“Where?”
“Back into the forest. The energy must have startled them.”
“It was stronger than any monster’s energy I have ever felt.” Stronger even than the energy I felt from my sister. “What about the other presence you sensed?”
“Silent,” Erik replies. “Gone, maybe. I can’t tell.”
We make it another hundred paces before the trees begin to thin and the edge of the forest becomes visible in the distance.
Beyond it, all I can make out is that the landscape is a mass of white.
Fresh air filters toward us—freezing air that makes me grateful for the pelt.
The trees around us now have brown leaves and many in the distance seem to have lost their leaves altogether.
A white, powdery substance covers them and is sprinkled on the ground underneath. It immediately takes me back to the wasteland on the northern side of the city. A field of white ash where the earth burned for so long that even the dirt had been consumed.
White flecks float down in front of me and I find myself frozen to the spot. “White ash.”
Erik is a step ahead of me. His boots make a soft, crunching sound in the underbrush that they didn’t make before.
He crouches to the ground, gripping the onyx spear in one hand, his breath frosting in the air as he presses the fingertips of his other hand to the white dust.
He shakes his head. “Snow.”
I’m equal parts relieved and surprised. Thaden said the outpost was high up, so snow would be likely, but it’s a very sudden change from the lush forest environment so close behind us. Until now, not a single snowflake had drifted down through the canopy.
I wish I could see what lies beyond the trees ahead, but all I make out is a wash of white.
Erik has remained at a crouch and when I draw level with him, I find his features pale and drawn and his gaze far away again.
“Erik?”
He gives himself a shake and rises to his feet. “Let’s get a closer look.”
Finally, we near the edge of the trees and the landscape becomes clear.
I pull up sharply and so does Erik, both of us crouching and staying close to the ground.
Ahead of us is a large, circular clearing. It’s at least a hundred paces wide and deep, and then it simply drops away on all sides except the one we’re standing on. There’s nothing beyond the clearing but what must be sharp cliffs and blue sky. I could walk across the clearing and step right off the edge.
Snow covers the expanse, built up in drifts so that in places it looks like it could be knee-deep.
A lone tree sits in the middle of the clearing about fifty paces away from where we crouch.
Its trunk is easily the width of two adults standing side by side, but the bark is black and slimy-looking, appearing to consist of thick lengths of wood woven around each other.
Its branches are bare of leaves. Yet perfect, red apples hang from them.
“What is this?” I whisper. “Where is the outpost? The army? The dragons’ nest?”
Erik is tense beside me, his gaze flashing across the snowy landscape.
He tilts his head slightly and, after waiting a moment, I ask, “What do you hear?”
“A single heartbeat. Very faint.” His brow is furrowed. “I can’t pinpoint its exact origin except that it’s ahead of us.”
He gestures to the snow and confusion thrums through me. “I felt powerful Blacksmith magic coming from this location, but I don’t see anyone.”
