AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’re here.” He trailed his finger along the valley near the mountain region of Feygreir where his home was. “If we skirt the western side of Drakos, past Singing Wind Wood, we can keep outside the area where scouting parties expect us to be.”
Kieren nodded. “That should be the safest route.”
“Agreed,” said Lorian. “If we’re lucky, they may believe we already gave them the slip and have called off the scouting parties.”
Kol’s piercing gaze scanned each one of them. “Let’s go then.”
Valla tossed a pair of leather gloves to me. “You’ll need these.”
“Thanks.”
Kieren and Bowen slipped into another room off the living area. As Kol took my hand, leading me to the door, I noted it was a small armory. Swords, daggers, jagged weapons of steel lined within a wall-to-wall glass case. Kieren handed Bowen a quiver of steel-tipped arrows and a bow.
Kraven must have been well-armed as he marched directly outside.
Conn stood to one side, thumbs hooked in his front pockets, staring at Valla with a mischievous grin on his face. “You don’t need to arm yourself, Blondie?”
She passed right behind him, nose in the air, twisting with brutal speed, whipping out her rapiers from concealed sheaths, and criss-crossing them at his neck. If he were an enemy, she could behead him in two seconds.
Conn grinned wider. “Someone’s a bit sensitive.”
“I’m not sensitive, Red.” His smile slipped. “I’m just always armed. Best remember that.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’d ever let me forget it.”
“Got that right.”
She whipped her rapiers away, the steel-on-steel zinging a vibration in the air before she sheathed them in scabbards sewn into her pants. I’d thought they were just odd-shaped pockets.
Kol tugged me along as I’d craned my neck to watch the display.
“What was that all about?”
Kol shook his head. “Those two have hated each other from afar for a very long time. Whenever they’re forced into one another’s company, they always exchange a few barbs.”
Considering the heated exchange, I imagined what might happen if that anger transformed into another kind of passion. Maybe they fought to avoid other emotions brewing under the surface. I didn’t have any more time to consider it as we stepped through the cabin door.
Once in the night air, a cool mist wrapped me in a chilly embrace. Billowing vapor hovered on the lake and around the cabin, curling slowly in the breeze, layering the night in white.
Behind me, I heard buckles clink together. Kol unfolded the harness we’d used before.
“Why do you call this place Blind Bird Falls?”
I cinched the harness strap around my waist and buckled it tight. Kol had strapped his part of the harness to himself already.
“You see that tree over there?” He pointed to the massive evergold, the one with arm-like branches stretching far and wide.
“I do.”
“Kieren and I used to play a game with Valla there. We’d hide a bread roll somewhere in the branches and blindfold her. Using her Morgon senses, she had to find the prize.”
“What if she fell?” Yanking the harness tight across his chest, he arched an eyebrow. Then it hit me. “Wings. How could I forget?”
“She was never in any danger.”
“Still”—I finished the last strap—“it seems kind of dangerous as a child’s game.”
“The Morgon world is different than the human’s.”
