After an hour, she only had about an eighth of what she wanted to have done. Burning everything wasn’t difficult work, but it did consume some time. Especially with only her able to really do the work.
Arachne did her part by uprooting the small trees and larger bushes and tossing them out of the ring Eva had made. Neither Vektul nor Srey were really equipped to help out much. They just stayed to the side and watched.
At least, until Srey stepped forwards.
“It’s started again.”
Chapter 014
“Alright! Let’s move!” Eva shouted out over the somewhat smoldering field. Arachne was a short distance away, clearing out a few tumbleweeds. Vektul and Srey were both near each other and, as such, near Eva as well.
As soon as Arachne heard the shout, she dropped her tumbleweed to the ground and started running towards Eva without hesitation.
As she ran, Eva took the time to extinguish her lingering flames. While she wanted to burn down a good portion of the area, she didn’t want to start an uncontrollable forest fire. Or field fire, as the case was. Taking the time to do so wasn’t that big of a deal either. It didn’t take long and, more importantly, Eva doubted that they would be attacked. At least not immediately.
They only just started watching.
“We don’t want to run into them on our way out,” Eva said, turning towards Srey. “Which direction are they in?”
“There are actually two separate ones. Both started looking at us around the same time. Not exactly. Maybe a minute or two difference.” He pointed a hand towards the direction of the prison. Perhaps slightly to one side. “There and over there,” he said as he swung the hand. It didn’t actually move all that far. Still in the direction of the prison, but on the other side.
“How far?”
“Not very. Not right on top of us, obviously, but maybe five minutes of walking out.”
“Both of them?”
He gave a curt nod of his head.
“Great.”
“Is it?” Vektul cocked his head to one side, almost pressing an ear to his shoulder. “Friends of yours?”
“No. Great as in: Great, they’re setting up to ambush us on our way back to the prison.”
“Oh.” His head snapped back to a straight position as his smile spread across his face. “Great!” he said sounding perfectly genuine about being happy.
Eva turned away from him, ignoring his antics for the moment. “You hear that?” she asked as Arachne ran up to her side.
“Ambush? Are we running into it? Maybe going around and flanking one of the groups?”
“If they can hear us as well as see us,” Eva said with a glance at a shrugging Srey, “they’ll know we’re coming. There are twelve demons back at Brakket. I’d rather not have us get picked off in small groups. Best to avoid them for now and try to fight as a larger group.”
“Might not be so easy,” Srey said. “I think it is safe to say that they can hear us. Both sources started moving as soon as you said to avoid them. Or maybe as soon as you said not to get picked off in small groups. Either way, they’re coming closer.”
“While still scrying on us?”
Most methods of scrying that Eva knew about required the scryer to sit in one spot. Away from her altar and incense, Nel could only get what were essentially still images. The methods she had used to test her anti-scrying packets also needed someone to sit around still pools of water. Moving the water would disturb it and break the scrying effect.
Srey’s nod at her question was somewhat disturbing, though not wholly unexpected. Eva didn’t know every method of scrying after all. They might not be scrying at all. All she knew was that they were being observed by someone who did not wish them well.
“Right. Arachne, we’re moving. Follow me. Srey, Vektul, stick close.”
Eva took off in a run. Away from the hunters and away from her prison as well.
She could teleport away with Arachne so long as they hadn’t set up any wards. It was doubtful that they had. Srey would have said something the moment that he noticed any observations. Without observations, they couldn’t have known to set up wards.
Still, while Eva could teleport, she wasn’t sure about Srey or Vektul. She couldn’t ask without giving information to the enemy so long as they were being observed. It was something that, in hindsight, she should have asked before.
Too late now.
Either they needed to escape without teleporting or they needed to get far enough away fast enough that they had a moment of privacy.
“Only one of the two are following us. The second is staying where it was. Still observing, but… wait, no. Whoever it is just stopped.”
“But the first observer is still following?”
“Matching pace. Not gaining any distance, but not losing it either.”
Eva didn’t stop running, but she did hum in thought for a few minutes.
“Shall we turn and fight?”
“No,” Eva said, glancing over at Arachne. “Not yet. We just need to distract them a little longer. The others should be almost finished by now. At least drawing them out here was a success.”
Vektul, still running, tilted his head to one side. He opened his mouth for just a moment before snapping it shut.
Eva’s glare ensured it stayed that way.
Whoever the demon hunters were, they probably knew that Eva had been lying just now. However, she didn’t need Vektul confirming it. If their pursuers got confused or worried about something happening back in town or back at the prison and left to check on it, all the better for them.
Unfortunately, even after running for another few minutes, Srey didn’t give any update about their observers.
They were still being chased.
To fight or to flee?
Eva slowed down, motioning for the others to follow her lead. She continued in the same direction. It was just at a walking pace.
“They’re keeping pace with us. No significant distance change as far as I can tell.”
“How far back?”
“Still about five minutes of walking at their current pace, were we to stop moving.”
“And direction?”
He raised an arm, pointing.
Eva bit her lip. The hunter was still between them and the prison.
What they were lacking at the moment was information. How were they being spied upon? Who? Someone she knew or some random hunter that showed up while tracking the new demons?
“Counter reconnaissance? Shall we go and see if we can’t catch a glimpse of them?”
“What happened to running… and, uh, distracting.”
Eva frowned at Srey, shaking her head. “If they are matching pace when they could easily catch up, they probably don’t want to fight.”
“You’re fooling yourself.”
Maybe so. Eva didn’t want to fight. She didn’t even want to spy on them. Getting too near to them would likely commit them to a fight. Worse, it would leave them open to that second observer circling around and flanking them.
There could even be more individuals or groups out there who weren’t actively spying but were in contact with the others.
At the same time, if they could spot their enemies, they could start planning around them…
“Actually. Wait,” Eva said as she pulled out her cellphone.
They might be able to see what she typed. If they did, it wouldn’t really matter. There wasn’t much they could do about it.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have Nel’s cellphone number. She wasn’t sure if Nel even had a cellphone.
Zoe. I need you to get to Nel as fast as possible. Have Nel scry on me. Then, have her search a short distance south until she sees any other groups of people.