Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Ulric said from up the line. “Nathanial looks totally comfortable, yet I have a basandere behind me who seems a bit nervous.”
“We have trails like this where I’m from,” Nathanial replied. “Our mountains are treacherous. We must walk in the storms.”
“What’s your excuse, Niamh?” Hollace asked. “Why are you so blasé about all this? You don’t even seem winded.”
“Are ye that out of shape?” she replied.
“It seems so, yes. The things we learn when visiting potentially life-threatening new friends, hmm?”
After another horrible hour that seemed like far longer, the path evened out a bit. We still traveled the ridge, and each side was precarious at best, but the path had widened, allowing for trees and brush along the sides. If we did fall now, we’d at least take a small tree or two down with us. Tiny acorns littered the ground up here, seemingly untouched since they’d fallen. Until now, obviously. I shuffled through and scattered them all around, dragging my feet in fatigue.
“What’s for lunch?” I asked no one in particular, stopping for a moment with my hands braced on my hips. “It has to be lunchtime by now.”
“We are nearly halfway there,” the basajaun said, still hovering close. “There is a nice meadow between the mountains where we can idle for a while. I know how you like meadows.”
“Nearly halfway there, huh? Nearly.” I shook my head and squinted at the sky. “Whose idea was this? Tell me again.”
“Why?” Ulric asked, stopped up the way and looking back. He was using me as an excuse to catch his breath.
“I want to poison them, obviously.”
I glanced back, seeing a basajaun hovering very close to an obviously agitated Sebastian. The closer the basajaun got, the more he tensed, and the more walking mistakes he made. The more walking mistakes, the more the basajaun leaned in to help. And on the cycle went.
I leaned over and laughed. “I bet you never would’ve answered that summons if you’d known what you were getting yourself into,” I called to Sebastian, starting forward again.
“It was in my stars to answer that summons,” he replied. “But I might’ve taken a little more time and gotten a large prescription for Xanax.”
A ways farther along, a bluish-black bird exploded off a lower branch. It landed a couple of trees back and higher up, twitching as it watched us pass. From its beak came a gruff sort of bark, almost like a crow’s call but in shorter bursts. Anyone could see it was a warning, which wasn’t a big deal because it was just a bird.
Which was why it surprised me when the basajaun’s hand suddenly clamped down on my shoulder. I glanced back and saw his hair was puffed out as though he were preparing for an attack.
NINETEEN
Suddenly alarmed, I swept my gaze to the sides and then up to the sky, looking for the disturbance. No way could the mages have found us already. Even if they were on our trail, they wouldn’t be able to get up this mountain any faster than we could.
Then again, the basajaunak could sense presences through the trees. Maybe the bird was their alarm system that something was intruding below us.
I intended to stop and ask what was wrong, but the basajaun pushed me along.
“Keep going,” he said, looking in the direction of that bird. “If I say so, cover your eyes. They like to go for the eyes.”
“Who do? What’s happening?” I asked, bringing my hands up to the sides of my face.
One of the basajaunak toward the front of the line grunted. “Their memories are long, these birds. A simple mistake, and they pass the slight down for generations.”
The bird continued to squawk in the tree. The basajaun in front of us looked from side to side as though expecting an attack.
“The birds?” I asked in confusion.
“He disturbed a nest when he was too young to know any better, or so he claims,” our basajaun said in a low voice. Apparently, we wouldn’t get names for any of them. “He liked to climb trees. He saw the nest and wanted a closer look at the eggs. Instead, he lost his balance and fell out of the tree. The nest fell out with him, and the eggs cracked on the ground. It is a grave offense to those birds, disturbing their eggs. Any birds, I guess, but those particular birds attack. They pass down the treachery to the next generation in the family line, and so on. They never forget.”
The bird launched from the tree, heading straight for the basajaun ahead of me. Another came from the other side, swooping in low, and several others were quick to join in. They pecked at the basajaun in question but then spread out, pecking at Cyra and Hollace. Ulric ran out of the line, ducking for cover and waving his arms to swat the persistent avian creatures.