“I have news,” Wolf said without adding that it was from Tinker. He had learned young that the first rule in political discourse was to admit to as little as possible. “The oni have eleven more devices like this one.”
Wraith Arrow held out the trap that he was holding.
Wolf gave a carefully edited explanation of the trap. “It’s paramount that we find them before—”
Sunder interrupted to wave away Wolf’s concern. “One must always assume that the enemy has a great and powerful weapon that it holds in reserve. It is why you must grind out every last one of them. Time and time again, someone would be merciful to our masters only to have them unleash a flood of horrors or a hideous plague upon their vanquisher.”
“It looks like a wine cooler,” Forest Moss said.
“The smallest packages are often the most dangerous.” Sunder cocked hir fingers and brought hir hand to the mouth to cast a Stone Clan scry. It would search the land instead of the sky.
Wolf felt the gathering of power as Sunder made a connection between hir and the Stone Clan Spell Stones. The scry washed over Wolf as it scanned the entire clearing. Sunder had used a spell that allowed domana from other clans to perceive the signature readings, so everything laid clear to Wolf, from the Wyverns organizing the royal marines to the trap in Wraith Arrow’s hands. It was a small, dense knot of potential nearly lost against the confusion of the work camp.
“It’s not much to look at,” Sunder said. “It will be difficult to spot in the middle of battle.”
“If it is in one of their camps, I will find it,” Forest Moss said.
Sunder dropped hir scry and cast another spell. Wolf could tell that the spell focused tightly on the trap and flashed oddly, but it wasn’t until there was a flare of power from the gossamer overhead that he realized Sunder was using battle code. Hir was identifying the trap as an object of interest. Darkness had signaled his understanding.
“Good hunting.” Sunder turned and drifted away. “Come along, clans mate.”
Forest Moss followed Sunder like a lost child.
“See that all preparations to move out are finished,” Wolf ordered, trusting that his Hand would delegate as he scanned the area for Prince True Flame.
His cousin had changed out of his white ceremonial uniform to his combat gear. With five thousand royal marines milling about, all in Fire Clan Red, the prince was difficult to spot by design. Windwolf could feel, though, the steady low thrum of a fire shield that only a domana could cast.
Wolf spotted his cousin among the flood of crimson uniforms, the one golden head among the sea of redheads.
“True!” Wolf called out in greeting.
“Wolf, my young pup,” True Flame said fondly as he cancelled his shield. He stepped forward and recast it so that it now protected Wolf too. “All is ready. I’m moving out. Keep yourself safe. You were well trained for this.”
“I need a word with you first.” Wolf explained as quickly as he could of the new weapons.
“This Kajo had them for three months?” True Flame asked. “I wonder why he’s not used at least one. I suppose he hoped that Malice would be our undoing. I suppose they might still be betting on the supposed horrors that Jewel Tear reported.”
“You doubt her report?” Wolf said.
True grunted, sounding unimpressed. “She’s young and inexperienced. She could be wrong about what she scryed in those camps. To keep something like a horror hidden for long enough for it to reach its full growth…” True finished with a shake of his head to indicate that he didn’t think it was possible.
Wolf was less sure. The oni had had nearly thirty years to raise any type of creature that they wanted in the cover of the dense virgin forest. “My pilots always use the train line as a landmark; it’s nearly impossible to miss. We came from the north or the east, fighting the headwind. We never had cause to venture south of the tracks once we spotted them.”
True waved aside the comment. “We’re talking something the size of a wyvern or larger. Some horrors were nearly the size of dragons. How do you keep something like that caged and fed?”
“If the electric catfish are any indication, they could lose them in the wild and we would be none the wiser.”
“The catfish were not true horrors, no matter how large and scary as they might seem to the humans. They are on scale with the wargs and the black willows. Malice comes close in size but, more importantly, in power. Horrors were deadly even to domana.”
In Wolf’s peripheral vision, Wraith Arrow was nodding. His First was a veteran of the Rebellion. He’d fought alongside Windwolf’s grandfather, Howling. He would have dealt with horrors.
Malice had nearly killed Wolf.
“If you’re ambushed, put up your wind shield and do a fire scry. I’ll support you from my position,” True Flame said.
Wolf nodded. The two spells used different hands so that they could be cast jointly.
The narrow railway was a blessing and a curse in that it provided a level straight road in the direction they needed to travel but it was also a perfect site for an ambush. They had decided to split up and travel in smaller groups. True Flame would lead the way and turn off where Jewel Tear had left a trail marker.
Wolf would follow True Flame at a distance, turn off before the trail marker, and travel in a parallel path to a point just west of the first oni camp. Sunder and Forest Moss would head straight east, arriving south of the first camp. Darkness was to attack from the east. Both Harbingers would have a second camp at their back. Cana Lily would provide air support from Darkness’s gossamer, allowing him to move quickly to where he was needed.
All things considered, it was the best attack plan for Wolf and his people. Wolf didn’t have the sekasha or the laedin to lead the charge into a dense knot of oni backed by horrors. Sunder would deal with Forest Moss, who had had a mental breakdown after the attack on Ginger Wine. The Wyverns with him believed that he was stable enough to take part, but if they needed to put him down during the battle, his death could not be placed at Wolf’s feet. Cana Lily, who clung to old resentments spawned during the Clan Wars, was as far away as the battle allowed. In the war council, Sunder seemed focused on the oni and equally irritated by Cana Lily’s outbursts.
It was worrisome, though, that Wolf’s first concerns were over his “allies” and not the enemy.
Darkness planned to fly his gossamer troop carrier over the oni camp. The gondola would be hidden from casual view by a spell that bent light rays. Once over the target, he and his people would leap from the gossamer, protected by the Stone Clan’s most powerful shield. It was an attack that Darkness invented and he had warriors who trusted him enough to leap off a gossamer in midair.
It was an insanely dangerous maneuver that only someone with centuries of war experience would attempt…
Or Wolf’s domi.
Wolf had to be sure that Tinker didn’t learn of this attack.
True Flame laughed. “Ah, you must be thinking of your domi. I’ve learned the look. One part fondness. One part terror.”
Wolf smiled and nodded. “Keep yourself safe, cousin.”
True Flame gave him a rough hug and headed off with his troops falling in behind him.
“If the oni truly have multiple horrors hidden away,” Wraith Arrow murmured quietly as the Fire Clan surged ahead, “we will need all that we can muster to kill them. Hopefully, Blue Jay can come quickly.”
8: HOPPING DOWN THE BUNNY TRAIL