One
Lory
The Amrin Mountainswere as hostile after the forty-eight-hour trial she’d barely survived as when she’d still been in the middle of it, their steep cliffs and rocky terrain deathtraps where Ashthorn students were no longer hunting her. She didn’t even count the Criu rebels she’d dodged over the past two days of searching her way back to the outpost, where Khayrivven Falcrest was hopefully still alive, but no matter how many times she marched down the trampled paths or picked a new turn when she came to yet another impossible crossing on the mountainside, she kept ending up at the cave she’d fled, a shadow with antlers hot on her heels, and gnawing hunger hollowing out her stomach.
How she wished she had at least a knife to defend herself, but when she’d woken in the cave, her weapons had been gone.
“Useless the Flame’s endeavors are,”the leonthor narrated, his voice like a second conscience by the time she turned away from the unwelcome cave for what felt like the fortieth time, her heart relentlessly pounding the rhythm of her fear for Khayrivven.“Meant to join her kind she is.”
“Mykindis at the outpost, and if you’re just following me around to annoy me, count it a success.”
Lory didn’t glance to the side, where she knew the leonthor’s shadow was lurking between the rocks by a seam of bushes she’d been fascinated by mere days ago; it would have dispersed into thin air the moment she laid eyes on it.
“The truth will follow the Flame. Not hide she can.”
Lory made a vulgar gesture at the bushes instead, ambling over the next hilltop before taking an unfamiliar path lined with patches of grass. If only she could find something to eat out here, she might outrun the mythical beast and leave behind the nightmares of the mountain.
“I’m well aware that hiding from you is virtually impossible,” she shot at the creature, wondering if it would lead her to food eventually, the way it had led her to a narrow stream the first day, when she’d blatantly ignored its existence in hopes it would go away.
Then she’d realized that she’d been wandering in circles, or the cave kept magically appearing in her path whenever the leonthor found it opportune.
“Back to her people the Flame must go.”It had been voicing its opinions with the same wise and grumpy voice that hadpushed Lory to nearly cry out with frustration, but it hadn’t attempted to harm her or force her. All that remained was a shadow in the background, stalking her as she despaired about whether she’d ever find her way back to the outpost.
“Nothomethe other magic wielders are. Home herpeople are. Homeweare.”
With a sigh through her nose, Lory stepped by the next boulder and sank onto it, hands braced beside her hips as she stared out into the afternoon landscape. From up here, she could see pieces of the desert land spreading out for miles and miles behind the brown and green at the foot of the mountain. But an outpost, she couldn’t spot anywhere.
If only Khayrivven would draw her into a dream the way he’d done at so many—and at the most inopportune—times, she could have asked him for help, but the silence in her sleep was only one more reason for Lory to lose her mind.
“Can’t you do something useful and get me out of the mountains?”
A grumble rolled over Lory like a stream of dark mist, and the shadow slunk past her left, his shape massive and everything she would have run from two days ago. Now, defeat had settled in her stomach, and she was tired—body and mind—of being afraid.
“Not hold her back we can, but not help her we will either.”The shadow vanished behind a rock formation at the top of the hill.
“Bastard,” Lory hissed under her breath, wondering if the leonthor could read her mind the way it had in the cave. Because if he did, he’d know exactly how little she appreciatedbeing sent in circles, even when he wasn’t actively planting his mythical creature body in front of her to block her from proceeding with her search.
A grumble snuck by her ear, even when the leonthor had vanished out of sight.“Not force her we can. But free us she must.”He said it so emphatically that Lory almost missed the rhythmical noise of boots on packed earth—many boots.
“Shit—” With the most ungraceful movement she’d performed since hanging limply in Khayrivven’s arms after she’d gone up in flames when the Almelyte powder had first triggered her magic, Lory threw herself off the boulder, flattening her body to the ground as she peered in the direction of the noise.
“Seven of them there are,”the leonthor commented from wherever he’d disappeared to.“Not find her they must.”
A reluctant grin stole itself onto Lory’s face. “I guess it’s the first thing we agree on.” Her whisper was carried away by a harsh gust of wind and, of course, the leonthor heard her.
“That we are right about many things, the Flame will learn. Agree more often she will. Trust us she must.”
Why the creature took that one little comment to push her into compliance with his own agenda, Lory didn’t even want to know.
“Maybe if you finally explained your motives and your part in this whole mess, I would be more inclined to at least consider—” Why was she even bothering? She’d asked the leonthor what was going on at least as many times as she’d found herself in front of that Guardians-cursed cave, without getting a hint of a response. Secretive little shit.
“Heard that we have,”the leonthor’s voice reverberated in her mind, and she could tell that he wasn’t happy with her.
Heard her thoughts?Great.Why didn’t that surprise her? “Then maybe you’ll tell me what thefuckis going on. Why am I locked in a repeat performance offlee from the cave?” She was still whispering, even when the leonthor could apparently listen to what was going on in her mind.
Rolling to the side, she made sure she was hidden from view when whoever was marching through the mountains would get close enough to have a view on her boulder. Probably more Criu rebels.
“Still she must be. Past the soldiers will march.”The leonthor had a point. If she remained quiet, they wouldn’t notice her back there, behind the piece of rock, but what if they did find her and take her away? Would that break the endless loop she seemed to be stuck in?
