The air tasted slightly salty. The nearer we got to the mountains, the stronger a sickly sweet scent came to us. Chills bristled my skin as I recognized the smell of death.
“What’s that?” Brodnik said. He pointed to a dark spot a few paces ahead where Grace hunched over something on the ground. Bits of fur and bone peeked from a carcass. It was the size of a large dog, though I had never seen a creature like it before. Long fangs protruded from the mouth, and the head was elongated like a horse’s skull, reminding me of the bloodthorn. There was something wrong with the corpse, something that felt wholly unnatural—like its magic had been forcefully stripped away.
I shuddered and stepped back.
“Looks to have been killed by something,” Brodnik said. “See these puncture wounds here, in its shoulders and neck? Blood’s been drained, too. But its flesh is intact. Odd.”
“What sort of animal would take the blood and leave the flesh?” Rolf asked.
Brodnik shook his head. “Not one I’m familiar with.”
“It took more than blood,” I said, stretching my hand over the body, letting the magic envelop me. As I did, the odd feeling of the syphoned power grew stronger, reminding me of the same sort of enchantment I’d felt when I’d encountered a woman named Zariah, the consort to a crazed dragon baron. She’d used her powers to take my magic away. Her magic had evoked feelings of violence, and I felt that same sensation here. “Something has stolen its magic.”
“Stolen how?” Heidel asked.
“I’m not sure, but it reminds of Zariah’s magic. Something similar could have happened here.”
Brodnik poked at the corpse with the tip of his sword. “No maggots, no flies. Very strange.”
“Shall we keep moving?” Kull asked.
“Yes,” Heidel agreed. “I don’t like this. I don’t like not knowing what we’re up against. There could be predators out there ready to drain our blood, and we have no idea what they look like, how to spot them, or what else they’re capable of.”
“They’d most likely drain your blood,” I said, “and they would drain my magic and my blood. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
“Keep moving,” Kull repeated. “We need to get to those mountains. If we are attacked, it needs to be someplace where we’d have a chance of hiding.”
We followed Kull at a brisk pace toward the mountains. Boulders replaced the smaller stones. The ground sloped upward as we approached the range. The wind whipped clouds of dust through the air, but when it died down, it was obvious we’d gotten closer to our goal.
We climbed a sloping hill and stopped when we reached a ledge. I reached out and ran my hands over one of the rock’s glassy surfaces. It felt cold, but not freezing. I felt magic in the stone, too, though it was unlike Earth or Faythander magic. It was black magic. Yet, it wasn’t like Geth’s or the Regaymors’ powers—this didn’t have that same taint. It felt similar to Silvestra’s magic.
“Have you found something, Olive?” Rolf asked.
“Yes. There’s magic here. It’s black magic.”
“Black?” Heidel questioned.
“Yes, but not like Geth’s. It’s different.”
“How?”
“It just feels less evil, if that makes sense. Perhaps it’s because this magic has never been used for evil like others have. Silvestra’s magic felt this same way. I don’t think black magic is entirely evil. It’s more like clay. It can be used however you want—except that when black magic gets used for evil, it becomes tainted. I also suspect that after it’s been tainted, it’s capable of twisting the practitioner, though I don’t have any proof of that.”
“I agree,” Heidel said. “Whenever Geth used black magic, you could feel the taint, as if it were twisting him, making him different. He was never the same after using that kind of magic.”
“And to think that Silvestra believed you possessed black magic,” Kull said. “I still haven’t figured that one out.”
“Neither have I,” I answered.
The wind shifted, and we continued. As we did, the fog lifted, but we couldn’t see much ahead except for steep slopes. Climbing was harder to do than I’d thought. The thin air made catching my breath a chore. Every muscle in my body felt the change in pressure.
“Look there,” Brodnik said, stopping abruptly.
We stopped behind him. The hills leveled out. We looked out over a desolate valley, but at its center, we saw an abandoned building of some sort—a castle or fortress that reminded me of a mosque with the remains of a dome on top.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone down there, does it?” Rolf asked.
“No, it appears to be abandoned,” I said. I glanced at the staff. So far, I hadn’t figured out how to use the thing. Maybe once I felt more rested, I could actually concentrate on how to control its powers. But would I ever get a chance to rest in a place like this?
“Let’s go down there,” Kull said.
“Go down there?” Heidel asked. “Are you sure? It’s probably infested with whatever creatures killed that dog-thing back there.”
Grace growled and her hackles rose as she stared down at the structure.
“You see?” Heidel said. “Grace agrees with me.”
“But it’s a place to take shelter, which we’ll not get up here. Night is coming soon, and I don’t see anywhere better,” Kull said.
“I agree,” Brodnik said. “We’ll be able to defend ourselves more easily in a place like that than we will out here.”
Heidel crossed her arms. “I still don’t like it.”
“Then you may stay up here,” Kull said.
“And let you get killed down there? No, I will go if only to save your skin. Yet again.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Of course not. Why would I?”
Our group started down the slope leading to the fortress. The sky grew darker, and I had no way to tell for sure, but it seemed the daylight hours were shorter here than on Earth or Faythander.
The slope grew steeper, making us carefully climb our way down. Some
