Clara had come to pick me up extremely early the next morning, even before the sun had come up. She usually had robes, and a cloak on when she came to visit, but today she had on riding leathers and a ten gallon hat. Her hair was tied back into a long ponytail which was quite fetching on the woman.

  She led me through the forest, a sleepy cat draped across my shoulder, arriving at the village just as the sun crested the horizon. Even though the sun was low in the sky a surprising number of people were out and about already. I nodded to most people, tried to ignore the distrustful glances, as we quickly made our way to the north paddock.

  Nightmare’s tack had been laid out, which probably meant Clara had probably already been here this morning. I glanced over at her questioningly.

  “She wouldn’t let me close enough to put her stuff on, otherwise I would have rode over this morning,” she explained dismissively as she prepared her own horse. “It’s not a big deal.”

  I shot my horse a disapproving look. “Let the nice lady close in the future,” I whispered. “She’s a friend… I think.”

  Nightmare looked at me apologetically, and stood passively as I put her tack on.

  Within minutes we were ready to go. Clara led the way, on her red mustang, galloping north towards the edge of the valley.

  It felt good to ride out on the open plain, especially after being stuck in that shed for several days. Don’t get me wrong, I had been happy to be let out and visit the town too, but riding around without people judging me for five minutes. Priceless.

  The valley was a lot wider than I expected, and even after the fields disappeared behind us the valley continued on. It probably took close to an hour to reach the other end, marked scattered trees, rocks and scrub brush. Clara slowed her horse to a walk, slowly following the indistinct border.

  “This is what we consider the northern boundary of the coven. The entire perimeter is marked with a line of warding totems to alert the coven guardians if anyone ever wanders into our land,” she explained, pointing to a small carved post pounded into the ground just beyond the tree line. I recognized many of the symbols etched into it, although I wasn’t sure if it was just a difference in the magic, or some slightly different arcane language.

  “You have wards around the entire perimeter? You’d need one every fifty or so feet, and the perimeter has to be several miles long,” I said. “That must have taken forever.”

  “The elders have had twenty years to set them up. They figured out a way to maintain them with ambient magic, so they don’t decay either. I can't imagine how much work it would be if we’d have to replace them every few years.”

  I nodded silently, looking at the rocky ridge beyond. The terrain didn’t look uncrossable, but it definitely seemed inhospitable. It probably acted like a natural barrier between the coven and the town, you’d have to be fairly desperate to cross it without a reason.

  Pushing herself upright Kaylee eyed the badlands. “Mow?”

  “I have no idea how the girls crossed that area, I was unconscious at the time,” I growled at the cat. “Didn’t you see?”

  “Merrr.”

  “What do you mean you don’t remember?” I asked.

  “That’s a side effect of the wards,” Clara explained. “The girls came back through one of the hidden paths, there are extra wards to obfuscate those passages, and scramble the memories of those that pass through.”

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  “Seems excessive.”

  Clara shrugged. “We like our privacy.”

  She pushed her horse into a slow gallop again, following the ridgeline East. I was surprised how far the rough terrain went, I would have expected it to only have been at the base of the foothills on the west side of the valley, but it continued almost to the far side of the area. Several miles away.

  The east side of the valley ended in a thick forest, even thicker than the one my temporary shed was located in. The mix of spruce and evergreens was almost unnaturally thick. Perhaps it was.

  “This is the eastern edge of the coven. The thickest of the woods are here in the north east, slowly thinning out until they hit the creek. Tree cover is fairly thin on the south side, but that should make it easier for you to spot the wards,” Clara explained, slowing down to ride next to me. “Most of the best hunting is on this side. Deer like to gather around the creek.”

  “Is that all we’ll be hunting?”

  Clara explained animatedly. “Of course not, they’re just some of the easiest prey. Antilope, rabbit, moose, bison, fox… there’s a ton of wildlife out here. It depends whether the coven needs food, or leather. The wards keep most of the predators away, so we rarely have to deal with wolves or bears, but they do occasionally wander too close.”

  “You must enjoy it, you’re more active now than I’ve ever seen you,” I told her.

  “I enjoy getting out,” she said, sitting back in her saddle, blushing. “The last few months I’ve been assisting Lady Amelia, and I haven’t had much time to myself.”

  I turned to look at her, confused for a moment. “You’re Lady Amelia’s assistant? How did you end up babysitting me? Surely one of the guardians would have been a better choice.”

  Clara shrugged. “They had the option, but none of them volunteered. Since you passed through the perimeter without triggering the wards, they were concerned there was a break in the perimeter. This was before we knew about your powers of course. Since no one else wanted the job, I volunteered.”

  “And you volunteered because?” I prompted.

  “I don’t know. You saved the girls, so I figured you couldn’t be that bad, and once I found out about your powers, I became interested in your background.” She looked a little sheepish, and glanced away. “Thyra filled me in on what you said at the tribunal.”

  “I figured the entire town knew what had happened in there, considering how distrustful they are of me,” I grunted. “You know, if you wanted to know more about me all you had to do was ask.”

  She glanced at me, just for a moment, before urging her horse into a trott. “I’ll take you up on that, but later. We still have a lot to do today!”

  “Really? How big is the coven?” I grumbled under my breath.

  Riding for another hour brought us to the creek, which meant we were somewhere east of the village. We were so far out, I couldn’t even see the massive crop fields.

  “We should let the horses relax and drink before we continue,” Clara announced, hopping down from her horse. Without prompting the massive red mare wandered up and started drinking. Nightmare pulled at the reins for a second, so I placed them over the saddle horn and hopped down too.

  Wandering over to the edge of the woods Clara stared into the forest for several long moments. Just when I started wandering over a massive Raven swooped out of the treeline, landing on Clara’s outstretched arm.

  “Corrin, where have you been? You missed dinner yesterday,” Clara berated the massive raven.

  The big bird cocked its head to the side. “Caw”

  “Not being hungry isn’t an excuse, you know that I worry when I don’t see you in the evening. You should at least come in and let me know you’re alright.”

  Corrin ruffled her feathers, looked at Clara for several long seconds then let out a gentle. “Caw”

  “Apology accepted. Now what are you doing out here? Normally you explore much further out.”

  Fluttering her wings, Corrin let out a short series of squawks. Clara immediately went still.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Probably nothing, but…” Clara paused for a moment and bit her lip. “Corrin saw a small band of people several hundred feet out, traveling parallel to the perimeter.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t there people out here that know about the coven, and avoid the area?”

  “No, and that’s the problem. The only ones that know we’re here should be Graves company to the north, and the tribes to the south. I can’t think of a good reason for either of them to be walking the perimeter.”

  “Do you want to investigate?”

  Clara paused, glanced out into the forest, then back towards the village, before finally nodding. “It’s too suspicious. I may not be the best person to investigate, but I’m a competent witch, and if someone has hostile intentions towards us, I want to know. I’ll send Corrin back to inform the village, and get them to send out a couple guardians to follow up.”

  Jogging back to her horse Clara quickly removed the blanket from behind the saddle and dragged it towards me. Quickly unrolling the blanket she revealed my rifle case hidden within. “Take what you need, just in case,” Clara said seriously.

  I let my hand hover over the familiar weapons for several seconds before finally grabbing the holster shoved into the case. I quickly shucked my coat and fastened it around my torso before reaching into the case for one of my pistols. After a quick check, and reload, I slipped it home. After slipping the rifle over my shoulder I hesitated for a moment, before checking and loading the weapon and holding it out to Clara.

  “I don’t need that, I have my magic,” she said, immediately stepping away.

  “Magic can fail, it’s good to have back up,” I replied, still holding out the weapon. She still didn’t take it, so I slipped it into the second holster on my belt. “Suit yourself.”

  Closing the case again I slipped it on the back of Nightmare before securing it. “Now, shall we investigate?”

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