His eyes fluttered open at the crunch of dry leaves. At first he thought it was only another deer. But the sound came again, and again. Those footsteps were too heavy to be made by anything so graceful.

Tamani held his breath, willing it to happen, almost doubting his own eyes when two trolls came lumbering into sight, reeking of blood, one dragging a full-grown buck. If they kept going straight, they would pass right under the tree where he and Shar were perched.

Quickly and silently, Tamani and Shar descended. The trolls didn’t seem to be in any hurry, so it was easy to keep them in view. Tamani was tempted to ambush them, to finish them off, but tonight’s mission was far more important than simply eliminating a few trolls. It was time to find out where they were hiding. All of them.

He and Shar tracked them at an almost leisurely pace, traveling alongside the path in short sprints. The trolls paused, and Tamani crouched low, knowing Shar was doing the same behind him. He knew they couldn’t smell him—he carried neither blood nor brimstone to tickle their noses. But some trolls could sense danger, or so Shar claimed from time to time.

The troll with the deer carcass lifted it off the ground, as though to examine the quality of the meal. Then, both trolls vanished.

Tamani suppressed a gasp. They had disappeared right in front of his eyes! Forcing himself to remain hidden, Tamani held his breath, listening. There was a distant shuffling, a creak, the slam of wood against wood. Then silence. A minute passed. Two. Three. There were no more sounds. Tamani rose to his feet, every stem in his body ready to run, to fight.

“Did you see that?” Shar whispered.

“Aye,” Tamani said, half expecting the trolls to jump out from behind a tree. But the forest remained quiet and empty. He stared at the place where the trolls had just been standing. The messy one had left several drops of blood from his kill-trophy splattered on the fallen leaves. Tamani followed the blood droplets to where the trolls had paused, at the edge of a smallish clearing. The crimson trail ended where they had disappeared.

Crouching to get a closer look, Tamani studied the blood. He stood over it and walked forward, fixing his eyes on the tree in front of him. When he had reached about half the distance to the tree, he turned.

The blood drop was not behind him. It was off to his left.

But he’d walked a direct route.

“What are you doing?” Shar asked.

“Just a second,” Tamani said, confused. He went back to the blood drop and tried it again. He focused on another tree and walked halfway to it. When he turned, the drop was behind him and to his right.

Tamani knelt down, studying the trees that appeared to be in front of him, but apparently weren’t. “Shar,” Tamani said, making sure he was standing over the blood drop, his back to the trail he had followed. “Come stand in front of me.”

As he stepped forward, Shar’s feet seemed to reset themselves on a diagonal path. He took two more steps, then stopped and turned, eyes wide.

“Understand now?” Tamani asked, the confusion on his mentor’s face making him smile a little in spite of their predicament.

As Shar stood staring at the spot where he had just been standing, Tamani braced his feet and reached out with his hands. He didn’t feel anything, but the farther out he reached, the farther apart his hands spread. When he tried to bring his hands together, he found himself bringing them back toward his chest. “Shar!” Tamani whispered breathlessly. “Come do what I’m doing.”

It took Shar a few moments, but soon he too stood with his hands held in front of himself, tracing the intangible contours of the barrier that seemed to bend the space around them. It was as though someone had cut a very small circle in the universe. A dome they could not perceive, let alone enter.

But it could be entered, somehow, Tamani was certain. That must be where the trolls had gone.

“If I hadn’t seen the trolls vanish, I wouldn’t know anything was amiss,” Tamani said, dropping his hands to his sides.

“But we can’t see it, and can only feel it indirectly,” Shar said, his arms folded across his chest as he stared into the darkness. “How do we breach a wall we cannot touch?”

“The trolls went right through it,” Tamani replied. “So it’s not really a wall.”

Shar silently stepped away from Tamani and picked up a small rock. He stood a few feet away and gave it an underhand toss. It arced toward the barrier and then, without the slightest interruption, vanished.

Encouraged, Tamani bent down to grab a small stick. He walked forward, just to the point where he found himself turning, and reached out with the stick. There was no physical sensation, nothing stopped him from moving freely—but when he thought he was thrusting it forward, he found the stick pointing sideways. He started to pull back, confused, when a new idea struck him.

Maybe it’s attuned to plants.

He tossed the stick at the barrier instead, expecting it to bounce back. The stick vanished, just like the rock.

Guess not.

“That’s some warding,” Tamani breathed.

“Since when do trolls work this kind of magic?” Shar asked.

“Since never,” Tamani responded darkly. “So it ought to be easily overcome.”

“Oh, aye, clearly,” Shar said, sarcasm heavy in his tone.

Tamani studied the mysterious nothingness. “I can throw things through it, but I can’t poke through it with a stick. Think you could throw me through it?”

Shar looked at him for a long time, then arched one eyebrow and nodded. “I can certainly try.” He knelt with his fingers laced together and Tamani placed one foot into his open palms.