Dead Reckoning by Scott Colby

Author:Scott Colby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Outland Entertainment
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

— CHAPTER SEVENTEEN —

Timah cackled gleefully all the way to the next maliko tree a few hundred paces down the game trail. The rest of us couldn’t help joining in from time to time, despite Tehenessey Blue’s growls of displeasure.

“Like any of you lot would’ve reacted any differently,” he snarled from underneath my cloak, which he’d insisted on wrapping himself in. “Do you understand now why I hate the wilderness?”

“Oh, I understood it the moment we met,” I joked.

“Clearly the wilderness thinks you are very tasty,” Ulysses added.

“And an easy target,” Nicolette continued.

“You’re all just jealous that I am naturally very attractive,” the marii snapped, flinching away from a winged bug that flitted too close to his snout.

“It is true that many predators hunt the marii,” Davanon said thoughtfully. “What is it like to be a prey species?”

Blue grunted in a way that sounded like a bark. “What is it like to be the most insufferably arrogant species on the continent?”

Timah bent double and slapped his knee, hooting in amusement. “Oh, you all are so wonderful!” he crowed.

Working the k’lama through Blue’s fur and onto his skin was borderline impossible. I understood why he’d turned his nose up at the stuff—it left him looking like he’d been pulled out of another quickmoss pit.

“Don’t,” Blue snapped when he saw Ulysses begin to open his mouth to tell a joke. “If you say one word about this, I will gut you in your sleep.”

We decided we’d had enough fun with the poor guy, who was clearly miserable underneath all that cloying insect repellant. I wasn’t thrilled that he’d chosen to put my cloak over his sticky fur, but I knew that was a battle I would never win.

Not much farther in, the game trail took a sharp right turn, wrapping around a ledge of dark gray rock speckled with crimson moss and a bright blue vine. The colors here were unbelievable, and I hoped I’d get to see them all during Diuntyne, when the huge moon’s silver light makes everything all the more beautiful and ethereal. I’d always enjoyed walking the jungles by my home during that time of day. Yes, Your Highness, I suppose that little trek did make me a bit homesick.

Timah noticed Davanon studying those blue vines. “Do not touch. You will itch. Forever.” We all kept our distance from that ledge, walking single file to give those plants the space they clearly desired.

The trail led us up a slight incline, keeping the rock to our left. Eventually it met the top of the ledge and doubled back along the small cliff. I wondered briefly why the Elei’i people hadn’t carved a staircase or built a ladder to make the journey quicker. The amount I didn’t know about the people living right on top of Lucifus’s first trial started to feel concerning. I thought back to what I’d read, both in the regular text and the magical, desperately searching for some clue or reference that might help. None came to mind.

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