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Camille waved at Mirela. “Hey, we’re ready. Anybody around this morning?”
Mirela shook her head. “Nobody stirring but the birds, and even they have been uncommonly quiet. There’s a storm brewing—thunder, it feels like, and lightning, and heavy dark clouds coming this way.”
Iris sat down beside her on the bench. “You’re right about that. I’ve sensed it since I woke this morning. Camille, you’ll probably be able to, too, if you close your eyes and focus.”
We’d decided to bring Iris with us because she was an expert with plants, and she’d be able to ferret out a Panteris phir plant without any problem. Maggie was tucked away in Menolly’s lair, and we’d left Rozurial to watch over the place. Vanzir had been sent packing for the day. Not that we didn’t trust him, but we preferred to err on the side of caution.
The elf motioned to the two trees that created the framework for the portal. Sometimes portals were erected between standing stones, other times they were dependent on trees or cave entrances or even large boulders. In Hydegar Park, one of the trees was oak, the other cedar. Guardians both, and sentient, though they would not speak to me. I could sense their watchful natures, observing us, taking in all that went on around them. Earthside forests kept to themselves. Compared with our woodlands back home, they were quiet and sometimes sullen, resentful of those who had destroyed wide swaths of thicket and copse.
The energy flowed between the trunks, alive and vibrant and new. The portal had been dormant for who knew how long, for at least a thousand years, and had woken to life a few weeks back. Rogue, independent of the spirit seals, the new portals’ opening signaled a breakdown in the energies dividing the realms. Even if we found all the spirit seals, even if we regained the third one from the Demonkin, who knew how long the system would maintain itself?
Aeval, Morgaine, and Titania—the three Earthside queens of Fae—insisted the Great Divide had been a colossal mistake on the part of the Fae, that it had altered the energy holding the realms together in such a manner that backlash was inevitable. Perhaps they were right.
Smoky examined the trees. “The energy isn’t stable. I think this could close on its own at any time. We run a risk traveling through it.”
“We have no choice,” I said. “If we use Grandmother Coyote’s portal, we’ll have a long journey to travel to reach Darkynwyrd. This should hold up for the trip there. And the trip back. I hope.”
The fact that the dragon considered it risky made me nervous. Smoky wasn’t afraid of much. In fact, the only real things I’d seen him wary of were the Autumn Lord and—to some extent—the werespiders. But I wasn’t about to nix our plans now. I needed that plant. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if I disobeyed a direct order from Hi’ran.
Camille shrugged. “We might as well give it a try. If we get stuck over there, we’ll just have to find another portal to come home through. It’s not the end of the world.”
I flashed her a silent thank-you and marched up to the nexus point between the tree trunks. “Here goes nothing,” I said and, seeing the others were behind me, stepped into the swirl of light.
CHAPTER 11
Walking through a portal is a little like putting on a suit of armor and gallivanting between two giant magnets. It’s like being torn to tiny bits within the blink of an eye. Then, suddenly the magnets disappear, and a whirlwind spins you back into one piece again. The whole experience isn’t really painful, but it’s definitely dizzying.
I hadn’t been home in a long time. When Camille and Menolly made the trip to Aladril a few months back, I’d been jealous as hell. Now it was my turn. Too bad our destination was Darkynwyrd, but at least with Morio and Smoky to back us up, we weren’t in as much danger as we would be otherwise.
The smell of the air made me homesick. Usha trees and night-blooming khazmir flowers and the scent of clean. No acid rain, no pollutants in the air save for woodsmoke.
As we traipsed out of the portal, I found my thoughts turning to Father. Where was he? Lost, like Trillian. That much we knew. But was he safe? Hurt? Captive? His soul statue was still intact, which meant he was alive, but other than that, we had no idea where our father had gotten himself to or what he was doing. Aunt Rythwar was missing, too.
Our family had been torn apart by Lethesanar’s drug-crazed civil war, and all we could do was hope that the Queen’s sister, Tanaquar, won the battle for the throne soon and put Y’Elestrial to rights. Considering everything Lethesanar had put our family through, a dark little part of my heart hoped she’d end up with her head on a pike at the hands of her own torturers. I tried to shake it away, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. I just didn’t like the way it felt.
Once outside the portal, we found ourselves in a narrow strip of grassland that lay between the lower foothills of the Qeritan Mountains and Darkynwyrd. The Qeritan range divided the Shadowlands from the Elfin lands.
Considering the nature of the Shadowlands—and the Southern Wastes beyond them—the elves were lucky the mountains formed a barrier. As it was, they kept a tight watch on the mountain passes during the summer. Winter offered a reprieve. Few travelers could safely make it through the tall peaks. Anybody from the southwest who wanted to visit Elqaneve was forced to take the long way around, and the long, arduous trip wasn’t worth the trouble to most raiders looking for a minor skirmish.
Smoky glanced around and immediately wrinkled his nose. “I smell a wyvern. Filthy imposter.” He frowned. “It passed this way a few hours ago. Wyverns move quickly, so it should be long gone. I hope.”
“Not looking for a strafing battle, eh?” I blinked, assuming an innocent smile as he shot me a withering look.
“Not looking for a battle at all, thank you.” He moved toward the back. “I’ll cover our backs. Morio, you assume the front, along with Iris, since she knows what we’re looking for. Delilah and Camille, take the middle ground.”
Morio obeyed without question. He’d obviously accepted Smoky as the alpha male. I wondered just how the whole marriage thing would play out for Camille when—if—we found Trillian.
Iris made her way up beside Morio. She nodded to the youkai. “I’m ready. I know what Panteris phir looks like, but I can guarantee you that we won’t see a single plant until we near a stream or pond. It grows near water in the thick shade, so we’ll have to enter the forest proper in order to find it.” She had donned a pair of thick leggings and a tunic that reached to midthigh. She was wearing a leather vest, leather knee and elbow pads, and she’d dug up an old bicycle helmet.
“You look ready for skateboarding,” I said, shooting her a grin.
Iris rolled her eyes. “Don’t laugh. It can get rough over here, especially around this area. I’m not the best in a fistfight, and though I’m not that fragile, I can get hurt. I figured the leather and helmet would offer me some protection in case we run into trouble. Camille, did you bring the unicorn horn with you?”
“No,” Camille said with a shake of the head. “I didn’t want to bring it over here. There are too many mages here who would happily kill me to get hold of it. I hid it in Menolly’s lair for the day. We shouldn’t need it. There aren’t any demons over here. At least not of the caliber we’re facing Earthside. And we can mop the floor with goblins and their ilk.”
Iris nodded. “Good thinking. Well, let’s get moving. I’ve never been to Darkynwyrd in all the times I’ve visited Otherworld,” she added.
“You were born and bred Earthside,” Morio said. “Like I was. When did you first come visiting over here? I’d barely heard of it until Grandmother Coyote summoned me over from Japan.”
