Angelfire | The Whispering Wall #3

Sixty Four: Astra

The shadow of the dead man seemed to follow them out of the village.

It had been tense before, but the division in the travelling party between the Gifted and non-Gifted seemed unbridgeable now, made worse by the fact that they were forced to travel closer together. On the one side, there was the uncomfortable fact that a member of the party was dead by the time they'd left their first stop, and he'd died at the hands of a demon while travelling with two dozen Unspoken. From the Unspoken side, everyone had been made aware, for their own safety, that there were some non-Gifted who carried weapons that could ruin them.

All in all, Jordan was very uncomfortable.

He hadn't heard anything from Silas since their conversation the night before they'd left the village, though he'd glimpsed all three of Arlen's allies while travelling. Even Akiva and Darin had been forced to keep their distance. In this atmosphere, anyone who was overly friendly with the Unspoken would be treated with high suspicion. It meant he had no better idea than the rest of them exactly how much danger they were all in, and he couldn't help feeling partially responsible. There was nothing he could have done about it, but he felt filthy just for being associated with Marick.

The only ones who didn't seem to give shit whether or not they were seen with him were Grace and Nova, though he suspected Nova was only there because Grace was.

"How come so many of the Unspoken sleep on the ground?" she asked, tromping through the long grass beside him in the wake of one of the wagons. They'd left the road when they weren't far out from the village to avoid going through the nearby market town, so they were cutting cross-country, keeping to the unruly edges of crop fields and traversing long stretches of grass and sparse woodland. Grace claimed the rocking of the wagon on the uneven terrain was making her nauseous whenever he pressed her about resting, but he had the feeling she was nattering to hide the fact that the walk was tiring her out.

"Closer to Nictaven," he replied. She never seemed to group him in with the Unspoken, despite the fact that he hadn't taken his cloak off since they'd left Shadow's Reach. "The source of magic. Also the tents aren't warded."

"That makes a difference?"

"Yeah. It's like a barrier between you and the source. Bit like having cotton wool stuffed in your ears but less...physical."

"You sleep in a tent, though."

"One, I haven't been Gifted for very long. The longer you have it, the stronger the link. Two, it's not that big a deal. They could if they wanted to, it's just more comfortable to go without."

"So when you're sleeping at Yddris's..."

"The floors are warded. More loosely than like, the castle, but it doesn't need much."

"I also daresay your activities in that tent would be considered somewhat inappropriate in the open air around company." Nova rarely contributed to their conversations, but when she did it always managed to surprise him. He glanced across at her, scowling as heat flushed up his neck.

"No one needed to say it."

She only blinked at him and faced ahead again, the edge of a small smile visible from the pinch in her cheek.

"Where is your lady love, anyway?" Grace said, her voice too light and casual as she looped her arm through his and gave him a winning smile.

"She's up ahead with Henrik in the scout group," Jordan muttered. The scouting group was a precaution Cara had put in to try and soothe some of the uneasiness around everyone's safety. He didn't have to try all that hard to locate her, even in the sea of strong aura surrounding them. Ever since their first night together, he always had a vague sense of where she was.