Luna only stared at the tent's doorway as though she expected someone to step in. When Colin moved and started to speak, Shosha hissed, and he fell silent.
Luna leaned forward. Her fingertips glowed, and I had never seen that happen before. Shosha glared in my direction, but I wouldn't draw her wrath.
Luna finally blinked and looked around at us as though she had just woken up.
"I need time to see if I can sort any of it out. I only know that our current journey will not be as long as we might fear."
"Is it safe to remain here for the night?" Colin asked.
"I saw nothing happening here. That doesn't mean it is safe, but I think it might be safer than moving on to our next problem without rest and preparation."
Colin didn't argue. I went to sleep and realized Shosha curled up with me. I almost complained, but she was soft and warm.
She had the cutest little kitten snore.
I woke to Dorian's voice.
"Rage, desperation, fear. I would have expected desperation to be more difficult. How is Neko --"
"I am fine," I answered as I sat up. Shosha sat up as well, yawned once, and fell over again. "I may be wrong, but it seems to me that we don't want to spend too much time here, resting. I am starting to feel itchy like something keeps touching me."
Colin and Dorian both nodded. "We've felt something sniffing around the tent, but it feels local, not part of the larger --"
"And yet we were pulled here, too," I said. "Perhaps Shosha wasn't the first. We just moved too quickly."
I had only just considered that idea, but it suddenly felt right. This was not a safe place, despite all the festivities. Even now, barely dawn, I could hear distant music and laughter. It didn't sound inviting this morning. Instead, I had the suspicion that it covered other things.
Lurking things that still lingered around the shadowed edges of our tent. A misshapen figure poked at the far corner and the spot glowed red, but Dorian was already heading outside. I heard a soft whistle, and all of them disappeared.
That didn't make it safe.
Colin came to the pile of pillows and sat beside me. Shosha made a sound of protest until he put her in his lap. Spoiled little thing ...
No. She was learning to reconnect with the world. Good. It seemed that even her saved rage was smaller.
"Dorian and I have been unable to discern anything about the being that keeps investigating us. I can't tell if it is really searching for us -- for you -- or if it is --"
"Lost," I said as I felt it again. This gave me a clearer view of it.
And that lost feeling overwhelmed me. I no longer sat with my friends in the tent. Instead, I crossed a dry white desert, the light so blinding that I could barely see a dark shape moving ahead of me.
"Hey," I said, but my voice was a harsh, dry croak. "Wait."
I thought it looked back at me, confirming it was not my shadow. Black shimmered against blinding white. I was starting to detest white.
"Don't get lost," a deep, haunting voice came from the shadow. "There are worse than me in this wasteland. Worst to fear than faceless shadows. This is a place where the almost dead wait."
And that confirmed my other worry. This was another of Maude's creatures, the one I had barely touched in Avesa's world.
Lost and afraid went well together. I had to pause to get control. The stone and sand burnt my paws. I extended my claws and walked on them as best I could. It hurt, but so did the blisters already appearing on my feet.
And now the worst news.
It had reached into that tent and yanked me away from two very powerful fae. I could find no hint of them with my dwindling magic. All I could do was follow --
I blinked in shock when I saw that the shadow had far outdistanced me so that I saw hardly more than a black line on the horizon. I gave a slight croak of despair, pulled in my claws, and ran.
I ran until I fell gasping. When I looked, nothing had changed.
Illusion.
A person could get lost in an illusion just as easily as in reality, even if they knew it wasn't real. The brain doesn't always agree.
But I had to fight the tendency to stand up and race after that line of black. Distant laughter didn't help. I feared moving and not moving. This was a game, and I didn't know the rules.
But wasn't the goal to frighten me?
Why?
Because it would have given Maude power -- my power. Fear was easy for others to manipulate and then control the one affected. I had read that in an ancient text. I knew the trick.
I didn't know if Maude still had an existence that could interact with me, but her other trapped minions could still act according to her orders.
Great. I understood how it worked. That didn't give me any idea of how to get free of it. But at least I felt better for not running.
"You think too much."
I looked up to find the shadow almost within reach. I could see a face now: tanned skin, gray eyes, a hint of a beard. I found nothing frightening here.
"You are not going to get what you want from me," I said. "I have helped free two others from Maude's old spells. You could leave this place."
"You are trying to trick me into giving up my quest!"
And then it got scary.
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