Cursed: Traitor's Trail

Chapter 13 Part 1

Aya pushed her way into the long grass at the edge of the village. Slender, dust covered strands waved above her head, trembling with her passing and sprinkling dry brown particles, which wafted down to her nose and encouraged a sneeze. In front of her, the strands wound into a woven mess.

She tried not to imagine what she would look like after traveling through such a tangle, and how long the dirt would cling to her skin. With so many Magi in the village, water for self-cleaning was scarce, and her designated day for a full wash lingered two days away; which meant she would have to make do with a dampened cloth on her face and arms until then.

Behind her, the lizard thrashed against the Magi's attack, and she heard the snapping of the bone cage as the beast's tail brought down the structure. She hesitated in her movement, debating whether she should return and aid the warriors, but without a blade, she would be little use. Instead, she turned back to her study of the foliage, pushing deeper into the grasses.

Somewhere should be a...aha. There. A slender—more so even than she had guessed—path where the grass was pressed aside, stems broken near the ground where the lizard stepped. She slipped between the bunches in front of her and turned onto the freshly made trail.

Once standing within, she stopped, glancing along the ground in both directions. The path was straighter than she expected. Well, she didn't know what to expect, truthfully. But the nearly perfect trajectory of bent and broken blades was not it. However, the uniformity did match her suspicions that the lizard acted under some external—intelligent—control. When the warrior mentioned its unusual behavior, the idea sparked in her mind. If the termites behaved oddly, why not this lizard, as well? Maybe because she was new to the village and hadn't yet adapted to the magic-is-forbidden idea; not that she was able to adapt when her power seemed to have a mind of its own. It just appeared obvious to her to seek someone using their powers.

She moved along the path, away from the village, scanning as she did grasses which essentially formed a tunnel. The stalks shot up on either side of her at the edges of the broken trail, except where the beast had set a foot to the side or maybe swished its tail. About half way up, the grasses bent; hanging down, shading and isolating her.

Unbidden, the reminder of the tunnels from within the ruins assaulted her mind, and she struggled to convince her jumpy nerves this was a different situation. The demon that used this passage was dead, and back in the village, not ready to jump out and attack.

She followed the trail, aware she wandered forth from the village and safety. The risk was not lost on her, but already the grasses began to recover from the beast's passing, and soon the trail would become much harder to follow. That and if the traitor had to have contact with the lizard, they might still be waiting, at the path's beginning.

She did soften her footsteps, hoping to take her target by surprise. She considered that meandering down the middle of the trail might not be the wisest choice. A great distance was visible since no curves interfered with her vision, and if she figured that out, so, too, might the traitor. But then the grass grew thick and dry in the wasteland, and she was not talented enough to make her passage off of the trail a noiseless one. In the end, the dust deterred her the most, she admitted to herself wryly. She would not make a good tracker.

She followed the trail for what seemed like a very long while, placing one foot after another in careful silence, until at last she came to the end. Or what looked like the end. Here, the path of broken and bent grasses that had been so consistent turned sharply and then twisted again out of sight on her right.