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She scowled at him.

Layala rubbed her fingertip over a sharp point of the five-tipped throwing star in her hand and peeked out from the side of the tree trunk. The source of the rotten scent in the air sat in a circle around a dying fire. How they could smell anything beyond themselves was incredible. White stringy hair hung down six different armored chests. Their black eyes were shocking against a face of snow-colored skin.

“We’re close to the village,” another said, picking his pointed teeth with a thin, bloody bone. “Maybe we can get one of the little ones.”

Vile creatures. Layala’s teeth clenched together until they began to ache.

“We’re not even supposed to be killing the big ones.”

“It wasn’t me,” the other one said in a slow deep voice. “Found her like that.”

Perhaps Piper was correct after all. What could cause that sort of mutilation? A bear? They only roamed the deep forests. The creatures in the unnamed forest she’d battled previously couldn’t escape its boundaries and they weren’t near there…

“Master is awake now. We need to build our army for his plans.”

Leif met Layala’s gaze, and Piper shifted.

The hairs on the back of Layala’s neck rose.Yes, reveal his plans,Layala thought. She wasn’t waiting around, twiddling her thumbs for the Black Mage to find them. If she could bring his location to Thane, then they could plan an assault and take the offensive. In the past weeks she’d read everything she could about the Black Mage which only affirmed what she already knew. He was the deadliest, most powerful mage to ever exist in Adalon. Their only chance of beating him was a surprise attack. The goddess of knowledge within the scepter and stone spoke of the key to ending the curse and defeating him, and that was his heart. All they needed was to get a weapon through his heart, an arrow most likely.

A branch snapped somewhere among the dark wood to the south. The largest pale one stood and sniffed again, pulling out his jagged-edged sword. “Someone is here.”

Layala groaned internally. What clumsy imbecile was out here about to get themselves killed? Everyone knew it wasn’t safe to be out in the woods anymore, day or night. Layala nodded, Piper tugged her sword free, and Leif stood, pulling an arrow from his quiver. She stepped out from behind the tree, and the throwing star in her left hand whistled through the air, embedding between the big one’s eyes.

“Assassins!” the teeth-picker shrieked. Leif’s arrow speared through his neck and dropped the beast. Piper’s sword slashed across the third pale one’s throat, spewing black blood in an arc. Layala moved swiftly for another; she ducked under a heavy, starred mace that whooshed through the air. With a quick thrust, the tip of her blade shoved into her attacker’s chest. She pushed harder, through armor and bones until she twisted her blade. She wanted him tofeelhis death. He squealed a horrible high-pitched sound until she kicked him free of her sword and he hit the ground with a heavy thud. Four down.

Block, sidestep, hack. Five down. She swiped the back of her sleeve across her cheek to clear away the splatters of warm blood.

The last pale one squared up with her, showing his pointed teeth in a grimace mixed between fear and rage. “You,” he growled and slowly backed away. “Dark mage.”

Layala and her little crew were growing a reputation among the enemy now. “Oh, it’s most certainly me.” She threw out her magical ebony vine until it wrapped around his neck. His boots dug into the soft dirt and foliage as she slowly dragged him closer. “Where is he? Where is the Black Mage?”

The pale one clawed at the vine, squealed and bucked like a wild mustang, trying to pull free of a rope.

“Answer me.”

“Don’t know,” he wailed, falling to the ground, and writhing like a worm. “Don’t know. Don’t know.”

That was what they all said. But someone knew. Someone must have seen the Black Mage. The pale ones wandered in packs throughout all of Palenor now, no longer drawn to the Void as they had been before. Rumors were they roamed in the human lands and in Calladira unchecked. Even if Thane and the soldiers killed any they saw, small numbers of pale ones seemed to be everywhere. The enemy didn’t gather in masses trying to take entire cities as they once did. They attacked here and there. Barging into homes in the middle of the night, stealing elves. The Ravens could take down a legion on a battlefield but when the pale ones hid, when they separated, they became weeds; kill one group and two more appeared somewhere else. It was a kind of warfare Thane admitted to Layala he’d never dealt with before. So far, the Black Mage and his forces were getting the best of them.

“If you don’t know then you’re useless to me.”

“Wait,” Piper said. “You said you’re building an army; for what?”

“For my master,” he said through gurgled speech.

“It’s no use.” Leif slid his bow over his head and across his chest. “They’re not smart enough to answer. Just like big, stupid trolls. We’re wasting our time out here.”

The pale one hissed, baring blacked bloodstained teeth.

“Where is your master?” Layala demanded.

“Hewill findyou,” the pale one said with a creepy smile. “When he’s ready for his queen.”

Heat crept up Layala’s neck and she gritted her teeth. The vine snapped his neck, turning his head at an odd angle, and disappeared. Leif and Piper averted their eyes as soon as she looked at them. With a heavy sigh, she looked up. A part in the heavy clouds revealed a glimpse of the stars. They twinkled brightly in the gap. It didn’t make her feel any different. The darkness that blanketed the land didn’t infuse her with power or make her feel like the goddess that supposedly lived in her.

Her mind flashed back to what happened in that tower. The Black Mage held her at his mercy, his grip on her throat relentless. Even now she shivered in disgust thinking about his tongue grazing her ear and the way he called her his wife. And his final words, the most haunting of all, “I’ll be seeing you. Soon.” He shoved her between the shoulder blades, sending her stumbling into Thane’s arms, and vanished, along with Mathekis into nothing. And for two months, not a whisper. No dreams of him haunting her, not his voice in her head. They tried to keep his awakening quiet among the people, but rumors abounded. The elves could feel the shift in the air.

Layala dropped into a squat beside the largest pale one and pulled her throwing star out of his skull. The wet, sticky sound it elicited when it dislodged made her stomach turn.