Hunted by Magic by Jasmine Walt Page A

of the pine boughs as he figured out his next move. That’s what I would want to do if I were in his shoes. But then again, I was a panther shifter, and my beast was more comfortable in the mountains and trees than on these wide, open plains where there was very little cover.
    The wind shifted direction. Fenris and I stiffened as an amalgamation of scents hit our nostrils. Clay, dried meat, bread, and… humans .
    “Get down!” I hissed.
    Annia immediately dropped onto her stomach between Fenris and myself, right at the base of a grassy knoll. I cursed inwardly at the tall grass, which would rustle whether we crawled or walked. My nose told me that the humans we’d scented weren’t very far, and if they were trained warriors they would hear us coming. The air current had been shifting their scent away from us until it had changed direction – if not for that, we would have had more warning.
    “We can’t just lie here,” Fenris murmured. “Unless you want to wait for who knows how long and risk them finding us, we need to get up that hillock and find out who we’re dealing with.”
    I nodded, my lips pressed together. Turning to face Annia, I gave her a pointed look and jerked my head in the direction of the hillock. She nodded, and the three of us crawled up the side of the knoll as quietly as we could. We peered over the top of the crest to see a group of humans sitting cross-legged at the base of the knoll, enjoying a small meal of flatbread and dried meat. They had long, dark hair and brown skin with a reddish tint that I imagined was what chocolate would look like if it were mixed with magma. There were four men and three women, all dressed in beaded buckskin with moccasins on their feet. The women wore their hair in braids on either side of their heads with a part that fell in the middle, and the men either wore their hair loose, or in a topknot at the back of their heads, with bangs. Two of the men had red and white feathers woven into their fine black hair, and by their build and the weapons they had strapped to their persons I gathered they were the two warriors of the bunch, sent along to protect the party from strangers like us. Next to each of the non-warriors was a woven basket with a lid, meant to be carried like a backpack, and the smears of red on the weave drew my attention.
    “What’s the red stuff in the baskets?” I whispered to Fenris.
    His yellow eyes narrowed as he considered. “I believe its clay.”
    Ah. Well that explained what I’d smelled earlier. So they weren’t a scouting or hunting party – they’d come out to collect clay to make pottery or whatever else the Coazi did with the stuff. I started to relax a little, and let out a sigh of relief.
    Instantly, two heads swung around in our direction – the two men I’d pegged as warriors earlier. They jumped to their feet, one drawing his bow, the other hefting his spear. I bit back a curse as we dropped back down behind the crest of the knoll, but it was too late – they’d already seen us.
    “I don’t suppose you speak Coazi?” Annia hissed at Fenris.
    “Of course not.” Fenris bristled. “Let us hope that one of them speaks our language.”
    Rather than waiting for them to find us cowering behind the hillock, we got to our feet slowly, our hands in the air to show that we meant no harm. The two warriors were already halfway up the hill, and they momentarily froze at the sight of us before leveling their weapons in our direction and shouting angrily.
    “Please!” Fenris shouted, drawing their attention to him. “We mean no harm!”
    “Why you come on our land?” the spear-toting warrior demanded. He wore his hair long and free, and was a taller, leaner version of the man next to him. Their features were similar enough that I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were brothers, and I breathed a sigh of relief that they knew some Northian. “This not white man’s land!”
    “We are sorry for trespassing,” Fenris