By dawn, the forest smelled faintly of smoke.
Kael noticed it first — a dry tang cutting through the damp earth and moss. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the air carried a strange warmth.
"They've lit something," he said.
Elara's gaze swept the treeline. "A signal?"
Halric shook his head. "No… a sweep. They're burning them out. Us included."
The boy clung to Elara's sleeve, coughing softly. The smoke was thin here, but if the wind shifted…
Kael knelt, running a hand through the wet soil. Still damp, he thought. Fire wouldn't travel quickly, but it didn't have to — not if they used oil.
They drive you like deer into the waiting spears, the abyss murmured. And you will run straight into them unless…
"Unless?" Kael asked under his breath.
Unless you turn toward the fire.
Halric caught the mutter and frowned. "Toward it? You've gone mad."
"Not mad," Kael said. "If they've set it, they'll be behind it. Least likely direction they'll expect us to move. Could give us a gap."
Elara hesitated. "And if we misjudge, we walk into an inferno."
Kael rose. "Then we move fast, before the flames get teeth."
They turned southeast, weaving through bracken and wet brush, the drizzle turning to mist as they approached. The air grew warmer, the smell of burning sharper.
Soon the ground began to darken — patches of ash underfoot, leaves curling black at the edges. Kael slowed, motioning for silence.
Through the haze, shapes moved. Not the armored hunters this time, but laborers — villagers, perhaps — hauling sloshing buckets of oil and tossing them into the undergrowth. Behind them, a line of figures in plated mail stood guard, bows strung.
Elara's hand went to her quiver. "If we take those bowmen—"
"No," Kael cut in. "We slip past. We're not ready for open ground."
The abyss coiled in his mind. A single strike. They will scatter like leaves.
Kael ignored it, focusing on the smoke's flow. It drifted right to left — a gap in the line to the east.
They moved low, keeping the burned earth under their boots to muffle sound. Twice they froze as guards shifted, but no alarm came.
Then, just as they reached the edge of the burning zone, Kael caught a flicker of movement in the haze — a silhouette, too tall to be a man, head crowned with jagged horns.
His gut went cold.
It stepped into view: a scaled creature, walking upright, bow in hand. Its eyes glimmered molten gold, and its hide was a patchwork of dark red and black scales.
"Drakeborn," Halric breathed.
Kael's hand tightened on his sword. "We need to move now."
But the creature had already seen them. It called out, voice rough and guttural, and three more shapes emerged from the smoke.
Bows lifted. Strings drew.
Kael didn't think. He grabbed Elara and the boy, shoving them toward the trees as the first volley hissed past. Halric roared and swung his hammer at a tree trunk, sending splinters flying as cover.
An arrow grazed Kael's arm, hot pain blooming. The abyss's whisper came instantly, urgent. Bleed later. Kill now.
He spun, charging the nearest drakeborn before it could nock again. His blade bit into scaled flesh, but not deep — the armor beneath the skin was like stone.
The drakeborn snarled, swinging a clawed hand. Kael ducked under it, shoving his sword upward through the creature's jaw. Warm blood sprayed, thick and metallic.
Halric took another with a hammer blow that caved in its chest. Elara's arrows dropped a third. The fourth vanished into the smoke, retreating.
Silence fell but for the distant crackle of fire.
Kael wiped his blade, the blood steaming in the cool air. "They're not just sending hunters now," he said. "They're emptying the nests."
Elara's face was pale. "And if the nests are empty, the skies will be, too."
The boy tugged on her sleeve, pointing toward the east — where the smoke thinned and the forest opened.
Kael followed his gaze. Beyond the haze lay a stretch of unburned land, green and untouched. But it wasn't safety. He could see movement there — faint glimmers of armor in the undergrowth, spaced in a wide arc.
The hunter's circle was tightening again.
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