After their decisive victory over Orinovo, Lys-Akkaria's army crosses the border to take back territory that used to be theirs. With the combined forces of a lightweaver and shadowforger, Orinovo doesn't stand a chance.
In spite of their newfound a...
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Ainreth wanted to tear his hair out. He couldn't believe he'd let sundering Orinovo take his Fenn away from him. Attacking their camp at night was one thing, but kidnapping Fenn? And they'd set part of the tents on fire too to distract them too much to notice which way they'd escaped.
They were now tracking where they must have gone, the kidnappers apparently leaving footprints, which seemed a little odd to Ainreth. If he went kidnapping people, he'd bring his horse. But he did his best not to think about any of this, in general. He was on the verge of panic as it was.
The sun only knew what Orinovo had already done to Fenn in the few hours since they'd taken him. What if they had killed him? That was a question Ain was also trying not to think about. It was too horrible to consider. But knowing Orinovo, if they wanted to kill him, they would do it publicly, and probably in Diramisk. That was what they'd done with a lot of their high-ranking soldier they'd manage to capture.
That thought didn't do much to comfort him, but it was better than nothing. At least it would mean that Fennrin was alive. Unfortunately, he couldn't just assume that Fenn was actually being transported to Diramisk and run off in the direction of the capital because that was a stupid idea without any clues as to prove that was what was happening.
So stupid tracking it was.
Ainreth sighed, trying to stave off his worry with irritation. They were in the middle of a field, the sun barely rising on the horizon. Despite the poor light, though, there was no one for miles, that much was clear from just being here and looking around the open space. Which only made him more impatient because it meant they weren't anywhere close to finding Fenn.
Suddenly the person tracking stopped, which due to his internal ranting Ainreth noticed only when he realized no one from their small group was moving anymore, making Sunray stop, too. It was a good thing she was paying more attention than him because if not, they would have crashed.
"There was someone laying here," the trackers pointed at a patch of grass. Ainreth had to peer down at it closely to notice that it looked a little flattened, but if he was the one attempting to track, he wouldn't notice. It was incredibly subtle.
"And then someone was standing here," pointed the woman a bit away from the flattened grass, frowning. "And that's where the tracks end."
"What do you mean they just end?" Ainreth demanded immediately. They couldn't end. Whoever had left these tracks hadn't just disappeared out of nowhere, surely. How could—
Ainreth paused his outrage and frustration as something occurred to him. "Windwalker?"
Windwalkers could fly, after all. There weren't a lot of them, so it hadn't even occurred to him that one of them could be taking Fennrin away, but it made sense. Why risk losing such an important captive when you could fly away with him, untouchable as long as the windwalker in question could handle staying in the air.
