UNMARKED

35: Trespassing

Breathless, sore, and sweating, Blayre and Caval collapsed under the cover of darkness within a deep recess of the forest.

    Blayre had no idea what direction Caval had taken her. She hoped they weren't directly in the path of the clanspeople. Wherever it was they were going - perhaps to the caverns as well. 

    Blayre felt as though her panted breaths could be heard all the way down the mountain. The two of them sat in the darkness, focusing on catching their breath rather than speaking - though Blayre had hundreds of questions swirling around in her mind.

    Caval silently offered Blayre the water flask she had left behind when she went ahead to investigate.

    "How much longer before they recover?" Blayre said in a whispered pant.

    "I'm not sure." Caval said, putting his head between his knees. He sat up again. "I planted an activated charm on one of their bags. Will you be able to feel it? To track them?"

    "Probably..." Blayre said cautiously. "I'm not sure from what range, though."

    "Well," Caval sucked in a breath, "It's better than nothing I guess."

    "Where are we?"

    "I think somewhere northeast of where we were before. Further east than we want to be." Sweat gleamed on the young sorcerer's forehead in the faint starlight that was breaking through the cloud cover and treetops.

    Thank the gods for cloudcover.

    "So," Caval sighed, leaning back against a shrub, his tunic emitting a rasping noise as the twigs and branches chafed against the fabric. "We should probably rest up briefly, and turn back."

    "Turn back?" Blayre asked, disbelief inching into her voice.

    "It was risky enough going there before. Now we'll be hunted by the clans. They don't take kindly to trespassing."

    "Cav,  you mean to say I did all that climbing for nothing? And now I have to climb back down without ever finding or seeing the dragon caverns?" Her tone was only half joking. She hadn't come all this way only to turn back.

    Caval looked at her, and she could see the glitter of his eyes against the darkness of the forest. "I have no doubt that you can get past those wards without trouble - that's why I brought you in the first place. That and the fact that I trust you, because like me, you want answers. But we will have to be quick and quiet, and make our observations, come to our conclusions and then leave. If we continue on."

"You never told me the caverns were on clan lands." Blayre blurted out. It had been bothering her that he hadn't.

Caval shifted where he sat, "I thought you knew... you told me you'd been told stories. Wive's tales."

"Yes but... I didn't... that was never mentioned." She huffed a sigh. "My father, despite trading with the clans, kept discussions about them strictly business related."

"Hmm. Did they say something to you? About your mother?"

"Not really, no." Said Blayre. After another moment she added, "But they seemed - taken aback that she would have given up a daughter."

"How would you feel if she didn't give you up?" His upper arm pressed lightly against hers.

Blayre sucked in a breath, "I don't know."

****

    They risked only small bits of restless sleep before moving along, painstakingly re-orienting themselves to their location. The pair had traveled quite a bit out of the way during the chaos of their escape, and they were now hiking through dense forest, no longer following a trail. Birds flitted overhead and the chattering of other animals could be heard through the heavily wooded area. It all sounded so serene and so normal that Blayre nearly forgot that they were in so much potential danger.