Page 230 of Cursed Evermore
The slivershade's attack was more aggressive with children. With the best potions, his daughter might live for another five years. I wouldn't be the one to rob them of that time knowing that only death waited for her.
“I can't thank you enough.”
“Do not thank me.” I kept my voice firm and resolute, a reminder that I wasn't doing this for him. “Before you go to the mines, you will take us to the camp at Kyphuus.”
Marcus was nodding before I even finished the command. “Yes, my Lord. I will show you.”
I hoped with everything that this would give us a lead.
But it didn't.
Using the stoneport compass, we arrived at what was supposed to be the camp ten minutes later but found nothing. Just the woodlands, which we searched from top to bottom.
There was nothing here. Nothing we could see. But Ifeltsomething.
Something sly in the air that made it heavy. A metallic taste that coated my tongue, like licking a blade. The usual forest sounds were muted, as if the very trees held their breath. Even the damp earth beneath our boots felt different—too soft, too yielding. The ivy covering the trees gave off an almost sweet fragrance that didn't belong, masking something darker underneath.
I dismissed Marcus and remained in the ivy-covered grove with Bastian and Alaric.
“You feel that, don't you?” I said when I noticed Bastian testing the air.
He faced me. “Dark magic.”
“Indeed. I can taste it.”
“But this doesn't feel like anything I've seen before. This... this is laced with something older.” He closed his eyes and continued searching the air.
I did the same thing, feeling the residual power that left a bitter, acidic taste, but something more lay beneath that was foreign to me. It made my nerves spike. Bastian was right. This was something older.
“I can't determine where it came from,” he added.
“Neither can I,” I said.
“Nor me.” Alaric waved his hand, doing a sweep of the particles in the air.
“There's no magical signature anywhere.” Bastian felt the air again.
No magical signature.
We looked at each other at the same time, then at Alaric, who seemed to have clued into the same conclusion. The last time there'd been mention of something without a magical signature was when Arielle told us about the vortex that took Elariya's father with the ring.
“The vortex that took Elariya's father. Do you think it's linked to this?” Bastian asked.
I narrowed my eyes, thinking about it. “That was five years ago. The rebellion happened after. In response to my father's death.”
“There are a lot of things going on that make no sense, Wolfe,” Alaric pointed out. “So maybe the incidentsarelinked.”
“If they are then... the rebels were always planning insurgency.” I spoke in a low voice, the pieces of the puzzle swirling around my mind. “Elariya's father may have been part of their plan.”
We exchanged glances.
“It's possible,” Bastian stated. “As we saw today, they got one of our own to turn on us. Why not Elariya's father?”
“You’re right.” Itwasentirely possible that they were all working together and Elariya’s father being human would make sense to their plan. Only a human could use the poison that killed my father. With everything I’ve seen so far, the thinking behind such an idea sounded exactly like something the rebels would do.
The problem was I’d never linked them to my father’s death.
If this was true, did this new finding mean Dreynthor was innocent? It could since the rebels tried to assassinate him with the others they’d killed.
