The four whisper women stood together in a tight circle debating about our next move. Mishtaw and Eliss stood on one side while Hattie and her second-in-command stood opposite. Melka seemed partially distracted, which wasn’t surprising given that she was still focused on keeping her aura up, but she was more than enough present to step aside so that I didn’t run into her elbow.
I hated this sight stealing fog.
Mishtaw didn’t ask if what I had to say could wait or poke at my audacity for interrupting them. Instead she rose her eyebrows in question. “Have you discovered something else?”
I laid out my concerns as concisely as possible as they all listened. Mishtaw kept her thoughts from showing on her face while Eliss looked caught between disbelief and outrage though whether those were because she thought me a liar or the fish an underhanded enemy was a difficult guess. The answer was probably some mixture of both. Hattie was the picture of someone enthralled by a Grandmother’s tale and an assessing look crept into Melka’s gaze more the longer I spoke.
Mishtaw summarized my points even further after I finished. “The camp could be under attack and our patrols picked off, one by one, but you believe these caves could be the bigger threat?”
I held my ground. “You know how the goddess reacted when one tree burned. Do you want to find out what happens when a whole chunk of her land gets stolen?”
“You don’t know if that’s what the enemy is attempting,” Eliss accused.
I stiffened and worked to keep my tone on the good side of respectful. Waste of time or not I didn’t have the authority to force my ideas forward without addressing concerns. “What else would the Lady Blue want? We’re obstacles, not the goal.”
Hattie laughed at that and when Melka gave her a warning look she shrugged. “The Little Diver said it, not me.”
Mishtaw took hold of the conversation before it could get off track. “We can do little from our current position for either situation should they be happening like you said, Gimley. So why force yourself into the conversation?”
I lifted my chin. “Plans work better with more information and I doubt ignorance would be an acceptable excuse for failing to act on either situation.” I hesitated, hated myself for it, and then added, “Even if we can’t stop the Lady Blue’s plans that doesn’t mean we can’t hinder them, squad leader.”
Hattie’s smile stretched as she glanced at Mishtaw. “I like her.”
Eliss frowned. “Of course you do.”
Mishtaw laid a calming hand on Eliss’s arm. “If the camp can’t hold on its own then us returning will make little difference. My squad isn’t suited to long distance fighting unless another hand with a sling is all that’s needed. Our mission was the caves and the land around them, let’s keep our focus there.”
Hattie stretched. “You have a plan?”
As they debated their different ideas I kept quiet and still, listening in. Mishtaw thought we could use Hattie’s ability to make holes in the ground to undermine the integrity of the cave entrance and collapse it. Hattie was all for that plan, but the trouble once again was that we couldn’t get there quick without the shadow paths and traveling by the ocean had changed to an absolute last resort until communication returned and the threat of attack lessened.
There was talk of trying to get reinforcements, spread the word, but that ran into the same problem of travel. Idra’s blessing and Juniper’s were both brought up to potentially bottle up the fish in the caves or drive them out. No one said it out loud but from a couple of glances at telling moments from Eliss and Hattie I could tell that I was being considered as bait. I didn’t particularly like that train of thought.
A cry of success came from the fire starters.
The whisper women’s planning cut off as we all hurried toward the sound. At first, I doubted there was much cause for celebration given that there was no telltale glow through the fog, but then I got close enough to see what they had done.
The pine tree they had chosen had a fat cluster of roots that didn’t immediately disappear into the ground. A tent, little larger than a huntress’s tent, had been erected over the exposed roots and inside it a small, steady fire of pine needles and twigs and a ball of dried dung. In that moment, I was glad not to be a fire starter simply because it meant I would likely never have cause to carry that fuel around.
The important part of the whole setup, however, was that the tent helped capture the light while keeping out the fog and, opposite of the fire, the roots cast a bundle of small shadows against the ground and tent wall. Whoever used the shadow path would have to be careful not to burn themselves on the fire or shade out the roots’ shadow while being unable to stand but we had an entrance to the shadow paths.
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One of Hattie’s fire starters stepped up to us. “We don’t think the fire will burn bright enough for long. The needles burn too fast and the smoke from the fire will build up in the tent, blocking its light, though we will do what we can to keep it aired out.”
Hattie was already checking her supplies. “If we have an entrance than my group at the outpost will have one by now too—if they were able to keep it going. With that size of shadow, I can take one, possibly two with me.”
She glanced up with a look that clearly asked how many the other whisper women could take. Mishtaw and Eliss looked impressed by her declaration.
Mishtaw was the one who answered, “I could take…one small person. Eliss would be better served staying here and helping defend the fire starters’ work should the fish make their way here.”
Hattie considered before nodding. “Taking the seedlings would make the crossing easier and the fire starters can keep their work going.” She turned to Melka and bumped a fist against her shoulder. “Hold them safe.”
Melka returned the gesture. “Find the truth.”
Mishtaw and Eliss stepped away to have a private word while Prevna, Juniper, and Idra were brought over to the tent. Logically, I knew that they were the better choice to take given what their blessings were capable of, but it still stung given that I was nominally in charge of the whole cave mission and I was the one who put most of the pieces together.
Nor did I like the way the fog seemed to press in a little closer at the thought of Prevna leaving. Sure, she might have helped me break through the panic this morning, but I had a time limit now.
Two hours to deal with the fog and if it didn’t go away, then two hours more. I didn’t need to hold her hand and I didn’t need her close, just like I didn’t need to worry about what might happen without me there to step in front of a dangerous situation.
I walked around the tent to Prevna. “Can you imbue poison into any plant, any part of a plant?”
She blinked at the unexpected question before shaking her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t experimented with it.”
I pulled out a few dried leaves of spiritflower from my pouch. “Try with these.”
She took them, gave me a dubious look, and then concentrated on the leaves in her hand. After a few moments, she frowned. “These have their own weak poison already. I can’t add a different kind to it.” She stopped me as I went to pull out a different plant. “I don’t have a killing kind of poison in my fingers, not unless you count the Black Root and I’m not sure it works the same on fish. Nor do I have enough to poison an entire cave system no matter what leaves you give me.”
I took the spiritflower back. “You could still poison parts. The leaves would break apart in the water.”
Prevna got that wry smile on her face. “Better you go than me. If something unexpected happens you’ll think your way out of it.” She glanced to the side and spoke to a shape that was coming closer in the fog. “My blessing is still best used in self-defense.”
We’d see about that if it came down to it.
The shape turned out to be Mishtaw. Prevna must have picked out the sound of her footsteps despite the distortion of sound from the fog.
Our squad leader gazed back at her. “If you’re sure.”
Prevna chuckled, a bit self-depreciatively. “I’m not sure why I was picked to begin with. Gimley’s the one who noticed the wind and all.”
Mishtaw considered her for a few moments before cracking a small smile. “She tends to draw trouble.”
I cleared my throat, not liking being treated as if I wasn’t there, and they shared a look before Mishtaw held out a hand to me. “Let’s go.”
I took it and her hand felt strong and callused. I wanted to let go, break the uncomfortable contact, but I knew I would just have to take it again when we traveled through shadow, so I let her pull me forward. Juniper and Idra were already on the other side of the tent with Hattie. The squad leader was chatting about some battle she fought with the fish while the pair listened intently. When we stopped beside them, Hattie broke off the story and took each of their hands.
Juniper had to squeeze into the tent in front of Hattie, careful to place herself into the furthest corner of the tent so that she didn’t block the fire from casting the shadow from the bundle of roots. Idra stayed on the outside of the tent with her arm stretched to keep in contact with Hattie. Then Hattie must have stepped into the shadows because she was dragged in and gone.
I followed Juniper’s lead and went first into the tent, slipping around the heat of the fire and eyes stinging a bit from the smoke. I crouched in the tent corner with my feet and knees in shadow while Mishtaw half-crawled her way beside me. Rather than step forward as I had seen in the past, she reached down to press her other hand against the shadow.
I was falling and then with a blink we were in the shadow paths. Swirling smoke surrounded us in various shades from deep black to ash gray to bright silver. I could only see a few feet in every direction though that was a relief compared to the dense fog. The ground beneath our feet had changed from cold snow and frozen ground to a highly reflective and slick surface, like dark oil, but it wasn’t wet.
Mishtaw was already standing and I scrambled to join her. There was a long, long pause as she seemed to get her bearings and we were off. We walked quickly but there was no sign of the others who had entered before us. Was it even possible to see or meet others in the shadow paths? I pushed the thought aside for later.
We came to a stop in a place that looked no different from where we entered. In fact, it had felt a bit to me like we had simply walked in place for the past handful of minutes, but I refrained from saying so to Mishtaw. She crouched and focused on different parts of the ground for another minute before rising.
She gave me a meaningful look. “We’re here.”
Then she stomped downward and I was falling again only to find myself in another suffocatingly small tent with a small fire burning. Mishtaw let go of my hand and I had to fight not to shove my way past her as she eased out of the tent. I was fine. I had entered a similar tent and been just fine; I could leave this one with the same ease. Still, my scramble after Mishtaw was more than a bit undignified. I probably would have gotten a few looks from Juniper, Idra, Mishtaw, and Hattie if they weren’t dealing with what I had only gotten out of my head and memories enough to hear once I left the tent.
The air howled so loud that it gave you an instant headache and made your ears try to shrivel up away from the noise.