Peter said he’d seen the man run north. So that’s the way the dragons flew to track him from the air. Peter had gotten a good enough look at the bandit that he could give the pair of dragons a discription before they took off. Lucky for them, he wasn’t a local Ryukyuujin. He had their black hair, but his skin was paler and his features much noticeably rounder, even through his beard. His clothing was mostly dark, probably some shade of grey or brown, though with the wisp light around him it had been hard to tell for sure. Peter translated the dragons’ assurances that this was enough information for the pair of them to spot their target from the sky.

  In the meantime, Andrew, Anna, and Peter tracked him from the ground. Andrew felt nostalgic. It had been a long time since he’d tracked through a mountain forest. Only those previous times, he’d been hunting game, not some enchanted warrior in a foreign land. He couldn’t help a chuckle rising to his throat at the contrast between the current circumstances and his time hunting at home.

  “Something interesting?” Peter asked him.

  Andrew shook his head. “Just thinking about how different this is from back home,” he said. He reached up and touched his arm, where he’d been stuck with one of his own arrows. “And I still can’t get over this.”

  “It’s not hurting again, is it?” Anna asked, looking worried.

  Andrew shook his head. “I’m fine. I don’t think the Elves are able to heal so completely.”

  Anna smiled. “I’m glad,” she said. Then her grin grew wider. “And it means we’re able to understand each other a bit better. I think that’s spreading among them, too. It’s not taking the newer Wisps as long to start helping as before.” She looked into the forest ahead of them. “I hope we’re able to find these others,” she said.

  Andrew nodded. He still felt a bit more concerned with the bandit using them, but the more he learned about the Wisps, the more seemed wrong about the way the Wisp Stealers were making use of them. He turned his gaze back to the forest floor, looking for more signs of the bandit’s passage.

  The man had fled a long way under the power of the Wisps. This left a lot of obvious signs that even Anna, who had no tracking experience, could follow with ease. The easy signs started to fade as they moved, though. Andrew guessed they’d reached the point where the bandit had stopped using the Wisps. The man had probably realized he could be tracked and started taking care not to crash through the forest. But he still left a subtle trail Andrew could follow.

  The path started changing, and Andrew paused.

  “What’s going on?” Peter asked.

  “I think he’s started trying to throw us off.” Andrew said. As he suspected, the trail went dead and they had to move back a little ways.

  “Can you follow him?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know,” Andrew replied. “I’m not really practiced in tracking humans.”

  “Could we just assume his real goal is still just north?” Peter asked.

  Andrew shook his head. “That assumes he’s going somewhere in particular. He could have fled at random. Or his sense of direction could have been off, and he’ll course correct after doing something to throw us off.”

  “It’s a good thing we have eyes in the sky, then” Peter said.

  Andrew nodded. “Could you tell them to check the road for lone travelers? He might try to blend in once he reaches that point.”

  Peter nodded. He cupped his mouth to his lips and shouted up through the leaves. After a moment, Andrew heard a distant roar. “They’re checking,” Peter said.

  Andrew nodded. “I’ll keep looking for tracks, then.”

  It was another few minutes before they heard back from the dragons. There was no one on the road, except for the army to the southwest. Andrew acknowledged the response with a grunt as he focused on the foliage, looking for more signs of the bandit’s passage. The last sign he’d seen had been a while ago, and it was clearer than the few before it had been. It was probably fake. But he also couldn’t ignore the sign. It began frustrating him more and more. Finally, he decided to head back and look around those last few marks he’d found.

  For a moment, he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to find those marks again. When they did, it was with the unfortunate realization that their own tracks might now obscure anything knew he might have discovered.

  “He might have shaken us,” Andrew muttered.

  “Don’t give up,” Peter said. “We’ve still got Jarn and Veithi helping out. They can see the whole area at once, from here to the horizon.”

  “I’m not sure that will be enough if they don’t know where to start looking,” Andrew muttered. “We should have asked one of the soldiers to come with us. A local might have been able to tell us about the area and give us some idea of where he’d need to go from here.”

  “What directions could he have gone?” Anna asked. “East and south both take him up the mountains. Northeast would take him around, and West would take him into the army.

  “Maybe he’s trying to go around the army, Peter suggested.

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  Andrew thought about that a moment, then decided to start moving in a wide circle around the tracks to see if he could find more signs farther out. It took far more time than he thought it should. Almost half an hour passed with the trio walking in an ever widening circl before he found a new sign of the bandit’s passage, leading to the northwest.

  “Tell the dragons,” Andrew said. “See if they can spot him heading in that direction.”

  Peter called the instructions into the sky, and the group heard Jarnvaror reply. Andrew returned his attention to the ground to seek out more tracks. For a while, he wondered if he’d been wrong. Then he spotted the next sign, and the next one after that. Having done the feint, the Bandit must have thought he’d lost any pursuers, and was back to traveling normally.

  Things were quiet for a little while longer. Then the wind rushed through the leaves, and Andrew looked up to see Jarnvaror hovering overhead. Andrew couldn’t make out any sounds the dragon made over the wind stirred up by his wingbeats, but he knew this wouldn’t be an issue for Peter, who appeared to be having a normal conversation with the dragon. After a moment, the dragon flew off, back to the northwest.

  “I take it he found something,” Andrew said.

  Peter nodded, grinning. “They saw a lone traveler heading to a village on a path off the main road,” he said. “Sword, beard, all the rest. They think it’s our guy. Veithi’s kept close. We can go with Jarn when we get out of the trees. We’re almost to the road.”

  Andrew nodded. He didn’t know how well the dragons would be able to recognize someone from Peter’s description, but he knew that once they were at the road, his tracking abilities wouldn’t be enough to continue. If this wasn’t their target, then the bandit had already gotten away.

  Once they got out of the forest, green hills rolled away to the west. The north was dominated by a valley, with more mountains rising in the distance. The main road snaked off to the east, curving south at the point they emerged. Andrew immediately saw the futility of trying to track a single set of footprints here, where the army had just passed. He looked to the northwest, hoping he’d be able to see the figure the dragons had mentioned. All he could make out, though, was the emerald dragon flying high over the valley.

  Once Jarnvaror got them into the air, it didn’t take them long to catch up with her. She was flying in wide arcs through the air, staying close to their quarry. Peter thanked Veithi for being patient. She snapped a response, which Andrew thought was irritable based off of his time around Jarnvaror. But she confirmed for them their target was still below.

  “Are you sure it’s him though,” Anna asked, pointing down. “I can’t make him out from here.”

  “I can’t either,” Peter said. “But I think I’d rather accidently scare someone than let the bandit get away.”

  “Agreed,” Andrew said. Peter conveyed the message to the two dragons, who immediately plunged toward the ground. Even through Anna’s magic, the wind was as strong as a gale. Andrew felt he might have been pulled from his seat on the back of the dragon. Then he felt the familiar pressure as Jarnvaror slowed down to land.

  Andrew looked out over the road. Veithi had landed a little ahead of them, and between the two dragons was a black haired man with a thick beard and a sword at his waste. Andrew glanced at his brother, who nodded, a big grin stretching across his face.

  “Stubborn bastards, aren’t you?” the man shouted. He yanked his sword free and began to glow red. Even as he watched, the color shifted to yellow as his head snapped back and forth between the dragons. The dragons, for their part, hissed their displeasure at the influence of his Wisps.

  Anna threw out her hand, which flashed blue. In an instant, over a dozen blue Wisps hovered in the air. “Calm down!” Anna called.

  “Piss off!” the man yelled back.

  “Fighting would be a bad move,” Andrew said. He didn’t bother reaching for his bow, knowing the dragons would torch the man if he tried attacking at all. The man clearly knew it, too, but he refused to back down.

  “I won’t be anyone’s prisoner,” the man said. “Call off your beasts!”

  “We can’t do that,” Andrew said. “We need to talk to you. And we can’t let a bandit wander around with powers like that,” he added, looking at the yellow light streaming off the man. He glanced at Anna. “Can our friends work with them even while he’s holding on like that?”

  “I think so,” Anna said. “When they have numbers like this, at least.”

  “What are you whispering?” the bandit demanded. He looked around. A few more Wisps were trickling out of Anna’s bracelet to assist Halcyon. Though he didn’t understand it, the bandit could clearly tell the blue Wisps were doing something to his own. For a moment, he glowed blue. Then orange light flashed around him, pulsing from his blade.

  “Looks like he’s like me,” Peter said, gripping the jeweled hilt of his own sword.

  “More like Ironhill and the Pirates,” Anna said. “I may have to unwind that spell to get the Wisps out. And they don’t seem too happy about it.”

  “Again?” Peter asked. “Isn’t that still dangerous?”

  “I’ve done it before,” Anna said, defensively. “It’s perfectly safe, now.”

  “I said stop that whispering!” the man shouted. “And what are you doing to me?”

  “Our Wisps are trying to free yours,” Andrew said.

  “Free them? Are you mad?” the man looked horrified. He took a step back, only to flinch as Veithi rumbled a warning at him.

  “Yes, free them,” Andrew said. “That’s one of the reasons we followed you.”

  “One of… You are mad! These things will have us raving if you let them go. I won’t let you!”

  “That’s rich coming from a guy who used them to mug people!” Peter called. Andrew wondered if describing raiding a caravan as mugging was being too kind or not.

  “He’s not in a listening mood,” Andrew decided. “Anna, do you think you could undo his enchantments before we talk?”

  “I suppose I’ll have too,” Anna said. She lifted her hand again. “Won’t be a moment.”

  “Great. I’ll drop down and keep him from bolting,” Peter said. He slid from the saddle, and asked the dragons to keep watching the bandit. Then Peter began to glow with blue light.

  Facing two dragons and another empowered fighter proved too much for the bandit. He tried to bolt. He stumbled as the dragons roared at him, moving to cut him off. He tried to change direction, only for Peter to shoulder check and disarm him. With the blade out of his hands, Anna’s work quickened. Soon, the three Wisps he was holding on to bobbed out of the sword, while the bandit cowered away from Peter and the dragons. Peter looked up at his brother.

  “So, what questions did you want to ask him?”

  Andrew slid from the saddle and approached the bandit. He stood next to his brother over the cowering man. He wondered if the Wisp Stealers’ enchantments really protected their users from the Wisps influence. Then again, the man was facing down two dragons, a mage, and a horde of Wisps that had already subsumed those of the rest of his troupe.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” he sighed. “We just need to know about your employers.”

  Andrew thought he saw a spark of hope as the man looked up. ”What do you want to know?” the bandit asked, eagerly.

  “Everything you can tell us.”