Shadowblade by N.S. Mirage

Author:N.S. Mirage [Mirage, N.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirage Media
Published: 2021-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Night engulfed the land. A sea of obsidian-black drenched the treetops, slipped between the leaves, and pooled over the shrubs and soil. Far above Aeryn and Merric’s heads, silver glinted through the branches. Stars were the only lamp-lights in the darkness.

The two of them walked ahead, Aeryn tracing the surrounding silhouettes with her eyes and her non-physical senses. As midnight neared, her awareness had surged like the rushing of an incoming tide. She no longer needed eyes or ears to know what skittered, scampered and prowled around her. She could detect them for miles.

Beside her, Merric didn’t speak a word. Faint starlight glistened across his wavy hair and over the rings in his chain mail. He walked cautiously through the brush, wincing whenever his toes hit a root strewn across their path. He’d freeze at every slight rustle or darting movement. A jarring contrast to how talkative he’d been before nightfall.

‘He can’t see in this,’ Aeryn had long since realized, both surprised and uncertain at how to react. She’d known he wouldn’t have the same acute senses she did, but it had been difficult to imagine how that abstract notion translated into practice. Seeing it now, she wasn’t sure what to do.

She felt as awkward as one of those young initiates who loomed above her age mates, constantly self-conscious as she towered among them. Should she try to help? If she did, would she be making the same mistake that she did with the soldiers?

Wind rustled the leaves, its murmurs carrying the fading scent of smoke.

Merric glanced around them at once, hands curling. His attention darted to every flicker in the shadows and sigh in the trees.

Did the legends of the living Shadows and their Cursed Forest make him this nervous?

Something darted across their path. He went rigid.

With her stomach twisting, Aeryn slowed her pace. She suspected that hours before, he’d been too exhilarated from escaping his pursuers and too relieved to have a guide out of the forest to ask deeper questions. But time had passed. What of now?

A moment later, he continued walking.

Aeryn silently fought the urge to rake her hands through her hair. He wasn’t what her instructors had taught her to expect. He seemed as human to her as any of her brethren, not akin to exotic wildlife or bewildered sheep. Yet she couldn’t deny that her teachings had truth in them, as well.

His blindness wasn’t all that slowed them down. As she’d predicted, his injury had flared up. Had he been one of her clan mates, his wound would have healed minutes after he’d received it. And unlike those who served as healers in the enclave, she knew nothing worthwhile about herbs to help him. She barely knew which herbs grew in this particular forest, and certainly didn’t know if they were in season or what they did.

If she’d brought any with her, she’d have tried to put them to use. But she had expected to be away for only a few hours. All she’d brought was a wineskin full of water and enough deer jerky for a snack.

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