Page 43 of Light and Shadow
Jax, his men, and Nainsi all start chanting something I don’t understand.
The others all lie flat on the ground and freeze like everyone in the Driver’s Motor Vehicle office.
Aaran runs to me and covers me with his body. “Don’t move.”
A gray haze forms around us, and the metal-tinged air is still. “What are they?” I whisper.
“Blackbirds, but they are under Venora’s eye. She searches for us.” As the birds fly overhead, he holds his breath.
I do the same. My lungs ache by the time he lets out his breath.
The gray haze lifts.
Aaran rises. “We have to get moving. There’s no way to know if they saw us before the shield went up.”
Standing slowly, I try not to show my pain as it spreads from my stomach. “Could she have healed this quickly?”
He shrugs. “Even if she’s still hurt, she has other means to reach us.”
Not sure what that means, I try out my legs and am pleased that while they still feel weak, they hold my weight.
The hilly terrain levels out as we leave the camp a few miles behind us. Somehow having the lake nearby feels comforting. Of course, it also reminds me of how Aaran washed my hair, back, and legs. Had I not been so battered, I would have begged him to make love to me that night. Instead, he held me while I slept, which was nearly as good.
There are tall trees in the distant north, but here the ground is dry and the trees short and gnarled. A good deal of bramble lines the hills, and the grasses have given way to thorny bushes that have seen better seasons.
It’s slow going with so many people, and quite a few of them still sick or injured despite Cara’s efforts each night.
Aaran steadfastly makes sure no one is left behind.
My speed lags as my legs strain to keep me upright.
“Get on my back,” Aaran commands, stopping in front of me.
I’m not an outdoorsy girl. I’m used to a suburban lifestyle with an occasional camping trip where I drink beer around a campfire and sleep in a tent with an air mattress. Between Venora’s torture and sleeping on the ground, I feel like I’m eighty years old. Without an argument, I climb on his back and wrap my arms around his chest.
He grips my calves, one in each hand, and walks us to the front of the group.
Jax gives him a nod and drops back.
I’m not sure what it all means, or how such strategies are best implemented, but I study everything. “Where would Venora have gone to recover?”
“I do not know.”
“So you don’t know the other places she and her shadow army live?” This is troubling. “Is this world as big as mine?”
Nainsi answers, “Similar, but Domhan only has two continents and some islands. Much of the world is covered in sea.”
“Part of which, we’ll have to traverse,” Fancor says gruffly. “Sailing is not my favorite thing.”
Bert slaps him on the back. “Get seasick, do you?”
I swear Fancor turns a bit green even though we’re on dry land.
Laughing, Bert says, “Nothing to be ashamed of. I was sick my first month at sea in the Navy. Had to be given IV fluids and kept in the sick bay for a week. You can get past it.”
“Why can’t Venora get through to my world?” It’s a question that’s been niggling at the back of my mind.
Aaran lifts me higher. “The old gods protected your world long ago. They made the portals work only with light magic, which she can no longer wield.”
