She stopped and looked at her hand in near surprise. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” she said.
But she knew. Azugorath was pushing her to act against her will again. It seemed that the Wraith Queen worked on her sporadically, pushing with great effort to gain a foothold within her psyche and then leaving her alone for long periods of time. She didn’t understand why, but she did know that she couldn’t afford to let her gain control. She resolved to redouble her vigilance within her own mind.
At nightfall, she took one last look at the Regency soldiers following in the distance. They were half a day behind and they’d come upon the tree rats. It seemed that the little rodents were just as unsettling to them as they were to Isabel. She smiled, calling Slyder back to her.
“There,” Ayela said, pointing into the growing darkness.
Isabel thought she saw a flickering, electric-blue spark in the distance.
“We need a fire,” Ayela said. “Where there’s one, there are more.”
“A fire will give away our position,” Hector said.
“Yes, but without fire we won’t survive the night,” Ayela said.
He and Horace looked to Isabel. She nodded reluctantly and the two men went to work rounding up wood while Ayela and Isabel prepared a fire pit and collected kindling.
“We’ll need a supply of firewood sufficient to last the night,” Ayela said.
Hector muttered something under his breath on his way back into the jungle, looking for more wood. By dark, they had a roaring fire burning hot and bright.
Shadowfang was reluctant to venture into the light of the flames, but the increasing number of crackling blue-white sparks Isabel saw in the darkness prompted her to impose her will on her pet and soothe his anxiety at being near the flame, lest he be killed by the lightning flies in the night.
The darkness surrounding them was alight with the terrifying little insects-there must have been hundreds, lightning arcing between their wings as they buzzed around their would-be prey.
“Will they follow us tomorrow?” Isabel asked.
“Doubtful,” Ayela said. “They’re somewhat territorial, rarely venturing too far from the area where they were born.”
After the first hot meal in days, Isabel went to work cooking the deathwalker root down into a rudimentary healing salve. Ayela watched with interest while she carefully cut each flower sac and emptied the contents into a small jar she’d produced from the bag she carried over her shoulder.
“I have a friend you’d like,” Isabel said. “He’s very knowledgeable about the uses of plants. He taught me how to do this.”
“Knowledge of the jungle is valuable to my people,” Ayela said. “It’s a source of many poisons but also many medicines. The most respected person in any tribe is almost always the person with the greatest knowledge of the jungle, even more than the warriors.”
“Lucky would love to see this place. He’d have a thousand questions for you. In fact, I suspect the only way you’d get him to stop asking you questions would be to hand him something to eat.”
“You must miss your friends and your family,” Ayela said.
“I do,” Isabel said, “very much.”
“Then why come here, so far away from them, and all alone?” Ayela asked.
“It’s complicated,” Isabel said, shaking her head.
“Perhaps, when you trust me more, you will tell me the truth of your situation,” Ayela said.
“I do trust you, Ayela,” Isabel said. “I wouldn’t be out here with you if I didn’t.”
“Then tell me your reasons for coming to my country when reason itself argues against you being here,” Ayela said.
Hector and Horace remained silent but shared a look.
Isabel sighed. “I guess you have a right to know. Phane summoned a very powerful demon named Azugorath. She’s touched me and is trying to subvert my free will, trying to turn me away from the light and to the darkness so that I will serve Phane. Because of this demon’s influence, I nearly killed my husband. I left him that very night because that was the only way I knew to protect him.”
“Should I fear you?” Ayela asked, a slight tremor running through her voice.
“I don’t know,” Isabel whispered. “So far I’ve been able to control what Azugorath is doing to me, but she keeps pushing against my will, trying to find a way in. I fear that one day, I won’t be able to stop her.”
Ayela stared into the fire for several minutes without saying a word.
“That must be a horrible burden to bear,” she said, finally.
Isabel nodded.
“It seems we have something in common,” Ayela said. “Our loved ones are being held hostage by evil and the only way to get them back is to destroy the evil.”
“Exactly,” Isabel said.
Chapter 26
Hector woke Isabel quietly just before dawn. The darkness surrounding them was still crackling with lightning flies, but Hector was far more concerned about something else. He pointed silently into the jungle.
Isabel had to look carefully before she saw it-the light of a torch, then another. She motioned for Hector to wake Ayela, then she roused Shadowfang with her mind while she strapped on her boots and sword.
“We’re going to have to fight,” she said. “We can’t risk the jungle with all of these lightning flies.”
“So how did they manage to travel through the night without being eaten alive?” Horace asked.
“Their torches would have kept the lightning flies at bay … mostly, anyway,” Ayela said. “I’m sure they’ve been bitten more than a few times.”
She drew her dagger and fished a vial of thick black liquid from her pouch. Carefully, she drizzled her blade with the liquid, then held her dagger over the fire until it dried, forming a coating on her blade.
“What’s that?” Horace asked.
“Poison,” Ayela said.
“Oh,” Horace said, inching away from her.
The jungle started to lighten and the torches grew closer.
“Spread out and hide,” Isabel said. “We don’t want to let them take us with crossbows. Attack when you see my light-lance.”
Hector and Horace nodded, disappearing into the jungle just outside the clearing. The lightning flies seemed to sense the coming dawn and had almost completely disappeared by the time the soldiers approached the camp.
Isabel waited until they were close before she cast her shield spell, but then held her place, waiting for just the right moment to strike. Six women slipped into the camp, warily looking around as they approached the fire, inspecting the ground for any sign of where their quarry had gone. Isabel started to whisper the words of her light-lance spell, allowing her anger to boil into tightly controlled rage.
The wraithkin appeared in the midst of the women. Isabel smiled fiercely as she unleashed her spell, burning a hole through the side of his head the size of an apple. Hector and Horace swept into the six women a moment later, dual short swords drawn and flashing in the firelight.
Four of the women immediately formed a battle line, raising shields and swords to face the attack, while the other two faced away from the line, searching the jungle for any sign of additional enemy.
Hector and Horace split, each targeting a soldier on the outside of the line. Hector raced toward the soldiers recklessly as if he was going to crash into the shields and expose himself to their blades, but at the last moment he transformed into vapor and slipped through the line, solidifying a moment later behind them and stabbing the surprised woman in the back before rolling around the outside of her dying body and facing the next soldier in the line.
Horace skirted around the edge of the line, forcing his opponent to turn to face him before lunging toward her with his leading blade. When she stepped back to brace herself, she tripped over Horace’s invisible servant, falling into her companion and knocking her over as well. Horace darted in and stabbed her in the lower leg, then backed off, circling around toward the front of the now broken line, looking for his next opportunity to strike.