The other two men, Seeker and the assassin Gauntlet, did not seem to notice the oppressive atmosphere of the boundary, but Willow did. Justice identified her uneasiness in the way she shifted in the saddle behind him, her hands and legs in constant motion as if she could not get comfortable. He ignored her restlessness, and the presence of the boundary, to scan the sharp slope for tracks. Loosened rocks, a skid of a boot heel in freshly turned earth, and the odd broken branch were all signs that others had passed this way not too long ago.
He wished Cage were here to interpret the tracks. Annoyance had Justice tightening his grip on the hross’s reins. He had tried to warn his friend of the dangers of running. Cage should have listened.
By afternoon, they reached a summit above the boundary. The gray blanket of mist extended well past the dull, watery horizon. Justice had never heard tell of anyone who entered making it beyond the marked path used by the young Godseekers. It ended in a small clearing where a goddess would greet him if he were to be her chosen.
The goddess who had chosen Justice was a black-haired, golden-skinned beauty. Over time he had grown to hate her for the way she’d made him yearn for her, how she’d stripped away any will he had to resist her demands. Raven’s smooth golden flesh might not have the same goddess-bright gleam to it, but the similarities were enough to remind him of his former mistress. The way she lured men was identical.
He wondered if his goddess ever wandered the boundary, attempting to find her way back to the mountains now that the demons were gone. If so, she would no longer desire him. He was not a young man anymore.
He had no intention of entering the mist if he did not need to. He wondered if Willow could enter. If so, then he would reconsider. If not, then it stood to reason that Raven could not either, and they were wasting valuable time here.
Seeker and Gauntlet stared at the layer of mist as if at the goddesses themselves, leaving Justice burning with impatience and contempt. They knew nothing of the true nature of the immortals.
The path became too steep to navigate safely while riding. Justice slid from the hross’s back, then held up his hands to help Willow dismount. Her gaze, too, was transfixed on the mist, but showed doubt and a trace of what could be mistaken for fear on anyone else. Justice did not think her truly capable of the emotion—she enjoyed instilling it in others too greatly.
“Willow!” he snapped.
She tore her eyes from the swirling gray mass to look down at him. The natural brown of her irises had changed to a fiery red. The color gradually faded, and she allowed him to help her from the saddle. A fold of her skirt caught on it, and she reached back with gloved fingers to tug it free. As he set her on the ground, his hands did not linger. It made his flesh shrivel to share a saddle with her, but she had proven useful and had not yet disappointed him.
“I want you to enter the mist,” he said to her.
“I can’t move forward.” She demonstrated for him. It was as if an invisible barrier had been erected in front of her. Each step was brought to an abrupt halt.
Justice frowned. “If you can’t go beyond this point, how is it possible there are two sets of tracks leading down?”
The footprints were clearly evident, as if the owners had suddenly seen no need to hide them. Of course they had not, because they’d had no intention of returning.
But surely the boundary would not have welcomed Raven, a demon’s spawn. The assassin who accompanied her should not have been able to cross either. He had not been one of the chosen favorites.
The other two men had not yet noticed any problem. Justice kept one eye on them as he searched the ground for signs that the two who had entered the mist also returned from it.
There. Footprints, heading up and away from the boundary. He expelled the breath he had been holding. They had not made it, although it offended him that a demon and an assassin who had refused allegiance to the Godseekers had both been permitted to try.
Seeker and Gauntlet had almost reached the path leading into the beginning of the mist. They dug into the ground with their boot heels, balancing their weight on their haunches so they wouldn’t pitch headlong down the mountainside into the trees. Seeker paused when he realized Justice and Willow were not following and looked up at them with a question on his round face.
“Are you coming, Justice?” Seeker asked.
“No,” Justice replied. “I’ve found their tracks. They didn’t cross. They’ve gone back into the mountains in the direction of the old silver mines.” Once more, he wished Cage had not been so rash as to try and run from a demon. Justice could have used his skills.
Seeker’s reluctance to leave without entering the mist was obvious. A tiny frown crafted two deep furrows above the bridge of his broad nose, extending up his forehead. Gauntlet stopped his descent too, and looked to Seeker for direction.
“We’ve come this far. Since we’re here, we may as well take a closer look,” Seeker said. “It will give us something to report to the others as to the boundary’s current state.”
Justice silenced his impatience. He watched as Seeker and Gauntlet reached the tree line. When he was certain they were well out of hearing, he turned to Willow.
“When we find Raven,” he said, “I want you to trap her inside a circle of demon fire like you did me. She won’t want to expose herself as a spawn by crossing it. Not at first. Then, when I give you the signal, I want you to raise the demon. But when you do, release the circle.”
Her cruel mouth hardened. “If I do that, the demon will be free.”
“Not for long.” Raven was a beautiful woman who possessed all the allure of a full immortal. Justice did not believe a demon would be any more able to resist her than a mortal man. A demon had weaknesses in its armor, and all assassins were taught how to exploit them. While she distracted it, the assassin Gauntlet could kill it. “I want it to look as if Raven is the one controlling it. I’m confident she can contain it.”
If things went according to plan, the demon would be dead, and Raven would be either dead too, or held responsible for raising it. If Justice could retrieve the amulet she’d stolen from him, so much the better. He might find a use for it.
What bothered him now, superseding thoughts of Raven and retribution, was that he had not been able to descend to the boundary either. The barrier that held Willow back had held him back as well.
That was something he did not wish for Seeker, or anyone else, to discover and report.
…
It had taken longer for Creed to lose Might in the mountains than he’d liked. It would be even longer, however, before Might discovered that the trail he followed was not real, but one that Creed had planted as a thought in his head. In the meantime, Creed headed back to the temple to search in the direction Blade had departed in, to see if he could pick up some signs. Much of the snow was melted, and Blade’s tracks would probably have disappeared with it, but Creed was a strong tracker. Justice and Cage would have left a wider, easier path to follow. They’d not be expecting to have anyone following them.
And Creed had to find Raven.
From above the valley of the Temple of Immortal Right, Creed paused, took a deep breath of morning air, then began to work his way around to the place where he had said good-bye to Blade. His attention was focused on the ground, but a commotion at the temple gates caught his eye.
A force of ten men passed through. He scanned their faces, but Justice was not among them. They turned off in a direction rarely used because it led to nowhere but the far side of the mountains.
Creed watched until they disappeared from sight, examining the possibilities in his head as to why ten men would be heading toward the goddess boundary.