“Exactly.” A pause. “Wouldn’t you have felt me using magic?”

Onora didn’t know about his new situation, and he wondered if he should tell her now that he trusted her. Valek decided to wait until she needed to know the information. “Not if you’re a One-Trick.”

“One-Trick?”

“A magician that can only do one thing. There are a number of them in Sitia, and I suspect in Ixia, as well. They don’t consciously pull power. They just have an instinctive ability that has to be magical in origin. For example, Opal used to work with an old glassmaker who could light fires, but he couldn’t do anything else.”

She was quiet for a while. “It’s not conscious. All I do is focus on the mission at hand.”

Sounded like a One-Trick, but only a master-level magician would know for sure.

Onora appeared suddenly. She stared at her hands as she laced and unlaced her fingers over and over. “It didn’t work when...Captain...Timmer came for me. I couldn’t hide...from him...no matter how hard I tried.”

“Because you were afraid. Just thinking about him has made you lose your camouflage.”

She glanced up in surprise.

“No need to be scared of him. He’s locked in the Commander’s dungeon and is scheduled for execution in a little over three months.”

“Even if I’m not there to kill him?”

“Yes. The Commander might not be in full control of his mind, but one thing he loathes is sexual predators.”

“What if Owen releases Timmer or he escapes?”

“Then, when all this is over, we will hunt him down, strip him naked, tenderize him with a few dozen holes and leave him for the snow cats to find.”

Onora grinned. “Good plan.”

“I thought you’d like that.”

They lapsed into silence. After an hour, the familiar thrum of horses reached them. Valek whistled the signal. Soon the two scouts rode into view and passed Valek and Onora’s position. The scouts spotted the rutted road and slowed, glancing to the left and right. Smart enough to know this was an ideal spot for an ambush, but not experienced enough to look up.

Yelena and Sladen released the camouflage nets. They fell at a slight angle and swept the riders from the horses. The victims landed with an oomph. Using the net ideally avoided any major injuries. If they’d shot darts filled with sleeping potion, the riders might topple, and falling from a moving horse could be lethal.

Hanni and Faxon jumped on the struggling men and poked them with the potion. In thirty seconds, the soldiers stilled. Yelena and Sladen hauled the net back into position while Valek and Onora caught the two horses. Then they helped drag the two sleeping men into the woods. After Valek led the mounts to Kiki, he returned to his position. They reset the trap.

The next part would be a bit harder. About twenty minutes later, a slower beat of horse hooves sounded, along with the creak and rumble of a wagon. Bantering voices floated on the light breeze. Once again, Valek signaled them to be ready.

Two riders led the way. Two others sat on the wagon’s bench, and the final two followed the caravan. A tarp had been draped over the cargo area, and Valek hoped Mara and Esau had been hidden underneath it. As the group reduced speed and lumbered past, Valek shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. He held a dart laced with sleeping potion in each hand.

When they reached the washout, the nets were dropped on the leaders, and Onora shot the two on the wagon with darts. The ones in the back froze upon seeing their companions attacked. Valek and Onora snuck up next to them. He stabbed the dart into one man’s leg and yanked him from the saddle while Onora did the same to his partner. The soldier hopped up and drew a short sword. Valek stayed just out of reach until the man wobbled and crumpled to the ground.

The ambush was a complete success. Bodies littered the road, but no one appeared to be injured. Yelena and Sladen climbed down from the trees as Valek pulled back the tarp. Mara and Esau had been bound to the wagon and gagged. Esau’s face turned red as he struggled to speak.

Hyper-alert, Valek spun and drew his dagger. The soldiers they had just neutralized sprang to their feet with weapons in hand. Yelena yipped in surprise as one of the scouts lunged from the woods. The scout grabbed her and pressed a knife to her neck. The desire to rip him apart flowed through Valek, and he gauged the distance to the man.

“Drop your weapons or I’ll slit her throat,” the scout said.

12

HELI

Heli reread the note from Fisk. While glad she didn’t have to watch the rather boring comings and goings of the Stormdance garrison any longer, she wondered why Fisk thought it was too dangerous to remain. It had only been a month, but his other operatives...

She grinned at the word operatives. The kids working for Fisk were much younger than her own eighteen years. However, they’d fled the garrison like seagulls before a big storm. Something must have happened and, while she had to be on the coast soon to harvest the heating season’s storms regardless, she thought Fisk might be overreacting. Especially when she considered his missive.

He believed Zethan, Zohav and Teegan were in danger and needed to relocate to a safer location. As if there were such a thing. Fisk had never been to The Cliffs, so he had no idea just how difficult it would be for an army or even a person to sneak up on them. With four Stormdancers on the beach, there was no way anyone could traverse the narrow path down The Cliffs without one of the Stormdancers blowing them out to sea. Ridiculous.