“Eggs,” Saeldian said, like they were grabbing on to Kell’s line at the last instant. “Fried in hot oil so the edges go crisp and lacy, then pulled to a cooler spot on the stove until the whites set but the yolks are still runny. Top toasted bread with it.”
“That’s marvelously specific,” the woman said. “I know an inn where you can ask for exactly that, and it’ll be perfectly done. It’s not far from here. Maybe you’ve seen the spire in the distance. Menoriath’s Fallen Spire, I mean. It’s beautiful and tragic.”
“Fallen Menoriath?” Lorzok asked. “It’s nearby?”
The woman turned her intent, interested stare away from Saeldian. Released from the strange woman’s regard, Saeldian struggled through a ragged breath of the sort that heralds a scream. No one but Kell heard the tiny, scared noise they couldn’t stop.
“Relatively speaking,” the witch said. “Distances change here, as I’m sure you know.”
Kell did his best to look like he was hiding ignorance. “I have read of the phenomenon, yes.”
“Your first time in the Feywild! I’m glad I found you before anyone else did,” the witch exclaimed. “When I think about what you could have stumbled over while out here lost, with no guide? Please don’t imagine it. I can sort this out for you. A disagreement, yes?”
Saeldian laughed. It sounded like a stone rolling over cobbles. “Only over breakfasts. Though I concede that my preference isn’t so easily done on a campfire.”
Nobody else would be able to tell how much that breezy tone cost them. Why were they so afraid? Did they know this woman? Had Saeldian swindled her once? Surely not. The woman before them was white-haired, maiden-faced, and it felt like the heavy air before lightning just to be near her. Saeldian wasn’t foolish enough to cross power like that.
“I’m so glad to hear that it wasn’t anything serious. But I can get you to the spire.”
“That is a kind offer,” Lorzok said, “but—”
The witch wasn’t listening. She was staring at Saeldian again—exactly at Saeldian’s breastbone, where their shirt was laced firmly shut. Saeldian never favored the kind of figure that inspired people to stare at their beautifully crafted breasts or hugely muscled chest, but they might as well have. Saeldian’s teeth clicked together in a helpless rhythm of terror that chilled Kell just standing beside them. They didn’t move or speak.
That didn’t stop the witch at all. “Oh, my dear, your teeth are chattering so! Let me—”
Near Lorzok’s feet, Timtim thumped his hindlegs in alarm. A tension in the air snapped. Saeldian covered their breastbone with their hand. Lorzok slammed the butt of his staff on the ground.
The witch’s eyes widened as magic swirled around her, but it closed on empty air, and she was next to Kell now, shoving him aside to get to Saeldian.
No.Kell spun away from that shove like it was a dance move and hooked his sickled foot around her ankle.
“Ha!” he shouted, and shoved.
She windmilled her arms as she fell flat on her back in the mud. He grabbed Saeldian’s shoulder and ran them to a spot between Jubilee and Lorzok.
The woman raised her head, and her unsmiling expression promised Kell that he would pay for that until his spirit was flat as an empty purse. She lifted her hand, and Kell braced himself, but the glow of magic in her hand fizzled with a wet pop. Saeldian’s shouted Counterspell still hung in the air.
Kell blinked at the spot that glowed pink in his vision where the light of the woman’s spell had flared. Saeldian had countered it—how?No.Kell couldn’t waste a moment.
He grabbed a vial from his belt, dropped it to the ground, and shattered it under his boot as he cast the spell that would slow everything she did. She struggled to speak as molasses smeared into the dirt.
Jubilee crushed something in her hand and blew black dust off her palm. Lorzok’s staff glowed. Vines snaked around the witch as a cloud of darkness settled over her.
“Run!” Lorzok cried, and Kell was not arguing. Saeldian sprinted away so fast, it had to be a spell.
“Sheld!”
But Saeldian had bolted like a frightened horse, and the land around them writhed in response. A tall, skinny poplar fell across the path. Saeldian leapt, planting one hand on the trunk as they vaulted over it and kept running.
But when Kell echoed Saeldian’s move, the path was gone, and Saeldian was nowhere.
The path, obeyingSaeldian’s fear, was studded with tree roots and burrow holes and lashing branches behind their every step. Kell couldn’t look back, could only run until the stitch in his side slashed, until his heart pounded so fast it hurt. Lorzok had shifted into his wolf form, and Jubilee hopped and dodged barriers to keep pace. Timtim had dashed ahead of them and waited to be scooped up, riding inside Kell’s jerkin.
The witch hadn’t chased them, but Saeldian was still gone. It didn’t matter how doggedly they kept running. They never picked up Saeldian’s trail, and the wood around them kept changing, blocking their way with hedges, boulders, even a half-crumbled stone wall. Now Kell stumbled to a halt, breathing hard and nearly dizzy.
“Saeldian’s doing this,” Lorzok said. “They don’t want to be caught. The land is just doing what they want it to.”
“What happened back there?” Kell asked. “How did we wind up in a fight?”
