seemed impossible that he could face so much darkness without suffering some consequence. But his sight slowly returned, and the first thing he saw were his hands digging into newly plowed dirt.
A field. They were lying on a tilled field in the shady lee of a stone shed. The land was rolling, a gentle country of undulating hills. There was a low, red farmhouse on the ridge above them, and above it, Eli could see the shadow of mountains in the distance.
“We’re three days’ ride north of Zarin.”
Eli jumped. Nico’s voice was surprisingly loud, and he rolled to see her and Josef standing over him. Nico frowned at his surprise. “Sorry,” she said.
“Not your fault,” Eli assured her, pushing himself up. “Are we in the foothills yet?”
“Almost,” Nico said, nodding at the mountains. “We’ll be there after the next jump.”
Eli eyed the distant mountains. “That’s a long jump.”
“It’s good to do the large ones first,” Nico said. “Before we get tired.” She held out her hand. “Ready?”
Eli wasn’t, but he grabbed her hand anyway, pulling himself tight against her. Josef did the same, wrapping his arm around her waist again. As Nico took a deep breath, Eli examined her face covertly under lowered lashes. She was pale, but that was usual for Nico. Her breathing was steady and her shoulders were straight, all good signs. Still, he could see the first hints of dark shadows under her eyes, and he was about to suggest they should rest a moment when Nico pulled them back into the dark.
This time Eli was prepared for the cold and the fear, but it didn’t help a jot. He went stiff just like before, and he would have fallen again had Nico not gotten a good grip on him this time. He could feel her spirit now. It was open and roaring, surrounding them in a bubble of her will so solid Eli felt like an idiot for not knowing she was a wizard from the very first time he met her. Nico’s will didn’t ward off the dark or the cold or the fear, but as he clung to her coat, Eli had the strong suspicion that, were it not for her protection, they would never have made it through with their souls intact.
This time, their trip through the dark was noticeably shorter. Just as Eli had dug in to weather the terror and the cold, it was over. They popped back into the light like a surfacing cork and toppled over onto the pine-strewn floor of a dark, mountain forest.
Eli rolled as he fell, landing on his back in the soft, cool loam. His vision returned more quickly this time, and he looked around to take stock. It wasn’t good. Josef was up as usual, but Nico was still down beside him. She was lying on her back in the pine needles. Her eyes were closed, and her pale face was the color of chalk. Josef was hovering above her, his brow set in a permanent scowl.
“We’re resting here,” he announced, looking at Eli like he was daring him to object.
“Fine with me,” Eli said, letting his weight press him into the ground. “Where’s here?”
Josef glanced up. “Going by the trees, I’d say we’re exactly where Nico said we’d be, in the forest covering the foothills of the Sleeping Mountains. The road we took across the northern kingdoms on our way to Gaol cuts through here somewhere, probably south of us.”
“Ah, memories,” Eli said, pushing himself up with a groan.
With some difficulty, he scooted himself over to the nearest tree and propped his back upright against its scaly trunk. Josef did the same, laying the Heart across his knees. Assuming the swordsman was right about their location, they were already halfway to the mountain.
Not bad, Eli thought with a grin. The morning sun was still low. At this rate they’d be knocking on the Shaper Mountain’s slopes by noon. But then, they couldn’t keep up this rate, could they?
He glanced at Nico. She was lying perfectly still on the forest floor, the gentle rise and fall of her chest the only sign she was alive. In addition to the usual deathly pallor of her skin, the dark circles under her eyes were now deep and pronounced, and her cheeks looked hollow. Worse, her coat was twitching.
The movements were small and subtle, so small that Eli would have dismissed them as a trick of the wind if a wind had been blowing. But the forest floor was still. The coat was moving on its own, inching around her like it was trying to fold her into a cocoon.
Eli bit his lip. That was bad. The coat Slorn had made was as loyal as a Spiritualist’s spirit, and it knew Nico’s body better than she did. If it wanted to wrap her up, she was in a bad way. But the movements were still minor, and despite the dark circles, Nico’s face was peaceful. A good thing they didn’t have much left to go, then.
An hour later, Nico suddenly opened her eyes and sat up. Josef’s arm shot out just as fast, steadying her shoulders. “You all right?”
Nico nodded. “I’m rested enough. We should go. Next time might be longer.”
Eli cursed under his breath. “Nico, we can take as long as you—”
“I can do it,” she said, cutting him off as she stood up. “Come on, let’s go.”
Eli took a deep breath and reminded himself that if Karon’s core hadn’t faded by now, the lava spirit could certainly wait until nightfall. With that truth firmly in his mind, Eli made a great show of not hurrying as he stood up, stretched, brushed the pine needles and dirt from his clothes, and finally stepped in to stand with Josef at Nico’s side. He took his now customary position at Nico’s shoulder and looked up, filling his mind with daylight as Nico leaned back into the tree shadow and the darkness ate them once more.
This jump was even shorter than the last, but when they emerged again, Nico collapsed in a heap. Josef fell to his knees beside her, pulling her into his lap while Eli slumped to the ground and focused on assessing their surroundings.
His eyes were getting faster at recovering, and almost immediately he saw they were in another forest, a familiar one this time. They were sitting on the sandy bed of a dry creek. The banks were crowded with beautiful, spindly, golden-leafed trees, their dove-gray trunks ringed with white. Nico had brought the three of them out in the shadow below a large outcropping of water-worn stone at the center of the dry stream bed. Off to their left was a long, flat sandbar strewn with leaves and feeling somehow empty, as though it were missing something.
Which, of course, it was. This was Slorn’s Awakened Wood, and Slorn was what was missing. While Josef pulled Nico out of the rock shadow into the sun-warmed sand, Eli wondered briefly what happened to the house on chicken legs with both Pele and Slorn away. Did it wander on its own like a dog waiting for its masters? Or did it sit empty like any other building, gathering dust as its awakened parts fell asleep?
“Eli!” Josef’s voice snapped him out of his dreaming. “Get over here.”
Eli was at Nico’s side in an instant. “What?”
“I was afraid,” Josef said, looking at him pointedly.
“Josef,” Eli said tenderly. “She’s going to be fine.”
“No,” Josef said, rubbing a frustrated hand through his cropped blond hair. “I meant when I was moving her, I felt a small flicker of fear.” He leaned in close and dropped his voice. “Demon fear.”
Eli stiffened. That was a different matter. He looked down at Nico. Her coat was moving more than before, bundling itself tight around her until all he could see was her face.
“Her coat’s in place,” he said. “That should block any fear. Are you sure it wasn’t just left over from the jump?”
Josef shook his head. “I specifically felt it when I touched her.”
Eli bit his lip. “She’s tired. It’s possible her control is slipping.”
“Powers help us if it does,” Josef said, his hand flicking to the Heart’s hilt. “If the League finds us now, she’ll be a sitting target.”
Eli could only nod and nudge the coat tighter around Nico’s body. “Let’s sit in the sun for a while,” he said softly. “When Nico wakes up, we’ll see what she wants to do.”
Josef nodded and sat down by Nico’s head. Eli took a similar position by her feet, pulling his legs up in front of him and resting his knees on his chin. They sat like that for a long time, neither saying a word. Still, it was hardly silent.
As always, the Awakened Wood was buzzing, the trees whispering together like gossipy old ladies. Eli fought the urge to roll his eyes. At this rate, the entire northern forest would know where Eli Monpress, the girl in Slorn’s coat, and that man with the Heart of War were. Fortunately, the three of them would be long gone before that became a problem. Eli glanced at Nico again. Should be, he amended, squeezing his hands tighter.
An hour later, Nico still hadn’t moved. Eli fidgeted in the warm sand, glancing at Josef whenever he dared. The swordsman was still as stone, watching Nico from beneath hooded lids. Eli was about to suggest a game of
