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The moment they were in the swamp, it was as if a wall of silence encased them. No frogs croaked. No insects buzzed. It was like every rock and tree watched them, weighed them, and was now deciding what to do with them.
Aein gulped. "I feel like a million eyes are on us."
Lars's buoyancy faded a bit as the shadows from the trees crawled across his face. He looked over at Finn. "Smell anything?"
Finn was alert and staring off in the distance. He did not glance back. His hackles weren't raised and he wasn't growling, so Aein tried to comfort herself that he was on high alert for anything that might surprise them.
There was a wooden, planked road beneath them. King Vadim had not abandoned the swamp and his people were still out on patrol somewhere. Their horses' hooves were muffled as they walked. Finn suddenly stopped and whipped his head around, focusing on the sky behind them. Aein looked over her shoulder and caught a hawk as it settled on to one of the branches. A moment later, the hawk transformed into a woman in armor whom Aein had never met. She had a mane of red hair and there was a sharpness to her features. Her skin was cocoa-colored and dusted with freckles.
The woman spoke, "I can go with you two days’ ride and then must turn back."
"We're glad to have a second set of sharp eyes," replied Lars, trying to welcome her to their group.
"Take out your sword," said the woman-hawk sharply. "The swamp looks for weak prey."
Aein and Lars did not need a second warning. Aein did so gladly. Perhaps it was the comfort of a weapon in her hand, but it felt like the hostility of the swamp retreated. The woman transformed and flew ahead, landing on a tree and transforming once again to talk with them as they drew closer.
"This road shall take you halfway through. We have reports from our scouts that a portion of it, where the great divide is the strongest, burned. Then the road begins again as you head north. I believe this is the land that is controlled by your queen?"
"We hope," Lars replied.
"What is the great divide?" asked Aein as they passed the hawk once again.
This time, the woman jumped off the tree limb and landed on the road. She jogged to keep up the pace with the horses.
"It is where the tear took place between worlds and where the fog lives."
Aein glanced over at Lars and noticed even he, with all his words about how the fog held no power over him, paled. "The fog lives there?" he repeated.
A low growl came from Finn's throat.
"You crossed it before," said the woman-hawk.
"We did?"
"It runs north to south. You touched it in the spot where your friend Finn was injured," she said, nodding in acknowledgment at Finn. "We find the silver resistant wolves are drawn to the tear. It is as if it strengthens them."
Aein wiped her sweaty palm on her tunic and switched her sword to her other hand. "At least we have some idea when we shall face them again," she muttered. "And how many days’ ride to this rift?"
"A week if you ride fast," said the woman-hawk.
"And you're staying with us until only tomorrow..." Aein remarked as the reality of what they would face hit her. She automatically began calculating a plan of action. At least they had some warning of what was to come.
"I must turn south and look for the mushrooms for our king," the woman-hawk replied.
"Fair is fair," said Lars. "We thank you for joining us for as long as you can."
"We shall try to send our scouts to check on you during your journey. But our duty is to our king." She sensed the party's unease and continued. "If there is anything here to comfort you, the rift is not as large as the one you faced before. Because we and your queen have held the border, the tear between dimensions is not as deep. If you move south where you were before, though, you will find it quite another story."
Finn stopped, one foot lifted and his ears pricked. Aein pulled back on the reins and the woman transformed. She flew ahead as they waited in silence, barely breathing. Aein's horse stomped his foot. After an eternity, the hawk flew back. "Goblins. They have passed by."
"Goblins?" said Aein. She asked Lars with cautious alarm, "Have you dealt with goblins in the swamp?"
He lifted his shoulders helplessly. "Who knows? I don't even know what a goblin looks like. My rule has been that if something tried to kill me, I should try to kill it back. I did not ask it to identify itself."
The hawk-woman looked at them with curiosity. "You do not make a record of the creatures you find in the swamp and the best way to dispatch of them?"
Aein and Lars shook their head.
"Then how do you protect yourself?"
"Luck?" offered Lars.
The hawk-woman sighed. "I shall pass along whatever information I can remember off the top of my head, but truly... We shall have to send more guards with you. I do not know how you survived this long. Perhaps when I return to the castle, I will see if I can bring you one of the handbooks we have assembled."
Aein blushed almost as red as Lars's hair at the woman's rebuke and that she would have to admit a further failing. "We do not know how to read," she confessed. The horror on the hawk-woman's face was enough to make Aein add an explanation. "We were told reading was an evil and would warp and twist the mind away from the service of our righteous sovereign."
"This queen kept you illiterate?"
"No!" said Aein, stopping the hawk-woman before she formed the wrong impression. "Another one. Our old lord. This queen has been good to us and would teach us to read if we pursued it."
"Well, when you get back," said the hawk-woman with some contempt, "be sure to do that. I hate to think how many of your people died because your old lord was a fool."