“We’re here,” Cade said, pointing to the blue dot that represented their group. “And you can just about make out the path from the indent in the canopy. If we stay on this route another hour, we’ll come close enough to reach Leifsbudir by nightfall. Leave now … we’ll be working by torchlight. That’s as much a risk as staying on this trail.”

Atticus nodded but said nothing, while Scott groaned and threw his hands up in the air.

“Do you not see the size of that thing?” he demanded.

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” Cade said.

“That’s a pretty big-ass devil if you ask me,” Scott said. “It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

Cade rubbed his chin as Atticus took a few steps away and drew his gladius. Curious, Cade saw him digging in a small mound of dirt. Atticus stuck his fingers in and removed a long white object. A bone.

He sniffed it and wrinkled his nose.

“Meat eater,” he said, the Codex translating in Cade’s ear. “Fresh too.”

Only now did Cade realize it was dung. Atticus sniffed again, this time pensively.

“What say you, guide?” he asked. “Have you met a beast of this size here before?”

“Not here,” he said.

Atticus hummed under his breath and looked up the trail.

“We walk half an hour more,” he said. “Split the risk.”

Cade shook his head. “We do that, we double the risk of getting lost in darkness and coming across one of these beasts.”

Atticus cocked his head. “We run the half hour,” he said. “Less time, less risk.”

Cade shook his head again, but Atticus had already stridden back, barking orders.

“I hope he’s right,” he whispered to Scott, shouldering his pack.

CHAPTER

43

The darkness was near absolute. Torches were reluctantly lit, a pair held high at the front of the column, as men took turns to chop back the hoary undergrowth.

It had been like this for hours. The deeper into the jungles they went, the thicker the vegetation had become. Every move was made harder in darkness, men swinging their blades in dim light and those at the back blundering forward, tangling in the low-hanging branches the rushed hacking had missed.

They were close though. So close, the blue dots were virtually on top of each other. Caution had been thrown to the wind now, as the rustling of the jungles around them grew louder and louder.

The jungles had come alive at night. Such as they had not seen or heard, in the cocoon of comfort back at their last camp.

Whether attracted by the light, the noise, or their very scent, glowing eyes watched them from the darkness, reflecting the flickering lights of their torches. Circling them, darting back and forth, yet staying shrouded in shadow.

Were they raptors, or something else? Cade didn’t want to find out. The men had huddled into a formation of shield and sword, with two pairs at the front, continuing their frantic hacking at the barrier of branches, thorns, and leaves.