Wylde Magic | Book 3

Fifty One: Travel In The Shadows

I swore to myself when we left Yeusellia that we would find and kill one of our enemies. I did not expect to be hunting one down like the last deer of winter.

Teyber sent Liana to personally scout the way ahead. While her personality irked me sometimes, it was clear that Teyber did trust her to do important tasks, so I would as well. The other scouts Teyber brought with him took to the trees for the most part, keeping a wide circle around us and reporting to Teyber frequently.

Spaulder and I briefly discussed renewing his transformation again since our mission was one of subtlety, but in the end we agreed his quick reflexes were more important that disguising his large form. As long as he didn't take flight, he would be reasonably hidden in the trees until we reached our destination.

Once all was settled, the treetop platforms were disassembled and the branches used to make them scattered. No one would suspect it had housed a group of partial elves at all.

Puko sat on my shoulder, picking at a twig that had worked its way into my hair as I slept. It was annoying and at times a bit painful, but I left him to it. It was almost like he was preening me, and in a strange way it was a comfort. Puko was like family to me, and the only connection I had to Mila.

I paused my steps, and Schula stopped with me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The witches..." I turned to face her as Teyber and Spaulder paused as well. "They could help us."

Schula nodded. "Mila did say to contact her when you needed her to come. Do you think that time is now?"

I bit my lower lip, continuing to walk again and the rest of the group followed my lead. "I don't know. I was going to find out how the barrier was built so we could repair it, but something about that has been bothering me lately."

'And what is that, little one?' Spaulder asked.

"I don't know." I sighed. I'd been saying that a lot lately.

"Maybe we can still find something in the books that we missed," Schula suggested.

I shook my head. "We've been over them so many times, at this point I don't know if the barrier can be repaired."

A silence fell among us as we walked. What did that mean for the whole reason we left the Wyldes? I wanted answers to where I came from and how to save my home. Was it possible that the journey was in vain? No, I met my father. I got to know my mother through so many people, and I had her book of witchcraft with so many brilliant ideas in it. I learned medicine from Purda, and brewing from Girdy. But, even through all that, I still couldn't fix the barrier that broke.

'Little one,' Spaulder started, catching my attention. 'Why rebuild such a barrier at all?'

I glanced up at the great dragon with a small smile. "Dark things from the Wyldes are getting out, and the dark side of men is seeping in. If we can build the barrier again and expel Bara Khalja's evil we can set things as they were before."

'Hmm,' Spaulder mused. 'But we can right those wrongs without repairing the barrier. So, I ask again, little one, why rebuild the barrier? Why set things as they were before?'

I frowned, stepping under a low branch and startling Puko off my shoulder. He flapped upward, and I watched him go.

Why set things as they were before? Because they were broken, and you repair broken things, right?

Repair broken things...

My lips parted, I looked sharply at Teyber as he walked ahead of us. His ears tipped, not human but not quite elf. Not at all unlike my own ears, and I reached up to touch mine. The feeling was still strange sometimes, considering I had gone so much of my life with them missing, but they were a sign that I was half elf.