Page 8 of Soul of Thorns
Caelynn
The ash-covered hillssurround us. The black swamp, where we last saw Rheagan is behind us. Immediately, breathing becomes more difficult between the ash wafting in the wind and the rancid smell of rotting flesh and sulfur.
We pause, staring at the mountain pass before us. The Schorchedlands are not particularly large considering what’s enclosed in these magical walls. It’s all compressed into only a few dozen miles.It’s built like a bullseye, with the worst terrain in the center. That’s where we need to get to. The center of the map.
The distance from the Wicked Gates to the location of the spell book is only around ten miles, and we’re halfway there. But bearing in mind the difficulty we’ve already faced—a bog of animated bones, a forest with white trees that show you your deepest desires and then trap you with their finger-like appendages, and a valley full of mindless wraiths and zombie bears—well, we’re not exactly looking forward to the rest of the journey.
Rev glances over his shoulder, but I refuse to spend any time reminiscing or wondering. I keep my stare focused on the path ahead—literally. One step at a time if I have to.
We only make it five hundred feet before Rev stops. I halt beside him.
“Look,” he says, his voice uncharacteristically somber. So, begrudgingly, I turn back.
The cottage stands right in the middle of a fairly flat valley a hundred feet from the swamp. The sky is streaked with reddish light and dark grey clouds where the silhouette of three wraiths descend slowly, cautiously, toward the rock valley and the cottage we left just minutes ago. This is the closest we’ve seen any wraiths come to the cottage, and they’re steadily moving in.
While Rev’s bright magic brings attention, mine is it’s opposite.
Rev and I shift closer to the mountainside and I quietly wrap shadows over the two of us to keep us hidden. Using my shadows, I can become essentially invisible. Though it never works as thoroughly when I cast them on someone else. I can veil Rev, make it harder to see him, but that’s the extent of it. It’ll have to do for now.
“What are they doing?” Rev whispers. The wraiths converge on the cottage.
“They’re making sure we can’t go back,” I whisper. The hair on my arms stands up straight. Which also means they’ve been watching us. It wasn’t the magic of the cottage that kept the wraiths away. They were spying.
“They were watching us,” Rev echoes my thoughts. “But not engaging. Why?”
I bite my lip and watch the wraiths gathering closer to the house. They don’t go in, but they shift around the structure as if examining it.
I press my lips together, mind whirling. “We should go,” is all I say, and I spin on my heel to leave the cottage behind for good.
What does it mean? It means the Night Terror knew where we were the whole time. It means she’s been keeping an eye on us and now doesn’t want us to go backward.
It means she wants us to come toher.
***
WE WALK IN SILENCEfor a full hour. I hold the thin shadow veil over us both, just in case. It uses up some of my magic, but it’s not a full shield so the power required is minimal. As long as we’re careful, we should be able to escape spying eyes.
