A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [49]
Once it reached the border of Eferem, the stone highway that cut across the Shale Plains turned into a rough, twisting dirt road heavily marked by potholes and ruts from the progress of wagons and horses. Mace doubted it would be used at all if it weren’t the quickest way to both Sylph Valley and the mountainous kingdom of Para Dubh to the east. The fact that it was in such bad shape was a sign of what Solie had been saying. The kingdom of Eferem wasn’t at war with them, but they’d rather ignore the Valley than be friends. Solie was working to change that, but it was slow going.
The road needed so many repairs that after a few moments of thought, Mace abandoned it and led Ruffles up a deer path into the woods. Here, for them, the way would be quicker. There wasn’t much point in staying on the road in hope of tracking Jayden, anyway. The boy had gone through a week before, long enough for the best tracking hound to lose him, and while Mace looked like a dog, he wasn’t one. His sense of smell was heightened, as was his hearing, but he didn’t know what scents would be helpful to pick up. He didn’t even know what Jayden smelled like, so he just ignored his nose. He’d only find the boy by questioning humans. If the boy had left the convoy, an angry youth traveling alone at this time of year would attract notice. Or so Mace hoped. At any rate, even if he hadn’t, the convoy itself should be remembered. Humans liked mail.
It had been almost twenty years since Mace last came this way, and he’d never expected to return. His last visit had been when he was a bound sylph, traveling with his master in pursuit of a woman Mace never wanted to harm. That wouldn’t have mattered, though, if they’d found her. Mace would have killed her on command, no matter his personal feelings. After all, he’d done it before. Luckily, things hadn’t happened that way, and instead everything had changed. The only orders floating in Mace’s mind right now were Solie’s admonition not to take his original form except in an emergency and Lily’s commands to bring Jayden back without killing any people. He would succeed, even if it was just the boy’s body he returned, even if it was just the boy’s bones and it took a thousand years. Lily thought she understood sylph behavior, but she didn’t. Not really. Even without the soul tie, after nearly twenty years of being hers, her slightest wish was his command.
He and Ruffles made good time through the woods, pausing only to help her hunt down a rabbit to eat. It was easy. Ruffles sniffed the beast out, and the instant it bolted, Mace used the tiniest amount of his fighting energy to kill it. While Ruffles feasted, he shifted to the form of an eagle and flapped his way up into the dim, gray sky to take a look at their surroundings.
There wasn’t much. The clouds were dropping a steady stream of snow that made it hard to see anything other than the dimmest, closest outlines of trees. Mace didn’t bother with sight, though. Though his ability to do so was limited outside his natural shape, he looked at the patterns of life instead, dismissing any vegetation and animals for the more complex patterns of human beings.
There were a great many only a few miles farther on. Circling there, Mace remembered. When he’d come this way before, there had been a town in the woods, a place called Falloweld, which served the men who trapped animals in the surrounding forests. Mace hadn’t thought of the place in a long time. At least, he hadn’t thought of the town itself. There were other things about it that he did remember with great, unspoken fondness.
He dropped down, landing in his human form again beside Ruffles and retrieving his clothes. As an eagle, he’d been too small to carry them inside of him. She glanced at him and