“I went to his camp a few times to try to talk him into coming home, but he wouldn’t listen to me. It’s like he’s becoming a different person. We used to be close, but now he doesn’t trust me anymore, doesn’t trust anybody except his men, and they all seem to be losing their minds as well.
“When I suggested that he destroy the Goiri bone, that it was making him crazy, he became furious, accusing me of plotting against him. He said it was the only weapon capable of scouring magic from the world once and for all. After that, his men escorted me back home and told me never to return.”
Sadness filled her voice and clouded her eyes, a sense of helplessness seeming to settle over her. “I wish I could help him.”
“We can’t let him get anywhere near the box as long as he has that bone,” Lacy said.
Wyatt thought for a moment. “This might be an opportunity. If this Goiri bone functions like you claim, we could use it to destroy the keystone itself.”
“We’d have to take it out of the box first,” Lacy said. “What if it doesn’t work? What if we open the box, but the keystone still can’t be destroyed? Phane would come for it … he’d win.”
“I agree with Lacy,” Ayela said. “The risk is too great.”
Wyatt nodded to himself. “In that case, we may end up in a confrontation with your brother.”
“I know,” Ayela whispered.
Wyatt regarded her for a few moments. “Lady Reishi chooses her friends well,” he said.
One of Ayela’s men materialized out of the jungle. “It’s Trajan with nearly forty of his men. They’re staying about five minutes behind us.”
“No sense in provoking them” Wyatt said. “We stay the course.”
“I agree,” Lacy said.
Ayela just nodded, worry creasing her brow.
They traveled for the rest of the day, with Trajan trailing behind them, though never too closely. From the tracks they were following, the Rangers were able to determine that they were steadily gaining on Druja.
By nightfall, Lacy was so exhausted she fell asleep within moments of lying down and without the usual struggle to quiet her mind. She woke with a start sometime in the dead of night, a hand clamped over her mouth. Panic surged into her belly, only subsiding slightly when she heard Wyatt’s voice.
“We have to move, quietly,” he whispered, waiting until she nodded her head before taking his hand from her mouth.
“What’s happening?”
“Soldiers are coming. Gather your things quickly.”
Within minutes, they’d broken camp and were moving through the jungle in four single-file columns, each person walking with a hand on the next person’s shoulder for guidance through the pitch black.
When Lacy looked back, she caught a flicker of torchlight in the distance but then it was gone. They moved slowly but steadily for over an hour before the sky began to lighten and they could pick up the pace. Lacy was sore and tired but determined to keep up no matter how much she hurt. They ate on the move and didn’t stop for a break until the sun was high in the sky and even then only because there was a small butte rising up out of the jungle that offered a good view of the surrounding area.
“It’s hard to tell for sure, but our scouts estimate there are a thousand men moving toward us from the Regency fortress,” Wyatt said. “Also, we lost the witch’s trail in the night.”
“Why would he send so many men?” Wren asked.
Lacy looked up sharply, a thought occurring to her suddenly. “What about Trajan? We didn’t warn him.”
“No, he warned us,” Ayela said. “I wouldn’t worry about those soldiers finding my brother.”
“You don’t understand,” Lacy said, alarm building in her voice. “Phane has a magic mirror. He could be watching us right now, which means he knows about Trajan … he knows about the Goiri bone. Those thousand soldiers aren’t here for us, they’re here for your brother.”
“She’s probably right,” Wyatt said. “If I were Phane, I’d have sent wraithkin after Lacy and Wren, but they’d be useless against your brother.”
“My brother may be losing his mind, but that hasn’t diminished his knowledge of the jungle. If my family has had one advantage against the Regency, it’s always been the jungle. They won’t find him unless he wants them to.”
“I hope you’re right,” Lacy said.
“Me too.”
“So where does that leave us?” Wyatt asked.
“Right where we started,” Lacy said. “Chasing after the witch.”
“It might be difficult to pick up her trail again without Phane’s soldiers catching up with us,” Wyatt said.
“She’s trying to get to Ithilian, so she has to be heading for a port,” Lacy said.
“That would be Stobi,” Ayela said. “It’s probably a day and a half away if we head straight there.”
By the following morning, Lacy was starting to fear that she wouldn’t be able to keep up any longer. She was exhausted and hurting all over, especially her feet. It was hard to imagine how Ayela’s men could move so quickly for so long wearing only sandals. Despite her pain and exhaustion, she didn’t fall behind, willing herself forward, step by step, until they caught sight of Druja.
She was nearing the outskirts of Stobi, walking as briskly as her deformed body would carry her. They only spotted her because she was walking down the main road between the Regency fortress and Stobi, apparently unafraid of encountering any of Phane’s men or agents.
“If we run, we can get ahead of her and lay an ambush where the road rounds that bluff,” Ayela’s lead man said, pointing into the distance.
Lacy felt like she was going to cry. She could barely keep up at the grueling pace they’d set … running was beyond her at this point.
“We’ll send half of the men ahead,” Wyatt said. “The rest of us will come up from behind in case she escapes.”
Ayela nodded her approval and the men separated into two forces, half of the Rangers and half of her men in each group.
Lacy felt a wave of relief. She couldn’t bear the thought of Druja escaping because of her.
Each group set out, the ambush team running through the jungle toward the bluff, while Ayela, Wren, and Lacy went with Wyatt and the remaining soldiers on a course that brought them to the road.
Ayela looked around nervously.
“What’s wrong?” Lacy asked.
“The Regency uses roads; we use the jungle,” Ayela said.
“Right now, we’ll make better time on the road,” Wyatt said. “Just keep your eyes open and be ready to retreat into the jungle if we see soldiers.”
Traveling on the relatively even surface of the road was so much easier than moving through the jungle, but Lacy also felt exposed and couldn’t help looking around nervously for signs of a threat. Everyone stopped in their tracks when the dragon roared.
Ayela put her hand over her mouth as Rankosi floated over the men poised on the bluff. Time seemed to slow-helplessness flooding into Lacy. A great gout of fire spewed forth from the dragon, igniting the jungle and scouring the bluff of life, leaving it smoldering and charred. She knew that no one could have survived such an attack.
It felt like she’d been punched in the gut. The horrible truth began to sink in-she’d lost the box and she simply didn’t have the power to take it back. Her feelings of despair transformed into terror when Rankosi turned his attention toward them, rising higher into the air with a thrust of his wings and then diving toward them with alarming speed. Everyone stood stock-still, frozen like prey as the moments ticked by until Rankosi flared his wings and landed in the road before them.
Fear broke. The Rangers fanned out, nocking arrows in preparation for a wholly suicidal attack.
Rankosi flicked his tail out, quicker than a cat, stabbing one of the Rangers through the chest, then casually bringing the warm corpse up to his mouth and slowly chewing the body before swallowing in exaggerated fashion. The rest of the Rangers backed away.
“You will come no farther,” Rankosi said. “Were it not for the princess in your midst, you would have already suffered the same fate as your ambush party.”