A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 16 - Haze

Lyrani screamed until her throat was raw, until she couldn't taste anything but the dirt inside her mouth or remember anything but moist, suffocating darkness.

It wasn't just her the ground had swallowed, she realised when it spat her out into the open night on the other side. Agent Phen and their griffins shot out of the earth beside her with cries of alarm.

Lyrani landed on her side. Stars too bright to be real flashed in her vision as her shoulder smashed into the ground. A scream of pain rose into her throat. She suppressed it into a whimper.

There was sand everywhere. Everything hurt. Lyrani's mouth trembled. For a moment, she didn't want to get up, but Nash came to mind, as he so often did at times like these. She clenched her fists where she lay on the ground.

She had to get up. For him if not for herself, the realm, or anyone else.

Lyrani's fury overwhelmed her terror. That was what forced her to her feet and got her shaking the dirt from her clothes and pulling out the leaves that had tangled themselves in her hair.

She scanned her surroundings, her fingers flexing in preparation to raise the cover of shadows around her should she need its protection. Around her, there were only trees cocooning her and her companions away from the rest of the forest.

Lyrani focused her gaze on the leaves, staring through the shadows at the owl watching her with wide eyes and the squirrel scuttling through the branches. Other than them, Lyrani and her team were alone.

No thanks to Agent Phen. They could've been killed or injured beyond help this far north of civilisation because of what she had done.

Lyrani's temper flared. She turned to the junior agent, who was standing and shaking the dirt out of her black hair before retying it in its obnoxious high ponytail.

Lyrani's fists trembled at her sides, but she made every effort to keep them there. If she acted out in anger, even Lord Dundor wouldn't be able to save her job. "I know you hate me, and you have a problem with my relationship with Nash, but sabotage is taking it too far." She glared at Agent Phen. "That is appalling behaviour from an ECISI agent."

Agent Phen dropped her hands to her sides now that her hair was in place, her sharp eyes flashing like a knife in the darkness. "What's appalling is how ungrateful you are after I just saved your life."

Lyrani's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That was you?"

"Look around you." Agent Phen turned in a slow, smug circle. "Who else could it have been?"

It hadn't been Lyrani or the griffins, that was for sure. Every elf possessed a magical ability. To think that Lyrani had agreed to work with Agent Phen without having any idea what hers was.

Lyrani had thought the earth had turned against her or that something worse than the orcs had set their sights on her and her team, perhaps an ancient, enormous monster who had made his home in the earth. The fear that had tensed her shoulders now loosened them.

She was relieved that it had been Agent Phen, even impressed by the quick thinking and magical expertise needed to manipulate the earth in such a way as to funnel them to safety.

"Thank you" —the words left Lyrani's mouth reluctantly, stiffly— "but I think saving me and the griffins is the least you could have done after you drew the orcs to us."

It felt more like a dream or perhaps a nightmare when Lyrani recalled Agent Phen dumping the bag of miniature bread loaves over the forest, but she knew what she had seen.

A smirk passed over Agent Phen's face, so like that look Trelle often used to wear until it flitted away like a ghost.

Lyrani shook herself. She must've hit her head when she landed, and now she was imagining things.