Selendra tipped her head. "Imperial pattern," she said. "Not wild hunters…Palace men."
"Charlotte," I said.
"Or her captain," Vesper said. "Or both."
Metal clanked through the trees and men spoke in clipped calls. Dogs barked twice and then the handler snapped a command and the dogs went quiet.
Rhea shifted so she could see out through a gap in the leaves and Vesper slid three small teeth into her palm and held them like dice and Selendra's tail went still.
The first line of soldiers passed above us on the bank. They wore light mail and dark cloaks. Their boots were wrapped for quiet and they moved like they had been drilled for this. Five men crossed,then a handler with two hounds. The hounds sniffed the water and whined,he handler yanked them forward and two more men followed.
We did not move,my heartbeat felt too loud in my ears. The charm hummed at the same rate but Alma did not speak.
After a minute the sounds faded and Rhea held up one finger signalling for us to wait and we waited. Two more minutes passed and she held up two fingers, signalling to move and we moved.
We slid out from under the trunk and circled the depression. Rhea kept us low and in shade. We crossed two dry gullies and a patch of thorn and the thorns caught Selendra's skirt but she pulled free without noise.
The second horn blew closer to the left of our line. Vesper stopped and pointed at a thin plume of smoke that rose ahead.
"Camp," Vesper said. "Old but still warm."
Rhea weighed options in one long breath. "We'll use it,they will check it anyway. Better to pass through than let it sit in our rear."
We reached the camp and it was a ring of stones with black ash still faintly warm. Whoever left had covered the coals but not well and there were boot marks in the damp dirt,small,light but not soldiers.
"Hunters," Vesper said. "Trappers,locals."
Selendra crouched and touched the ash. "it's been three hours," she said.
Rhea scanned the trees. "Let's move on."
We moved and the forest opened into a narrow meadow cut by the stream again. The water here ran clearer and faster and Rhea raised a hand signalling to stop. She listened and we listened too.
There were sounds of hooves,not many,two or three. Light horses,coming down the game trail to our right.
Rhea pointed to the stream. We slid in again. The cold bit my shins as we crouched behind a low rock bar where the water fanned over pebbles. The horses stepped into view a moment later.
Two riders,no cloaks,leather breastplates. Short bows,not palace men. The first rider saw the stream and nudged his horse in to drink and the horse drank. The rider scanned the opposite bank with lazy eyes and the second rider yawned.
Rhea kept still,Vesper did not blink and Selendra smiled at nothing.
A horn blew again and this time right on top of us. The riders jerked and looked back,men in cloaks stepped out of the trees behind them in palace colors. The riders swore and kicked their horses,the horses jumped the stream and pounded through brush and three palace men followed.
"Go," Rhea mouthed.
We moved upstream under the rock bar while the chase crashed away. I could not feel my feet but I kept moving because stopping would be worse.
We crawled out a hundred paces later and lay in a patch of moss behind a boulder. For a minute nobody said anything,then Vesper turned her head toward me.
"Check the mark," she said.
I put my fingers against the charm and focused. The hum stayed steady and a new line sat under the usual text.
[White Fire Dragon — Recognition: PENDING | Signal: ACTIVE]
"What does that mean," I said.
Vesper frowned. "It means it can find you again,it means others can sense the signal if they know how."
Selendra's tail tapped the moss. "It also means he can call it,he just doesn't know how yet."
Rhea looked at me. "We do not test that here."
"I agree," I said.
The horn sounded again,this time it broke into three short bursts. Farther to the west and Rhea let out a breath of air.
"They overshot," she said. "We keep east and then cut south. Two more hours and we can rest."
We stood up and my legs felt like someone else's. We followed Rhea through a line of birch, then cut along a stony shelf above a marsh. The sun struggled behind thin cloud and the light had no warmth.
At the end of the shelf stood a marker stone half-buried in fern. Rhea paused to read the notches,Vesper checked the ground for recent tracks and Selendra stared up into the gray sky.
The wind died and the forest went quiet again but it felt too quiet.
Rhea's shoulders tightened. "Down."
We dropped behind the marker and a shape crossed the sky above us. Not the dragon,smaller and moother. It did not flap,it glided,its underside was pale and ridged.
Vesper sucked a breath. "Courser."
"What is a courser," I said.
"Scout beast," Vesper said. "They smell heat and magic and call soldiers to it."
The courser banked once and circled back, it had seen something. I pressed my palm over the charm to muffle the hum and Alma stirred and cooled it a fraction. The courser tilted and came around again, lower this time.
Rhea set an arrow on a short bow I had not seen her carry. "If it screams, we run."
Selendra shook her head. "If it screams, running will only make the chase quick."
The courser opened its mouth and the sound that came out was thin and high. It stung my ears and the trees answered with distant shouts.
Rhea loosed her bow and the arrow hit the courser's wing root. It faltered, dipped, and then steadied and screamed again.
"Move,move,move," Rhea said. "Now."
We ran for the birch line and the courser circled above us and screamed a third time. Men shouted back from two directions and the horn blew short and urgent.
The ground fell away into a shallow ravine choked with deadfall. Rhea slid down and waved us after and we dropped into the tangle. Branches tore at our clothes. Vesper swore as a twig caught one of her rings. Selendra flowed like water between the trunks and reached the bottom first. She turned and held out a hand for me.
"Faster, host," she said. "They are closing in."
I took her hand and she pulled me with her. We cleared the last tangle and hit a narrow animal path that hugged the ravine floor and then we ran. The path bent left, then right,the sound of boots hit the rim above us.
Rhea pointed to a low seam in the wall ahead. A crawlspace cut under a slab,barely high enough for a person on hands and knees.
"Ger inside," she said. "One at a time and no noise."
She went in first,Vesper went in next next and I followed. Selendra slipped in last, tail brushing dirt from the lip as she pulled it through.
The crawlspace ran eight body lengths and opened into a tight pocket with a cracked ceiling where the water dripped. There was only one exit and it was the hole we came through.
We lay flat and listened as boots reached the ravine lip above us and stopped. There were voices and a man dropped into the tangle and swore then another laughed. The courser screamed once more and went quiet.
A shadow crossed the crawlspace mouth and its boot scraped the stone. A hand probed into the hole up to the wrist and felt along the edges and withdrew.
There was silence and then a voice right outside, calm and clear.
"I know you're in there."