“I know as much as you do,” Fenris said regretfully. “Which unfortunately is very little. I doubt we’ll get any answers until we find Iannis and he explains what happened.”
“All the more reason to locate him, then.”
“Yes. But for now, you should do as the shaman says and enjoy the celebration they’ve put together for us.” Fenris smiled and patted my thigh one last time before he removed his hand. “I’m reasonably sure that venison is calling your name, and just because you can’t get high doesn’t mean you can’t dance around the fire.”
“In that case, I think you ought to take your own advice,” I said, grinning a little as I grabbed Fenris by his hands. He yelped as I pulled him to his feet, and with more than a little glee I dragged him out to dance with me by the bonfire.
9
“Please remind me never to smoke a Coazi pipe again,” Annia groaned, clutching her head with one hand as we trekked forward across the desert plains. “I don’t know what the hell they put in that thing, but it’s lethal.”
I snorted as Fenris shook his head at her. “At least they have a remedy for it,” I told her. “Pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to revive you if we hadn’t forced that hangover concoction they gave us down your throat.”
“Yeah well it’s no wonder the stuff worked.” Annia glared at the water skin clutched in her hand, which the Coazi had filled with more of the herbal potion to take on the journey. “This stuff tastes so horrible it would wake the dead.” But she lifted it to her lips and took another swig nonetheless.
I simply shook my head and returned my attention to the landscape in front of us, glad that I was a shifter and that my system was unaffected by narcotics. If we’d all been as incapacitated as Annia was this morning, it would have slowed us down significantly.
Ahead, the rolling plains began to disappear into clusters of evergreen trees that encroached on either side of the vast landscape, leaving only a small stretch of plains in between the two forests. The sight ahead made me nervous, because people could be lurking within the darkness and safety of the trees, and we would be sitting ducks if we passed through the open space there.
Thankfully, the necklace tugged me toward the trees on the right side of the plains, so I led Fenris and Annia in that direction. After a quick consultation with Fenris, we both changed into beast form before venturing into the forest – we could move more quietly on paws than on booted feet, and could sneak up on anyone lurking beneath the evergreen limbs.
The shade of the forest was welcome after the hot sun that had continuously beaten down on us from the plains. The scents of woodland creatures met my nose, and I could hear them scampering around, both overhead as tree branches rustled and on the ground, darting between the meager shrubbery. The trees were spaced far enough apart that it was easy enough to walk a path through them, although there was still plenty of cover provided by the branches. If not for my keen sense of smell, we could easily walk past someone and never know about it.
I took the lead, with Fenris bringing up the rear and Annia in between. She had her short sword out and was scanning the trees with her dark eyes, forced to rely on her sight rather than the elevated sense of smell and hearing Fenris and I possessed. It was strange to be in a position where Annia actually envied me – usually I was jealous of her for leading the easy and relatively uncomplicated life of a human. But this time my shifter abilities gave me a clear advantage over her.
The tug in my chest grew stronger, and I huffed out a breath through my nostrils as a sensation not unlike heartburn began to spread through me. “We’re getting close,” I told Fenris.
“Excellent.” His excitement was palpable, and I picked up my pace, eager to find Iannis. Could he sense my approach through his matching charm? I lifted my head as we trotted through the forest, peeling back my lips so I could probe the air with my scent glands. Surely if he was close, I’d be able to scent him by now? But maybe he was masking his scent with magic to keep predators away. The thought made me scowl. It figured that Iannis would somehow have to make this even harder – nothing about him was ever easy. Why was he even in this forest, anyway? Had he been taken in by the Coazi, who Fenris had said sometimes made their homes in the forest? The place didn’t look inviting, but perhaps somewhere in all this greenery there was a clearing large enough to set up their huts.
As the tug grew stronger, I still didn’t scent Iannis, but the sound of trickling water reached my ears. A few minutes later, we emerged onto the banks of a small stream running through the forest. Fenris and I stopped to lap from it while Annia refilled her canteen.
The charm’s pulse was very strong here, the strongest I’d ever felt except in Iannis’s presence. Once I was done drinking, I sat back on my haunches and changed back into human form so I could talk to Annia.
“What’s up?” she asked, propping a hand on her hip. “How much farther do we have to go?”
I pulled out the serapha charm from beneath my jacket and scowled down at it. It was blazing white and hot to the touch. “According to this thing, I should be standing on top of the Chief Mage right now. But I don’t see or scent him anywhere.”
A worried look entered Annia’s dark eyes. “Could he have lost the charm somehow?”
“I don’t see how that’s possible.” I sucked in a breath through my teeth, looking down at the glowing charm. “They’re not supposed to be able to be removed by anyone except the wearer.”