Eidolon's Honor by Nichols Noelle

Author:Nichols, Noelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phantom Ink Press
Published: 2023-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter seventeen

BLACK SKILLS

Hitori

“How much further is it?” I asked.

Syrane sighed, trudging forward through the thick forest and stepping carefully over the protruding tree roots. He raised an arm out to the side, gesturing toward the overgrown bushes and the faint trail worn into the forest floor. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s not exactly a clear path to get there, so it’s difficult to tell for certain. I don’t think it’s much further though.”

Scowling at the ground, I thought about all the time I’d wasted doing mundane exercises with the Skills since coming to Vaiyene. “You should have said something when you first learned about the land’s decay here.”

“So you keep saying.”

It wasn’t hard to miss the agitation in his voice, so I restrained myself from saying anything more. Kilo had asked Syrane to show me where the Skills were. If he hadn’t, Syrane wouldn’t be taking me to them, and I wouldn’t be getting the chance to study what was happening. It was surprising that Kilo hadn’t come himself, but I knew he was concerned about Lunia. As expected, Lunia had been keeping a close watch on me since I’d come to live here. She feared the Skills and was cautious of me, as she rightly should be.

Syrane continued moving at a quick pace, stepping off the faint trail we’d been following. Winding through a thick grove of trees, he searched the area for some time before he headed south. Then he placed his hand on a large tree with two trees growing from the same trunk. He gestured over the rocks, down into a gully. “It’s down there. If you look hard enough, you can see the white ash through the green leaves.”

He moved to the side, as if he wanted me to pass him and investigate the area alone. When I continued to stare at him, he hesitantly glanced through the two trunks. “I can show you how I managed to get down, but don’t blame me if you fall.”

I nodded curtly, restraining my impatience as he turned to lower himself down using tree roots. It didn’t seem like the best approach. A rope or a ladder would have been more ideal. Weren’t the Shadows always supposed to be prepared?

Untying my obi, I handed it to him. “Here, tie this to the tree. I don’t want either of us getting stranded down there. The Phantom wouldn’t be happy if something happened to you.”

Syrane stood back up and studied me. “Do you always call Kilo ‘the Phantom’?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, not sure what he was getting at, or why he seemed amused by my choice of words. “Is that a problem?”

He shrugged, taking the fabric and securing it to the tree. “No. There’s just a certain fondness when you say it I wasn’t expecting.”

Deftly, he tested the strength of the makeshift rope before dropping to the ground. I stared after him for a moment before grabbing hold of my obi and following him down. Syrane didn’t move, so I skirted past him, brushing against a white bush.

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