“To find your mage.” Aman-Wa nodded soberly, turning his head to look at me. His eyes dropped down below my neck, right to where my serapha charm rested beneath my shirt. I’d removed my jacket due to the heat of the fire, and alarm raced through me as I wondered if he could see it through the cotton fabric.
Impossible. It’s a black shirt and it’s dark out. I had to fight against the urge to look down and check for myself.
“The stone you wear beneath your shirt, it holds a piece of the man you seek, does it not?”
I sucked in a breath, feeling like I’d been sucker-punched in the gut. “How the hell do you know that?”
The shaman smiled, and gently took my hands in his. “The spirits allow me to see what most cannot,” he told me. “I know the one you seek is important to you, just as I know that you are not merely a man-beast. There is power inside you that is wild and untamed yet.” He squeezed my hands gently.
I bit my lip as panic crackled through me. “Is this something you hold against me?”
“No,” the shaman said. “While we do not like the mages who rule this country, you are more beast than mage, and your heart is pure. It is for this reason that I offer you advice.”
“Advice?” I asked uneasily, and Fenris shifted behind me. I could practically hear his ears perking up.
“Should the stone fail to lead you to your friend, head in the direction of the mountains.” He pointed to the mountain range opposite the one we’d crash landed in. “A group of white men are camped there, about a day’s journey from where the flying machine crashed near the mountains. Our scouts have confirmed that they are holding prisoners.”
Fenris stared at the shaman. “I always understood that Coazi fiercely defended their lands from invasion. How could there be a camp of white men there? Would you not chase them off?”
The shaman looked grave. “So we would, but they are in the area of another tribe. If Halyma wanted them gone, they would not dare stay there. Nobody defies Halyma.” From his voice, I gathered that this Halyma, who must be the shaman or chieftain of the other tribe, was not a person Aman-Wa would lightly take to task.
Fenris and I exchanged a look of alarm. Had the Resistance bought off this other tribe somehow? If they were in league with the Coazi, that was more bad news.
I wanted to jump to my feet and take off in that direction so I could find out what was going on. Instead, I took a deep breath and squeezed the shaman’s hands, which were still in mine. “Thank you for this information. We will use it wisely.”
The shaman smiled. “I am sure you will. But let it sit in the back of your mind for now. You will have hard days ahead, so relax tonight.” He patted my knee, then took his leave, disappearing around the bonfire to talk to someone else.
I immediately whirled around to face Fenris. “Did you hear everything he said?” I demanded.
“My ears are as good as yours,” Fenris reminded me with an arched brow. “And yes, I heard what he said. There is a group of white men camped out in the plains.”
“And they’re holding prisoners!” I hissed, bracing my palms against the log as I leaned forward. “Iannis could be one of them! We have to go check it out.”
“Right now? In the dark? While Annia is high as an airship?”
I growled, whipping my head around to find Annia. She was sitting on one of the logs with the man she’d been dancing with, halfway in his lap, with one hand on his broad shoulder and the other splayed across his chest. They were flirting heavily with each other, which was amazing because I doubted they were speaking the same language. But then, lust is a pretty universal emotion.
“She looks a little less goofy than she did before,” I offered halfheartedly.
Fenris gave me a skeptical look. “She’ll be useless for at least a few hours, and after those drugs wear off she’ll be exhausted. Besides, we need sleep too. There is little point in charging into a Resistance camp tired and hungry. We need our wits about us, and you have not eaten enough.”
I sighed, then looked down at my empty clay dish. I’d already eaten two helpings and meant to get more, but in the beginning we’d been chatted up a storm by everyone, including the chieftain, and afterwards I’d been so caught up watching the ceremonial dancing that I’d forgotten about food.
“If I scarfed down a bit more right now and changed into beast form, I could make it there to at least check it out while everyone is asleep.”
“Sunaya.” Fenris placed a hand on my shoulder and met my eyes. “Consult your serapha charm. What does it say?”
I closed my eyes and focused in on the amulet. It felt warm against my chest, and I wondered if onlookers would see it glowing brightly through my shirt. The familiar tug sprang to life inside me, and I followed it with my mind, seeking out the direction it was coming from.
I let out a breath that was half disappointed, half relieved. “The amulet is pointing northwest.”
Fenris inclined his head. “Then that is where we will go. Finding Iannis is our priority. The camp the shaman was talking about may well be the Resistance, and it’s plausible they may have captured some of the delegates. But if Iannis is not with them, we cannot waste time going there first.”
“I hope this means he escaped when the Resistance came in and captured everyone.” If that was even what happened. “How did they know to be here, though? This is only one of many territories that the airship was flying over. Did the Resistance somehow bring down the ship from the ground?”