THEY HAD SEEN the flames from the Umber.
Nadir's boats were faster than traveling on horse. Bala used her wind to blow them across the water. Nadir had paced, hands threaded behind his neck, muttering incoherent babble in the old language as Bala realized he was so nervous, the usual tongue wouldn't keep up. The noise of it startled her, but she turned her attention to Lex instead.
All color had drained from Lex's face. Bala knew she was more terrified inside than the Second Sun would ever admit.
The ocean had rumbled beneath them, all manner of creatures pulsing to her call. The last moons' light of winter had ricocheted off the spine of a grand serpent, and it was the sight of it that made Nadir pause in his step.
"Follow it," Nadir said.
"The serpent?" Lex asked. "The last time—“
"That there is a different serpent," he cut in. "I'm sure the greater one that likes her is already with her."
"That wasn't the greater one?" Bala asked.
"That was the small one," he replied.
Lex settled back on the edge, chewing on her thumb. Nadir pressed to the front of the boat. His hands gripped so tight into the wood, Bala swore she saw it crease.
"We'll find her," she told them.
Though she wasn't sure she knew what they would find when they reached her, and the look Nadir exchanged with her told her that's what he was thinking as well.
The breaking silence of the camp felt of a ringing that made Bala's bones numb. Every hair on her body stood. Shacks cracked beneath the weight of amber and black flames, the smoke swirling into their dark night.
There were no people left.
No animals.
Only the noise of breaking and groaning wood.
The moment their boots hit the sand, Lex began to shout Nyssa's name. Bala and Nadir both grabbed her in response.
"You cannot shout," Bala said under her breath.
"How else do you plan on finding her?" Lex argued.
"You don't know what she has become," Bala warned. "Calling it could be dangerous."
"It?" Lex repeated.
One look from Nadir confirmed what Bala had said.
A shriek sounded overhead.
The three jerked to the sand.
Smoke swirled upwards into the sky from whatever it was. But it disappeared into a whisper. Nadir was the first to straighten. They searched the sky, Bala's heart beginning to throb in her ears.
"What was that?" Lex asked.
"Tricks," Nadir replied, eyes never leaving the darkness. "We follow her,” he said about the beast.
They moved, following the shoreline, ducking when shacks and tents cracked and splintered around them. Ash covered the ground in piles, and Bala could tell it was not ash from buildings. These were what was left of the people that had once inhabited that camp.
Burned and crippled beneath whatever power Nyssa had unleashed.
The shadow passed over them twice more, each time making them flinch.
