Chapter 44 Ivy
forty-four
Ivy
Ozias’s cawing tore Ivy from sleep. Her eyes shot open, her heart immediately pounding.
Ozias’s otherworldly voice entered her mind. They are in Oaris.
Ivy checked the time and made a mental calculation.
Night had fallen recently in Naum. This is it.
She moved to shake Killian awake, but he was already sliding out of bed.
She hurriedly threw on some leggings and a loose-fitting tee, wanting to be ready for anything, and ran from the room to rouse Finare.
Ivy banged on Finare’s door and shouted, “Ozias found them, it’s time to move!”
Within thirty minutes, the trio were on their way towards the Crux in Killian’s car. Ozias followed from the skies and swooped down to enter the Portal Building between Killian and Ivy’s journeys. Once Ivy emerged, Ozias landed on her shoulder, and she peered at him.
Where are they?
Ozias pushed an image of Voresta into her mind. He was standing with a pair of guards in the Night Market. But she saw nothing of her Sire.
And Leseldh?
I did not see him in my search.
Ivy opened her mouth to convey the information to her companions, but Killian spoke first, “Voresta’s in the Night Market.”
Ivy’s body was thrumming with adrenaline as they set off.
“You remember what we agreed on?” Killian’s hand found hers, and she nodded in response.
The Night Market’s enormous canvas tent came into view, and it was already alive with stall keepers, shoppers and market guards.
Ozias took flight to search from above, and Ivy scanned the faces but failed to find a familiar one in the throng.
Finare peeled off to search the opposite end.
Killian remained with Ivy, but after completing a circuit, there was no sign of them. Concern formed in Ivy’s gut.
The group reconvened, and a shake of Finare’s head confirmed he had no luck either.
Ivy put her hands on her hips and looked over the tops of heads for signs of her Erath.
She heard Ozias in her mind before she spotted him winging his way towards her, and his warning made the hairs on the back of Ivy’s neck stand up.
He is beyond the market. Follow me.
Ivy caught a flash of Ozias’s purplish-blue wings as he soared overhead, heading towards the market’s southern end.
He led them out into one of the barren parts of Oaris; it was a flat, dusty plain that held the shells of buildings long since abandoned, and a dirt trail that led to the forests that lined Oaris’s western border.
Ivy’s anticipation grew, but she couldn’t ignore the apprehension that trickled in as they moved further away from the Night Market. This area of town was devoid of the glowing orbs that gave Oaris its charm. It was the perfect place to hide or stage an ambush. Ivy wasn’t sure which one this was.
When Voresta stepped out from the shadows of one of the building husks, his lips twisted in a feral grin, she realised it was the latter