Of Thorn and Thread (Daughters of Eville #4) - Chanda Hahn Page 0,76

casting a sleeping spell.” I covered my mouth with my hands and held back my disgust as I remembered all of our lessons in weaving sleeping spells. “An actual person is responsible for all of this.”

“We don’t know Lorelai Eville’s reasons, but look at the damage they’ve done since they’ve escaped. It moved across the kingdom, targeting the holdings and towns. It’s only a matter of time before it chooses to go after the king. I have to believe its path of destruction was deliberate. To strike fear into the king, because where it goes”—he ran my finger along the deep gouges made by the thorns—“death and destruction follow.”

“You’re right.” I nodded. “This was probably the reason my mother didn’t want us to come here. She knew how dangerous this being was.”

“What do we do now?” Liam asked.

“We know two things. One, the blight isn’t a curse, so it can be defeated. And two, there’s only one place left for it to go.”

His mouth pinched in a determined line. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“It’s already here.” Liam pulled Pern to a stop, and we looked upon the pass completely enveloped by a giant mass of twisting thorns. Even from a distance, we could hear the creaking and crackling of the branches as they grew and twisted around each other, giving it an ominous voice as it slithered across the ground like a snake. “The blight finally reached the mountain. The next stop is the palace.”

“What do we do?” Hayes removed his helm to gaze upon the blight up close.

My fingers dug moon-shaped divots in my palm as their fear washed over me.

Liam had a white-knuckle grip on his reins. “We do what we were sent to do. We stop it here, now.” Liam gave me a pained smile. “We’re not alone in our fight. The blight can be defeated. It has been contained before, and we will do it again.”

I stared at the twisting thicket that looked very much like the same firethorn from the fae court. But it was here, growing and moving slowly across the land, concealed behind miles of thick, impassable fog. It was the fog that hid the real threat from the world, and I had a feeling that if I could get through the thorns, I would find the one responsible. It was just another barrier of protection. Refusing to show my own fear, I slipped off of the horse to study the thorns closer. Liam kept a close eye on me.

I reached out to touch a thorn, and Liam slapped my hand away. In an instant, the closest green barb shot out of the branch into a thorn larger than my spindle. Seconds later, it shifted back into a harmless thorn.

“They’re poisonous,” Liam warned.

“To non-fae,” I added, letting my thoughts swirl with possibilities and drawing the same conclusion.

After I inspected the twisting and churning firethorns, I ended up with more questions than answers. All flora needed nutrients to grow, and to grow at the speed the firethorns were growing, they would need a constant supply of magic. Could it possibly be a ley line of power?

Imagining the maps of the ley lines Lorn had once shown me, I tried to calculate where they would be. “Get me the map of Rya. Show me everywhere the fog has moved and where the thorns have been sighted,” I said.

It took a few minutes before Hayes could dig out a map, and after Liam and his men measured out the locations from their reports, they could mark the path of the thorns.

“There is a pattern,” I said smugly, not able to contain my grin. “There are two separate events we are tracking. The fog is moving from city to city spreading like a disease, while the thorns are only sighted along this direct route concealed by another fog.” I drew my finger in a straight line down the center of Rya, and straight through the fae court.

“What’s that?” Devin asked.

“It’s a ley line of power. The strongest sorcerers can tap into it to aid their magic, and that is happening with the thorns. This is the direct path that the thorns will follow straight to the palace. And what do you see between the thorns and the palace?” I tapped the lines on the map.

“The mountains,” Liam said.

“Yes, it’s pure stone. Harder to access the ley line, and that held up the magic user and slowed them down. I bet you they are in the middle of that thorn