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“We have it between us to take Kryder down. Do you believe that?”
She dipped her chin slowly, a measured look in her hazel eyes.
“Good.” He nodded as well.
He turned to face Landris, who had remained nearby and respectful. His cheeks had a drawn, serious look.
“We’re ready when you are, Wizard. Where do you want us?”
“Not here.”
Grant didn’t respond. Clearly, Landris had something in mind.
The wizard said, “I have several underground properties at my disposal. We’re going to one of them, but you’re going to have to trust me. I will use a spell and you will not remember the route and you will certainly never know the location. Are you with me?”
“Absolutely.” Natalie’s firm voice reverberated around the cave-like space.
Landris glanced at Grant who in turn nodded.
“Good. We’ll leave through here.” He pivoted and swept his robed arm toward the arched wall. The central rock face suddenly disappeared and in its place was the opening of a tunnel.
“The wall had a spell over it,” Grant murmured.
“Follow me.” Landris lifted into levitated flight and began to move swiftly.
Grant let Natalie follow the wizard, but the moment she crossed the threshold with Grant a split-second behind her, Landris called, “Begin.”
For a moment, Grant wanted to ask, ‘Begin what?’ But his mind soon developed a heavy sensation as though he’d been drugged. His gaze became fixed to the back of Natalie’s head and the loose, light brown curls that hung to her waist. Nothing else seem
ed to matter except taking in the flow of the curls, the pattern of her hair, her buoyancy as she flew, the way an occasional cross-breeze from a side-tunnel would push her hair around.
He had a sense of light, of movement, but no feeling of time. He couldn’t have said whether a minute passed or twelve hours.
The tunnel opened to another large space that he couldn’t quite make out though it was well-lit.
“End.” Wizard Landris’s voice and his choice of word drew the heavy sensation away from Grant’s mind.
He recalled the saying about ‘scales falling from the eyes’ and that’s exactly what the experience felt like. He turned in a slow circle because he stood in a sandpit, a very deep one with chipped rock walls rising thirty feet high. A railing was at the top maybe to keep spectators from falling in. “What is this place? I’ve never seen it before and my wolf senses tell me we’re not in Savage but in Elegance.”
“I’m getting the same thing,” Natalie added. “What is Elegance doing with a sandpit and a very old one, I must say.”
“Move there. Both of you and I’ll tell you.” He gestured with his hand toward the center of the pit.
Grant saw what Landris was after. He wanted them in the middle. He didn’t hesitate to take his place. Natalie joined him.
Grant might not like Landris and he had some hesitation about giving a man so much power over their minds and their safety. But despite it all, he trusted the wizard on an alter level, something he couldn’t explain.
Landris made a slow circuit around them, levitating a few inches above the sand. Once he’d completed his path, he flew to a breach in the wall and disappeared. When he returned, his arms were laden with eucalyptus branches.
He began to lay them out with the tops of the leaves pointing away from their feet. “I was one of the first alters, so try to imagine what I’ve seen and experienced in the past thirty years. A formidable wizard by the name of Caltrop, built this pit for a single purpose: To torture wolves.” He met Grant’s gaze. “The blood of your species runs deep beneath this sand.”
“I don’t sense wolf-death here, though.”
“I’ve cleansed it repeatedly. It tends to come back at times. I’ve had powerful witches aid me as well. But the hundreds of deaths that occurred in this pit have also created a certain kind of spiritual element that enhances the abilities of my spells to lock onto the required subjects.
As Landris set the last of the branches in place, Grant felt a column of power flow from beneath his feet and up through his body, as well as Natalie’s.
“Do you feel that?” she asked quietly.
