Fought an evil they had found,
"Do you think they'll be following?" They moved on, slowing the pace for Silverleaf.
"No matter what, Rolan is fast enough to catch us, but I doubt they'll try. Can you tell me why?"
"Yeah, it's a bad idea to chase anything you aren't willing to catch." He rubbed his nose ruefully. "A stripeback on the farm taught me that. Mom made me sleep outside for days. They'll leave you alone until they're sure you can't get away like last time." She explained for his benefit and Silverleaf's exactly what had happened. She included her manipulation of Silverleaf. She wasn't proud of it, but she couldn't let him think it had been an unprovoked attack. To her surprise Camon took it well, simply accepting what she'd done.
"Without Iearnen, I would have been stuck, but a cast spell wouldn't have had the same effect. Do you know why?" He shook his head, and she wasn't surprised because it was a fairly technical bit of magic. To her surprise Silverleaf answered, raising her opinion of him sharply.
"In a thrown spell the control aspect travels with it. That, or there's some link back to the caster. This makes them much easier to alter or deflect, but also more flexible and much faster. On the other hand, in a rune spell, the control is outside, set into a physical medium. They're designed not to change when cast." He eyed her. "And used to contain dangerous...creatures. Tremaine may well be able to cast one remotely if he thinks of it. Our energy signature is hard to hide, especially that thing's." He said, gesturing at Iearnen.
"Actually, it's not as bad as you think, companions might show up well to mage sight, but they're almost invisible to earth sense." She winked at her ride. "Can't imagine why." She thought about the reactions Camon and Iearnen would have to face when they went home and sobered. "So, what now?"
She could feel her face frozen in disapproval. This was just asking for trouble- tracking the monsters to their home. Never hunt anything on it's own turf if you can help it. But Camon wouldn't be dissuaded and Silverleaf was obviously just as anxious to see his work here concluded.
The pain in the ass had proven surprisingly useful once she'd persuaded him to do things her way, sending wave after wave of nearly invisible field magic out and watching what came back. Technically speaking it was a journeyman's trick, no nodes or lines required. Silverleaf though, had seemed very impressed by it, which had made her feel pretty good until Camon decided to go charging off on his hunt. He wasn't willing to wait, to hand things over, because he had a weapon the heralds never would: her. Oh, he called her an 'advantage', but that was the gist of it, so here she was, and here they were.
It smelled bad. Heat was beating into the blood soaked ground sending up a smell to meet the fury of a baking sun. Some of the monsters had run and some had fought. Those ones were dead, she'd just finished making sure of that.
Camon and Iearnen and Silverleaf were a little battered but fine. Well, Camon and Iearnen were anyway, chatting back and forth in their heads, youth and moral certainty making things easy.
Silverleaf seemed to be having deeper thoughts, frowning out over the carnage. Perhaps it was just the smell of it all. Her own face was blank, force of habit. She didn't know about right or wrong, but it had been necessary. After all, you can't have monsters running around loose.