She stared at me for a moment and then blinked. Awareness seeped into her eyes, but it was quickly overwhelmed by fear. She sucked in a deep breath, but I clapped a hand over her mouth before she could unleash the scream.
“Don’t,” I said, perhaps a little more sharply than was wise. “You’ll draw the Adlin to us.”
Her gaze darted left and right, her expression wild, confused. Fearful.
“It’s okay,” I added swiftly. “We’re okay. We just can’t do anything that’ll attract attention. Okay?”
Her gaze returned to mine, and after a moment she nodded. I hesitated, and then pulled my hand away. “How did you get here? Can you remember?”
She shook her head and opened her mouth to reply. No sound came out. Confusion and panic rolled across her features again.
I touched her arm, halting further attempts to speak. “Wait. I’ll go get some water.”
I rose and walked back to the scooter. The sensors were quiet and the horizon remained dust free, but the uneasy feeling we were not alone out here was growing.
The earwig buzzed. When I pressed it, Jeni said, “Eight-three, we’re now picking up movement twenty miles out from you.”
Which meant it remained beyond the range of my scanners. I glanced over my shoulder but still couldn’t see anything. Maybe it wasn’t the Adlin but rather one of the wildebeests that somehow eked out a living from this barren place. “Any idea what it is?”
“No, but it’s not large enough to be a full sleuth.”
“That’s not exactly comforting.” Adlin hunting parties were quite often only a half dozen or so in size rather than the full twenty-five. But half a dozen Adlin could easily take out a full escort detail. I certainly didn’t want to be confronting one of the bastards right now, let alone six or more of them. “Are they moving toward us?”
“Yes, and rather rapidly. You’d better get moving, eight-three.”
I flicked off the earwig again then grabbed the water bottle and walked back. After undoing the lid, I held it up and let the water trickle into the woman’s mouth. She grabbed it, trying to drag it closer, to drink more, but I held it firm. “Just sip it,” I said. “It can be dangerous to drink too much when you’re dehydrated.”
Something flashed in her eyes, something that spoke of storms and thunder. The wind stirred around me, sharp and filled with ice, but, after a moment, she relaxed and obeyed. The wind, however, remained hostile, whispering promises of retribution. For what, I wasn’t entirely sure.
After another second or so, I pulled the water away and repeated my question.
“I was dumped here.” Her voice was little more than a scratch of sound, but held within it the force of an oncoming storm. Despite her hair not being a pure color, she was definitely an air witch of some power. “I’m not sure why.”
I frowned. “Who dumped you?”
She shrugged. Frustration swirled through me, but it wasn’t really my job to find out the whys and wherefores of her being here. My mission was to get us both back to safety.
As dust finally appeared on the horizon, I slung the water bottle over my shoulder, then grabbed the medikit and rose. “Do you think you’ll be able to walk across to the scooter?”
Her gaze slid past me and she frowned. “Are we both going to fit in that thing?”
“It’ll be tight, but yes.” I held out a hand. “We need to move.”
She half raised a hand then stopped, panic flaring across her features again. “You have to get them off me.”
I frowned. “What?”
“The bracelets.” Her voice was rising, as was the wind. It tore at my hair, my clothes, as if trying to strip me bare. “You have to get them off me. Now.”
“I will, but we haven’t the time—”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me so close her nose was inches from mine. “Do it now. I can’t be wearing these things. It’s the surest way for the queen to find me, and I can’t be found. Not again.”
Queen? Both Gallion and Salysis had long ago freed themselves from the yoke of a ruling monarch. While Versona—the lands that lay on the other side of the Blacksaw Mountains—had kept what we’d discarded, we’d lost contact with them not long after the war that had decimated Tenterra.
Did that mean this woman was some kind of refugee from those lands? She surely couldn’t be an emissary, not given her words.
“Get them off me. You have to get them off me.” Her words held an uneasy mix of desperation and fury that had ice running across the back of my neck. And I wasn’t entirely sure its cause was the wind.
“Okay, but be warned, it’s going to make things tight.”
“Whatever comes cannot be worse than being found by the queen.”
I glanced at the horizon; the dust cloud was thicker, and far closer than before. We really couldn’t afford this delay, but it wasn’t like I had any choice. Not with the wind continuing to tear at me.
I swore under my breath, but shifted my grip and studied the bracelet. The workmanship was absolutely beautiful, the silver pure and bright, and the decorations carved into its surface intricate and unusual. I couldn’t immediately see any sort of catch, but a closer inspection revealed a hairline break on the reverse side of the bracelet.
“Hurry,” the woman growled. “They’re coming.”
“Which is why we should be in the scooter rather than wasting precious time trying to get these things off.”
“If they’re not removed,” she bit back, “running will be of no use.”
“Why?” I slid the glass knife out of its sheath and wedged the delicate tip into that crack. I hated the thought of breaking the blade but short of blasting the bracelet—and half her arm—away, I had little other choice.
“They are a beacon, of sorts,” the woman said, “and are powered by my life force. When no longer attached, they will not hold any ability to summon.”
“That dust”—I pointed with my chin as I shoved the tip of the knife deeper. The hairline crack widened fractionally—“is being raised by Adlin. Are you saying these bracelets are somehow connected to them?”
She twisted around and studied the dust cloud. The wind grew stronger, but its whispering was faint and incomprehensible, at least to me. After a moment, she said, “No, they’re not. They’re connected to something far worse.”
“I’m not entirely sure there is anything worse than an Adlin hunting party.” I twisted the knife and, with a metallic click, the bracelet opened. Dust bloomed as it hit the ground.
“Then you would be wrong. Look, I can’t explain what I can’t remember. You just have to trust me.”
Even though the wind was now begging me to do just that, instinct was screaming the very opposite. I had no idea why. Maybe it was just a natural distrust of the odd, almost otherworldly fury I kept seeing in her eyes—though, for all I knew, those brief flashes were entirely natural for an air witch. Aside from the occasional escort placement, I’d never had that much to do with witches of either kind.
The second bracelet came off easier than the first. I shoved the knife home then hauled the woman upright. She gasped and bent over, her body shaking and seeming to struggle for breath.
I hadn’t been that rough—had I? “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Her voice was tight. “It’s just been so long since I’ve moved with any sort of speed that I was surprised.”
A curious statement given her position here in the middle of nowhere, but my gaze drifted back to that dust cloud and fear stirred. If that dust did signal an approaching party of Adlin warriors, then they were already far too close for my liking.
I shifted my grip and wrapped my arm around her body in an effort to support her. “Let’s go.”
She balked. “I need the bracelets.”
“Didn’t I just remove them because they were damn dangerous?”
“Yes, but they’re pure silver and very valuable. I’ll not leave them here in the desert.”
I swore under my breath, then scooped up the two bracelets and clipped them to my utility belt. “Can we go now?”
“Yes.”