No, countered Minx, I'm saying this battle felt strange somehow. It felt too easy... almost as if Torrent's forces had been set up to fail. Even Kaleb agrees.
Nah, you're out of your mind, was the Faelyr's rejoinder. If anything, I think we just underestimated the might of the Fae! Your buddy Kaleb there was a big help, too. Come to think of it, with the enemy in retreat, you should have plenty of time for that romance you were so caught up with prior to the battle...
Minx rolled her eyes and turned back to the red dragon. “I don't know. Maybe we're just paranoid. I just feel like Torrent should have put up a better fight than this. They could have easily tried a different angle of attack or sent a few spell-casters into battle to shut down your powers. Instead... they took heavy losses and ran. It doesn't add up...”
Kaleb motioned to her with his ruby-colored snout. “Hop on, why don't you? We'll go for a quick ride around the area and make sure things are all right. Maybe we'll find something—or else Torrent isn't as capable a general as we thought.”
The Fae huntress hopped from the wall, onto Kaleb's back, and stood between his wings, holding his neck for support. “OK, let's do it. Just to make sure.”
“Where to first?” asked the dragon shifter.
She had only to give it a moment's thought to reply, “Heilo Lake.”
Chapter 14
The red dragon sped through the air, soaring over the Trading Center and Pan itself. Leaving behind the stench of battle, he and his passenger found the evening air clean and crisp, and as the borders of the lake became visible in the misty distance, neither of them could find anything amiss. “Doesn't look like an army marched in here to me,” quipped Kaleb. “Though, I don't see how they could without getting past the Trading Center. A movement of that kind would have tipped off the Fae scouts and sentries.”
Minx nodded. “Yeah, you're right...” Somehow, though, the sight of a calm, untarnished lake wasn't sufficient to comfort her. A niggling feeling of unease still lingered. It seemed ludicrous to put stock into this shapeless fear—after all, the lake hadn't reached out to her. Heilo Lake, never hesitant to contact her either in dreams or waking life, would surely have alerted her in the event of a serious threat. But she couldn't relax; some instinct deep within her remained inflamed and she felt the need to touch down on the shore so that she could take stock of the lake with her own eyes. “Do me a favor,” she told the dragon, “land near the lake. I want to take a look around. Just for a minute.”
Kaleb acquiesced, descending rapidly and flying close to the tops of the mist-tangled trees that surrounded the lake. “Are the Fae Elders going to throw a fit if they see me hanging out there again?” he asked. “If so, I'll just stay in the woods.”
“No, it should be fine,” she said. Studying the borders of the lake and the buildings occupied by the ascetic Elders, she continued, “I'm not even sure where the Elders are right now, but as an ally of the Fae you have as much a right to be here as anyone. It's the dark army that needs to stay out.”
The dragon shifter landed in the brush, promptly shedding his dragon form. Running a hand through his long hair, he waited for Minx to lead the way. She did so, preoccupied by the utter stillness that presently gripped the area. This, too, felt somehow unnatural. It was evening, so the lack of birdsong and animal noise was hardly exceptional, but even the night insects, ordinarily loud and cheerful, seemed subdued at the moment. The lake, too, was silent; she couldn't hear the lapping of waves despite their proximity to the shore. It's like the land itself is holding its breath... Waiting for something to happen...
Despite the lack of a visible threat, Minx held her bow more tightly than ever as they proceeded through the twilit woods. Kaleb, too, was studying the air, filtering it for unexpected scents. A dozen paces through the wilderness, he reached out and placed a hand on Minx's shoulder, freezing her in place.
“What is it?” she whispered.
The dragon shifter licked his lips, choosing his words very carefully. “There's something out there—a scent.” He fell silent for a beat, then added, “Blood has been spilt here.”
“Blood?” Minx pulled an arrow from her quiver. “Whose?”
Kaleb's gaze narrowed and he began scanning the canopy with intensity. “I could be mistaken, but... I think it's Fae blood.”
At nearly the same moment of Kaleb's utterance, Minx spied something just ahead—a pale hand sticking out of the underbrush. Teeth clenched, she crept forward and examined its owner. It was a Fae swordsman, freshly struck down. This warrior had likely been assigned to the lake by the High Council, tasked with the evening patrol. He'd been struck by three arrows and left face-down on the forest floor. “Who could have—” Minx knelt beside the body, wincing as she inspected the arrows that'd felled him, and then stiffened as she noticed something familiar about the shafts.
The wooden shafts of the arrows were slightly dark in color, sticky. She'd seen shafts of this kind very recently and knew them to be tainted with poison.
Minx shot to her feet. “T-They're Zuscha arrows. Poisoned.”
“Dark Fae?” spat Kaleb. “But how could they have gotten back here?”
The plucking of a bowstring shattered the silence. From the dark canopy above, an arrow came rushing by, stripping a clean line of bark from a tree as it nearly struck Minx's back.
At once, Kaleb and Minx began running full-tilt for the treeline.
Another arrow—then two, three—followed them as they sprinted.
The nearby trees were filled with Zuscha.
Minx barreled out of the woods, turning to pepper the treetops with
