Sighing, Betilivatis stepped forward. Whispering words of magic, she held her wand aloft and twirled it in a circle above the palm of her other hand. Tendrils of pink and green smoke wove over her fingers before swirling together in her palm to form a crystal orb. Inside the orb, more of the white sparks danced.

Taking in a sharp breath, the ormyrr reached forward to snag the orb from Betilivatis’s hands. Betilivatis clutched the orb tight and stepped back.

“Ah ah,” she scolded. “The location of the gnolls?”

“Yessings, of courses,” the ormyrr said while nodding its massive head repeatedly. “The gnollies took their two-legged things down.”

“Down?” Evin asked.

The ormyrr nodded again. “Yesses, down. Under ruinings. There.”

The creature extended the pointer fingers of its left hands to indicate something behind the trio. Evin turned to follow its gesture and saw a round copestone in the ground that looked to be about five feet in diameter. Atop the stone were faded etchings that Evin couldn’t read.

“Ah ha,” Betilivatis said, almost to herself. “So that’s why my trail stopped here. They are here, just beneath us.” She smirked at Jorick. “Told you.”

Jorick just scowled.

The ormyrr cleared its throat, and Betilivatis turned back to it. “Thanks, big fellow,” she said. She tossed the shimmering, magical orb in the monster’s direction. “As promised.”

Clapping its two lower hands in childlike glee, the ormyrr caught the orb in its upper hands and promptly fell onto its back. With the flickering magical light reflecting in its red eyes, the ormyrr placed the orb in what passed for a lap on its sluglike body and stared at the object, mesmerized.

Betilivatis looked between Jorick and Evin, then turned to head toward the copestone. “Looks like it’s a good thing I came,” she said over her shoulder. “Where would you boys be without me?”

Evin ran to her side. “I was handling the ormyrr,” he said in a low voice. “But, I suppose, thanks for your assistance.”

“Assistance?” Bet let out a prim laugh and stormed ahead.

A strong hand slapped Evin’s back and he looked over to see Jorick grinning at him. “Maybe you were right,” he said. “Sometimes magic can come in handy.”

Evin glared at Betilivatis’s shadowy form, then shook his head. “Yeah,” he said. “I was right.”

Chapter Eleven

This was definitely moved recently.”

Evin stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. Moments before, he’d crawled around the lip of the copestone while Betilivatis held aloft her magical light so he could see.

“How do you know?” Jorick asked, crouching down to look for himself.