He gave her an unreadable look, his sunlight eyes glinting. “Safer for you than me.” He nodded to the others. “I’m fine.”
“All right,” Gamarron said decisively. “This outer ring of trees seems unlikely to hold the Shard – all we saw were homes. Let’s move to the center of the island and see what we can see.”
At the mention of homes, Kest’s face closed in on itself. Renna was conferring with the old man and didn’t notice, but Nira motioned him close. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.
He gave her a troubled glance, and she tried not to look at his ruined eye. “I’m worried about Gamarron,” he whispered. “He is… not the man I first met.”
“Tell me about it,” she agreed sourly.
“He struggles with himself,” Kest said thoughtfully, “and I suppose a chief should. But his decisions aren’t the ones a good chief makes.”
“We’ll keep him from going too far wrong,” she assured him.
“It may be too late for that,” the Beast Rider said.
“Eye on him,” whispered Guyrin at her elbow, his eyes glazing again. “Keep the third eye on him.” She patted Guy’s hand, hoping she hadn’t just linked arms with her own death.
“Let’s move,” urged Gamarron.
“Here goes nothing,” Nira muttered. They turned toward the center of the island and began walking as quietly as they could.
“Are we sure it’s working?” Renna muttered.
Guyrin blew out a strained breath. “If you want to run across the clearing real quick to give us a look-see, be my guest.” Renna glowered but did not rise to the bait.
“Tree to tree as quick as you can,” he whispered through gritted teeth. “It’s harder when we’re in the open. Go.”
And so they scurried from shadow to shadow, the night cloaking them. They made it to the first sentinel tree in the inland direction without incident, but just as they moved away from that one a trio of soldiers came slithering around the curve of the trunk, headed directly for them. Nira’s heart leapt in her throat. Gamarron held out his hands, motioning for them all to stop. She found herself throwing her thoughts at the Naga, willing them to move on. Nothing here, nothing here. The deadly warriors glided in front of them without a word. They were close enough to reach out and touch. Gamarron looked as tense as a bowstring, and he pivoted to face the Naga as they moved past.
The guards were focused and serious. When the last of the three paused only three meters away and sniffed at the air, Nira was certain they were done for. She redoubled her thought-casting. Nothing here! Keep going! Look up ahead! It was pointless, of course – Guyrin was the one keeping them hidden, but she couldn’t stop herself. The raven-haired Naga shook her head and moved on.
Nira took a breath for what felt like the first time in an hour. The hand she held Guyrin’s arm with was buzzing in a strange way, and her head was beginning to ache. They hadn’t even been at it for five minutes yet. They hurried on to the next tree as soon as the Naga were out of sight.
The night passed one tree at a time. Kest sent his salamander friend out hunting, and it would scurry back and report on what it had seen. It never had any trouble finding them despite Guyrin’s light-bending. Kest thought it might be because the little beast’s mind was too simple. Gamarron entered several more trees as they went, seeming to pick them at random. Kest did not accompany him.
Nira’s hand had gone numb, and her arm was buzzing up to the elbow. Looking at Guyrin, she saw a vein pulsing in his forehead, and he was muttering numbers to himself. His tension seemed to be spilling over into her. It was a strange, enervating kind of strain. Discord? she wondered to herself. That was the word he’d used. Whatever it was, it was spreading up her arm and into her head. She began to prop herself up against the trees when they were in reach.
They were getting closer to the center of things. Even at this late hour there were Naga up and about, and not just the patrols. Some of these other Naga carried scrolls or bags, while a few carried nothing but were bedecked with feathered headdresses. She felt too strange to even wonder at all of it. The words she had chanted in her mind now bounced around her skull aimlessly. Nothing here, nothing here.
The mantra turned into nonsense syllables, but still she repeated it. She heard Guyrin snuffling as if he had a runny nose, but when she looked over to shush him, she saw he was bleeding out both nostrils. He was too disoriented to even wipe the blood away. As dizzy and strange as she felt, Nira was the only thing keeping the chaos wielder on his feet. Kest gave them a look of concern, but it wasn’t as if they could just stop. She wondered how long it would be until one of them blacked out. One minute less than it will take for us to all die, that’s how long.
The little salamander Spikkt scampered back from one of his forays and Kest held a hand down to the ground to lift him up to face level. “He says there’s a bigger one,” he whispered. “A bigger tree.”
“Bigger than these?” scoffed Renna.
“The colossus living in the land of giants thinks himself merely a little tall,” Guyrin postulated, his eyes glassy, a trickle of blood running past his lip and onto his teeth. Nira couldn’t tell if he was responding to the old Weaver or if his mutterings were random. She had his arm over her shoulder now, supporting him as they staggered along. How long have I been at this? Time was fuzzy and distorted, and her headache was more intense than any she’d ever had.
“You don’t look so good,” Kest whispered.
