A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 40 - Hope

Lyrani closed her eyes and silenced her breaths.

Then she heard it.

It started as a faint hiss. When Lyrani cleared her mind, the sound amplified. It sounded like voices now, murmuring and whispering, dragging the wind behind it as it swept through the air.

"I don't hear anything."

Lyrani flinched at the loudness of Dessie's voice compared to the ones filling her ears.

Morloy shushed Dessie. "That's because you don't have a sixth sense."

Lyrani reined in her focus so that the wind's whispers were the only sounds within her range of awareness. Her friends continued to bicker in the background, their words as loud as breaths.

Dessie snorted. "Oh, and you do?"

"No, but I suspect Lyrani might..."

"There." Lyrani opened her eyes as the sound slithered between the trees.

She didn't wait for Morloy and Dessie before slipping between the trees and following the breeze along its winding path.

Fallen leaves and branches lay scattered over the forest floor. They cracked under Dessie and Morloy's heavy feet. The sound drowned out the wind's voice for a moment.

"Shh!" hissed Lyrani.

This was the best lead they had. If they lost it, they'd be left with nothing, but Nash and the realm would still be counting on them.

Lyrani glanced back to see her friends stepping carefully around the crunchy debris in their path.

The wind sighed, and Lyrani chased after it.

It moved so quickly that Lyrani refused to stop for fear of losing track of it. Morloy and Dessie nibbled at sandwiches and sipped water from their bottles as they scurried after her.

Lyrani didn't need food. She needed to find the Spirit Guardian and save Nash.

At Dessie's insistence, Lyrani finally took a sandwich. Running while eating was a challenge, but Lyrani never backed down from one.

She kept on the trail of the whispers of the dead, even when her sweat glued her tunic to her skin and the heat of her exertion threatened to explode her head.

The sun had reached its peak in the sky when Lyrani almost ran over the edge of a cliff.

Morloy caught her arm. "Woah! Careful."

Dessie skidded to a stop at Lyrani's side. Together, the three friends stared down at the misty landscape below.

"That's where it went," said Lyrani.

She squinted, but it was no use. The sunlight shone off the dense fog, unable to penetrate it. Lyrani was blind to whatever lay beneath it.

"What now?" asked Morloy.

"I have an idea." Dessie raised her hands and turned away from the precipice.

Three vines shot from the ground in front of her. They twisted around one another, following the motion of Dessie's hands, then fell over the cliff, growing downwards.

Becoming a seamstress had been an unconventional use for Dessie's magic, but it made perfect sense to Lyrani. Her gift for growing plants made her the first choice for anyone who needed a gown made from flowers, but it had other uses too, urgent explorations among them.

Dessie's hands fell to her sides. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Lyrani took hold of the vine rope first. She tugged to test its strength. When it held, she climbed down the cliff.