Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4205

Chapter 4205: Off the Trail (Part 2)

"Thanks to proximity and the trade agreements between our countries, we eat the same things and live almost in the same way. Once you get past Aphasi, however, no one bothers remembering the names of the single countries."

"There are too many out there, and their names and the position of their borders change way too often. A war lost here, a revolution there, and the map you bought yesterday is useless today."

"Do the people of Verendi really fight this much?" Nyka was flabbergasted.

"Sadly, yeah." The merchant leader nodded. "Until about two years ago, the political situation was more stable. Don’t get me wrong, neighboring countries still fought every other day, but there was a balance of forces.

"Then, everything fell apart, and while the people of Verendi were still picking up the pieces, Tyris came in a storm. The sky went black, and all those too slow or stupid to move out of her way died.

"After she left, a lot of key figures of Verendi disappeared, and conflicts spread across the continent like a disease. Since that day, Verendi hasn’t known peace for longer than a few weeks at a time."

Nyka turned to Solus, who gave her a silent nod.

’I’d feel guilty for what happened here if the Verendi Council didn’t try to kill me to silence me and hide the existence of the Mouth.’ Solus said via a mind link. ’We did what we did to defend ourselves.’

’What about Tyris and her storm?’ Nyka asked.

’The bastards tried to kill Kami and hurt Elysia.’ Solus snarled. ’They got what they deserved.’

The Vampire felt the cold fury burning instead of her friend’s usual kindness and decided to drop the argument.

"Loma, are you still with the caravan?" Ygri’s voice came from the still-open channel.

"Yes." The Horde replied.

"The coast is clear. I checked the area for kilometers. There are no surveillance arrays nor people spying on you."

"Thank the gods!" The semblance of a man behind which Loma hid dissolved into an orange fog-like mass of spores.

The merchants in his carriage flinched, but aside from bringing their hands to the weapons at their waists, they didn’t say a word.

"Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you." Loma sighed. "What about crossing the border on the way back? Not to sound ungrateful, Lady Kalla, but we Hordes prefer to move without leaving a paper trail.

"No border guard ever asks the wind for IDs, and we’d rather keep our destination a secret after we find our missing youth. Will my absence inconvenience you in any way?"

"We have received precise instructions from the Overlord." The caravan leader offered Solus his communication rune. "We’ll wait for milady’s return in the city of Pakeesh for as long as she needs, or until she finds an alternative way back."

"Thanks." Solus exchanged runes with him, understanding Salaark’s intentions. "I’ll let you know about our plans as soon as we are done with our mission."

"Good, then we can leave." The orange mist swirled into a Steps that led the three women a few kilometers away and in front of the silvery mist of Ygri.

Solus synced the Apprentice with the Master Eyes and nodded. Even with their power combined, the artifacts failed to find a third matching energy signature. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"That’s impossible to say, Lady Nyka. Whoever is after our youngest didn’t leave anything that could lead to their identification behind." The silvery Horde moved his upper mass in what looked like a shrug.

"What I know for sure is that I wasn’t always the first one to arrive on the scene of a sighting."

They stopped in the middle of a valley where tall grass grew and several trees provided shade from the intense heat of the day. Weird animals with sand-colored hides lifted their heads from the nearby stream to look at the intruders.

Solus would have thought they were deer if not for the weird, straight horns on their head that reminded her of a Manticore.

"When I first arrived here, this place was a mess." Ygri pointed at a spot a few dozen meters away, where the grass was greener and lusher than the rest. "There were several holes in the ground left by powerful earth spells, and most of the grass was burned to ashes.

"I recognized all the signs of an intense fight involving a fungus folk, but aside from the burnt marks, there was no trace of big spells being used. I think whoever was here tried and failed to capture our kin and is currently chasing after them."

"Let me guess." Kalla sniffed the area while taking a deep scan with the Eyes of Menadion. "You fixed everything with magic to make sure you were the only one to know where the most recent fight had taken place, correct?"

"Correct." The silvery Horde nodded.

"Congratulations, you’re an idiot." Kalla snorted. "Your brilliant move will surely throw the rest of the pursuers off the trail, because I can’t make heads or tails of this mess either.

"I can sense several energy signatures that I could have filtered out, if yours didn’t cover them like a fart in a flower shop. As far as I can tell, you have destroyed every trace of the fungus folk’s passage and with it any hope of finding them."