Page 43 of Earthbound

It was easy to slip into Ajax’s sight. He more often looked through the obeah’s than his own nowadays.

Though the obeah’s senses were much more heightened than his, Rayan’s mind accounted for that fact, translating what he saw and smelled into sensations he could understand. At first he had found it overwhelming maintaining his own sense of self while embodying Ajax. But now he could fade away from his present moment, even with his eyes open, and cross the leagues between him and Lettle.

Ajax was watching her from the branches of an alder tree. The small party could just be seen through the gap in the rock.

Can you get closer? It had been a tricky balance avoiding Shera’s scent trail during the journey. On one occasion she appeared to recognise Ajax’s smell, but then the obeah had rolled in fox dung to put her off the trail.

Shera and Farhan have returned to Caperly. But there are more obeah here. I do not want to mask my scent again.

I need just a minute, I want to hear what is happening.

Rayan could sense Ajax’s disdain. For a creature of the forest, he was deeply conscious of cleanliness.

Perhaps it is the human in him, Rayan mused. He was less perturbed by the concept of obeah being humans than Yeeran was. Ajax had always been a person to him, with the same peculiarities that made any elf or fae unique.

I am what I am, Ajax said.

And I am glad to know you.

The obeah hummed a sound of happiness deep in his throat before jumping down from the tree. He crept forwards, his belly low to the ground, then pressed himself to the side of the cave’s entrance. Here he could see Lettle in her entirety.

She is so beautiful, Rayan thought, as he gazed at her. She was lit by a fraedia crystal, her braids tied in a knot above her head, revealing the curve of her neck. He longed to run his fingers along it.

She was speaking to Alder. ‘If you don’t go, I will.’ Her lips were bloodless and pinched, her eyes narrowed. Rayan knew this expression well–Lettle was about to do something risky. Something she probably shouldn’t.

She pressed her hands into a shallow puddle and said, ‘Aiftarri.’

The word jolted Rayan out of Ajax’s senses for a moment. The sudden change of being in his own body made him gasp and he looked around the room, confused.

It took him a few breaths to realise what had happened and he reached for Ajax’s sight once more.

She disappeared, Ajax said.

What do you mean, she disappeared?

She fell forward into the water and sank.

Rayan felt like he was mishearing Ajax. She’s just gone?

Yes.

You have to go after her, Rayan felt his heartbeat begin to stutter, pulling him back into his own body.

They’ll see me.

I don’t care. Go, Ajax!

The obeah needed no further encouragement; he launched through the cave and into the water.

All he had to follow was the light from Lettle’s fraedia.

It felt like it took forever for Ajax to reach her, though it was probably only half a minute.

Rayan could feel Ajax’s panic as he struck the bottom of the pool, but instead of meeting resistance he fell through the bottom and onto a stone floor. He landed on his feet next to Lettle.

She was lying on her stomach, blood seeping from a small cut on her head. Her eyes were closed.

Is she breathing? Rayan asked.