SPIRIT BLOOD

Chapter 13

Lira took one look at the bloodless body and immediately froze, planting her feet in the grass exactly where they were.

The one movement she made was to turn back and point the end of her bow towards the two girls. "Both of you, stop moving!"

Thea stopped dead, grabbing Anya by the arm and pulling her back. Anya cursed at her, but Thea kept a firm grip on her.

"What--" began Thea, right before her eyes dropped to the body lying awkwardly in the grass. Her hand lifted to her throat. "Oh, Sovereign. That's--that's Ciroc."

"I was hoping it'd be the other one," muttered Lira, slowly turning back towards the body.

"I've seen dead bodies before," said Anya, still trying to shake Thea off unsuccessfully. "Let me go, I'm not--"

Lira flashed her a glare. "What did I say about moving? This entire area is probably trapped, you idiot, or are you trying to get both yourself and Ryn killed?"

Anya hesitated, squinting suspiciously at the trees around her. She pulled her hand that cradled Ryn a little closer to her chest. "Trapped?"

"You're in more danger now than you were yesterday when I pulled your sorry behind out of that fire," hissed Lira. "I don't know if you've realised exactly what's going on yet, kid, but I need you to sit down, shut up, and do whatever I tell you without arguing about it until we get out of these cursed Wilds, preferably alive."

Anya glowered, but she also shut up.

Lira turned back to the body, and after checking the grass around her feet, crouched down for a closer look.

The body was still mostly whole, the skin only just starting to turn gelatinous. It couldn't have been inside the plant for more than an hour or two. They'd stripped the fighter of all his equipment, leaving him in nothing but a few, fresh bandages and his underclothes.

What had her worried was the strange, spiral blood seal carved into his chest, and the thin spiritsteel wire wrapped around the ankle.

Lira followed the wire with her eyes, quickly locating a trap above the plant that had failed to trigger. Carefully, she stood up, moving her feet one at a time until she was close enough to the wire. It wouldn't be the only trap in the area--poachers always left a series of them--and they were usually linked. Sure enough, as she disarmed the first trap, she found a wire leading to the next.

This was dangerous. So, so dangerous--not just the traps but the entire situation. If it'd just been her and Shari, she'd have retreated to the forest. Tracked the group at her own, controlled pace and taken her time as she hunted them all down.

But it wasn't just her and Shari. They had two girls who would struggle to survive the Wilds alone, let alone a fight with a hostile group. Not only that, but the hostile group presumably had hostages. How much did she risk trying to save them?

"Lira?" called Thea. "Lira, what happened?"

Lira grimaced. That was the question, wasn't it? How did a well prepared group that included a spirit hunter, a spirit mage, and an annoying if tough-looking fighter get overpowered?

She glanced back at the body, taking a second to look it over for clues before she went back to disarming the second trap--nasty, snap-close jaws that had enough pressure to bite through to the bone, dug into the ground. "Those bandages are fresh. They stopped for the night. He hasn't been in the plant long and they bothered to trap the area, which means whoever attacked them is still close. There'll be scouts around."

Shari rumbled, drawing Lira's attention, then glanced at the ground in front of her. Another trap, a trip wire.

"You sound pretty sure," said Anya.