"Do we have to? It's going to be something awful again," Finna says.

  "I didn't even have time to tell you what the idea was!"

  Finna lies down on the wet ground and rolls around for a few spins. I remember doing something like that when I was a little kid. She points a finger up at me, lying on the ground. "Absolutely nothing that has anything at all to do with those bugs, you got me?"

  "I promise. Teratomes are really rare. We would need to be very unlucky to run into any on this trip anymore."

  "There. It is guaranteed. This time, I will get to fight it as well," Rworg says.

  Finna throws a handful of wet moss at him. It hits him on the side of the head and slides down, as he poses, one fist flexed up toward the sky.

  Mandollel swipes sprinkles of water off his coat. "Who decided we don't need to be wary of the mage anymore? Still, I'm interested in hearing what Folke is thinking. His ideas have had merit."

  He catches a clump of moss from the air, but it sprinkles water on his face. His lips press together as he takes a long breath, squeezing the clump in his hand. Water runs down his wrist and into his sleeve.

  "Anyway, the idea is that--" I start, but cut off as Mandollel shoots off from the ground.

  He lands on top of Finna, and they roll on the wet ground. He's trying to push the clump of moss on her face, but surprisingly, Finna holds her own. She wriggles and squirms like an eel, sliding out from Mandollel's grip. Mandollel has to be stronger, but tangled up like that, Finna is quicker and more agile.

  Rworg has a delighted look on his face as he watches them roll around. "This is educational. Watch her form, hunter," he says.

  Mandollel manages to squash the clump of moss on the top of her head, rubbing it into her hair. Still, if it were a real fight, I think Finna would have won. I could spot no form, but I saw her holding back punching him in the groin, clamping her fingers on his throat.

  I should ask her to spar with me. And not to kick my ass too hard.

  Finna shakes her head like a dog after a swim. Rworg slaps his thigh, roaring in laughter.

  "Are you all done?" I ask.

  Mandollel wipes his hands against each other, slapping them together a few times. "Yes, forgive me for that. Please, what did you have in mind?"

  "The Kertharians have to know we're up to something. They have now had time to realize the auroras are related to us. But they don't know where we are going. The problem is that once we set the next stake, we're going to have half the Kerthar behind us while we're trying to get to the final location."

  Mandollel runs a hand through his hair, picking off twigs and other dirt. "I have been thinking that as well. The attention we're going to draw will be more intense and harder to lose. And the final location is relatively near the third one. We'd have to contend with both Kertharians following us and fresh ones only arriving, drawn by the earlier auroras."

  "Exactly. The more time we give for Kertharians to prepare and gather, the worse it's going to get," I say. "So let's not give them time to gather."

  "Forcing mana into the stakes does make things faster, but how does that solve anything?" Mandollel asks. "I agree that we have to do it, but that goes without saying at this point."

  I raise two fingers into the air and wiggle them around. "We do both at the same time. "The Kertharians don't have time to gather, and we don't have to fight them all the way from one location to the other."

  There are a million arguments that this is impossible and a bad idea, but it's also the only possible one. Finna bites at her fingernail on her thumb, peering at the fingers of her other hand. She knows it means she will have to handle the other stake. Mandollel frowns. He doesn't like the idea, and I can practically see him running through the counterarguments in his head.

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  "Forcing mana into the stakes makes it louder," I say. I don't know what would be the right word, but that will do for now. "So if they are going to hear us doing it anyway, we might as well do it in two places at the same time. That way, the Kertharians have to split their forces. They can have only that many mages ready to swoop in. There's less time for patrols or normal troops to reach us, and each location would have only half the attention."

  Rworg rubs his chin. The stubble is thickening fast. He's going to look like a king from some old tapestry, the beard making his jaw even stronger. "Divide and conquer. An age-old adage. It is dangerous, but what route would not be?"

  Mandollel is still thinking, almost starting to speak multiple times, but always stopping. "I can find no better alternative," he finally says. "It is as you say. If we start with one, Kerthar will be able to bring in more mages, learn more about what we are doing. The most dangerous part is the wait and the escape after. This way, we have most options available for us once the stakes are down. We can run in any direction.

  "And if we get caught, we could even activate the device. It might even be our most probable way of getting out of here alive," I say. It's a grim thought, but true. Lille would probably still be alive, my friends would be 30 years older than me, but I'd still prefer it over being killed by raving madmen. I have a feeling Finna doesn't have that much of a family waiting at home either. For Mandollel, 30 years would be an eyeblick in general. It would just give his father a bit of time to catch up to him. I don't know about Rworg's family, but he's so eager to sacrifice himself anyway that I don't think this would be a problem either.

  "It would be the obvious solution, and yet the device has to be activated at a precise location. It needs to be able to access the conflux of mana streams the stakes create."

  "No lectures! We got it already. Have to get it to the original spot, fine," Finna says. "We'll do that."

  "Could we take the device there before even setting the stakes?" I ask.

  "Perhaps, but it would probably be a bit of a detour. We will need to consult the maps," Mandollel says. "Though, in all honesty, I wouldn't want to just leave the device somewhere, out of my sight. Some people would say the Time Gem is more important than what happens to all of Velonea. I disagree, but..." He grimaces, biting at his lip.

  I nod. "The mage isn't coming back. Let's find somewhere dry and finish the plan properly."

  It's not that dry, but it will need to do. A miniature hill rises out of the swamp, grass slippery, but at least there are some small trees to lean my back against and offer cover in case more mages fly past. It also gives us a vantage point to see the whole area around us, even if there isn't anything to see. There are similar marshes north of our village, but there's also a well-maintained road through them. Here, it's just a green and brown swamp, while the horizon shimmers with the heat blanketing the bare sand.

  Kerthar is a weird place.

  Rworg demands that we use Kertharian spices this time. He says they go especially well with snake meat. I have no objections, as long as we get to eat as soon as possible.

  At least there's no shortage of water. It's still hot and the color looks off, but it should be fine to drink now that we boiled it for a while. Mandollel said it was a fine opportunity for Finna to let go fully. She made the pot so hot that the first drops of water just circled it, sizzling and spitting and running in beads around it.

  I sip on the hot water carefully and watch the pieces of snake meat sizzle and smoke in the pot. Magic really is quite amazing. I don't much care about the lightning bolts, but without magic, we wouldn't have eaten anything warm during the whole trip. There hasn't been a single opportunity for lighting a fire, but here we are, preparing for an exotic feast.

  "It looks like fish," Finna says, pushing around a piece of the meat with a stick.

  "It's flaking, so it should be done," Mandollel says. "Folke, I have an idea of the routes we could take."

  I stuff a piece of meat into my mouth and chew. It is flaky like a fish. The taste, on the other hand, is similar to rabbit. Gamey, lean, but not as strong as the hyrax was. "Good. My suggestion is that Finna and I handle the other stake and Mandollel and Rworg the other. We want both pairs to have something to deal with ranged attackers. Also, Finna and I will be able to get away and hide from the Kertharians more easily if it's just us."

  "And Rworg and Mandollel can just kill all of them. That's a great plan," Finna says.

  I'm not sure if she's being sarcastic or not, but it was pretty much what I thought as well. Rworg crosses his arms over his chest and nods, face completely serious.

  "Right, anyway, we will just need to agree on the timing and who goes where."

  "We go to the next one, because it's nearer," Finna says.

  Mandollel chuckles, nibbling on a piece of meat. "I would suggest that as well. The disturbance she will cause has to draw the majority of attention and possibly pull forces away from the direction we truly want to head."

  "We will agree on how long we wait, then do it. Once the stake is ready, we head straight for the final location with the device. We'll agree on a spot to meet and a secondary spot if everything goes haywire."

  "Folke," Rworg says. He waits for me to look at him and stares into my eyes. "You could just take the device and go ahead."

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