Page 11 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

SOUNDTRACK: Sad Life of a Rose by Edge of Paradise

~ brEN ~

The sky had darkened throughout the morning, and winds grew stronger, until it was only by Akhane’s much better eyesight and sense of direction that I could even be sure we continued to fly north.

If I hadn’t been worried about the impending storm, I might have enjoyed the flight more. But Akhane and I were both tense. And every time there wasn’t something to focus on, my mind kept tripping back to that night after my second trial, the way Donavyn looked at me, the way he’d come for me.

As morning turned to afternoon, every few minutes I’d find myself drifting back into those memories, my body thrilling, until it seemed my very bones hummed.

If it hadn’t been so frustrating it might have been funny.

I could imagine sitting around the fire with my brothers in years to come, trying to relay the story of my final trial, and explaining that the biggest battle I fought in the first few hours was against my own horniness.

Voski would never let me hear the end of it.

But as the day wore on, the weather worsened. The wind grew stiff and shifted direction time and again. The ominous cloud cover was thick and dark, meaning once the sun began to descend we’d lose light quickly and have no stars by which to navigate.

I still hadn’t found any sign of a camp, or appearance of an enemy.

I grew nervous. Had we flown off course? Had I already missed whoever had been sent out here for me to find?

‘Akhane? Do you see anything that might be an enemy camp, or sign of people? Because all I see is trees and grass and rocks.’

I estimated that we’d crossed the border over an hour earlier—there was massive, flat rock that protruded from the earth right where the border of Vosgaarde gave way to the Pyre swamps.

‘Nothing,’ she said wearily.

I bit my lip. What if we’d gone too far? What if I was supposed to have patrolled the border? What if there was a group of men out here waiting to be discovered, and I’d happily flown right past them while fighting off thoughts of stripping Donavyn naked in the stable?

My confidence wavered. Twilight was falling, which with this cloud cover and the storm blowing in over the sea, meant the evening sun wouldn’t penetrate at all. It would be dark in minutes.

But what were my options? Akhane was tired. We had to stop. I couldn’t circle her all the way back to—

I’d reached for her mind to ask her to look for a clearing she felt was safe to land, when a tiny flicker of light on the ground caught my eye and I froze.

‘Akhane, did you see that?’

‘I did.’

‘It disappeared though—’

‘I think it was a flash between the trees.’

‘Circle back—we need to stay on the side away from the sun until it’s true dark. Stay low and to the west. And when we see it, land far enough away that you won’t be heard by anyone on the ground.’

Akhane didn’t answer, but I felt her resolution and focus as she banked, circling around, flapping slowly so her wings would create less noise as she flew away from where we’d seen it, then banked again and came back on the same line, only lower in the sky.

At first, I was worried we wouldn’t catch it again, but then, “There it is!”

Akhane banked immediately, diving. I gasped and grabbed for the neckstrap, but she was only positioning herself to land in a nearby gully. Minutes later, I was on the ground and Akhane crouched under the overhang of the gully side. She fluttered her wings and shifted on her feet, agitated.

‘Akhane, you don’t have to worry. I’ll sneak up there and count numbers, try to figure out what they’re doing. Then I’ll come back. I’ll be safe!’

‘I know, Little Flame. Only please, be careful. If you’re discovered, they won’t pass you.’

I gulped, but nodded and patted her leg.

Then I dropped my bag on the gully floor.

This area near the sides was covered in stones and little brush bushes.

But there was a thin creek that weaved through the center, and many trees overhanging the lip to keep Akhane away from eyes if someone approached from above.

‘I’ll leave the bag here and send you what I see. Can you help me remember it all? Is that allowed?’

‘I would do so if we were at war, so since you’ve asked, yes.’

A little shudder rippled through her body and that incandescent light under her scales surged.

I frowned. ‘Akhane, what—?’

‘I’m well, Bren. Go! If we get out of here early enough, I can fly us back to a cave I saw on the way. We’ll want shelter tonight, I think.’

I nodded and turned, taking a deep breath, then began the traverse through the gully, until I could find a place to climb to the level of the trees.

But I met my first challenge under their shade.

No sunlight reached the ground, so I struggled to navigate.

It took some minutes of creeping through, looking for gaps in the canopy to find a view of the mountains, until I could be fairly sure I’d found the right line and could choose a new landmark to follow.

It seemed to take forever. I crept through the trees long enough that I wondered if I’d gotten my line mixed up and was heading in the wrong direction.

But just as I was about to turn back and find that gully again, I caught a whiff of smoke.

Leaning around the stand of trees in front of me, I caught a flicker of orange light.

Fire. Low on the ground. Elated, and heart racing, I examined the undergrowth for a quiet route through the dry bushes so I could draw nearer, just as a voice rose nearby and froze me in my tracks.

“Feg thinks he heard something. No idea how he supposes he heard anything over the wind in the trees. I think he’s paranoid. The only thing out in this godforsaken place is wildlife. He probably heard a deer scraping bark from a tree.”

A second voice answered. “Feg just wants to make himself a hero. You go left, I’ll go right, we’ll meet back here in twenty minutes. The guards will see us pass and tell him we searched.”

The first man grumbled and my heart was in my throat. I could hear them so clearly, but they were hidden from me by the wide trees. I crouched beneath nearby scrub, uncertain I would be hidden from them if they came deeper into the forest.

Who the hell was Feg? I hadn’t heard of a Furyknight with that name, but maybe he was a servant.

They’d set up a whole camp out here. They must be sending all the Flameborne out here for their trials.

I was shocked by the lengths they had gone to.

My brothers told me the final trial was intense, but I hadn’t imagined anything like this.

I needed to get this right. I couldn’t believe I’d almost stumbled right into them.

After a minute or two and no more voices, I slowly rose from my crouch, listening past my pulse thumping in my ears. But there was nothing. Whoever was out there had either walked away from me, or was very skilled in traversing a forest in the dark.

Or maybe my pounding heartbeat covered every sound?

I stayed hunched behind those bushes, peering through the deepening shadows for long minutes, certain I’d be discovered any second.

Eventually, I had no choice but to creep out. The men had said they were returning in twenty minutes. I needed to be somewhere they couldn’t stumble on me.

It took much longer than I wanted to creep to another tree, a little closer to that fire, but still obscured from view. The wind would rise in the trees in great waves of rustling that covered every sound, but the gusts died so abruptly, I could be caught out if I was moving too fast.

Still, I reached the tree I’d decided had cover to hide me, and low enough branches to make it easily climbable.

I was suddenly very grateful for my leather-soled boots, though I slipped on the second branch and scraped the trunk, and ended up frozen for another minute until I was sure this Feg person wasn’t sending more men out to find me.

But finally, I climbed high among the branches, where the trunk forked and there was enough room to crouch. The tree swayed in the wind gusts, but I could brace on the branches and keep myself secure.

Uncertain if light from the camp would reach me out here, when I was in the right position I lowered myself to my belly on one of the wide boughs and squirmed my way out until I could press the leaves back and see the ground below.

I swallowed hard.

With the forest mostly behind me, and the leaves no longer obscuring my view, suddenly it wasn’t only one campfire beneath me. Or two. I counted at least a dozen in the clearing, and caught little flickers of light now and again that suggested there were more among the trees off to my right.

But the fires in the clearing had been laid under strange, wide, conelike covers with small, open chimneys at their peaks.

The contraptions were odd, like nothing I’d seen before.

They were wide enough to block the sight of the flames from above, though they did nothing to shield them from a close, side-view.

Which had to mean they were built specifically to shield flames from the eyes of dragon riders overhead.

I was stunned at the lengths to which Donavyn and the officers had gone to set up this ruse. But I supposed that testing a Flameborne for actual raising had to be taken seriously. Still, I hadn’t expected them to send so many people out here. Especially with the King’s ball.

Then I smiled because it became clear. That’s why the stable had been so quiet! They’d said they were taking servants to the Palace and sending extra Furyknight patrols, but they’d been moving people here!

‘Akhane?’

‘I’m here.’ Her voice sounded tight.

‘I think I’m gathering more intelligence than they intended.’

‘That’s a good thing, Little Flame.’