Sudden movement only an arm’s length away on the slope makes me thrust forwards with my spear, my right foot slipping on the scree so I land painfully on one knee. Fortunately, I’m not attacked – when I look up, I see that the movement was just Sulir returning. This is the second time he’s almost made me jump out of my skin. His stealth Skill is highly impressive.

  “Don’t do that,” I complain grumpily as I push myself to stand once more. At least my armour saved me from a grazed knee, though it didn’t do much for the bruise that’s already forming. I absently send magic to heal the tissues.

  “Sorry, my lord,” he replies seemingly repentantly, but I wonder whether secretly he’s relishing the chance to get revenge for when I nearly gave him a heart attack by getting ambushed by bandits because I sent him away.

  I gesture impatiently and shift so I’m better balanced for our conversation.

  “What news do you have for us?” I ask, taking advantage of the pause to get my breath back.

  “You’re almost to the cliff face. Soon, you’ll be able to see it through the trees.” That’s a relief – my physical condition is so much better than it used to be, but it’s still a challenge to climb up a scree-covered slope that’s steep enough that I need to use my hands to help me from time to time. It’s not only the trees that are obscuring the cliff-face – the angle of the slope is too.

  Most of my companions are coping fine – Catch, Pride and Sorya are the only ones finding footing more difficult than I am. Kalanthia, of course, is sauntering up it as if she’s walking on level ground. The scree doesn’t threaten to slip away under her feet. Maybe she’s using Earth magic to help herself, I muse to myself. I’m drawn away from my thoughts as Sulir continues speaking.

  “Do you have any more information about the yelnas? Have you found any evidence of a Tier three?”

  Sulir hesitates.

  “Nothing conclusive,” he admits. I frown at him.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I haven’t seen any obvious signs of a Tier three’s presence,” Sulir clarifies. “But there are more yelnas present than I saw last time.” His tone is grim.

  “How many?” I ask, foreboding going through me.

  “At least ten from what I can see. Possibly more – the caves in the cliff may hide others as they clearly hid the extras when I was here last.”

  “That’s a lot of yelnas,” Thiar remarks, sounding troubled as he draws closer. He’s barely even out of breath – no doubt the consequence of dedicating all of his points to physical stats. Then I remember that I have magical options open to me too and send magic through my body to remove the ill-effects of the exercise we’ve just undergone.

  “I’ve. Never heard. Of so many. In one place. Before,” Sorya pants, the pause having given her enough time to reach us. “Evolved? Or not?”

  “They’re all Evolved,” Sulir responds grimly. His words are met with curses from the rest of his team. I can’t prevent my lips from twisting downwards.

  Tier one yelnas are, by all reports, bad enough – hooked beaks, long and sharp talons, and a muscular body that resembles a grizzly bear back on Earth more than anything else. The Tier twos are even worse, most with a movement or body-strengthening ability and the odd one with access to magic.

  I don’t doubt that our party could easily take down a single yelna, even a Tier two. We could probably do it without injuries, even without Kalanthia’s help. But ten of them?

  “Are there any possible explanations for so many being in the same place other than a Tier three?” I ask the Dragon team since they’re the most likely to know.

  Sulir and Sorya exchange glances.

  “They don’t tend to migrate unless they’re forced out of their territory,” Sulir comments. “And while the rift might have had this effect, there are still too many for that to be plausible.”

  “I don’t think a Tier three is an explanation any more either,” Sorya muses. “Not with them all being Evolved. Unless there are some cubs and Tier ones in the caves behind them, that is.”

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  “So…human interference?” I conclude.

  “That seems most likely,” Sulir agrees. “Especially since I haven’t seen any signs of them fighting each other. Yelnas are notorious for not getting on.”

  “There could be a natural magical explanation,” Sorya contributes. “An Energy well, for example.”

  I raise my eyebrows at her.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s when Energy gathers close to the surface of the earth, creating a spot with particularly high concentration of Energy,” she explains. Something to do with an underground Pure Energy Stream?

  “Is that likely?”

  “Not really,” she admits. “We’d most likely see other beasts present as well. And they wouldn’t be nearly as calm as Sulir has indicated they are.”

  “I see,” I sigh. I wonder if any of my companions will spot anything useful. Noir, Sirocco, can either of you see anything? Kalanthia, what can you feel through the earth?

  Noir quickly sends me an image. He’s sitting on top of the cliff, looking down. The face is definitely sheer, even leaning outwards in places. It would be a challenge to climb in the normal way – fortunately, we have magic. Though we’ll have to deal with the yelnas first – I don’t fancy having them snapping at our heels as we climb.

  As Sulir indicated, Noir can see a number of yelnas sitting near the cliff face. The ground seems to level out a bit close to the base of the cliffs – fortunate, because if the footing was as bad as it is where we are now, I’m not sure how well we’d fare. Noir can see seven of the monstrous beasts.

  Sirocco has a better vantage point – she’s circling above the action and can see eleven of them. Ten are outside, each keeping a certain distance from the others, and one is lying half in and half out of a cave. But I get a nasty feeling that, as many as they are, eleven isn’t the sum total – though Sirocco can’t really see into the caves that pock-mark the cliff face, her sharp eyes catch glinting from inside of several of them. Eyes or talons, I don’t know, but I suspect that there are at least fifteen of the things.

  Neither of them have seen any humans, but our odds are decreasing by the moment and I start wondering if we should retreat and take the other route after all. I don’t want to repeat my mistakes from the fight with Raven. We might have chosen this route, but it’s not the only one available to us. At the moment, we’re downwind and out of sight – the yelnas seem to have no idea we’re here. If we back away a bit and then cut sideways along the bottom of the cliff until we’re out of range of the half-owl, half-bear creatures, we could still reach our destination.

  There are twenty-three of the beasts, Kalanthia announces after a long moment. I sensed her reach with her Earth Sense, felt her attention as she listened to the vibrations and perhaps detected the pressure of claws on the rock and scree.

  I hear several sudden intakes of breath from the scouts around me – she must have projected her voice to everyone present. Some are outside, some are inside. None have passed their second Evolution, and all have passed their first.

  Nurisoth curses.

  “That must be all the Evolved yelnas on this mountain!”

  “More than,” Sulir counters. “Usually it’s hard to find two Tier twos within several leagues of themselves. And they don’t live on the lower slopes.”

  “There’s a Tamer involved, then,” Nurisoth grunts, then glances at me almost apologetically. “Can’t see any other explanation for it.”

  Thiar nods as if to back his fellow warrior up.

  I dislike the idea, but it certainly seems the only option that remains. And it’s not one that’s good for us – as I’ve proven, a Tamer not only has access to strategy, but is able to enhance himself or his beasts in many ways.

  “I haven’t seen any indications of humans present either,” Sulir points out. “No footprints, no magical imprints, and my Inspect Skills don’t indicate that the yelnas are Bonded.” Then he pauses thoughtfully. “Though they might be controlled in another way."

  “Which raises the question of why the yelnas are here,” Sorya points out. “If they’re being controlled by a human, there must be a purpose to their presence. Why not have them attack Zlona? Twenty-three Evolved yelnas would make a big difference to the city’s defences.”

  The others make disgruntled noises of agreement. My stomach sinks – this whole situation is stinking like a three day old fish. We’re going to have to investigate, aren’t we? I moan to myself. We’re looking for an anomalous rift and have suddenly hit an anomalous group of yelnas. What’s the betting that they’re connected? My vague plans of retreat go up in smoke before they were even fully conceived.

  “Alright, let’s figure out a way to do this to make sure that we all come out of this in one piece. We can investigate afterwards.” I start grimly. “Kalanthia, any chance you can even the odds by collapsing some tunnels on those within?” I much rather our odds against eleven than against twenty-three.

  The nunda considers the question for a long moment.

  If you do not wish me to destroy the cliff at the same time–

  “I don’t,” I quickly interject – causing an avalanche was not in my plans for the day.

  –then it will take a good deal of focus. I will hide myself so I am not a target, but I will not be able to help you in the battle until I am certain that the cliff is stable.

  “That’s fine,” I agree, accepting the trade. In a battle this serious, I’m not going to spend time messing around with improving my Skills – I’ll go all out and get my companions to do so as well.

  I smile grimly as I think of a strategy that might work against so many difficult opponents. “Let’s divide and conquer.”

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