But I had to pause as a memory from the snake people seared itself across my mind.
The vision was of two young warriors, lost in a forest like this one. One of them was speaking to the other. We need to find the entrance to the undertrails in the forest. We can use them to get away from these strange intruders.
The other shook his head vehemently.
I blinked and it was gone. Just one of their memories. No wonder it was triggered when it was so close to what Zayana and I were fighting about right now.
“Wing Ivo!” she called again. Clearly, being lost was more terrifying to her than being caught.
I reached into my cuff, heart pounding, but to my relief, it was still just a dull warmth against my fingers.
I squinted at the sun, rising slowly in a streak of gold broken up by trunks of trees.
“Glorious Ingvar is southwest of here,” I told Zayana. “And there are many settlements here in the south of Far Stones. We’ll just chart a southwest course and we’ll find a road or a town soon enough.”
Her eyes lit with hope. “Have you traveled through this forest then?”
They faded with my reply. “No.”
But what else was there to do?
We led our horses over the crumpled leaf carpet. It turned out I’d hurt my horse’s mouth with my foolishness and Zayana’s horse had a bad limp. Even if they’d been fine, we’d still have to navigate the thick trees and that meant walking. And it meant slow going. By noon, we both felt like we’d hardly made any progress at all and the worry I felt inside intensified with every moment that passed. I was going to be caught. And when I was caught, I was going to regret not finding some clever way to get away while I still could.
“Quite the chase we’re giving Osprey,” Zayana said. “A slow meander through the woods. A child could find us like this.”
I held my tongue. Forests were difficult to navigate and the trees above us were thick. But wandering around in circles wasn’t going to help us get away. Even if all my instincts were screaming at me to just run in any direction and not look back.
We rested at what we thought must be noon and ate a little of the bread from the saddlebags. It had stayed dry in its oil-cloth wrapping, unlike our cloaks and clothing. Despite the warmth of the day, I was chilled from being soaked through and I couldn’t seem to warm myself. Worse, I felt as if someone was following us. And of course, someone was, though Os’s feather remained cool to the touch.
I also had the strangest sensation that I was being drawn along, as if I was hearing voices just on the edge of sound, but when I walked over the next rise or around the next tree, they were gone.
I leaned against a stone structure we’d found and tried to stop worrying, running my hand down the unnaturally straight line of the stone. It felt almost as if it were cut by humans. Strange how nature could fool you from time to time.
Zayana began to hum from where she was around the curve of the rock. Surprised, I crept around the corner of the rock and stole a glance at her. She was dancing and humming to herself as her spirit-cardinal hovered in the air nearby. Her dance moved around him, not quite in a circle, more like a many-pointed star. With each pass, he seemed to brighten just a little. He’d grown since I’d met them. Now, he was about the size of my two hands together.
I watched her for a moment. How interesting. Osprey caressed his bird. Ivo gave his grand speeches. Zayana danced – and her dance was so graceful, she seemed almost to fly from point to point. It was hard to begrudge the Winged Empire praise for the delightful manifestations it produced. And despite loving my bees and finding a certain comfort in their contrary nature, I still felt a little ashamed that what came out of my heart was buzzing rage instead of this soaring beauty.
In my mind a mental image flared – one of my bees, reporting in. It was only a flash of my sister Raquella smiling over the edge of a steaming tin mug, but it was enough to make my heart leap. Raquella was alive out there somewhere and she had enough reason to smile. Warmth filled me at the thought.
And then another bee stole my vision. This time, I was very close to whoever was being watched. Close enough to see that he was changing the dressing on a blood-soaked bandage. His dark skin was taut over corded muscles that flexed tight when he flinched from the pain. I still couldn’t see his face, but I knew who it was before the hand snatched toward my bee and his voice carried to me.
“What are you doing here, little bee? Where is your keeper?”
I gasped and the vision shattered. Osprey. I’d thought I’d left my bee with Juste but had it attached itself to Osprey instead?
I cleared my throat, as my vision returned to Zayana. “We should keep going.”
Her bird flared as she startled, his red light splashing over the rock – so bright that it nearly blinded me. But it didn’t blind me completely. Instead, it showed very faint markings in the stone formation. So faint and worn that I couldn’t see them at all under the lichen and could barely make them out in Flame’s bright light.
“Did you see that?” I asked, hurrying to trace my finger over the markings.
“I saw nothing.”
“It was here ...” I ran my fingers further along it, but if the markings meant something, I couldn’t make it out. My brow furrowed as I studied them.
“Look, what you saw just now ... can you keep it between us?” Zayana twisted her hands together nervously. “It’s not precisely forbidden, but the Wings prefer that I use words to invoke traits in Flame. And they are right, of course. Words have great power. Look at how calling yourselves revolutionaries has changed you and Ivo, pitting you against the authorities. Your words are so powerful that I doubt you could wipe them away even if you changed your mind and dropped the name tomorrow. And that’s why the other Wings would frown on such an unorthodox approach. But you see, the dancing ... it is my words. It’s my way of showing my heart.”
I was barely listening.
As she spoke, a vision flashed over my eyes. A second vision of those two young warriors standing before this stone. Only that mossy fallen log hadn’t been there and the top of the stone had been higher. I scrambled toward the spot where they paused before it and as I watched them caress the door, I wrenched the log from in front of it away. It crumbled, stinking of old rot, insect eggs tumbling from the masses.
This was the first time I’d ever been able to move while having one of their visions. Dizziness washed over me and I fought it, concentrating.
Something rumbled in the distance – more thunder, perhaps.
“Are you listening?” Zayana asked.
“I’m great at keeping secrets,” I said as I leaned down and dug at the moss and loose earth that blocked what I just knew was a door. “You can trust me.”
“Well, you kept from me the secret that you and Ivo were working against the crown prince,” she said huffily. “You got me entangled in something I didn’t choose, and I don’t want!”
“Can you shine the light of that bird over here?” I asked. “I think I see something.”
“Flame is not a torch to be used to light your path!” But her bird flared and I could see better.
It was a door! I could see the outline of it. I pulled my belt knife out and traced the line of it through the lichen. A door to the undertrails – whatever those were. A little shiver stole over me at the thrill of it. My visions were true. And the one I’d seen was actually helpful. That meant the general was out there somewhere, too.