At dawn, we quickly ate from our magical bags of rations, not trusting any of the food that could be found in this place, given the grim ‘pantry’ we’d seen before. The magical rations were nothing spectacular. Bread and jerky, for the most part, with some dried fruit as well, washed down with water from our magical waterskins. The kind of thing you would pick up for a few silver per day. It was enough to keep someone on their feet, but it couldn’t be considered ‘tasty’.

Still, it was as good a start to the day as we had any right to expect, given the circumstances. I hated to think about the poor fools who didn’t have magic items like we did to supply them with food and drink on the trail. A day’s rations weighed almost a pound, if you did it normally, and if you were traveling, you’d need to carry multiple days’ worth of rations. And water, if you were unsure of finding a place to refill your skins, was even heavier.

I knew I was lucky to have these items, as simple as they were, since I was not the strongest exemplar of humanity. Not by a long shot. And carrying too much weight would make me unable to fly, and make me easier to hit. Not something I wanted to deal with, naturally.

As we stepped out of the mine, I stretched my wings, and smiled. Looking back at the others, I said, “All right. We should try and make the best time to the lake. Vestele, Siora, I know your wings aren’t as quick as mine, but above the trees we’ll at least have the advantage of not needing to duck around trees. Frostmane, are you good running on the ground without us? We’ll try and keep close to your position, but if you’re attacked and the canopy is thick, we might not be able to get to you quickly.”

Frostmane chuffed. “I’ve run on my own for my whole life before I met you, little bird. I’ll be fine if a few wolves try and play. At least until you turn up.”

Siora chuckled. “Don’t worry, oh fluffy one. Give us a howl, and we’ll be down to help you just as soon as we can. But our frost-loving friend is right. We will move faster above the trees than trying to move through them.”

The white wolf snapped at Siora, but there was no menace behind it. “Get flying, elf demon, and don’t make me wait too long for you at the beach.” He bumped my arm with his head once, and then turned, and began running through the forest towards the lake.

Taking that as our cue, the three of us spread our wings, and took off, leaving the mine behind. I flew at a relaxed pace, so that the twins could keep up with me, but we still made good time, covering what would have been a trek of six hours on foot, as we moved through the trackless woods, in just under three.

We landed by an old wooden dock, that seemed made to ferry people or goods across the lake. It was in a sad state of disrepair, of course, since the mine had not been in operation for years, removing most of the call for its existence. However, someone had done the bare minimum to keep it in order, and an old camp site, clearly visible from the circle of stones in the sand, told the story.

No doubt this was a popular spot for fishermen to take their ease, when they were too late at work to make it across the lake in the dark. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the locals used it as a convenient place to sneak off to for a day trip alone with their partner for some fun. By my reckoning, it would take four or five hours to reach this dock from Moonwater with a rowboat. A fishing boat, with the sail rigged, could easily make it in half the time, perhaps less, if the wind was with the sailor.

Frostmane, in his smugness, was resting just inside the trees when we landed. The old road from the dock to the mine had not entirely been lost in the years since the Necromancer Lord attacked, and the last few miles of it ran along the side of the lake, giving Frostmane an easy run for the last part of the trip. So, he had laid down in the shade to rest and relax, waiting for us to fly down and meet him.

After congratulating the wolf for his speed with scritches behind the ear that I could see he enjoyed all too much, I looked back to the lake. “All right, since we’re here, and there’s a nice landmark to direct the sailors to, I’ll fly on ahead, and get them to send a boat across. Or we can walk the rest of the way, along the lake. Probably get to town close to nightfall if we do that, though.”

Frostmane chuffed. “I wouldn’t worry about it, little bird.” When I raised an eyebrow for clarification, he simply chuffed again, all too pleased with himself.

Seeing my confused expression, Siora laughed. “Yes, you may be a cheating existence, but your eyes are no match for a wolf used to stalking his prey in the mountains, or a pair of elves. There’s a sail on the water, heading this way. I expect they’ll be here within the hour.”

Looking back to the lake, I could just barely see the sail, now that they pointed it out to me. Taking a breath, I said, “Well, that’s fine, then. I guess that when one asks spellcasters to use divinations to gather information, it isn’t surprising that they know when you might be heading back to town. I guess we’ll have plenty of time to handle things in town.”

As the boat grew closer, it was indeed a fishing boat, large enough that we could all catch a ride with ease. There were three people on board. Two were big, broad-shouldered men that were clearly fishermen by trade, not any of the villagers we’d dealt with. The third, however, was a bit more familiar to me.

“By Mielikki’s golden hair, it is good to see you all!” Bessie Tanner, the ranger who had been our guide when we first arrived to Moonwater what seemed like ages ago, was all smiles as she hopped off the boat as it pulled up to the dock, bow in hand. “We knew you were making an impact on the werewolves when the attacks stopped, but then the damned red moon went back to normal, and it felt like a weight was lifted off the forest!”

I chuckled at the girl’s excitement. “Well, we’ve been busy, that’s for sure. I’m guessing either the druid or the witch told you to come meet us? Not that we aren’t glad for the ride, mind you, but we were expecting that we would have to walk.”

Bessie laughed at that, and said, “Aye, Celaena has been working mainly on piercing the magical defenses of the werewolves and their leaders, now that she doesn’t have to worry about devoting most of her power to shoring up the defense of the town and healing the wounded. Magdalin, on the other hand, has been keeping track of your progress, as much as one can with a scrying spell, and whatever other divinations she has, and she was the one who sent word that we should have a boat here for you around midday.”

As we approached the boat, one of the fishermen offered me his hand. I accepted it in the manner it was offered, and let him haul me aboard. When I nodded my appreciation, he just grunted. “If’n we’re pickin’ ya up, this mean you killed all the folk making things go crazy?”

I had to disappoint him, just a little bit. “No, not yet. We killed most of the wolves, and took care of the place they were using to summon reinforcements, so the leader is missing some of his key people, and can’t get any more help. The Blood Moon is gone, and the shield around the temple still stands. But we’ve been fighting running battles for the last few days, and we could use a chance to rest, and actually prepare for the big fight, rather than rushing headlong into things.”

The fisherman looked confused, but the other fisherman simply put a hand on his shoulder. “No sense casting nets at nightfall, just because there’s more fish to be caught.” The first fisherman nodded in understanding, and turned to help the others aboard, while the second looked to me.

“Miss Celaena, the Captain, and a few of her boys went to check on the wolf den, after you flew to town the other day, and they were taking as much oil as they could carry. Had maybe half of it with them when they got back. They wouldn’t speak of what they found, but you could see on their faces that it wasn’t good.”

I nodded slowly. “We found out how the cultists were feeding so many wolves in so small an area, without worrying about the food running short. The best that can be said about it is that the abomination has been dealt with. But even so, some things are best cleared away with flame. And I say that as one forsworn from lighting fires.”

The fisherman whistled softly. “That bad, huh?”

“Worse. I would tell you, but you might enjoy sleeping at night, now that there aren’t wolves howling at your door. Trust me when I say that what happened in that cave, it is not something you want to know about. Being flayed alive would be kinder than some of the things that happened there.”

The fisherman paled, but nodded in understanding. “That’s bad energy. Kind of thing that can leave a curse on the land. Glad you put a stop to it, miss.”

I sighed. “You’re not wrong about that. And it was worse at the mine. I know the mine’s been closed for years, but pass the world that it needs to keep closed. There’s probably still undead in the lower levels, from the time of that Necromancer Lord’s invasion. And there are traps over old shafts that will dump anyone unwary enough to step on them into the depths, with no way up.”

As the first fisherman pushed us away from the dock, he said, “So, what, you just went and left the undead there? I thought adventurers went and took care of things like that.”

I laughed at that, and said, “Oh, they do! They do, indeed. But they do it for a reward, unless they’re one of the righteous types, and, unless they’re either really good, or really desperate, they prepare for what they expect to find rather than just hoping they got what it takes.”

I waved at my companions. “We came here at the request of the Selunites in Northport, paid to go check on Moonwater, and see what was causing the trouble. We had some warning of werewolves, so we were kitted out for wolves. But we’re already beyond the scope of what we were hired to do, and only doing it because the Malarites are up to some things that we’d rather not see taken to completion.

“What we are not, however, is prepped for dealing with the undead. We can handle a few, sure, but we simply aren’t prepared for a whole mine full of undead, especially if we don’t know what types they are. Killing a zombie is different from killing a skeleton, and neither one is close to what you got to do to kill a wraith.”

Sighing, I looked back across the water, at the receding shore. “No, that mine, and the other things that these Malarites have stirred up with their magics, is something for another team to deal with, another time. Otherwise, you’re just throwing lives away for no purpose, and that would be a foolish waste.”

Frostmane stretched, and then laid down on the deck. The poor wolf definitely did not look like he was enjoying a boat trip. “There will be time for talking about the other things wrong with this wood when the Malarites are dead.”

The fisherman nodded. “Aye, I’ll drink to that, white one.”