Chapter 17 - Part 5

Delegado examined the horse. Except for the scars, it seemed whole. It had been dying when the demon teleported away with the warforged, until Thomas had used a curing scroll on it.

“You going to tell me that I shouldn’t have spent a scroll on a horse?” Thomas asked. With Orphan gone he seemed convinced that Delegado would start telling him what to do again.

“No,” Delegado said, forcing himself to be pleasant. “I think leaving a large carcass would attract all sorts of problems and so I’m glad you did it.”

Thomas shrugged. They had finished collecting what they could of the caltrops and packing up their horses. Feather had just come back from a fifteen minute sweep of the area and Delegado had used one of his two daily spells talking to the bird. There was no sign of the warforged.

Thomas sighed, and his stormstalk bobbed in the air. “What do we do about the warforged?’

“He won,” the half-orc said.

“He did?” Thomas asked.

“If he hadn’t, the demon would be back by now,” Delegado said. “You know a little of magic, how far is the range on a teleport spell?”

“I don’t know that much, but theoretically, none,” Thomas told him.

Delegado’s eyes widened. “What?”

“There’s different ways to do it,” Thomas said. “But I don’t think he’s far. The demon picked up my scrying and I was only looking over the immediate area, so he was in it. And he likely hunts here, or claims it as his place, or is assigned to guard it, which is why he noticed.”

“Feather didn’t spot anything,” Delegado noted. “And he has sharp eyes.”

“Teleportation magic may work strangely here,” Thomas mused. “Look at the scars on the land from magical battle. Centuries old, millenia old maybe, and still here. That’s got to do something to magic in the area.”

Delegado sucked on his lower teeth. “Huh.” A thought occurred to him. “Maybe he’s underground?”

“You haven’t tried using your dragonmark to find him yet,” Thomas noted.

“I can only use either finding ability once a day,” Delegado said. “Wasn’t sure if I should until we tried other options. What do you think?”

Delegado could tell that Thomas liked that the half-orc was consulting with him. “Well,” Thomas said. “You can find things and people right?”

“Right.” Delegado knew what the thing to do was, but he needed to let the half-daelkyr figure it out himself.

“Try finding his kama first,” Thomas suggested.

“Good idea,” Delegado said. Took you long enough, worm-neck. The half-orc closed his eyes, something not strictly necessary, but he wanted to concentrate as best as he could in case Orphan was at the edge of his powers. Then Delegado focused his mind, and felt the mark on the skin of his lower back and buttocks tingle.

This time it was different. There was a change that he had only felt twice before in his life.

“What?” Thomas asked in response to the smile on the half-orc’s face.

Power rushed through Delegado’s body, wrapping around him, emanating from and settling back into his dragonmark. It pulsed, and then it grew, spreading further in all directions. It took less than a second to nearly double in size, forming into a greater dragonmark.

“Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss,” Delegado said in ecstacy. He was a finder. He could find things. The thrill of it was amazing, even better than when the least dragonmark had appeared when he hit puberty, and then when it had spread into the lesser dragonmark years later.

He felt the power of the new mark lock onto something deep and below. It was a flickering feeling, but he had a direction and a depth. Taking a chance he stepped in that direction and focused his mind again. Again the rush of power filled him and now he locked onto Orphan himself, although again only briefly until some interference cut him off.

“What?” Thomas demanded.

“My power has increased,” Delegado said. He pointed east and down. “Orphan is that way, about eight hundred feet in that direction plus some sixty feet beneath the surface.”

“And how do we get there?” Thomas asked doubtfully.

“I have a greater dragonmark now,” Delegado said.

“Congratulations,” Thomas said, still unsure. “That gets us there how?”

“By my finding us a path,” Delegado said. “Mount up!”