Chapter 387: Hot Pursuit

As we collected Selene, Helena, and Sylph’s horses, Benito and Lesna chatted away. I was not sure where Lesna learned Telhian, but she appeared quite fluent. I just hoped she didn’t trick Benito out of all his coin. As we left the city gates, Castile rode next to me at the back of our procession heading north.

“Where are we headed?” She asked softly. I palmed the compass, activated it, and then returned it to my belt. I checked the sun and estimated the direction. A map scroll appeared in my hand. I retrieved the map and had to check the sun twice more to be sure because it didn’t make sense.

“Harpies tits,” I finally said for only Castile’s ears. “They are almost due west. At least a hundred miles, probably more. My guess is they are following the banks of the tributary river. There is only one city in that direction, Shangyuen, but it is much more northwest. I think they are headed to the Territory of Shiunyuet,” I guessed aloud.

“The Hillspeople? Why?” She returned, confused.

“I don’t know why they chose that destination,” I offered her what little I did know of the territory. “It is a land of tribes with impassible mountains to the north and west. They generally do not like outsiders and are besieged by monsters from the Dragonspine Mountains and the Endless Dark. It is very inhospitable land from what I have read.”

Castile appeared to be recalling what she knew as well. “There is a saying: ‘If you want to see a dragon, wander the hills of Shiunyuet, and a dragon will find you.’” She forced a laugh. “The people of the hills are hardy and considered barbarians outside their borders for their lack of decorum. The Empire once tried to recruit their warriors, but they caused more trouble than they were worth.”

“Hopefully, we can reach the otherworlders before they enter their lands then. If they are following the river, it is about three hundred miles to the border, and they have two children and no horses.” I said, considering their pace.

We hadn’t left the road yet, which confused Castile. “Why are we headed north, then?” Castile asked, and I had to remember that she didn’t have my Hound training.

“It is still daylight, and many people saw us leave the city and know Selene and her legionnaires were asking questions about the otherworlders. I noticed a few likely trackers keeping tabs on us as we got their horses, too. Tonight, we will make camp late, break at midnight, and head off west through the plains,” I explained.

Castile nodded and turned in her saddle to look back at the city. I peeked as well and handed her my spyglass. It looked like another group of riders was forming outside the walls. When Castile handed me back the device, she spoke, “It does look like they mean to follow us. Six men and one catkin.”

“I guess they will camp somewhere behind us tonight, thinking we picked up the trail.” I yelled for Lesna, who was having an animated conversation with Benito in the front, “Lesna! Come here, please.”

The halfling circled Honeysuckle around, and she was clearly still a novice rider. She wore a big grin as she settled between us, clearly happy to be with us. She needed a bath and a change of clothes, though. “Lesna, is there a catkin in the local Guild?”

She replied instantly, “No, but there is a tracker some members use. His fur is mostly black, with whites around his eyes.”

I looked to Castile, who nodded. “Is he any good?” I asked.

“I have only heard complaints about his high fees, and he refuses to join the Adventurers Guild. He has some magic, but mostly tracks by observation and smell, from what I heard,” she offered happily. “His name is Kaede.”

“Thank you. Do you know any of the other adventurers hunting the otherworlders?” Castile asked politely.

The halfling beamed at being treated with respect, “When I grabbed my bags, I heard Samael and his crew left immediately after the bounty was posted. Samael is a big, bald brute and likes to boss others around,” she said as if she was speaking from experience. “I also didn’t see Cellica in the common room when I grabbed my things. She is an elf and the best tracker locally, even better than Kaede—but she would never join Samael. She was with me when we were looking for people, so she may have been still searching for survivors.” Her face scrunched as she thought, but she eventually said, “That is all I can remember.” She looked at me pointedly, “Someone was rushing me and didn’t ask me to inquire, or I would know more.” I rolled my eyes.

“Thank you. Your information was most helpful,” Castile praised. Lesna trotted proudly back to the front to continue talking with Benito.

“Why do you talk to her like she is a child?” I asked after Lesna was out of earshot.

“I was not…” Castile started to say but then stopped, realizing she was. I chuckled, and Castile rode up the line to talk with Selene.

I stayed at the back, assessing the wind and contemplating whether to add some spores to the air for our new catkin friend, but the chances of the effectiveness over two miles were minimal. Instead, I urged my companions to quicken the pace and confirmed that the group behind us was maintaining a set distance. We should be able to cover thirty miles or so on the hard-packed clay road by nightfall.

The grassy plains offered a broad line of sight. Herds of gazelles were visible in the distance, while a pride of lionesses observed us from the shade of an acacia tree. The heat was brutal for the horses, but Selene had the ability to condense large amounts of water and chill it for them. I fetched a bucket for her from my space, and we slowed down while watering the mounts. I even snuck an apple to Ginger, who was struggling in the dry heat.

We continued for three hours after sunset before I ordered the group to camp. There had been small stone forts every ten miles or so for merchants, but we decided not to use them as traders already occupied most of the space in them this late in the day. Lesna had a useful illusion spell that could give others limited night vision, but it needed to be renewed every hour. It was even effective on the horses, making them much calmer in the alien terrain at night.

Lesna was suspicious when I declined her offer to cast it on me. I later heard Benito explain to her that I had a spell form to see in the dark—as well as noting some of my more fantastic feats. I know Benito was trying to impress the halfling and make me sound powerful, but he really needed to learn to shut his mouth.

When we started to set up camp, I had Castile send out her all-seeing-eye. With Castile here, it felt odd being the one making decisions. Now that I thought about it, she had usually deferred to Adrian’s judgment, rarely overruling him. But I was no Adrian.

Blaze set up the watch pairs while I handed everyone a goat meat bun. “It’s still hot!” Lesna said in surprise. It didn’t stop her as she mumbled something that sounded like, “So good!” as it vanished into her mouth.

When I noticed Castile had finished her scrying, I walked toward Castile’s tent, where she and Selene were talking. “What did you see?”

Castile nodded, “They did follow us into the night and camped about three miles back as you predicted. They do not have any lights out in camp.”

Lesna appeared from behind Selene. “Do you want me to sneak into their camp and cut their horses loose?” The halfling woman still had gravy from the meat bun on her face, but I didn’t tell her.

The halfling must have been hiding inside the tent listening in, as my night vision would have pierced her invisibility. She had more than just magic to rely on for stealth. I shook my head, “No. I don’t want to agitate or give them a reason to come after us. We will lose them tonight. I am going to set a false trail heading northeast and lay myconid powder along the road a mile back. Everyone can get a few hours of rest while I do so.” Lesna shrugged and walked off toward her small tent.

“Is it worth the effort?” Selene asked after my plan.

The truth was I didn’t know. “If it gives us a half day of separation from the others, then yes. I don’t know how good of a tracker the catkin is, but I have a few tricks to frustrate him.” The mage just nodded, accepting and maybe even a little impressed. I talked with Castile and Selene for a few minutes as we discussed possible tactics for a fight.

I already knew Castile had shadow chains and an arcane shield. She could also unweave spells from a distance, neutralizing enemy mages. I learned that Selene had a number of water spells, she explained. “I can unleash a wave of ice spikes condensed from the air. However, the problem is that aether to cast in this dry climate is a lot. I can also condense a water shield, but it is effective only against light-ranged weapons like arrows or weak offensive spells. It also uses more aether in the arid environment and takes longer to form.”

“My best spell is invisibility, but I have learned another spell to the sap strength of a target,” she smirked.  “As long as I sustain it, the target will get weaker and weaker. I also need to be close to hold the spell. I can show you,” she said suggestively. “I have been practicing with a blade and can show you I am not as incompetent as when we first met.”

Castile hid a laugh, as she had watched me practice with Konstantin in Viridia’s villa and knew how far I had progressed. “I don’t think we will do much practicing until we catch up to the otherworlders,” I said, dismissing her suggestion. That only caused Castile to turn away and hide a laugh as Selene looked disappointed.

The arcane shield amulet I wore had belonged to Selene, but it had saved my life too many times for me to offer it back. It was my turn to reveal some of my spell forms. “My earth-speak ability is good to over fifty feet.” Selene knew of the spell, and her eyes got wider and wider as she was probably calculating my earth affinity.

“Then there is my dimensional space, which is a very effective weapon against one opponent but will bottom out my aether,” I said. Both mages knew about my dimensional space and that I could hold people inside. Selene had been one of my passengers. “I also have a weak air shield,” I demonstrated by standing on it.

Selene was getting more and more stunned the more I revealed. “I think that is all you need to know.”

Exasperated, Selene burst out, “And you can see in the dark! And you are not a mage?”

“He can heal himself, too,” Castile said briskly.

“How many spell forms do you have?” Selene stepped closer as if that might force me to reveal all my cards. She whispered as she leaned into me. “Just don’t tell Sylph. She is still looking for a way to repay you.”

“Why would telling her my spell forms give her ideas?” I asked, confused. Castile held in a laugh, and I didn’t understand how my many spell forms had anything to do with Sylph balancing the scales.

“I will be back in a few hours,” I said, making my escape.

Unsurprisingly, Lesna was paired with Benito for the first watch as I led Ginger off into the night. They made a half-hearted effort to conceal a trail on the road as I jogged next to Ginger for two miles, sensing danger with earth speak. Upon reaching a shallow river, I gave Ginger an apple and then placed her in my space. I returned to the road, releasing Ginger, and repeated this five more times before attempting to obscure the horse tracks from the road to our camp.

Ginger handled the déjà vu night well, but she needed rest. The watch had turned over to Blaze and Selene. I smirked, knowing the archer appeared infatuated with the mage. I paused on using earth-speak and turned around. “Lesna, I don’t require your company.”

Her invisibility dropped. “How? You weren't even looking at me! You know it's not fair to keep secrets from your friends!” she hissed in the dark.

“I smelled you,” I said, leaving the halfling stunned and sniffing herself as I continued down the road. I used four vials of myconid powder on the road. Fortunately, the air was dry and still tonight. It would be our shadowers' mounts who would stir up the spores. Back at camp, I roused everyone, and we quickly packed our gear and started heading west in a single file, leading the horses.

I was at the back with Castile, and sweeping a single trail was easier than being spread out. Castile’s shadow chains made quick work of smoothing out our tracks in the hard earth. We went about two miles before I checked with Castile. “Their camp has not stirred,” she said happily.

“I will lead, and we will all remain on foot until dawn,” I announced. Lesna was the only one unhappy about walking, complaining that her legs were much shorter than everyone else’s, so I let her ride Honeysuckle.

At the front, with my night vision and earth speak spell forms, I should be able to give us ample warning of any threats. When the grasslands were illuminated by the rising sun, I had everyone mount up and quickened our pace. The savannah stretched before us, and soon, the river appeared to the left. I checked the compass but didn’t feel we had closed the distance since leaving Yuetsen.

Besides the sporadic trees, there were massive mounds fifty feet high. Lesna was the only one in our group who knew they belonged to giant termites. They posed no threat as long as you kept a wide berth—disturb the nest, and you would be swarmed.

We didn’t see any sign of habitation on the plains. Our group was large enough to dissuade the common predators. Our most considerable concern was probably bulettes, but I did not know how common they were on this side of the mountains.

“You need to sleep,” Blaze said suddenly from my right.

“I am fine,” I countered.

“We are not going to catch them in a day. Even with your ring, you need a few hours,” he pressed. Blaze knew most of my secrets, and the ring of sustenance was one of them.

“When we camp tonight,” I promised. He nodded, and I knew he would keep me to my word.

I was disappointed when sunset arrived, as I didn’t think we had made much progress on our quarry. Even with two children, they were moving quickly. Or maybe the woman I was tracking was alone, which was also a real possibility. Their group could have split up after fleeing Yuetsen. There was no recourse but to find out.

I set up my tent and crawled inside for the night. From my tent, I watched Helena and Sylph head to watch before laying my head down. Helena was always a quiet one. In this part of the world, Neptune’s tear rode the horizon at night and did not illuminate the night as brightly as it did in the Empire. Blaze was right. I was exhausted and quickly fell asleep.

My dreams were filled with the expectation of meeting others from Earth. I imagined the five otherworlders as being familiar faces from Earth. Realistically, I was unlikely to know any of them. I also imagined failing and only finding their dead bodies, killed by a creature or one of the groups of adventurers hunting them.

My dream seemed to rattle and shake as I talked to a famous TV actress from Earth, who just happened to be one of the otherworlders we had been pursuing. The woman’s grateful expression faded. She asked, “What was that?” Confusion and realization came to me at once. My eyes shot open, and I woke up instantly. The ground shook, and it wasn't from an earthquake. I heard Blaze’s voice rousing the camp and the horses neighing as something massive approached.

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