Ringsted—famous for its fleets of ships and merchants—could still get through storms of this size. Even so, Angelique didn’t likeit.
The storms aren’t moving on or running out of power. They’re just…there. It has to beunnatural.
Angelique tapped her collapsed telescope against her thigh and considered the implications.Could it be the work of the black mages who kidnapped Evariste? But what do they gain from makingstorms?
A piercing shriek echoed behindAngelique.
She spun around, peering up at the mountain range that loomed to the east, separating Erlauf from Baris.That sounded like agoblin…
She held her breath as she listened, straining to hear above the howlingwind.
Silence…and then anotherscream.
“It’s always goblins,” Angelique muttered as she scrabbled up the rocky shore. “Pegasus!”
The ground shook as the constellation jumped a boulder and landed not far ahead, white sparks fizzing from hishooves.
Since aiding Puss in Carabas, the magical equine had become her primary method of transportation—and her greatest confidant intruth.
Pegasus pranced next to Angelique, slowing down long enough for her to fling herself at his back and pull herself on by the leather strap he had allowed her to place around his neck. (The winds on the coast were so strong, she needed it to holdon.)
Once she had her cloak wrapped around her, Angelique leaned forward and grasped the strap. “I’m ready—let’sfly!”
Pegasus bugled a challenging cry as he tossed his head, then plunged into the snow-coveredhills.
Thankfully, there was only a thin layer of powdery snow that crunched under Pegasus’ black hooves—it wasn’t deep yet—but the salty smelling air was icy, and Angelique crouched low on Pegasus’ back to keepwarm.
“It sounded like the goblin cry was at the base of the mountain,” Angelique shouted above the whistling wind. “More mountain goblins, Ithink.”
Pegasus altered his course, and Angelique started to spool her magic into a spell, preparing toattack.
Her teeth rattled as Pegasus charged up the side of a hill.Irritating goblins, she thought mutinously. Over the last few years, they had become a more common sight—particularly inErlauf.
Though Angelique was now experienced enough at spell-slinging that they were little more than an irritant, she always did her best to take out any that had the bad misfortune of crossing her path. Because although she could handle them, the townspeople and farmers in the area were not nearly as strong ofopponents.
Pegasus reached the crest and began speeding down the other side, galloping closer to the pace of a falling star than Angeliquewanted.
When he reached the bottom of the hill, the goblins screamed again, and Pegasus abruptlyturned.
Angelique roared, hoping to intimidate the creatures before even catching sight of them. “Your doom has come for you, gob—and that’s not agoblin.”
A young boy—at least Angeliquethoughtit was a boy; it was hard to tell under all his clothes—came skidding down a small foothill. He was swaddled in at least two cloaks, a scarf, mittens that were too big for his hands, and a hat that made him resemble a sheep. He kept looking back over his shoulder, and as a result fell over his own feet and smacked the hardenedground.
“N-no!” he shouted. He struggled to get up, still focused on the hill behindhim.
Angelique followed his gaze and saw a stooped figure appear on the peak of thehill.
The shape resembled an old woman, except she wore thin ratty clothes that reminded Angelique of rat pelts. Her rust-colored lips were malformed into a permanent grimace that was spotted with black, rotten teeth, but it was her watery white eyes that gave heraway.
“Mountain hag,” Angelique growled.But what is one doing all the way downhere?
Mountain hags were magical entities of warped and dark magic. Though they only lived far north, in the icy country of Kozlovka, they were known to wander during winter, searching for young women they could kill so they could devour theirhearts.
However, in all her reading and classes, Angelique had never heard of one coming this far south,ever.
So what is one doing here inErlauf?
The mountain hag started to totter down the hill, heading straight for the fallen boy—whose cries echoed off themountains.
