Chapter Twenty

  Miranda did her best to ignore the half moon that hung in the sky above the forest, watching her like an unblinking, pupilless eye.

  At a glance, it looked identical to the moon from the time before, but a closer look would reveal entirely different patterns stretching across its surface. The Remaking hadn’t just affected the planet. It had reached its greedy fingers out into space too, stealing the moon itself, and even filling the night sky with new stars that formed constellations that would have been considered impossible in the old world.

  This had caused more than its share of debates over the years. Were they really brand new stars set in place hundreds of lightyears away, or were they just an elaborate backdrop on the stage that their world had become? If it was the former, then that set a terrifying new precedent for whoever or whatever was behind the Remaking. If it was the latter, then just how far did their new reality stretch? What was at its edge, and what lay beyond that?

  Miranda had never been able to make herself care. Life was difficult enough here on Nyr. Why bother worrying about things that were happening trillions upon trillions of miles away?

  She leaped, her goat legs sending her soaring gracefully from the boughs of a towering oak, her cloak flapping dramatically behind her. The wind roared in her ears, the world becoming a blur all around her, before she touched down lightly in the branches of another tree a few seconds later.

  As a Faun, she could jump several times further than any human, and her supernatural sense of balance made it so it almost didn’t matter what she landed on. She could count the number of times she’d tripped on one hand since she had taken this form.

  She bounded across the woods from tree to tree, as spritely as a flea, making much better time than she had down on the ground with Jeremy. That wasn’t his fault, of course. He’d just woken up earlier that day, and hadn’t even chosen a class yet. Eventually, when he got to be as high a level as her, he would—

  He’s not going to level up that much, she forcefully reminded herself. You’re taking him back to Faen’s Hand where he’ll be safe, just like you promised!

  She jumped again, and a gorge appeared in front of her, too wide even for her to jump across. Her eyes immediately locked onto a tree on the other side, and she hurled Eagle Feather toward it.

  “Silverwing!”

  She reappeared on the other side of the fissure, flying forward with what remained of the dagger’s momentum, before landing on another branch and launching herself out into the night yet again.

  Less than an hour later, the scenery began to look familiar. Jeremy thought they had traveled for dozens of miles in the nine hours he’d been following her, and for his peace of mind she let him believe that. In truth, Miranda had spent most of that time leading him in circles, doubling back, and weaving this way and that in the most unpredictable pattern she could manage.

  Trell was actually only a few scant miles away from where they had started, but she hoped that would actually work in their advantage. With any luck, the trail would be confusing enough that it would take Miles’ goons a few days even to make it that far. Even if the Shield Wardens abandoned the trail altogether, hopefully they would dismiss Trell as too obvious a hiding spot.

  She hoped they did follow the trail all the way to the end, though. And when they did, she hoped Miles was smart enough to see it for what it was. At first glance, her movements were designed to seem completely random. But if they were keeping track of their progress at all, sooner or later her little message would be revealed.

  MILES STREINER IS A SLUR!

  She couldn’t help but chuckle at her own joke. She knew it was childish, especially since she had Jeremy’s wellbeing to think about now, but some opportunities were just too good to pass up.

  “Silverwing!”

  Using her magic dagger, she teleported herself up above the treetops to get a better look at her surroundings. Nodding her satisfaction as she began to plummet toward the ground again, she threw the dagger a second time.

  “Silverwing!”

  When she reappeared this time, it was on top of the cliff they had fought beneath earlier that day. The creek reflected the moonlight as it flowed out of the cave fifty feet below. Crickets chirped and nightbirds called, giving no indication that a chaotic six-way battle had taken place here just a few hours ago—except for one.

  A lone figure stood on the edge of the stream, one foot still in the water and the other on the smooth pebble beach. Even from this far away, from this far away, Miranda recognized Derrick’s outline in an instant.

  But why wasn’t he moving?

  She frowned as a pit formed in her stomach. He obviously wasn’t dead, given that he was standing up. As an Yggdrasian, sleeping while standing up was completely normal. That wasn’t what was going on, though. When Derrick slept, he would stand as rigid as…well, a tree, with his legs and knees straight and his feet planted firmly in the dirt below him. The Derrick she saw now had his legs apart, like he’d been walking, only to be frozen midstep.

  Frozen, or…

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  SIDEQUEST:

  SAVE YOUR FORMER PARTY MEMBERS FROM THE SHIELD WARDEN GUILD.

  OBJECTIVE COMPLETE:

  LOCATE DERRICK VELSTADT.

  OBJECTIVE UPDATED:

  DETERMINE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO DERRICK VELSTADT.

  Miranda frowned as the System message faded from view, then raised Eagle Feather—then paused before she could throw it.

  Silverwing was less than discreet during the day. At night, it would draw the attention of everything with at least one working eye within a mile radius. In fact, she was lucky that she didn’t have one of the Shield Wardens trying to stab her in the back already.

  She glanced over her shoulder just to make sure.

  Facing forward again, she scanned the area down by the base of the cliff. She couldn’t see anyone besides Derrick from up here, but she didn’t believe for a second that she was alone. Miles wasn’t stupid. If he had managed to catch Derrick, he would be smart enough not to leave him unguarded while she and Aaron were still at large.

  Detect Traps? she thought hopefully, running her eyes over the woods near the creek’s edge. Feel like helping out a little here?

  Nothing.

  Miranda huffed in disgust. Detect Traps only worked on magical or mechanical traps, like the venom-spewing statues from earlier. For some reason she had never been able to understand, whoever had designed the skill had given it a blind spot when it came to people. A twenty foot tall ogre could have been lying in ambush behind a six inch shrub, and Detect Traps would still have insisted that absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary.

  Flaming worthless piece of junk, she thought angrily. I should trade you in for something useful, like breathing in pools of lava!

  She closed her eyes and made herself take a deep breath.

  When she released it, her irritation faded, and she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. The situation was clearly getting to her. While it was only natural for her to be on edge knowing that her friends were in danger—and that it was all her fault—she was supposed to be a professional. As the greatest Thief in Nyr, she had no excuse for letting her emotions get the better of her like that.

  Forcing herself to be calm, she focused on the problem at hand again.

  Yes, one of Miles’ lackeys was definitely hiding out there in the shadows, waiting for either her or Aaron to make a rescue attempt. Luckily, she had gotten here before the Neanderite. Aaron was as true of a friend as anyone could ask for, and she doubted there was a single thing on Nyr he wouldn’t have done for her and Derrick, he was about as stealthy as an avalanche.

  A job like this was in her wheelhouse, though.

  “Eclipse Walk!”

  The shadows at her feet immediately leaped up from the ground, spinning around her like a whirlwind made of darkness. When it faded, so did she, leaving her invisible except for a slight distortion in the air where she was standing, like a mirage on a hot day.

  She deactivated Brighteyes—the moon was bright enough that she didn’t need to waste the MP anymore. Then, feeling suitably protected, she took a step back and leaped from the top of the cliff.

  “Soft Landing!” she said just as she began to fall. A strange feeling spread through her body, like her insides had vanished and been replaced with helium, and her descent immediately slowed.

  She continued downwards at a much more gradual pace, bobbing this way and that as a gentle breeze blew through the forest. Her progress was slow, and she was itching with the need to move after the first few seconds, but she made herself be patient. If what she thought had happened proved to be true, then Derrick wasn’t going anywhere.

  Her eyes swept back and forth ceaselessly as she descended, scanning the darkness for any trace of the Wardens. Wherever they were, they had hidden themselves well enough that even she couldn’t make them out. If she was lucky, the same would be true of her, and she’d be able to rescue Derrick and get back to Trell before they even knew she was there.

  Finally, her hooves touched down on the pebble beach, and the weightless feeling vanished. With Eclipse Walk still hiding her from prying eyes, she dashed silently over to where Derrick was standing.

  What she found was exactly what she had been expecting, but seeing it up close still made her breath catch in her throat.

  Derrick’s brown and green body was now a uniform shade of dull gray. His eyes stared sightlessly from an unmoving face, and his slingshot was still gripped in one hand. It looked like he had been trying to escape into the forest, and had been in the process of turning his head to look over his shoulder when he’d been frozen in time.

  With a shaking hand, Miranda reached out and touched him, and her stomach twisted when her fingers met solid stone.

  He had been petrified. It was a temporary curse, and would wear off on its own eventually. Once it did, he would feel like he’d just woken up from the deepest dreamless sleep he’d ever had. The exact moment he would change back depended on a lot of things, though, like who had cast the spell, how they had done it, and what their level was compared to Derrick’s.

  Zara is a melee focused class, and Miles can’t use magic at all, she thought, the gears in her head spinning. Isaac could have cast it, but not in the form he was in. Plus, Miles’ nullification field would have prevented that anyway. That means that someone had to have used a potion on him.

  That was even worse. None of the variables that usually came with putting a curse on someone applied to potions. It would still wear off eventually, but while a curse’s level would be roughly equal to that of its caster, potions had no such limitations.

  For all Miranda knew, they had hit him with a level ninety nine potion, and it could be years before he changed back. The chances of it being that high were virtually zero, but knowing Miles, he wouldn’t have wasted his gold on something that wasn’t going to seriously inconvenience his enemies.

  “Ashes and flame!” she spat furiously.

  “Who’s there?”

  Miranda whirled around, forgetting for a moment that she was invisible. She reflexively raised Eagle Feather, but forced herself to stop before she could throw it. Eclipse Walk would keep her hidden until she ran out of MP, but it would instantly deactivate if she attacked. Trying to slow the racing of her heart, she lowered her arm.

  A few yards further down the beach, someone stepped out of the dark forest. Miranda squinted her eyes to get a better look in the dim moonlight, cursing herself for deactivating Brighteyes.

  It turned out not to matter, though, since a character box appeared over the interloper’s head as he hobbled forward. A tingle went down Miranda’s spine, and she let out a slow, nervous breath.

  ISAAC CAIN

  LEVEL 21 BLACK MAGE

  (DEATHGATE SHAMAN)