Sandend. That name is familiar.

  “Is that the place Lord Layton rules?” I ask, the memory coming back to me as I pull on it.

  Nicholas nods absentmindedly, pulling a canteen from his Inventory and drinking deeply.

  “It is.” His brow creases in confusion. “I cannot think of any reason why House Heatwave might have thrown in with Lord Torrent – their Houses have never been allies. The elements their Classes use are opposites and that creates an automatic sense of antipathy. Added to that, their politics usually oppose each other. I believe there may have even been an incident between Lord Torrent and the previous Lord Heatwave which soured relations further.” His musing trails off.

  “So it’s odd that my Bonded are being held there?” I conclude. “Could the ritual have gone wrong? I could see that it was a struggle.”

  “I don’t think so, though yes, it was a struggle,” Nicholas admits. “More than it was the first time I tried it.” He lifts the metal bowl containing the black stones off the parchment and puts it to one side. The frown settling deeper onto his face, he studies the map carefully. Then he tsks and sits back.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, dread creeping through me at the thought that even this has failed.

  “It’s far less detailed than it should be,” he growls in dissatisfaction.

  “What do you mean?”

  Nicholas gestures impatiently at the map.

  “Normally the ritual narrows the location significantly more – to a room, if they’re indoors. This time, all it gives us is the city. No street, no symbols – nothing I would expect to see.”

  I frown.

  “The stones were sitting in the middle of the parchment – doesn’t that mean that they’re in the centre of the map?”

  “Not necessarily,” Nicholas corrects with a sigh.

  “Oh,” I murmur in understanding, leaning forward myself and searching for any indication of the symbols he was talking about. He’s right – I see nothing. I sit back and look at him, desperation rising up inside me. “Then this is no good?” I clench my fists as heat rises within me. “If the only way to find them is to beat it out of Torrent, I can’t say I’m against the idea,” I growl.

  “Let’s not be hasty,” Nicholas quickly responds, heading me off. Admittedly, I might be a little volatile at the moment. “We now know in which city they’re in. The protections that have been laid around them to prevent detection are strong, far more so than I was expecting. But once you are in the same city as them, you will have other means available to you. Whether that is tracking them through your Bonds, activating short-range tracking Skills, or a non-magical search.”

  “Once ‘you’re’ in the same city as them?” I repeat, narrowing my eyes at him. “You’re not coming with me?”

  “Sandend is in Goldroute territory,” Nicholas explains simply. “If I cross the border without permission from Lady Goldmine, she could take it as a declaration of war. I can and will accompany you to Whalehost, but no further.”

  “I see,” I agree, unhappy about it, but understanding that the politics of it might be complicated. And asking Goldmine for permission to enter her lands isn’t a great idea – it’s still possible she or her heir is Torrent’s co-conspirator. Probable, even, despite what Nicholas said earlier.

  “Actually,” the lord muses thoughtfully, “it works to our advantage that your Bonded are being held in Sandend – since Lord Heatwave approached us during the time at the palace, it would be natural for me to send my heir to him to continue the discussion. It might appear a little eager on our parts, but not unduly so, especially with the competition looming. Goldmine will be unable to protest your presence, and Lord Heatwave himself may wonder if you truly know of the presence of your Bonded in his city, or if this was simply a planned trip.”

  I struggle to stop myself from pushing myself to my feet and pacing again – now that I have a lead on my Bonded, the need to move is almost undeniable. Logically, I know that making plans is important; emotionally, I just want to get on the road.

  “Who else will go with us?” I ask, probably more than a little abruptly. “And how are we going to get there? Is it possible to teleport?”

  “No,” Nicholas answers immediately. “As far as I know, Sandend is not equipped with a teleportation room. The closest is probably in Cross which would require returning to the palace and approaching House Bloodrage. They’re unfortunately good at interpreting how desperate someone is and would exact far-too-high a price for it. The only other option would be waiting for the public portal to open, but Cross isn’t one of the daily destinations. In practicality, it’s unlikely to save much time and risks Torrent or his co-conspirator being tipped off. You don’t want to arrive at Sandend only to find out eventually that they’ve been moved.”

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  I clench my jaw, seeing his point and hating it.

  “Then how?”

  “We’ll take horses,” Nicholas decides. I immediately give him an incredulous look.

  “Horses? How far can they even go in a day? Or is Sandend relatively close by?” There were multiple reasons for why horses were replaced by cars. And one of them was just how much faster and further a car could take people than a horse.

  “You’d be surprised at what my horses can do, especially when enhanced with magic,” Nicholas comments dryly. “We won’t take a carriage or any attendants – only a group of Classer guards and our Bonded. That way, we can travel fast. We should be able to get to Whalehost in three days of hard travel. From there, it will take you five or six days to get to Sandend – the distance is much the same, but you’ll be obliged to leave the main road as there is no direct route to Sandend from Whalehost.”

  “So long,” I moan.

  Nicholas’ expression is not unsympathetic, but it seems to tell me to just deal with it.

  “Unfortunately, we have no cloudships – those are the only means of transportation which would be quicker.”

  Cloudships – airships, I think to myself, my mind flashing back to a previous rescue mission where speed was of the essence.

  “What if we could fly?” I ask. Nicholas raises an elegant eyebrow at me.

  “Those two dragon-like beasts of yours appear too small to carry more than perhaps a single man each, and a small one at that. You do not have your tattoos yet.” He’s probably right – their father, Raven, carried far more than that, but he was Tier three with his own magic which strengthened him. Plus, he was able to borrow Ptera’s lightening ability, and Windy and I both helped propel him forwards with air-magic. Ptera is no longer part of the Bond network, nor is Windy. So Ivor and Noir are unlikely to be able to help out.

  But I wasn’t thinking about them. At least, not in that way.

  I explain my idea and Nicholas’ second eyebrow moves to join the first.

  “That could work,” he agrees slowly. “Though I would recommend we ride for Whalehost on horseback all the same – there are too many powerful beasts that live in the mountains of Zlona and the Nym Forest that lies between Axebridge and Cross. Many of them consider the air their domain and will attack anything that flies within several leagues of their lairs. But your suggestion could indeed drastically decrease the amount of time it will take you to reach Sandend from Whalehost. Perhaps by half.”

  “So four days by horse to Whalehost, and two or three by air to Sandend?” I check. Nicholas nods in confirmation. Six or seven days…. It still seems far too long to me, but I fear that there aren’t any better choices.

  “And, of course, that depends on it not being necessary to spend time in creating your…contraption,” Nicholas adds. I shake my head.

  “It’s fine. I’ll create everything as we travel. Assuming I can get the materials ahead of time.”

  “Bones and hide? Easy enough to source. I’ll direct the kitchens to prepare a load for you. Anything else?”

  “If you could choose the people to go with me, that would be great,” I ask. “I don’t know what Skills your people have – or even what would be the most useful in a search and rescue like this,” I admit. I know I’ll be taking all of my Bonded with me, but there are few of those present for obvious reasons.

  “Of course,” Nicholas agrees. “I anticipate taking several of those you’ve already been working with – they have the Skills you’ll need. Beyond them, Mathis and Laemen are probably the most useful to accompany you as fighters. In total, I expect to take five guards with us, one of whom will remain with me when I leave you at Whalehost.”

  So four humans plus my Bonded to accompany me to Sandend. Hopefully it will be enough.

  A thought occurs to me about the journey there and I swallow a little nervously. I’m going to need to ask Kalanthia for a favour – and I don’t know how she’ll take it.

  I push the thought to one side – if she doesn’t agree, I can find a different way of getting what I need.

  Nicholas stands, breaking me from my thoughts. I copy and we both briskly brush the sand off our trousers. Nicholas leans over and rolls up the large piece of parchment, handing it to me.

  “Keep hold of this. Not only is it a good map for you to use as reference when you’re in Sandend, but it also contains traces of your blood. It’s unlikely any mage will be able to do much with it since it’s already been used in a ritual, but not impossible. Keep it safe and destroy it in fire when you wish to be rid of it.”

  “I will,” I promise. Next he picks up the metallic bowl still partially filled with black stones. He gazes at it thoughtfully for a moment. Then, pulling out another velvet pouch from his Inventory, he tips them into it and hands the pouch to me.

  “Close that up – the pouch will protect the stones from the effects of your Inventory. I might as well redo the ritual at Whalehost, to ensure that your Bonded haven’t moved in the interim.”

  “Will it succeed there?” I wonder. “I felt how being here helped it succeed this time, and you said it was hard enough.”

  Nicholas shrugs.

  “We can but try. If it fails, it fails. But it should be easier to confirm merely that they haven’t moved – the enchantments hiding them shouldn’t react as badly to that. And if they’ve moved, we will just have to do our best to find them again.”

  “Fair point,” I admit. “When do we leave?”

  “It will take the rest of the day to prepare for the trip. We will leave at first light tomorrow morning – be down at the stables at the fifth candlemark.”

  “Alright, it’s a plan,” I agree, my tumultuous emotions settling a little now that we’ve got a lead and are already making moves to follow it. It looks like resting will need to wait – I have far too much to prepare for our trip.

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