Summoning her Zenith, Noble followed Kai away from the road.
Child of Promise extended her sense in the direction ahead of them, searching for any sign of life, either human or monster. She found neither.
'I am not sure if that should be comforting or concerning.'
Either whatever had caused the blood to be spilled was gone, or it was too far beyond emotions for her to detect them. Was that possible?
'In the Dream Realm, anything is possible…'
Ray could avoid detection. Who knew how many others had similar skills?
Noble's mind raced as they drew nearer.
"I don't sense anything—beast or man," she told Kai at last.
"I don't see anything moving." The handsome man continued to scan the skyline.
Noble looked around the fields of ash. She saw the high walls of the coming cliff face and another road running from it to join with the main road to her left. It all looked vaguely familiar.
No, wait. She had been here before!
That run-in with the Skinwalker had been here. However, that vessel had been destroyed. On this plain she had also met...
'Oh no...'
Noble passed over an ashen dune and got her first look at the blood in question. Kai was right to be concerned. There was quite a large quantity scattered over the ground.
Kai's expression darkened as he slowed to a stop. An arrow was already in his hand and sliding towards his bow as he read the bloodied message aloud. "Monster."
Noble sighed. "His penmanship is improving. That or writing such large letters is easier than scribbling with a pen."
The archer gave her a strange look. "You have an explanation for this?"
The woman looked at the large red word MONSTER written by the side of the road. She rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand.
"Well, for starters, that isn't human blood." 'Probably,' Noble added silently, remembering the incident at Abyssal Fire a few years before. "That is a warning for travellers not to wander too far off the road. I believe the man is referring to himself, but I could be wrong."
"Man?" Kai raised his eyebrows at her.
"Ah, yes. The people of Ravenheart call him the Hermit. He prefers to be alone except for a few people that he trusts." Noble explained.
"Interesting." By Kai's emotions, he had heard the rumors too. "He seems like someone good to talk about the current situation. However, I don't see him, and you said you didn't sense anyone. You don't think something happened to him, do you?"
Noble chuckled. "Oh, no, I am sure he is fine. He just isn't here right now."
"You seem very confident," Kai observed. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him?"
Child of Promise froze. Chip was most likely in the waking world preparing to transport the next sleeper later that evening.
'We need to find missing people, not worry about whether Chip might or might not be planning to traumatize a future Awakened in the middle of the night.'
"Chip goes here and there often. Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly where he is right now."
Whether Kai sensed that there was more to Noble's words, he didn't say. He continued to look around the area for signs of danger. At last he shook his head.
"I doubt any monsters or humans would announce themselves so blatantly if their goal was to ambush travelers. We can probably head back to the main road for now."
"I agree," Noble was relieved to leave behind Chip's playground.
The man was a bit of a loose cannon, and he didn't lie. He also said the most outlandish things for shock value. What would someone like that do to a sensitive soul like Kai who could tell every bizarre comment was one hundred percent true?
The poor archer might lose his mind. Noble wouldn't like to risk that today.
"But first, can we do a sweep beyond the Ash Plains? Some wagons were found there a while ago that belonged to one of the missing merchants. The wagons have been removed, but maybe there is something else to be found."
Leaving behind the morbid message, the pair traveled quickly around the area looking for any sign of a disturbance. They came up empty.
When at last they returned to the main road, they caught up with the travelers there.
"Hello there!" The Saint called to the line of wagons as they neared.
A man with green eyes and a thick traveler's beard shielded his eyes as he looked up.
"Saint Nightingale?"
Kai lowered himself and landed on the ground beside the man who had spoken his name. "That is me, and this is Master Noble."
"Carson." The man responded with a dip of his head. He glanced between the two Awakened warily, as the people with him kept their distance. "Forgive me, but this seems like more than a social call. Is there a problem? Have we done something wrong?"
"Have you done something wrong?" Kai turned the question back on him.
"Not to my knowledge, Sir," Carson responded honestly.
The handsome Saint relaxed. "Then you are not in trouble. However, there is a problem. We are looking for some missing merchants. Have you run into any difficulty along your journey?"
Carson glanced at the rest of his group before shaking his head. "No more than usual. The weather pinned us down with all the rain a couple of times on this last leg of our journey, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. We've come all the way from the Weeping Goddess. We are looking forward to finally reaching our destination and a warm bed tonight."
The people with them nodded. They looked rather bedraggled, now that Noble took a closer look at them. There were women and children with them too, which was unusual.
'Are they a family in addition to being traders?'
It was either that or a family had paid for passage to come along with them. There was some safety in numbers, after all. Noble sent the weary travelers some comfort. They were almost there.
"What's this about missing merchants?" Carson's words pulled Noble from her musings.
"Ah, yes. We have had a few reported as being late," Kai pulled out the list. "Maybe one of these people is with you and can put our minds at ease."
He pulled the page that Fort had given him to Carson to view. The man walked over to an older lady with them, and he showed her the list. They conferred silently for a moment before Carson returned to the Saints.
"Since we are traders, we know most of these names. They are competition, and we run in the same circles, certainly. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you what happened to any of them. I am sorry."
"So you have no information for us?" Noble furrowed her brow.
'They spent too long looking at the list. Why would he confer with someone else like that unless he noticed something?'
"I didn't say that." Carson scratched at his stubble. "We saw Rukee a couple of weeks ago. Her last stopover in a citadel was the same as ours, only she left ahead of us to avoid the rain predictions that have slowed our journey considerably."
Carson paused, collecting his thoughts before he continued.
"Rukee should have arrived at least three days ago. She is tenacious and determined."
"You don't think she took shelter from the rain as you did, or made a detour of some sort?"
"Nothing stops that woman, even the weather. And she was coming straight to the citadel, I am certain. So, if she's not already in Ravenheart, you have a real problem on your hands…"