Chapter 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.
The tug in my chest grew stronger, and I huffed out a breath through my nostrils as a sensation not unlike heartburn began to spread through me. “We’re getting close,” I told Fenris.
“Excellent.” His excitement was palpable, and I picked up my pace, eager to find Iannis.
Could he sense my approach through his matching charm?
I lifted my head as we trotted through the forest, peeling back my lips so I could probe the air with my scent glands.
Surely if he was close, I’d be able to scent him by now?
But maybe he was masking his scent with magic to keep predators away.
The thought made me scowl. It figured that Iannis would somehow have to make this even harder – nothing about him was ever easy.
Why was he even in this forest, anyway? Had he been taken in by the Coazi, who Fenris had said sometimes made their homes in the forest?
The place didn’t look inviting, but perhaps somewhere in all this greenery there was a clearing large enough to set up their huts.
As the tug grew stronger, I still didn’t scent Iannis, but the sound of trickling water reached my ears. A few minutes later, we emerged onto the banks of a small stream running through the forest. Fenris and I stopped to lap from it while Annia refilled her canteen.
The charm’s pulse was very strong here, the strongest I’d ever felt except in Iannis’s presence. Once I was done drinking, I sat back on my haunches and changed back into human form so I could talk to Annia.
“What’s up?” she asked, propping a hand on her hip. “How much farther do we have to go?”
I pulled out the serapha charm from beneath my jacket and scowled down at it. It was blazing white and hot to the touch. “According to this thing, I should be standing on top of the Chief Mage right now. But I don’t see or scent him anywhere.”
A worried look entered Annia’s dark eyes. “Could he have lost the charm somehow?”
“I don’t see how that’s possible.” I sucked in a breath through my teeth, looking down at the glowing charm. “They’re not supposed to be able to be removed by anyone except the wearer.”
“Sunaya,” Fenris’s voice was heavy with dread, and I turned to look at him as nerves prickled along my arms. “Look up there.”
I followed to where his snout pointed, and my heart sank into my shoes. High up a tree across the stream, there was a tiny glowing stone winking from an empty nest.
“No. No, that’s not possible.” I took a step back as denial ripped through me. “That can’t be right.”
“Do you want me to retrieve it?” Fenris asked gently.
“No.” I set my jaw. “I’ll get it.”
I leaped across the river, my booted feet landing firmly on the other side, then with a running jump grasped one of the lower-hanging, but sturdy branches.
With a grunt, I hefted myself up, then continued climbing until I reached the branch the nest was sitting on.
Tears filled my eyes as I recognized the thicker, more masculine silver links glittering between the small twigs and feathers of the nest – it was the same chain Iannis had put around my neck, and later his own, when we’d made these charms back in Solantha.
I took a deep breath and blinked the tears away, then reached out and carefully untangled the necklace from the nest. Instantly the throbbing pulse died away, only to be replaced by a hollow feeling of despair as I stared at the charm resting in the palm of my hand.
I’d thought that Iannis was going to be at the other end of this chain, but I was wrong. He’d taken it off, and now he was gone.
“Sunaya, you need to calm down.”
“Calm down!” I whirled around, a snarl on my lips as I shot Fenris a death glare. He and Annia had been waiting for me to settle down so we could plan our next move, standing by as I paced furiously beneath the trees.
But I didn’t want to calm down. My beast was close to the surface here, furious that I’d failed in my quest to find Iannis.
The one advantage we’d held, the serapha charm, had proven to be utterly useless.
Worse, from what I understood, the only way Iannis would have been separated from the charm was if he had taken it off voluntarily.
“Why would he take it off?” I raged, turning on my heel again so I could continue pacing.
I wanted to punch something, and at the moment Iannis’s face would have been the preferred target.
What the fuck was he thinking, taking off the charm?
“Did he decide that he didn’t want to be found? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“It is possible the charm was taken by force or trickery,” Fenris said, his voice steady.
I turned again to face him. “How? Iannis said –”
“I know what Iannis said,” Fenris snapped. “In case you’ve forgotten, it was my suggestion that he use the serapha charms in the first place. And while they generally cannot be removed by anyone other than the wearer, an unusually strong mage could find a way.”
“What, you mean like by torture or mind control?” The very idea sent a shudder through me.
“Those are two possible options, yes.” Fenris’s voice calmed again. “I don’t believe Iannis would willingly get rid of the charm, not when it’s his only link to you, and the only way for you to seek him out.”
I let out a breath as shame swept through me.
Fenris was so calm and controlled, but the truth was he had every reason to be just as upset as I was.
He’d known Iannis for much longer, and the two of them were very close.
If he could keep his head under these circumstances, then so could I.
I was letting my emotions get the better of me, and blaming Iannis for losing the charm wasn’t going to help us find him.
“I guess now would be a good time to track down that Resistance camp the shaman was telling us about?” I asked as I fastened Iannis’s chain around my neck.
I’d considered stowing it in my pack, but wearing both charms together felt right.
It helped settle the unease in my chest, and as the charm came to rest against my skin next to the other, a comforting feeling washed over me.
“That does seem to be our only option, yes.” Fenris pulled out a compass from his pack and consulted it. “We’ll likely be walking through this forest for a while yet. Perhaps you and I should change so we can make better use of our senses.”
“How about one of you stays human for once?” Annia complained. “That way at least one of you can communicate with me if something goes wrong.”
“Very well,” Fenris conceded reluctantly. “I will remain in human form while Sunaya changes.”