Off to her left, Pegasussnorted.
Angelique suspiciously pulled back from her spyglass to peer at theconstellation.
Though she stood by the bank of a churning river that flowed south—to Swan Lake—Pegasus was about half of a field’s length away, casting judgment on a field of pumpkin plantseedlings.
“What?” Angeliquedemanded.
Pegasus blew out sharply through hisnostrils.
Angelique narrowed her eyes. “If you don’t like pumpkins, don’t stand bythem.”
Pegasus cocked his left back leg and flicked anear.
“I amnotcrabby.” Angelique paused, revisited her tone, then amended, “I’m notthatcrabby.”
Pegasus tossed his head as Angelique once again refitted the spyglass to hereye.
There was a sour taste in her mouth that water couldn’t wash away, and given that she hadn’t had a chance to bathe since leaving Chanceux, she felt dirty and ratty—even if her lovely dresswasn’t.
“‘You can handle spying on a sorcerer,’ they said. ‘you’re more than a match,’ they claimed.” Angelique uncharitably mimicked Finnr’s deep voice as she ranted. “Never mind that we didn’t know anything about the sorcerer, who is apparently capable of creating awyvernwith the hiding skills of a camouflagedmoth!”
She swept the spyglass from west to east, ignoring the blue patch of earth that was Swan Lake. Southeast of where she stood, trees violently rocked, and Angeliquestopped.
As she watched, the trees shook, and abruptly, a lizard-like form burst out of the forestcanopy.
Measuring larger than a royal carriage, the wyvern had a leathery hide that was a sickly shade of yellow, and its throat was ornamented with a dark red frill. As Nadia had said, its bat-like wings showed multiple puncture wounds, and it lashed its long tail behind it like arudder.
It landed on the treetop and snorted a hazy green puff ofsmoke.
This far away from it, Angelique couldn’t hear it, but she still shivered when the creature chomped its jaws, flashing rows of pointedfangs.
It roared—which Angeliquedidhear—and extended its long serpent-like neck as it balanced on the tree and surveyed thearea.
“This is it! We’ve got it, Pegasus!” Angelique spoke barely above a whisper—even though the creature couldn’t possible hear her so faraway.
Her heart stuttered when the wyvern turned in her direction. It angled its wedge-shaped head up, scenting theair.
That’s right; Nadia said it might be capable of scentingprey.
Angelique froze.Which way is the windblowing?
Afraid to pull her eye from the spyglass, she stiffened, trying to feel the caress of the late springbreeze.
Plants rustled and the water gushed, then Angelique felt the wind tug gently on her hair, blowing from north—where Angelique stood—to south—where the wyvernwas.
Through the spyglass, the wyvern stared at Angelique. Its eyes—the angry red of molten rock—felt like they were hinged on her as itsniffed.
It leaned forward, then shifted its gaze just a tiny bit eastward. It breathed so deep its nostrils expanded once, then twice. The wyvern froze, then nearly fell off its treetop perch. It released an unholy scream as it recovered, climbing higher in the sky before it circled, flying south. Away fromthem.
“What the—it couldn’t have been afraid of me. Why did it flee?” Angelique irately collapsed her spyglass then turned toPegasus.
He was still standing in the pumpkin field, irritably flattening his ears at the plants that surroundedhim.
Angelique strained her mind as she recalled the slight adjustment to the wyvern’s head, so it hadn’t been looking in her direction, but rather slightly more eastward. “You!” She brandished the spyglass at Pegasus, shouting to him across the field. “This is yourfault!”
Pegasus stopped snorting at a plant long enough to look ather.
Angelique scrambled in his direction. “You’re why it fled! It scented you and ran off! Nadia was right—we should have stayeddownwind.”
