She chuckled. “You are going to find me the dragon.”
Somewhere in the distance, there came a snarl, then a roar. A scream echoed in the forest before it was quickly swallowed.
Elaine jerked around, looking toward the trees.
“What are you afraid of?” I asked.
“Quiet,” she snapped.
“Who is the man with the mesahn?” I asked.
“Someone like yourself who gets involved where he should not,” she said.
The roar echoing out of the forest radiated a loud cry. It seemed to make the ground itself rumble. The effect of it terrified me. I didn’t know if the man and the mesahn were to be trusted, and doubted that they could be, but if they could help free us from Elaine then we might be able to get away, and then…
Then I had to run and hope that Elaine didn’t come after us and return to Berestal with more of the Vard. Knowing what I did of Vard sympathizers within Berestal, that wasn’t a guarantee. It was possible we were going to be in danger regardless. The roar of the creature out in the darkness persisted, and it was close enough that I began to think that it might actually reach us.
Elaine obviously thought the same. She grabbed my wrists, jerking me to my feet. She looked down at Alison. “Get up,” she snapped.
“I can’t. You have me—”
Alison suddenly gasped. Flames stretched away from Elaine and rolled around my sister, lifting her from the ground.
Alison cried out, panting. “It burns,” she said.
“And it will burn more if you do not follow my instructions,” she said.
I looked over at Elaine. I needed to find an opportunity to get past her, but I didn’t know what that was going to take. Maybe I had to wait for her to look away. I could barrel into her, knock her down, and then find some way to cut free of our bindings. All I needed was the opportunity.
She turned, watching me, almost as if she knew what I was thinking.
“Go,” she said, motioning to the forest. “You’re going into the forest. With me. We are going to find that creature.” She glared at me, heat in her eyes. “If you don’t want me to do anything to your sister, then you will do asI say. All you need to do is follow the sense of the dragon. Considering that I have seen the way it pulls on you, I know you will be drawn to it. You will use that.”
I shook my head, but even as I did, I had a feeling I understood what she wanted of me. She wanted me to feel for the dragon, and though I might want to deny that I could, I understood what she asked of me.
I’d seen it.
It was the same glowing light that had been out in the trees, the same light that had guided me before, the one that I had followed into the forest. And it was the power that had come from that glowing that had drawn me in.
I tried to shift my hands, wanting to get free, but I couldn’t break my bindings.
When I had the chance, I was going to need to knock Elaine down, but if she had me walking in front of her, I wasn’t going to have that opportunity.
“Which way do you want me to start?” I asked.
The sound of the mesahn roaring had fallen silent. There was no further cry, or rumbling, nothing other than the same strange emptiness that had been within the forest before. The presence of the Vard, and the presence of us, seemed to disrupt the natural sounds here.
“You will know which way you need to go,” she said.
I looked around, but even as I did, I could tell.
It was a faint light glowing in the distance. At first, I tried to tell myself I wasn’t seeing it, but as I looked around the forest, trying to make out the darkness, there was one area that seemed a little lighter than the others.
Elaine pushed me. “I see it in your eyes. You recognize it. Now go, unless you want something to happen to her again.”
I looked over, and Alison stiffened, as if suddenly wracked with pain.
“If I do this, you aren’t going to hurt her,” I said.
Elaine laughed, a dark sound. “You don’t get to dictate the terms here.”
“I’m not going to help you if you hurt her.”
Elaine watched me. Alison let out a shaky breath.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
I turned, heading into the forest. I didn’t need any guidance. The glowing light in the distance called to me, leading me deeper into the trees. I could practically feel the energy of the forest guiding me to where I needed to go. There was no sign of the creature, and no sign of the man with him.
That didn’t change Elaine’s nervousness. She marched a few paces behind us, just far enough that it would be difficult for me to spin and try to throw myself at her. I had to bide my time a little bit more.
Following the glowing light, I continued to track the energy as it stretched away from us. It called us deeper into the forest, away from the Djarn path.
“What were you even doing in the forest?” I asked.
“Lead me to the dragon, and say nothing else,” Elaine whispered.
She was nervous and had proven she needed me enough to not harm Alison.
And I needed answers.
“It’s a simple question,” I said. “What are you doing in the forest? I don’t think you’ve been working with the Djarn.” She wanted to find the dragon to use it to find the Djarn. Then there had been the captive girl I’d freed, the one she’d claimed had been from the Wilds, but I suspected was actually Djarn.”
She snorted softly. “The Djarn work with no one.”
Not true. Joran’s father had some interaction with them, so I knew they must be willing to work with some. “How did you know how to find the Djarn
