I hadn’t decided yet if I would go inside with Li once we reached it. It seemed like a very bad idea. I’d spent the last five miles eyeing her backpack and contemplating beating her up to take it, then running off to camp in the woods until Zav came looking for me. But I hadn’t seen Li fight yet. It was possible she could kick my ass, or at least injure me badly, and then what? I would not only be stuck here, but I’d be wounded.
It crossed my mind to shoot her in the back, but she’d stopped and shared her water and given me a granola bar. Bullets would be a poor way to pay her back. Besides, with all the magical items she carried, she might have armor that could deflect Fezzik’s rounds. That simple black helmet surely wasn’t there for decoration.
Earlier, I’d asked Li about her magical artifacts, and what kind of training she’d had, but she hadn’t answered. I probably should have been more subtle, pretending I just wanted to chat and wasn’t trying to get intel on her. But subtle wasn’t one of my talents.
I touched Sindari’s charm on its thong and considered summoning him for company. I’d called him forth earlier to make sure I still could. He’d been startled to find himself on the dwarven world, saying he’d been trying to catch Li, after she’d escaped from him back on Earth, when our bond had snapped. That had thrown him back to his realm without warning. Unfortunately, he’d seen no more than I about what happened with my mother.
Not sure how soon we would run into danger, I resisted the urge to summon him. I was positive I would need Sindari later.
I would also need to sneak off into the woods to use my inhaler again soon. The sulfur-tainted air of this place was bothering my lungs more than usual. I would pay a lot of money if some magical being could wave a hand over me and cure my overreactive body. In the meantime, I tried to think calm, meditative thoughts as we walked. It didn’t help. Despite Mary’s regular admonitions that I should practice more often, my meditation skills hadn’t improved. If I could ever see results from my practice, I might be more inclined, but it always seemed futile.
“I have been considering your reluctance to enter the tomb,” Li said over her shoulder, speaking for the first time in an hour.
“The tomb isn’t the problem; this lich you’ve promised me is.”
Furry animals that peeped like marmots commented on our passage as they skittered among the trees. Numerous birds chattered in the branches, though their markings were all alien to me. Once, I saw something parrot-sized with butterfly-like wings fly past.
“As I told you,” Li said, “I was in there before. There are a great many artifacts inside. I am not certain if the dwarves placed them there to protect their dead or if the lich stole them to hoard.”
“Did the lich not discuss his dreams and goals with you while he was chasing you out of his lair?”
“It did not.” Li insisted on not giving the lich a sex. Maybe once you were undead, such things didn’t matter. “It must have ambitions, or why would an already-powerful dragon consider giving up its breathing body in exchange for a little more power, but it’s hard to imagine that hoarding artifacts is one of them. I believe it more likely that the dwarves put them there. My reason for telling you this is that it’s possible we could find another portal generator. Will that motivate you to go inside?”
“I don’t know. What are the odds that it would lead to Earth? Does yours go to more than one place?”
“Not that I was able to determine, but it returned me to Earth after I used it to come here. I originally found it in my homeland, near the camp my father and the other dwarves lived in before they were slain by the government. I believe my father made it to allow my mother to visit him once his people left.” Her voice turned hard. “Unfortunately, they were not permitted to leave. They were deemed freaks and eradicated.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, feeling like I was saying that a lot to her tales. “How old were you then?”
“Five. I remember my father and my uncles—they were not blood uncles, but my father called them thus—and how excited I was whenever they came to visit the village. They always knew it was dangerous to mingle with humans, but my father and my mother had a secret relationship and loved each other, I believe.” She glanced back. “Your story is similar?”
“Yeah.” Similar but without the eradication. “I didn’t get to meet my father until recently though.”
Li blinked. “He still lives?”
“In Veleshna Var, yes.”
“His people escaped your government then.” Her mouth twisted with bitterness, but she didn’t say anything else, merely faced forward again and continued to walk.
But we’d only taken a few more steps when numerous creatures with familiar magical auras pinged my radar. At first, I thought they were more of those rocs, coming back to try again to turn us into lunch, but I groaned when I realized what they were. More of the winged skeletal creatures that had attacked me and Zav.
“Take cover.” Li must have sensed them, too, for she darted into the trees, waving for me to follow her.
I ran into the trees on the other side of the road. If the creatures attacked, it would be better to be split up so we could divide their attention.
The wildlife that had been peeping in the woods fell silent. Even though they were mundane animals, maybe they could sense the magical flying skeletons approaching. There was a whole pack—or flock—of them again.
Last time, it had taken Zav battling seven of them while Sindari and I fought one. And he’d been gravely injured. There was no way Li and I could deal with all of them.
“It sure would be nice to have a portal generator right now,” I muttered, though if Sindari had been the one to keep her from grabbing hers, it probably wasn’t fair to gripe that she didn’t have it. It was, however, completely fair to gripe that she’d dragged me here.
The foliage-dense branches kept me from seeing the undead creatures approaching, but I sensed the power of their magic and tapped my cloaking charm, hoping it would hide me. Li crouched behind a tree, brush partially camouflaging her from view, but since she’d lost her own such charm, I continued to sense her presence.
I drew Chopper and willed its magic to make her disappear, though I’d never used the sword to do such a thing and doubted it could. I added my own neophyte power to the mix, mentally envisioning fern fronds wrapping around her and hiding her from sight.
Maybe it was my imagination, but she seemed to fade into the foliage, blending in further.
The skeletal creatures reached us and circled above the trees. I should have used the camouflage charm earlier. At least they seemed to have trouble pinpointing us. They didn’t shriek or screech or emit any other noises as they hunted for us, but as they flapped their bone-colored wings, their big avian shapes visible now and then through the leaves, the sound of the wingbeats drifted down to us.
One flew close enough that it scraped its rib cage on the top of my tree, making branches shake and sending leaves flitting down. My fist tightened around Chopper’s hilt, though I dreaded the idea of fighting. If they got close enough to see through the magic of my charm… or if they sensed Li… we would be dead.
Mom would have no idea where I’d gone, have no idea what to tell Amber. Would my daughter miss me? Had we spent enough time together this year for her to develop feelings and care one way or another what happened to me?