“We just need to hold them off until daybreak,” Trynne said. “We have a magical device that can take us where we’re going. It just needs some more time to rest before we can use it again.”
“Should we try it now to be sure?” Fallon suggested.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Trynne said.
“Touch my arms, then,” Fallon said. They did as he asked and he invoked the Tay al-Ard.
Nothing happened.
“Where are we going?” Owen asked.
“To the ruins of Muirwood Abbey,” Fallon said. “There’s a portal back to our world there.” He lifted a hand. “Quiet.”
A horn sounded behind them, and an instant hush descended on the camp. The soldiers stopped what they were doing and gazed back into the darkness as if waiting for something.
“That didn’t take long,” Owen muttered. “There’s more to come.”
Three long blasts from the horn followed the first. “Three blasts.
Enemies sighted. The captains will be gathering for orders and they will describe us. The whole camp will be on alert. No one will be able to enter or leave the camp until the truce sound is called.”
“We need to find an abandoned tent,” Trynne suggested.
“No, we won’t have any trouble leaving,” her father said. “Few guard the south of the camp, the area toward the mountains. I know all the patrol patterns and passwords. I established them,” he added, chuckling softly.
The moon was bright overhead as they continued to climb higher into the mountains, the trees growing sparser the higher they went.
Trynne’s legs burned from the climb, but she was determined to keep going. The sound of hounds called in the distance, gaining ground.
They stopped to rest on the mountain trail, taking in huge gulps of air.
“The air . . . is getting thinner,” Fallon said, gasping. He mopped sweat from his brow. “How far behind us do you think they are?”
Owen folded his arms, leaning back against a rock, his breath whistling in his chest. “Closer than I’d like. They’ve been moving quickly now that they’re on our trail.”
Trynne spotted several points of light at the base of the mountain. “They’re carrying lamps or torches,” she said, gesturing to them.
“Best to keep going, then,” Owen said. “The torches will be at the rear, not the front. The dogs don’t need the light to hunt us.”
“That means they’re even closer than they look,” Fallon said.
“We were never going to make it very far,” Owen said with resignation. “Come on.”
They continued up the trail, the night air cold against their necks. Trynne was fatigued by both lack of sleep and the trials of their difficult journey, but she was relieved that her father was with them. Even without his memory, he seemed much the same to her, always plotting ahead, pinpointing enemies’ weaknesses.
Huge broken fragments of rock were jumbled around, making their progress slower and more arduous. As they moved higher into the pass, the smells changed. There was a minty scent to the air, and she noticed some long-leafed plants choking the scrub alongside the mountain trail. She bent and snapped off one of the leaves. It was soft as felt and gave off the pleasant odor.
Suddenly, Trynne sensed a pulse of Fountain magic at work on the trail below them. Owen stiffened at the same time, holding up his hand to halt them.
Lightning exploded from the cloudless sky and struck a tree to their left, turning it into a tower of flames. The noise of the thunder was deafening, and the air sizzled with heat and danger.
“That’s the power of the Dochte Mandar. We need shelter,”
Owen said. The crackling noise of the burning tree filled the quiet that followed the clap of thunder.
“Aspis,” Trynne said, conjuring the word of power to form a shield around her and those near her. There was a risk that it would draw the Dochte Mandar to them, but the danger in not acting was greater. As if they were indeed summoned by her show of power, more bolts of lightning zigzagged across the sky—enough that it was soon as bright as day.
The shield drained Trynne’s store of magic, but she held it up to protect them as they climbed. More stabs of lightning continued to strike all around them, blasting trees and shattering stone, and the thunder ricocheted off the stone of the mountainside, magnifying the noise.
Trynne’s heart was hammering with fear, but she was grateful for her magic. She sensed it was their only protection against the Dochte Mandar.