Brandt kept his senses alert, but he saw nothing in their journey that gave him any cause for alarm. They saw few people and enjoyed the quiet of their journey. At night, Brandt even allowed a fire so that they could stay warm as the nights grew colder.
The land they rode through was wild. The northern coast of the continent wasn’t particularly friendly, supporting at best a light ranching operation. The ground was rocky and uneven, and little more than wild brush grew throughout the land.
Brandt didn’t like the open spaces. He had grown up in cities and in forests, and the endless amount of open sky always concerned him. He kept feeling like he needed a place to hide, but there was no place to do so.
Six days after they started following the coast, they finally moved from the barren rugged grounds to a forested section of land. Brandt breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the trees.
They still rarely saw others. The land, as near as he could tell, was as empty as ever.
Until they came across a grouping of tracks.
Brandt swore. The party wasn’t large, but the tracks told him they had come from the shore and were making their way south. He glanced at Ana. Their decision was easy enough to make. They followed the tracks.
The pursuit lasted two days.
He and Ana were riding through a particularly dense growth when he called for a stop. Ana obeyed, and the two of them sat upon their horses in silence. Brandt listened, then spoke to Ana. “Do you hear that?”
She shook her head slowly. Then the same realization dawned on her. “It’s too quiet,” she whispered.
Brandt nodded. Far ahead, a group of birds scattered. Brandt traced the path ahead with his imagination. Where the birds had scattered seemed to be about the place where the path would lead.
Old instincts, dormant but not forgotten in his time at the monastery, reasserted themselves. It seemed very much like an ambush.
Brandt glanced over at Ana. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she was thinking the same. Which led him to a decision he hadn’t thought he would have to make. Their mission dictated that they find out who had set the ambush. But he didn’t want to risk Ana’s life. He thought that he had lost her once, and he refused to endure that again. Especially now that they were closer than ever before.
She gave him no choice, though. She got off her horse and led it off of the road to where it wouldn’t be easily discovered. Brandt followed suit.
From there, Brandt and Ana approached on foot. Their progress was slow. With every step Brandt would lift his foot, make sure the ground in front of him was safe to step on, then take the step. If there was a twig or something else in his way, he brushed it aside lightly before taking the step. Next to him, Ana did the same.
Their progress was slow, but Brandt was confident that their approach was unobserved. Every couple hundred paces they would stop and wait, studying their surroundings for the minutest detail that might indicate an enemy had spotted them.
They made a wide semicircle, attempting to sneak up behind whoever had set the ambush.
The forest around them remained too quiet. It sounded as though the trees themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the trap to be sprung. It was a giant game of hide and seek, with fatal consequences.
They won.
Ana spotted them first. She held up a hand to pause their slow advance, then pointed ahead. There, just ahead of them, were four figures lying still along the path their war party had made. Their clothing was unlike anything that Brandt had ever seen. It consisted of strips of fabric that mimicked natural patterns. If he focused too hard on them, he couldn’t see them. It was only by keeping a light focus that he could catch the subtle movements that gave them away.
They held weapons he didn’t recognize either. In a way, they looked like crossbows, but the design was unlike anything he’d seen before.
One of them shifted their head slightly, and Brandt knew in an instant that he had seen enough. Those features were unlike any that he had seen before. From this distance, there was little for him to make out, but there was just enough to know they weren’t imperial, and they certainly weren’t Etari. The skin was too pale for anyone on this continent.
He and Ana were outnumbered, but they had the element of surprise. If they could kill two immediately, they might have a chance at winning the fight. He was eager to test the skills he’d worked so hard for.
But that assumed the four were alone.
Brandt didn’t like how the setup felt. They could make out the four, but there could very well be more hiding in wait. The risks were too high.
Besides that, they had found what they were looking for. Their mission, as far as Brandt was concerned, was complete. Their duty wasn’t to fight, but to bring the word back to where it would do the most good. They needed to return to Landow and send word to the emperor.
Their ruler’s worry had been right.
The invasion had arrived.
46
Alena closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing the jitters coursing through her body to leave. She shook out her arms, one at a time, to no avail.
Up ahead, the Etari camp came into view. The collection of shelters wasn’t nearly as large as Cardon, but was impressive all the same.
The last she had heard, over two dozen families were camped here, directly in the path of the mysterious invaders. While the invaders advanced, the Etari prepared for battle.
Beside her, Azaleth seemed to understand her thoughts. It’ll be okay, he signed.
She wished she felt the same confidence. Every so often she found herself looking over her shoulder out east,
