Gallina whistled. “Well, I’m convinced.”
They trooped together over a set of low hills, with more mountainous terrain humping up to their left, stitched with scattered copses of oak. A rumpled spread of pastureland appeared as they topped a rise. The meadow grass was high and still dewy.
Some grouse startled once, but apart from the far-off surge of breakers, the only sounds were the shushing of their feet through the grass and Gallina’s mutters whenever it swatted her in the face.
As Satchel forged ahead beside them, Viv couldn’t help watching out the corner of her eye, surprised by his silence and the alertness of his posture, an aggressiveness she’d never observed in him. Her first inkling of potential menace had been those deadly-looking fingers, and that had bloomed into a larger uneasiness.
Although she was increasingly positive it wouldn’t matter anyway.
Signs were scarce—no trampled grass or torn earth, no evidence of hunting. Spinebacks were messy eaters and untidy with their leavings. If they were in the area, she didn’t think they were nearby, and she had a growing conviction that the pack had moved on entirely.
Still, they’d made the journey. There was no reason not to check the area. She was impatient, but she could be thorough. At least, that was what she told herself.
They combed the meadow and slowly began to track through the shallow valleys between the hills on the other side of it, which were studded with shale and half-buried boulders.
“Well, this is a pain in the ass,” muttered Gallina as she shoved away another sheaf of grass at her eyeline. Viv was relieved that she was the one finally complaining.
“We should give it another hour, at least,” said Viv, scanning upslope for any sign of a den or burrow.
Satchel scrambled ahead of them, nimbly crawling over boulders and dancing across shale. He was remarkably agile, and little bursts of blue licked along the script on his extremities as he moved.
Suddenly, he stopped and glanced off to his left. Viv froze, following his gaze. A pile of stone sat wreathed in scrubby brush.
The homunculus signaled to them. Viv gestured to Gallina, who straggled behind, wearying of the climb with her shorter stride.
They joined Satchel to survey what he’d found. Fans of tossed dirt flanked an entrance where some animal had excavated a natural cave into a larger space. Splinters of shattered bone speckled the churned earth. Viv would’ve had to get on her hands and knees to enter, but Gallina or Satchel could probably make their way inside without issue.
That would’ve been foolish, though.
“They are there,” whispered Satchel, an eerie whistle in his echoing voice.
“How can you tell?” asked Gallina.
“Because of what they touch,” he replied cryptically.
And then as though in response, a sound like flint dragged down a granite wall echoed from the cave.
“I’ll be damned. Thatisa spineback den,” said Viv. “Well, we’ll just have to flush them out. Nobody’s going in there.”
She unbelted her saber and stowed it safely behind a boulder with the satchel, then unslung Blackblood, letting its comforting weight drag on her muscles all the way up to the shoulder.
Viv already had a hand to her mouth, sucking in air to shout, before she caught herself. Her companions regarded her expectantly.
“It isn’t that complicated,” she continued. “I’ll make some noise, and they’ll come piling out. Then we’ll put an end to them. They’re not that bright. I’ll post up and give them a big target, and then…” She raised the point of Blackblood suggestively.
Gallina had a pair of knives in her hands already and glared up at her. “And let you have all the fun? Not gods-damnedlikely. That big hunk of metal ain’t fast. I’ll be up top.” She gestured at the small outcropping of stone above the tunnel, and without waiting for an answer, she headed off.
Viv almost protested, but then watched as the gnome quietly circled the bushes, until the thatch of her spiky hair appeared above the tunnel. Her blades winked in the sun.
She flicked a glance at Satchel. “This is about as much planning as I ever manage. Are you good?”
“Indeed,” he replied. She waited a beat, in case he needed time to do the thing with his fingers again, but he simply stood there.
Well, she hadn’t expected to need his help anyway.
And she was impatient to live all the way to the edge of things again.
Sucking in a huge breath, she bellowed at the top of her lungs, “Hey, you gods-damned bastards!”
