“Anything useful in there?” he asked.

“Tara’s would be better, but there’s more here than I had thought.”

“Worth going out of our way for?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now turn around.”

“Why?”

“Can’t you just—”

“Okay, okay.” I spun, wondering what he wanted me to see.

Instead of pointing something out, Kerrick hooked the necklace around my throat. He pulled my hair out, letting the clasp rest on the back of my neck. The touch of cold metal on skin sent a shiver along my spine.

“There. Now you won’t lose it again.”

We overnighted in Galee, camping on the lee side of a large stone wall that hadn’t been knocked over. After so many days on the road together, we gathered wood, cleared snow, set a fire, cooked, ate and took turns on watch without having to say a word. However, once we settled under the blankets of our sleeping rolls, conversation would start, usually after Kerrick left for his shift. Tonight was no exception.

“Has anyone else noticed that we’ve encountered no one in the past two days?” Quain asked.

“The people living around here are not the type we’d want to encounter,” Belen said.

“The trees are probably telling Kerrick where they are, and we’ve been avoiding them,” Loren said. “No sense letting Tohon or the bands of marauders know our location.”

“What about the mercs?” I asked.

“Them, too,” Loren said.

I mulled it over. “Except for today, we’ve been traveling pretty much straight north for days. You’d think we’d have to skirt areas to avoid them. And we haven’t seen any tracks in the snow. Quain may be onto something. It’s too quiet.”

“What’s wrong with quiet?” Belen asked. “Not everything has to be a struggle.”

“What are you thinking, Avry?” Loren asked, ignoring poor Belen. “Ambush near the main pass in case we try to cross it before spring?”

“It’s a bit obvious, but logical.”

“Wouldn’t Kerrick be able to use his tree mojo to detect them?” Quain asked.

I grinned at his word choice. Kerrick had tried to explain to the monkeys how his magic worked, but unless they felt it like I had, they wouldn’t be able to fully understand how the forest communicated with him. Magicians in general kept the details about their powers quiet. Either they were afraid a person would figure out how to counter them, or they liked being viewed as mysterious. Although once everyone knew, Kerrick had been open and frank with the guys.

“For his tree mojo to work, it would depend on where the ambush is. If they’re hiding above the tree line, then we’d be out of luck.”

“What about the ex-girlfriend?” Quain asked. “Do you think Jael’s going to come after us again?”

“No. Jael lost the element of surprise and she knows her power can’t counter ours.”

Quain sat up and stared at me. “Ours?”

I cursed under my breath for my slip.

Belen chuckled at Quain’s confusion. “Think about it.”

So Belen knew. Did Loren? I glanced at him. He had a faraway expression.

“Is that why you yelled for Kerrick with Flea?” Quain asked. “You wanted to combine your magic?”

“We didn’t combine it, we shared magical energy,” I said, then explained how Kerrick and I had fought off Jael’s attack. “Healers often linked together if a patient was on the edge of dying, giving one healer the strength to save the patient’s life. Since Kerrick and I have different types of magic, I was surprised we could do it at all.”

“Could Kerrick heal Ryne using your energy?” Belen asked.

“No. It just gives his own magic more power.”

“But it has a price, right?” Loren asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Using magic is draining and can be physically exhausting.” Their thoughtful and intense expressions worried me. I didn’t want to discuss Kerrick anymore. I tried to change the subject. “I’m usually starved afterward and craving my mother’s cinnamon apple crisp. Does anyone know if the survivors are taking care of the apple orchards in Zainsk?”

No one fell for it.

Watching their faces, I knew Belen was the first to make the connection, although Loren wasn’t far behind.

“Kerrick helped you heal me. Didn’t he?” Belen asked.

I should just say yes and be done with it. However, I couldn’t lie to Belen. “Not quite.”

“Avry.” Belen’s voice held a warning tone.

“I healed you. But Kerrick gave me the energy to heal myself. Otherwise, I would have died. I admit it. Okay? Can we talk of other things?”

They did, but my thoughts lingered on my personal plague—Kerrick. In the list of attempted remedies for the plague, the Guild had tried sharing the energy of half a dozen healers to cure a sickened colleague. It hadn’t worked. So there was no chance a lone magician could pull me back once I had the plague.

From Galee, we traveled northwest and reached the southern border of the foothills three days later. The craggy snow-topped mountains filled the sky, looming over us, yet at the same time the peaks looked impossibly far away.

In the foothills, we saw no one. Only small animal tracks marked the snow. As for the infamous reputation of the area, the rolling terrain and thick clusters of pine trees caused us the most trouble, slowing us down. Not bands of lawless marauders, ufa packs or mercs. All remained quiet.