After a couple of sixdays of travel, the Wildlands weren’t living up to their reputation. Even the riotous colors of the flowers were starting to become boring. This was the tough time of most trips, the long stretch between the start and finish.

If Tenthé had actually been the ten-year-old he resembled, he would have been going nuts about now. In the Pools, though, he’d been on enough campaigns to have all that beat out of him. In a very literal sense. So, although a few rebellious thoughts crossed his mind, he suppressed them and endured the tedium.

The group had come together, operating smoothly. They rotated through their position in line every hour or so. In this way, everyone got a chance to lead, which was slightly more interesting than watching the butt of the burro in front of you.

The only excitement, lately, was when they been dive-bombed by some sort of very large bird. Not pecked or scratched, oh no. Not one person escaped being hit by its vile smelling acidic poo that went through their shields like they didn’t exist. There was no hint as to why the bird had taken offense with them, the consensus was it was just an asshole.

There was no significant damage, but by the Gods, it did reek! Cleaning spells did little so they were forced to stop and use some water and a lot of sand to scrape the goo off themselves and their mounts. The burros and mules had not become upset. They endured the attack stoically. As for a defence, even Tenthé was challenged to come up with something.

So, except for a few minor annoyances, the trip had been relatively uneventful. This worried Tenthé. Not from what he saw, but from what he didn’t see.

Where was the Horde? Something wasn’t right. He signaled for a halt. It was time to talk.

Once everyone had dismounted and the burros and mules had been given a little feed, the group formed a loose circle around Tenthé.

“I’m not sure what to say,” he started. “We should have seen a sign of the Horde by now if they were on their way to raid the City. The tribe is supposed to be nearly large enough to be the same size as a small City, and I don’t care how good their Mentor is, he couldn’t disguise the movement of that many people.

“From what we were told, Angel City was ready for the Horde. It would be a tough fight for the Horde, but, on the other hand, our City is nearly undefended. It only makes sense the Horde would drop the attack on Angel City and go after the easy target. But, so far, I haven’t found the slightest sign they’re on the move. No scouts. No warrior groups. And certainly, no long caravans.

“I’m not saying that we should turn back, but I have no idea what is going on.”

“Do you think they might have some type of super stealth?” Leo asked.

“Maybe, but the energy draw would be huge and I could see it.”

“How about a Dreamer kind of thing? Could their Mentor do something to hide that large an area?” Leo speculated.

Elishua broke in, “Maybe, but in the advanced classes I took, there’s no record of a Mentor doing anything even close to that. Most of the time they’re kept busy keeping things operating normally, out here on the Wilds. Anything more would be almost impossible.

“And, if the Horde could move tens of thousands of people and everything else without leaving a trail, I’m pretty sure they would have done it long before now.”

She paused, then added, “I suppose I agree with Tenthé. Something’s not right.”

“I vote we go back,” Leo said. “If the Horde’s not on the move, my family needs to know.”

Elishua broke in, “Well. Maybe so, but if the City isn’t in danger and we’ve come this far, we might as well continue on and find out what’s really going on.”

Magister Grenville injected, “In any case… it’s not time to return, yet.”

“Um, why?” the Envoy questioned.

“I don’t know, but I feel things will occur as they should if we keep doing what we are doing.”

“Any solid reasons?”

“Nope.”

The Envoy stared at Magister Grenville. “That’s why the Trachteur don’t have seers. They’re just too frigging annoying!”

“I say we proceed to Angel City,” Elishua stated, “But be extra vigilant. If the Horde has new abilities, we might not know they’re there until we’re attacked.”

Nobody had much else to add, although there was some general grumbling about detecting something they didn’t know anything about.

Those riding mounted up and resumed following the trail. Their pace was somewhat slower as everyone tried to find a Horde that might not even be there. Tenthé noted spells being tossed into the distance, in the faint hope they would reveal hidden lurkers. The kids were ranging further afield, and although they flushed out some strange creatures, nothing was Horde-like.

That evening, Leo laid out more wardstones than usual. If warriors did approach, there were so many overlapping layers that nothing would remain undetected, although it meant that whoever was on watch would be busier than normal dealing with minor incursions. No-one wanted to talk since most of them were exhausted from being on high alert for so long. Supper was short and everyone retired early.

In the middle of the night, the kids woke the camp, and once Tenthé was up, they rushed off in the direction of where the wardstones were ringing. A Gods awful racket ensued.

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It was something large. There were screams and shouts, and at some point Tenthé observed one of the kids being launched high into the air. After whoever it was crashed down, he ran back into the fray.

Tenthé had no reason to interfere. It wasn’t like the kids could be hurt. Eventually, the sounds died out and shortly afterward Yu marched into the camp, munching on a huge articulated limb of some sort. He walked up to Tenthé, who was standing in front of the rest of the group.

“Mmm. It’s good. You want some?” Yu asked.

“No, I’m okay. What was it?”

“Don’t know. Big. Lots of legs and stuff. It swallowed An. He’s getting cleaned up. Had to claw his way out. Kind of messy.”

The Envoy ran off to see. No-one else felt the urge.

“Can you guys haul the remains away? If we leave it here, it’ll attract predators.” Elishua suggested.

“Good idea. I’ll tell An,” Yu said as he wandered off into the dark.

“I don’t really like them, but those two are handy,” Leo stated.

“Yeah, there’s a reason the Lady lent them to me,” Tenthé mused.

“The Lady?” Leo prompted.

“Oops. Shouldn’t have said that,” Tenthé answered. He really shouldn’t have, but he couldn’t take it back. So, whatever.

When it became apparent that the others had everything in hand, Tenthé returned to bed until it was his watch.

The following week dragged on. No real shocks, but as they got closer to Angel City, their apprehension grew. For some odd reason, they hadn’t met any other travelers. Maybe Angel City was under siege by the Horde, but that didn’t seem too likely.

Not knowing what was going on made everyone jittery. In any case, their questions would be answered, probably in less than another sixday. Everyone kept a lookout for any travelers from either City, but if someone was out here, their stealth was good enough that they left no sign of their presence.

The Wilds had taken on a different look. Ahead, the trail circumvented several grass-covered hills shown on their map as a few wavy lines. The change in scenery was a nice break from the monotony of the wide open sandy valleys and gradual slopes they’d been traversing, so far. There was a debate about cutting across the hills ahead, rather than sticking to the trail. The best argument was that this would give them some cover as they approached Angel City, but really, everyone wanted to see something different.

It was getting late, and, after some more discussion, the consensus was they were all too tired to be making any kind of decisions, so they decided to stop somewhere in the hills, out of view of the trail.

By now, the members of the party were old pros at making camp, grooming and feeding the burros and mules, and setting a rotation for lookout. After eating, no-one felt like turning in, they were excited to be nearing the end of the trip.

Tenthé took the time to lay extra traps and misdirection spells outside the regular wards, just in case the Horde had scouts this far out. From what they’d seen, it wasn’t too likely, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.

In spite of their disparate beginnings, the group had grown closer over the trip. Not exactly great friends, but more like family close. That was, you knew them, which was both good and bad.

For example, the Envoy was a bigot. Intellectually, she realized it was a product of her isolated upbringing, but emotionally, she was convinced that if you weren’t Trachteur, you weren’t anything.

As for Elishua, she was a lot brighter than you would suspect, always observing and analyzing what was going on. Plus, everyone suspected she had some dark secrets by how she wouldn’t answer certain questions about her life.

And, under his smarmy exterior, Leo had a number of talents. He wouldn’t admit what his best abilities were, but they made him a very good melee fighter. In addition, he was being groomed by his family to lead, and, when he wasn’t being a total jerk, did appear to know what he was doing. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen often enough.

The kids were surprising. They were older than they acted, and sufficiently reticent to keep most of what they knew to themselves. But, as it turned out, they had been formally trained by their mother in the proper manners and etiquette for the courts of faerie. They found their niche in the group by regaling everyone with the stupid things that had come to be appropriate, over time. Tenthé had noted that Elishua paid extra attention to the details the kids presented since this was a rare insight into something humans rarely had a chance to see.

Magister Grenville didn’t often contribute, except for cookies. She seemed to be in her own world, but had explained that she was afraid to say too much. If the wrong thing got out, then it might affect what she saw and that would have far-reaching consequences. She did tell them about her childhood, one evening. It turned out she had been a bit of a hellion.

Tenthé had tried to share, but after showing everyone a few of his various scars and telling them which ones came from beatings and which ones came from fights he’d lost while he was trying to survive in the Pools, even he could figure out it didn’t go over that well with Elishua and Magister Grenville. Even the kids and Leo appeared a bit upset at some of the more gruesome descriptions. He wasn’t sure why.

Eventually, the excitement of being close to the end of the trip wore off and everyone headed to bed.

After a while, Tenthé found himself having an odd dream. In it, he was a little kid lost in a dark place. He was crying for his Mom, who had said she was going to be gone for just a moment and would be back soon. There was a stranger standing close who was offering to help if he would stop crying.

Tenthé jerked awake. That was one of his special dreams! In the mental Pool he had needed a way to detect when he was being manipulated, so he’d set up several dream scenarios that would seem normal to someone peeking into his thoughts, but were actually alarms to let him know he was under attack.

This was the first time since he’d been in that Pool that one had been set off! He put himself into the correct frame of mind and carefully surveyed the mental landscape around him. In this manner, he could see thoughts as glittering lights on a black background.

The sparkles of his group were obvious, and as he ranged further, he noted the energy of the burros, mules, insects, and other animals in the distance.

What shouldn’t be there, was a thin line of sparkles connected to everyone’s thoughts and heading out into the hills, where they branched out to connect to a number of sparkly balls surrounding the camp.

Tenthé stepped out of his shelter. Seeing helped clarify matters. The nearest sparkly ball was buried inside one of the nearby hills, and, as far as he could tell, was linked to more sparkly balls dwelling in the other hills near the campsite. Looking around, he found Elishua and all the animals passed out on the ground.

By his standards, the technique being used was quite weak. Wasting no time, he attacked. Jolts of red raced back along the sparkly trails and infected the thoughts of whatever was in the hills.

A horrendous screeching filled the air, and the camp was jolted by a series of sudden earthquakes. The burros brayed as they recovered, but other than that, didn’t seem to be too upset. As the shaking died out, Tenthé observed the sparkly balls racing away. After a time, it became apparent that the attackers had left and, most likely, weren’t returning.

At that point, everyone exited their tents to find out what all the noise and shaking was about. Tenthé assured them he’d handled the matter and they should go back to sleep. There was no reason to investigate immediately, any questions could wait until morning.

He made sure to talk to Elishua. She reported that she’d felt the earthquakes and heard the screeching, but didn’t seem to realize she had been out of it for a while. Now that it was quiet, she continued patrolling as everybody else went back to their shelters.

Tenthé watched for a while, and when he was sure there was no reason to stay awake, he too returned to bed.