completely territorial. They can climb better than a monkey and prefer to attack from above, sometimes carrying prey into the trees and dropping them to their death.”
“Great,” Isabel said. “I think I’ll try to avoid them altogether.”
“Probably wise if you can,” Alexander said. “Malachi said Siavrax created them to use as soldiers in the jungle but they were less than obedient and not terribly smart.”
“Anything else?” Isabel asked.
“The fortress is mostly inside the mountain except for the ruins of the keep on the very top,” Alexander said. “It looks like there are a number of ways into the lower levels that are accessible from smaller structures in the jungle.”
“That sounds promising,” Isabel said. “The less time I can spend in the trees, the less time the vorash will have to hunt me.”
“From the course Hazel’s taking, it looks like she’s heading for one of these side entrances.”
“Almost like she knows where she’s going,” Isabel said.
Alexander nodded.
“She was playing us all along,” Isabel said. “I wish I had time to read more of her journal.”
“Maybe when you stop for the night,” Alexander said. “I’ll be back when I know more.”
Isabel moved through the swamp, damp from mist and sweat, her arms and shoulders burning, but she pushed, determined to cover the distance quickly. At dark she tied off to a tree and tried to read some of Hazel’s journal, but it was like reading one side of a conversation. Isabel wondered how much of that conversation had taken place in Hazel’s mind and how much actually made it onto the page.
From what she could gather, Hazel needed a woman of her lineage to complete the transference, whatever that was, and she was very excited to have finally brought Ayela to her. Apparently, she’d been trying to influence the Princess of Karth for some time, using a dream-whisper spell and had all but given up. When Ayela arrived, Hazel began making preparations for the transference spell but could only complete it in the mountain.
She didn’t say why.
Chapter 37
Despite her desire to study the rest of the journal and the uneasiness caused by the eerie noises in the darkness, Isabel’s exhaustion caught up with her. She woke the following morning, stiff and sore from sitting up against her pack all night. She rubbed her neck as she stood up and looked around. The swamp was as quiet and dreary as ever.
She moved slower due to her sore muscles but still managed to reach solid ground just before nightfall. Rather than going ashore and risking the predators that lived there, she tied off a hundred feet from the swamp’s edge and slept on her raft. Alexander appeared when she woke.
“Were you watching me sleep?” she asked groggily as she stretched.
He just smiled with a shrug.
“Their boat is tied off a few hundred feet to the north,” he said. “They went straight to an overgrown structure on the side of the mountain and made camp just inside. Hazel has them up and moving like she knows where she’s going and that’s saying something because that place is like a maze.”
“How will I find them?”
“I’ll guide you,” Alexander said, “but you should probably get moving.”
“First, I’m going to move their boat,” Isabel said with a devious smile.
After finding their boat and rowing it to a thicket just south of where she’d hidden her raft, she headed along the edge of the swamp, reasoning that the vorash would probably do most of their hunting deeper in the jungle that covered the foothills surrounding the mountain.
Near where Hazel and her friends had come ashore, she picked up their trail and cautiously made her way into the jungle, keeping a watchful eye for any sign of danger, using Slyder to scout for her as well. Several hundred feet from a small stone structure built into the side of the mountain, now completely overgrown and barely discernable, Isabel stopped again to survey her surroundings through Slyder’s eyes.
Four creatures were sniffing around the entrance—vorash. They were even more frightening than Alexander’s description. They seemed to be searching the area but were unwilling to enter the structure itself. Isabel waited, watching them until they used their tentacles to pull themselves up into nearby trees where they concealed themselves in the foliage, lying in wait over the entrance.
Isabel weighed her options. She could try to fight her way through, but she doubted she could kill all four before they were on her, and even if she could make it to the structure and