Shadow of a Shade

Chapter Eleven

"Feeling better?"

Eragon slowly hauled himself out of the chair he'd been sitting in. "For the most part, yes. There was an infection in the break that I had to pull out, which took more time and effort than I would have liked, but I'm on the mend."

"Good." Murtagh took one of the other seats. "We've got news. Well, Addiane does."

Addiane nodded, crossing her arms. Eragon raised his eyebrows and made a motion for her to begin.

"I saw one of the archers earlier, when I was unpacking my things in the room I'm staying in. He was on the edge of the forest, and he was moving with the shadows."

"What do you mean by that?"

Addiane explained the back and forth movement she'd seen the man using, and how it matched up with the movement of the wind in the trees.

"That's quite smart."

"If I had to guess, I'd say the others in the strange cloaks, the other archers, can all do that. They've probably been trained, it seems like it would be something similar to their shooting abilities."

"That's a very good point... and I assume they know we're here?"

"I don't know how else they'd explain the three mountains of scales in the back pasture of Roran's house, which is unusually large for a mountain town." Murtagh shrugged.

"So they'll be attacking." Eragon shook his head.

"Not necessarily." Addiane countered.

"What's your reasoning?"

"Well, originally I thought that they'd come for us tonight, but Murtagh and I talked about it and he made some good points."

Eragon looked at his half-brother.

"Like I said to Addiane, this group might not know how to deal with a dragon and Rider. There's three of us each. Most likely, they'll try to get a better look at us, see if they can pinpoint any strengths and weaknesses without engaging, and make a plan exploits what they figure out."

The Shadeslayer nodded slowly. "That makes sense. So do we wait for the attack?"

Addiane shook her head. "I think we should try and capture whoever comes to watch us. We can try to get some information off of them, and maybe hold them ransom... or catch more when they come to break him out."

"How do we know they don't have magic?" Murtagh asked.

Addiane glanced over to Roran, who was standing in the corner.

"I haven't seen them perform any magic the whole time they've been attacking us, other than the otherworldly aim of those archers."

Murtagh grunted. "That can be achieved through enough practice, but the amount of practice it needs is... wildly impractical."

"Then we assume they have taken the time to put in that much practice." Eragon shifted, rubbing his forehead. "Anything else important?"

"I figured out a spell that I think might work to help us blend in similarly."

Murtagh looked at Addiane in surprise. "You neglected to mention that bit."

"It slipped my mind." She shrugged. "Hold on, I'll get my cloak. I'm not actually sure if the enchantment works the way I want it to, so if you can check it and see if you can find out, that would be wonderful."

She ran upstairs to grab her cloak and brought it back downstairs to the study they were meeting in.

Eragon examined it first. "I can sense the enchantment... did you weave it so that it will blend into the foliage around you?"