Free Shadeborn: A Book of Underrealm by Garrett Robinson

the forest, Loren letting Chet lead the way while she took the rear. He knew her mind without having to hear it and led them to a rise in the earth that could be seen not far away. They came to its base, and Loren took them up the rise while Chet remained at the bottom to build a fire.
    “Why are we climbing if we mean to camp at the bottom?” asked Annis.
    “We do not mean to camp at the bottom,” said Loren. “We mean only to build a camp there.”  
    “We have left a trail to it,” Xain said, his eyes flickered with understanding. “If we are being followed, they will come to the fire. But from atop the rise, we can see them without being seen ourselves.”
    “Very clever,” said Gem. “I only wish it did not mean we must sleep without a fire.”
    “If we are right in our suspicions, it will be many days yet before we can light a nighttime fire,” said Loren. “Now quickly, let us find trees where we may sleep.”
    “Trees?” said Gem. “What are we, owls?”
    “Leave off, Gem,” said Annis.
    Chet soon had a small campfire blazing, and abandoned it to crest the rise and join them. Together, he and Loren found trees with wide branches hidden from the ground, and in them built small platforms from branches cut with the hatchet. Soon, they had places for the children and Xain to lay their heads. For themselves, they found two thick branches side by side, Loren to the left and Chet to her right. They had spent many nights in trees and needed no more support for themselves.
    Together they lay, arms dangling a few feet apart, peering out into the darkness toward the fire. Though a fair distance away, their abandoned camp glowed like the sun in the pitch-black night. All was silent save for the sounds of Gem and Xain rustling about, uncomfortable in their makeshift beds.
    “Do you still think this course is wise?” Chet whispered. “If they have caught up to us so early, what makes you think we can evade them until we reach our village, or the Great Bay beyond?”
    “If they have tracked us this far, why do you think we should evade them if we were to change our course now?”  
    “Perhaps,” Chet sighed. “But then again, if they see we have turned aside, they may guess that we no longer mean to warn the Mystics, and mayhap leave us be.”
    Loren thought of Trisken’s cruel smile—the same brutality she had seen darkening Rogan’s eyes in Northwood. “You do not know them. They are not the sort to leave matters be, nor show mercy.”
    “Mayhap this is all needless worry, and the riders behind us are not even following our course. But if you are right, and we are pursued, then what do you mean to do?”
    “Find some way to evade them, I suppose. I have not had time to think that far ahead.”
    “Well, mayhap it will be needless . . ." Chet thrust a finger ahead and whispered, “Look.”
    Loren tensed, expecting to see figures approaching the fire. But Chet was pointing instead at the moons, which had crested the horizon to spill silver light across the trees. Below them, thousands of fingers swayed in the night’s gentle breezes. Far away, they heard the songs of whippoorwills and owls, prey and predator in a nighttime chorus. Loren vented a long breath and for a moment felt the day’s tension leave her. She looked back to the moons. Merida, the smaller, was especially bright, while Enalyn was shy behind her sister.
    “Merida leads the way tonight, her lantern searching the Birchwood for her mother and father,” Chet said quietly, still staring at the moons.
    “Enalyn follows cautiously, urging her sister back home to await their return.”
    “Always I have wondered if I would live to see it, the day when the sisters finally find their way to those who wait. I wonder what it would look like, a sky with no moons.”
    “It would be a sadder thing, I think.”  
    “I think you are right.” Chet sighed.  
    They were quiet after that. Even Gem had stopped rustling above them, though Loren