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I frowned, but nodded. I didn't want to kill unless it was necessary, but I couldn't give the guard a chance to raise the alarm.
Latika slipped past me and flowed down the mountainside like water. No branches shifted in her wake, no twigs snapped. Even the dry leaves underfoot were silent. The only noise was the cool wind, which had picked up in the last few minutes.
I shivered. I preferred the coastal heat and breezes from the sea to lurking on mountains up this high.
A brief, wet cry broke the relative silence, followed by a loud gust of wind. It whistled through the trees like the guard's soul, pulled by Hades as penance for their lack of attention on the job.
I sent a short request to Hades to be gentle, if only to assuage my guilt at their death.
"It is done," Latika appeared at my elbow like a shadow in the night.
It was an effort to avoid jumping in fright, but I managed. Then I told myself off for my own inattention. I caught a smirk on Kerina's face and shook my head ruefully.
"Good work." As far as I could tell, there were other minds somewhere past the guard's body, but hidden somehow. Shrouded.
Latika nodded. "I think they guarded a tunnel under the lip of rock. A pathway."
I nodded. That would explain why the minds felt muddy.
"Kerina, scout the way. We'll stand watch and make sure no one comes up behind you."
Her eyebrow quirked and the side of her mouth drew up, but she said nothing. She didn't need to. I knew if anyone took her by surprise, they would have to be exceptional.
I couldn't rule out the chance they might be.
She pulled the hood of her coat over her red hair and disappeared amongst the trees with the same care Latika had shown.
"We need to move into place to intercept anyone," I whispered.
Latika nodded and followed on my heels, so close I almost felt the warmth of her body, but far enough she didn't walk into me when I stopped suddenly.
"There's a track." I ducked down behind a few scrubby bushes.
"They tried to hide it." Latika dropped down beside him. "Except that." She nodded toward a series of broken bushes, too uniform to be random.
"I would bet my last coin that was Knox," I said.
Latika glanced at him. "From what you've said, I wouldn't take that bet. Whoever they are, they've taken too much care. Except the guard, but they're probably expecting a replacement soon."
I twitched. I should have thought of that. Kerina would, and she'd be ready. I suppressed another sigh at the necessity of another death.
Latika shivered. "There is something wrong about this place."
I had been about to say the same thing. "Yes, there is. It's like— Like a jar of something rotten."
"Yes. Eel, or eggs. Not in smell, but in…"
"Taste," I finished for her. It was on the back of my tongue. "Not egg though. I smelled a rat once, which had been dead for days."
She grimaced. "Vermin, dog, person, they all smell the same when dead and rotting."
"Death and decay," I said softly. "That's what it tastes of. Death and decay."
Taste was a sense, so this must have something to do with power, unless we crouched above a fresh tomb.
"I hear some folk wear dried flowers in lockets around their necks," Latika said. "To counter the smell of their countrymen."
I chuckled softly. "I'd like one right now." If the taste was caused by power, I could lie in a garden and it wouldn't help. "Not to counter your smell," I said quickly.
