Isolde took a breath. “There’s an area of camp where they’re doing experiments.”
“What kind of experiments?” Ava asked. “And what does that have to do with you?”
“They were learning how to pervert their creatures, giving them the ability to nullify magic. I heard you were bitten by one, general.”
“I was.” Casimir took a bite of his roll.
“Due to my healing abilities, they forced me to help, keeping the monsters barely alive as they injected them with whatever concoctions they’d created. But I sabotaged as many as I could.”
“That’s why you wouldn’t leave? You were undoing their work?” Casimir asked.
“Yes. I couldn’t do it to every creature, or they’d get suspicious. But certain ones, I would purposely let die or I’d use my magic to negate the effects, then claim they weren’t strong enough. I’m not sure how much it helped, but I believe I was able to decrease the number by a third.”
“How many do they have?” Casimir asked.
“Hundreds…perhaps more.”
“Are they all those giant black insects?” asked Ava, shivering at the memory of fighting those monsters in the woods.
“No. There are many different types. Honestly, if it’s a creature of theirs, it’s safe to assume it has that capability. There’s no telling which ones do or do not.”
“That’s…” Ava didn’t know what to say.
“Very concerning,” Thorne finished for her, wiping his fingers on a napkin.
“Yes,” she whispered. “What else have we missed?”
“We leave soon to begin our campaign to take back Igneothenia,” said Thorne.
“Do we already have enough tonics for everyone?” Casimir asked.
“It took longer than expected, but we’re getting close,” said Kai. “We’ll have enough to last about a month.”
Ava gasped. “A month? We’ll be fighting for a month?”
“It may turn into a siege," Casimir explained. “Where we’ll be waiting them out and wearing them down with the goal to invade. They likely won’t surrender.”
Ava nodded, though she still struggled to wrap her mind around it. She was new to war and didn’t know all the ins and outs of battles and sieges and war strategy. The thought of camping outside of Igneothenia’s capital for who knows how long in a land filled with lava and volcanoes was terrifying. And what if it took longer? They needed to drink tonics in order totolerate the hot environment and if they ran out, they’d have to retreat.
The planning continued throughout the remainder of the meal. Ava listened intently, committing as much information to memory as she could. Because war was here. At their very doorstep.
The sun beatdown on Ava the following afternoon as she sat with Jorrar in a grassy field not far from the training rings. Blue flowers flecked the emerald grass swaying in the breeze and the chatter of squirrels chasing each other wound its way through the treetops.
“I studied the book while you were recovering,” Jorrar said. “Most of it is in old fae but the end is in an ancient dead language.”
“That’s strange. Can you read it?”
“Unfortunately, no. But most of what we need to know, we’re able to read.”
Ava picked at a blade of grass. “Why would the end be in a language different from the rest of the book?”
Jorrar rubbed the back of his neck. “That, I do not know…”
“But the portal to send Deidamia back to her realm…that part has been translated?”
“Yes.”
It was odd the entire book wasn’t in the same language. Perhaps there was something more that needed to be hidden. But why?
