.
The other four men that Luna had sent along with them talked among themselves, but seemed more annoyed than anything that they were being forced on this side quest.
Fox didn’t know what he was looking for, yet he was moving with a purpose he couldn’t explain. There was something out here he could use. He had to find something—do something—before Luna got Eha’s child to show them the way.
A sharp breeze swept through the trees, and Fox closed his eyes for a second, breathing it in.
It smelled of salt and sea. He turned without thinking, moving toward where the wind had blown from.
He almost expected to press through the branches of the trees only to find the ocean on the other side.
Perhaps the mountains were all an illusion, after all.
“What in the king’s name is this?” It took a second for Fox to realize Junior Specialist Belni wasn’t just talking to his buddies. He was looking at Nesto and Fox, but his finger pointed to a small set of branches hanging low on a tree.
“The tree?” Fox asked, voice flat.
Belni gave a frustrated wave, poking at the branches. “This!”
Fox stepped closer until he saw the branches he was looking at weren’t part of the tree at all. Another step and he knew they weren’t branches either.
Bones.
They were tied with some type of twine, twisted into a vaguely familiar shape.
He looked around and saw another set of bones farther into the forest, twisted into the same shape, and then he saw the skull—the very human-looking skull pierced through with branches, high in the trees.
It had been there a while—long enough for the tree to keep growing through it after it was placed there.
Perhaps it was a good sign that whoever had put it up there might be dead by now.
“Are those bones?” Nesto asked, stepping up beside Fox.
“It looks like it.”
“They’re shaped like antlers,” he said, a slight quiver beneath his tone.
Fox’s head whipped back up, looking at the shape again and realizing that Nesto was right. And then he remembered exactly why the shapes looked familiar—he’d seen them in Sofia’s book.
“Ciervado,” he whispered, his lips numb.
There hadn’t been a drawing of the actual creature in the book—only the bone markings it hung in the trees to mark its territory and warn off others.
But the chapter on the faery had been clear.
Don’t wander into their territory accidentally.
Don’t confront it. Don’t expect to win a fight.
He felt a small thrill of excitement. This was a good thing. He could use this to his advantage as a way to truly convince Luna it was too dangerous here. He just needed time to think.
The low rumbling of something between the trees and a deep huff of breath that rattled in the air interrupted any beginnings of a thought. Fox shuddered. The bones around them swayed in a wind he couldn’t feel. The scent of the ocean was gone now, replaced by the smell of rotting meat.
“We should go,” Fox said, taking a step back directly into Nesto. The others muttered sounds of agreement, retreating away from the bone art. A snapping branch to the left had Fox whirling around, his blade held in two hands between him as a giant shadow emerged from between the trees.
Junior Specialist Belni screamed.