I felt around in the darkness, my fingers scrabbling against the tilled earth, and every second the growling beast drew closer.
And the pain grew to unbearable levels.
Sothiswas how I was going to die—not murdered by Tendrils or the boarlath, but mauled by some mysterious growling creature in a grain field.
I thought Therador was supposed to be like a fantasy novel, not a horror movie. That single darkly humorous thought broke through the agony, and it was enough to give me a split-second’s worth of clear-headedness.
I’d made the pain go away before. More than once. I just had to remember how to—
Somethingexploded.
This time I felt it blast out of me, coursing out of my body and into the surrounding area. And once the shock of that power had dissipated, I was pleased to recognize that the pain in my body had disappeared, too.
I did it.
Grinning in spite of myself, I sat up. The field immediately around me had been flattened, the grain decimated in a wide circle. The patch wasn’t nearly as large as the one I’d destroyed in the forest, but it was still a good ten feet in every direction. And just like last time, everything glowed faintly green for a few seconds before falling back into shadowy moonlight.
At the edge of that circle, much too close for comfort, was the corpse of a large, scaly creature. It was hard to make out exactly what I was looking at because at least half its body was justgone, and the rest of it was so shredded and destroyed that even its pieces were largely unidentifiable. All I could tell was that it had been big, with dull scales, and it had had some gnarly looking claws on at least some of its feet.
“Bloody gods, what did you do?”
I jumped. I hadn’t even heard Radven come up behind me. The bastard was quiet, for as quick as he moved.
“That thing was chasing me,” I said, indicating the dead creature. “I somehow tapped into my power and—”
“Alerted everyone within two leagues as to exactly where you are.” He reached down and grabbed me by the arm, helping haul me to my feet. And then he paused, taking a closer look at what I’d done. “You did this while wearing seven pearls?”
“Shit, the pearls!” I pulled out of his grip and dropped to my hands and knees once more. “They fell off, but they’re somewhere around here…” Unless they’d been destroyed by what I’d just done. Damn it, if I’d just exploded the one thing that kept me from unbearable pain…
To my relief, though, now that there weren‘t any stalks of grain in the way, the pearls were easy to spot, their small, milky sides reflecting the silver moonlight. The bit of twine where they were strung was half gone, but part of it had apparently been protected from the blast by the pearls’ power. What remained looked just long enough to tie around my wrist.
“Quick, I’ll do it,” Radven said, impatience edging his tone.
He managed to knot the pearls around my wrist in record time, and while there was little contact between his skin and mine, my body still responded to those rare, light touches with enthusiasm.
Haven’t you had enough for the day?I chided myself.If you’re not writhing in pain, you’re getting turned on at the slightest touch. Calm down, Marigold.
For better or for worse, Radven made no wicked attempts to tease me or remind me of our unfinished business. The minute the pearls were secured around my wrist, he was looking up at the sky once more. “We need to go. Now. Laitha assuredly knows where we are by now, but I don’t want the zhespers to show her which way we’re heading.”
He still held my wrist, and this time he didn’t let it go as he led us at a sprint back to the path.
We were closer to the hills than I’d realized, for which I was grateful. That explosion ofessenceor whatever had healed the cuts and bruises on my feet, but they were still bare, and my muscles still ached with the exercise. When the ground began to slope upwards and we crossed beneath the first line of trees, I tugged my arm.
“Wait,” I said, panting. “Wait, I need a minute.”
Radven released me, but he was clearly unhappy about it. “We have to keep moving.”
“I know, but give a girl a break. I’m out of shape.”
“You just alerted Laitha to exactly where we are—wemustkeep moving.”
“What would you have had me do, let myself get eaten by whatever that thing was?” I leaned against a tree, still trying to catch my breath.
He didn’t bother answering that question. “Why were you even off the path in the first place?”
“I was hiding from those zhesper things. One of them flew right overhead.” I decided to leave out the part about getting lost in the field. “Are youmadat me?Youwere the one who left me behind!”
His frustration vanished, and in the moonlight filtering down through the trees I could have sworn I saw surprise, then embarrassment cross his features.
