“Quit messing around before you get someone killed.”
“How about you worry about yourself and leave my people to me,” Kira advised with a hard smile.
“His actions could endanger us all.”
“I can assure you that if we die, it won’t be because of something he did.”
Probably.
Bez looked back.“Problem, Pye?”
Kira quirked an eyebrow at Pye in challenge.“Well?Is there?”
The Tuann’s features tightened but he backed down.“No, no problem.Just imparting a little friendly advice.”
Bez’s gaze remained on Kira even after Pye had moved on.Kira stared back at him.
Jin, oblivious as usual to the trouble he’d caused, glanced at her.“What are you doing?”
Kira broke eye contact to look down at her friend.“Nothing you need to worry about.Find anything?”
Jin handed Kira a flat piece of glass that he’d dug out of his pack.“See for yourself.”
She glanced down at the scroll.“What am I looking at?”
A bird’s eye view of the forest formed.Several spots were marked with yellow dots.
“Someone went to a lot of trouble to set traps in the surrounding area.The majority are concentrated on the ravine’s easiest points of access.A few are strewn out through the forest.They look much older though.My hummingbird mapped at least twenty before I recalled her.”
“The enclave is aware of the world gate then,” Kira said.
If they weren’t, those traps wouldn’t just be concentrated around the ravine but more evenly distributed through the forest around the enclave.
“I can’t tell by the placement if they’re trying to deter visitors coming through the world gate or whether they’re hoping to prevent others from finding it,” Jin said.
Kira handed back his scroll.“When we reach the enclave, we can ask them.”
Jin’s excitement dimmed somewhat.“How much further do we have to walk?”
“As long as it takes,” Az announced, appearing from the forest like a ghost.“What’s the hold up?”
This close Kira could see the color of Az’s eyes.A blue so pale they were a little spooky.
Kira took the scroll out of Jin’s hands and handed it to Az.“Jin found something.Were you aware of just how many traps there are in the area?”
“Of course.We had to clear a number of them to create a path.”
“Funny how no one thought to mention that to us.”
Az offered the scroll back to Jin.“We thought it obvious.Wanderer enclaves are notorious for being riddled with traps.”
In other words, Kira should have known and compensated for that already.
“Why is that?”Jin asked.
Unlike Bez, there was no trace of hostility or antagonism in Az’s face or behavior.She was professional and forthright.
If a little brusque.
