The Legend of Oescienne--The Reckoning (Book Five) by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

Author:Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sword and sorcery, epic fantasy, epic fantasy adventure, girl hero, dragons and elves, dragon books for teens
Publisher: Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

-Chapter Twenty-

Into Enemy Territory

Just before midnight, Jahrra, Ellyesce, and Denaeh crossed the West Noryen River, using stones and patches of dry earth peeking out from the sluggish water as a makeshift bridge. Fortunately, the moon had been full a few nights ago, so they had some light to guide them.

“I don’t think the water is really toxic,” Ellyesce said, pressing the back of his wrist to his nose as he gingerly put his weight upon a half-rotten tree trunk wedged between two stones, “but it will leave a reek on your clothes.”

Jahrra heard his words, but she was busy trying to avoid the pools of foul, stagnant water as well. They had been lucky so far, not running into any spies or scouts the entire night. In all honesty, if such a gift had to be earned with shoes that smelled of rotten eggs, she could live with it. Still, she wasn’t about to trudge through the sludge carelessly.

In the end, all three made it across without incident. Jahrra breathed a sigh of relief once on the opposite bank, for the hills rose up from the moors almost immediately, hunkered low in the shadow of the Great Frozen Mountains, their rounded faces glowing beneath the silver moonlight. The black basalt mountains appeared even darker in the pallid light, and the snow capping their tops made them gleam like dragon’s teeth. She tried not to think of Jaax as the reminder of sharp teeth flitted through her mind. Instead, she pulled her cloak more tightly about herself, her teeth chattering a bit against the cold. It was late spring, yet winter did not want to relinquish its hold in this part of the world.

“It’s a good thing we dressed appropriately,” Denaeh commented when she noticed Jahrra’s slight shivering. “But, let’s keep moving. Not only will it help us stay warm, but we still have miles to go, and we’d best get beneath the cover of those woods before dawn.”

She indicated the narrow band of mixed forest marking the base of the foothills, leaving a few scant miles of barren land between the Noryen’s western bank and the foot of the mountains.

The party of three traveled through the trees and mixed woodland until the sun broke the horizon.

“We’ve come a lot farther than I anticipated,” Ellyesce said that morning as they hunkered around a fire. Both he and Denaeh were using magic to mask the light and smoke given off by the flames, so they nibbled on bread and cheese to replenish the energy their power swiftly burned away.

“I think we’re here,” Denaeh added, pointing to a spot on the map less than ten miles from the castle.

Jahrra glanced up at her, then flicked her gaze to Ellyesce. He sat apart from the Mystic, as he always had, but that great chasm between them had shifted, grown closer somehow.

Turning her eyes towards the growing brightness of the emerging day, Jahrra said, “Good. That means we’ll get to the castle sooner rather than later and have the strength to fight, if we must.

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