“Green mirage. We go around,” Feng said simply. “Stay close. You know combat spells too?”
Mirian kept a straight face. “I’m passable at them,” she said, glancing at Gabriel.
Feng made a grunting noise, then resud his place at the head of the column.
“No combat spells yet,” Gabriel whispered to her. “The main route is a lost cause, but Feng’s good. He knows two alternate routes and where the derelict strongholds and caves are too.”
There was an earsplitting roar behind them.
“Oniwyrm,” one of the caravaneers muttered, and clutched his light charm for good luck.
Feng picked up the pace, then sniffed the air. His nose wrinkled. He cocked his head, listening for sothing. Apparently, one of the calls he heard was what he was listening for, because he imdiately set off.
“Follow quickly,” he said. “No deviations from my path!” he called to the group, much louder than he normally was.
They heard the oniwyrm’s roar again, this ti closer.
Feng pulled out a machete, using it to hack through a dense bit of brush, then wound them up a steep hill. The next ti Mirian heard the oniwyrm roar, it was closer, but also to their left. The caravan leader smacked the rear of the lead marusaur lightly, then said sothing to it in Gulwenen. The beast made a deep sound resembling a sigh, but sped up. Around them, the birds had stopped chirping, though there was still the call of insects making a ruckus. They circled around another group of trees, backtracking slightly. The call of the insects seed lessened here.
“Here. Stay put,” Feng called to the group.
“And definitely don’t move forward,” Gabriel whispered. “Look there.”
There was a small pond in front of them, and in the middle of it, the largest flower Mirian had ever seen. It had petals that were perfectly white, with long stalks in the center of the flower that had luminous green pollen clinging to them. Next to it was a lump of mud that she realized was a nest.
“A jade bloom,” Gabriel said. “It generates a spell that can dissolve flesh. Harmless to plants, but nasty to any creature that gets within its magical field—except one.”
“Petal demons,” Mirian said, rembering a distant lecture from Viridian.
“Yup. Petal demons are technically plants, even though they’re mobile carnivores. The parts they don’t eat, they feed to the jade bloom’s roots. anwhile, the jade bloom protects the nest. Symbolic relationship.”
“Symbiotic,” Mirian corrected.
“Whatever.”
The oniwyrm roared again, this ti, much closer. Mirian watched as so sort of large rodent bolted from its hiding spot, dashing straight past the jade bloom. The rodent died so suddenly it was still in motion when its legs stopped moving. It skidded to a halt amidst the fallen leaves while its flesh began to dissolve. Red mist filled the air, gently drifting towards the jade bloom’s pond.
The oniwyrm erged a mont later, bursting from between two trees, towering high above the group. The body looked like a huge snake, with overlapping green scales. Its face, though, was nothing of the sort. It looked like a wooden mask, the kind used in old plays. The creature caught sight of the dead rodent, and went in to sniff it. Then, ‘mask’ of the beast opened up, revealing five jaws arranged in a circle, each one with hooked teeth. Then it paused, apparently seeing the red mist for the first ti.
That was when the petal demon erged from its nest. The petal demon was much smaller than the oniwyrm—only about two ters tall, with petal-like frills. It stalked forward like a bog lion, mane of petals flaring as it hissed out a warning. As it moved, moss grew beneath its feet so that its steps were completely silent.
The oniwyrm drew back, rising up high enough its head scraped the bottom branches of the tall trees around the clearing. That was when the petal demon fired five beams of light, each one from the tip of a petal, then charged forward, letting out a burst of green mist as it did. The oniwyrm roared again, this ti in pain, and started moving to flee, but it had failed to notice roots from the jade bloom wrapping around it.
What followed was a short but brutal tussle between the petal demon and the oniwyrm. The flesh-dissolving field of the jade bloom had taken a mont to pierce the wyrm’s thick scales, but once it was at work, the oniwyrm’s body was being quickly ripped from its skeleton. anwhile, the petal demon used its twisting vine-like limbs to wrestle the creature down to the ground where more roots from the jade bloom erged, tying the creature to the ground. The oniwyrm got a single bite off on the petal demon, but no blood ca from the wound; instead, it imdiately began to grow back, the plant-flesh weaving itself together with small vines.
“Move,” Feng said.
Mirian took a mont longer, fascinated by the jade bloom’s natural spellwork, before a prod from Gabriel got her moving.
“That was clever,” Mirian whispered as they quickly moved through the jungle again.
“Yeah, we’re not the usual petal demon food, so they won’t prioritize us. But, you know, if you were a horrible myrvite that ate just about anything, you wouldn’t say no to an egg-roll with legs,” Gabriel whispered back.
“Is that… are we egg-rolls with legs?”
“Obviously,” the other Prophet said.
Behind them, they heard the dying gasp of the oniwyrm, and then silence. Gradually, as they moved farther from the predators, the chatter of insects and birds resud.
Twice more, Feng redirected their route, looking more and more concerned each ti.
Finally, a few hours later, they saw the next rest point. It was a stout, stone building, half buried in the ground, with large trees looming over it. The stone walls were cracked where roots had penetrated.
“This is no good,” one of the carvaneers said. She was mixing Adamic and Gulwenen, but Mirian could pick up on the gist of it. “Why didn’t we head back to the main path?”
“Because it was blocked,” Feng said. “You saw the shadows in the undergrowth. You think you can outrun a light eater?”
“We have daylight. We could still head back east to rejoin the safer route.”
Feng shook his head. “Too many warning calls coming from that direction. And, Snake Mountain is between us and that trail now. This path isn’t in good shape, but it works. I’ve been this way twice before. We won’t get lost.”
The other caravaneer looked like she wanted to argue, but decided against it. Feng’s reputation, Mirian was coming to find, was beyond excellent, and now she could see why. With only his knowledge of the environnt and careful positioning, he’d just avoided four lethal predators.
They entered the derelict stronghold cautiously. There were several types of fungus growing out of a refuse pile, but no myrvites. The enchantnts that had once guarded the place were all broken.
Feng led the maursaurs into a fenced-off stable area, where they imdiately began to munch on the mushrooms that were growing. Then he joined two of the caravaneers who were staring at the door chanism, arms akimbo.
“The hinges fell off,” one of them said. “We can’t stay here without a proper door. Either we—”
Mirian didn’t particularly want to hear the argunt. She’d just seen how much mana a jade bloom used when it was tethering prey, and she was quite sure that the predatory myrvites couldn’t detect auric mana as well as the caravaneers feared. She used shape iron to pick up the hinges, reattaching them to the thick wooden door by using shape wood to anchor them. “Done,” she said, and then turned her attention to the broken enchantnts while the caravaneers gawked at her. If you thought that was impressive, you’re certainly in for a surprise, she thought, amused.
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When the others were busy, she talked quietly with Gabriel again. “What did you do last ti?”
“I just repaired the heat stone glyphs because I don’t like cold food and the scent-masking glyphs on those two walls. We didn’t get attacked, so it must have worked.”
Mirian shrugged. They only had so many magical inks with them for enchanting, but that wouldn’t take much. “I’ll do those, then.” That would give her more ti to train with Ibrahim, which was what she wanted. He was teaching her The Sheathed Blade Splits the Light, which was similar to the Sinister Hand auramancer stance, except instead of extending spell resistance outward, it focused it inward, concentrating the effect so that it only protected the user. The soul flow was similar to what she was used to, and so she picked it up quickly. The one she was more interested in was The Desert Flower Blooms Without Rain. That one, she was having more difficulty mastering.
She’d also tried and failed to assu two dervish forms at once. It was certainly related to whatever soul-ascension Ibrahim had achieved, and the longer she studied the flow of his soul, the more she was convinced that certain soul-ascensions were incompatible like her father had said. Even with the flexibility of flow she’d gained from Ceiba Yan, she couldn’t see how she could make the simultaneous flows she was picking up from Ibrahim work without sacrificing the beneficial flows she was using in the sub-outer layer of her soul.
As for Ibrahim’s lessons, she’d moved from trying to teach him arcane magic to celestial magic.
He was picking that up quite a bit faster. “This is easier. Why didn’t we start with this?” he told her that evening.
“Plenty of people think it’s harder,” she said. “I’ve co to think magic is like anything in life. So people pick it up easier, so people pick it up with more difficulty. Just like music, calligraphy, or playing cards.”
Ibrahim snorted. “Who’s ever had trouble picking up how to play card gas?”
Mirian grinned at him.
The dervish’s eyes grew wide. “You can’t be serious.”
She shrugged, and he just shook his head in mock anguish.
That night, Mirian’s sleep was shallow. The dark of the Jiandzhi was full of howls and screams.
***
Feng spent most of the next morning going on a careful walk around the stronghold. “We go southwest,” he said when he returned.
“That path hasn’t seen a caravan in a decade!” one of the others exclaid.
“The western path takes us up the pass. There’s too many mist jellies that way. I was watching them float past all morning.”
The other caravaneer’s eyes went wide. “Mist jellies don’t hunt together.”
Feng said nothing.
They moved southwest, following the marusaurs’ slow pace.
An hour later, they ca across several torn up saddlebags and a dead marusaur.
“Another caravan,” Gabriel muttered. Then, from off in the woods, they heard a scream of terror.
“Survivors!” one of the caravaneers said, heading in that direction.
“Wait!” Feng said, grabbing the other man’s arm. “We check, but we check carefully.”
They crept forward through the jungle. Ibrahim kept his hand on the poml of his sword. Mirian looked to Gabriel.
“You’ll see,” he said in a low voice.
Another terrible scream pierced the jungle, this ti closer.
They stopped suddenly, and Feng looked to the other caravaneers and shook his head. He clutched his light charm and muttered a prayer. “Altrukyst, your fellow travelers rest on the path now. May their families and friends find the courage to continue on their own roads. May they find peace under the veil of the sky. Life is our jewel we treasure; as their suffering has ended, let this treasure be passed down. Your soul is freed from grief and possession. Let it be born anew to joy and prosperity.”
There was another scream, close now, but no one made a move.
There was a great tree in front of them, its huge branches arching over them like an umbrella. It seed like a peaceful grove at first, but crouched in the bushes, they could now see the source of the screams.
Ten travelers dangled from the branches, suspended by thorny vines that wrapped around them so that only their legs and feet were visible, dangling.
“An Emperor’s Tree,” Gabriel whispered. “Nad that because political comntary isn’t always subtle. No emperors in Zhighua anymore, but the na stuck.”
Another scream. This ti, Mirian could see it was coming directly from the tree. So sort of spirit-construct that created an auditory illusion. Without the corpses dangling from the tree, the area looked harmless. The other caravan had diverted this way. They’d been dead for a few days now.
A nasty way to go, Mirian thought as their group retreated away from the predatory tree.
Feng was having a low conversation with the others. “Ten in the tree. There were likely four more, but I don’t see any sign of them. We’ll keep a look out. Everyone knows to find a stronghold and wait.”
Another shook his head. “Too far from the usual trail. They would have risked going east to find the better traveled hideouts.”
“Maybe. I’ll keep an eye out for signs.”
“That was Shao Cai’s group,” one of the won said quietly, letting a piece of one of the torn marusaur bags fall back to the ground. “I know his wife. I’ll tell her.”
Mirian watched them reorganize the marusaurs and move out again. Such a pity they won’t live, she thought. But then again, who will? She turned again to Gabriel. “This is all very dramatic, but I want to know when the attack is that you need for.”
“And ruin the surprise?”
From a dozen feet away, Mirian saw Ibrahim mouth the words, “ambush predator.”
Gabriel, thankfully, hadn’t noticed. “Fine, fine. Four hours from now. They find one of the old caverns, but there’s a cave maw in there. Uh, that’s a fungal myrvite, sort of like what we just saw, but it pretends to be stalactites and stalagmites instead and crushes sleeping victims. So we all ran outside to relocate. A band of light eaters picked off most of the group. Three of us made it to another cavern, but it’s not set up for defense. By morning, we were exhausted, and that’s when the big nasty guy shows up. Don’t know what it’s called.”
“Why not simply kill the cave maw?”
“With arcane magic? It’s burrowed in the stone ceiling and floor. Real bitch to dig out.”
Mirian shrugged. “Either I can take care of it, or the necromancer can.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Should have just sent you south to begin with. I could be relaxing in a palace right now.”
Mirian stopped and looked at him. It wasn’t her usual anger, but sothing related. A simring resentnt. “Are you saying you’re useless? That you serve no purpose in this tiloop? That there’s nothing you can contribute to saving Enteria?” She let the illusion drop from her eyes so that they went from gray to glowing silver.
Gabriel stopped too, the amusent draining from his face. “It was a joke.”
Mirian continued staring at him. If you can’t save three days worth of ti… she thought, her eyes settling on the void in his soul where the temporal anchor was hiding.
“A joke. Five hells, lighten up a bit,” he said, and turned away.
Mirian recast the illusion over her eyes.
The cave maw, when they got to it, was burrowed deep in the ceiling and floor. Mirian used necromancy to bind and kill it. Pieces of it still remained, so she used shape stone to trap the remains deep in the stone. With no source of nutrients, and no way to grow out, it would eventually wither and die.
For the first ti, the caravaneers started looking at her the way people did when they realized what she could do. Together with Jei, she grew thin bars of quartz to block off the cave entrance.
That night, light eaters stalked about, but their acid spit couldn’t dissolve the quartz. They tried sneaking in through spaces in the fourth dinsion, but Gaius was standing watch. After he killed a few, they scattered in search of easier prey. By then, the caravaneers were badly shaken.
“The route is not usually like this,” Feng said over breakfast. He kept glancing over at the dessicated body of one of the light eaters the necromancer had killed. Its six sinewy legs were lined with spikes, and three snake-like heads had far too many teeth.
Mirian dismantled her crystal portcullis. As soon as they were outside the cave, though, she felt a tremor in the ground.
“Back in the cave,” Feng said.
She shook her head. “No. This will only get worse. The sooner we push through, the easier this will be.”
“Lady, I don’t care if you’re Sun Shuen co again. The only thing that makes the ground shake like that is a lesser titan.”
“I’m aware of that, thank you,” she said, letting the illusion spell over her eyes dissolve.
More tremors shook the jungle floor. She heard branches snapping as the lesser titan pushed through the forest. Feng and the other caravaneers began to retreat back into the cave, slowly, to avoid sudden movents. The beast erged from between two trees, the top of it brushing the lower canopy. It looked a lot like Apophagorga, but smaller, and with lots of tusks rather than tentacles. It was covered in too many eyes, dozens of vestigial wings, and the strange, grayish flesh that Elder creatures often had.
“That,” Gabriel said, “is the fucker that ate .”
Mirian smiled, though the smile didn’t touch her eyes. “Then let’s put it down. Ibrahim?”
The dervish drew his sword. His soul began to blaze. “This ought to be fun,” he said with a grin.
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