Amara's stomach twitched in tiny jerks, and her quiet breaths of laughter stirred the water beneath her nose and mouth.
"Plenty of trees," Bernard said. "A beautiful view." He slapped at himself as one of the stinging flies that filled the swamp struck at his ear. "Friendly neighbors."
"You know me, Bernard. I'm just one of those women who needs someone to do everything for her."
His eyes wrinkled at the corners, and he started snorting quiet laughter, too. "Crows, yes. That's you."
"I have a suggestion," murmured Gaius. "If you're both quite finished amusing one another."
Bernard gave Amara a sidelong look and his hand moved under the surface of the muddy water.
She clutched at his wrist and tried to glare at him as her cheeks turned scarlet. "Pardon, sire, of course."
Bernard grinned and turned his attention forward once more.
Gaius coughed a few times. "I would suggest that you wait until near sunset, Countess, and then fly an aerial reconnaissance. It's generally easier to spot hidden sentry posts from above."
"What if they have Knights Aeris about?" Bernard asked.
"We've not heard any windstreams of late," Gaius replied. "Besides. Even if there are enemy Knights Aeris, the Countess is more than capable of handling herself. And in the meanwhile, we can observe enemy movements before drawing any closer."
Amara glanced at Bernard, who frowned pensively for a moment, then nodded. "They already know we're about. It might be worth the risk to know more about what's immediately ahead." He grimaced down at the water. "Going to be a little damp while we wait, though."
"We'll take turns on the stretcher," Gaius said. "I won't need both legs to support my weight in the water."
"No," Amara said. "That isn't going to happen, sire."
Gaius blinked. "Excuse me? Countess, I believe that I am perfect-" He broke off, coughing again, struggling to smother the sound with his hands. The sound became ugly for just a moment, and then he got himself under control again. "You may," he breathed, "have a point."
They settled in to wait.
During the course of the day, patrols swept by every two to three hours, on varying paths. The last patrol passed to within twenty yards of them, but Bernard had raised a woodcrafting around them, and once more, they remained unseen.
Finally, the shadows began to stretch, and Amara murmured, "I'd best draw back a little way. I don't want to chance them hearing my takeoff."
Bernard nodded once and kissed her cheek. "Be careful. Good luck."
Amara paced silently back through the swamps and found a point of higher ground which she could use to become airborne. She grimaced at all the mud on her and did her best to get the heaviest bits off before she called out to Cirrus. It was a bit of an effort, given the way the mud hampered her ability to will her fury to action, but she took off on the quietest windstream she could manage and ascended several thousand feet, to the edge of her ability to see what was below her in detail.
For a single glorious moment she paused to take a deep breath, her face turned up to the sun, and gently urged Cirrus to dry her clothing. She'd been wearing wet things for so long, she'd almost forgotten what anything else felt like. The air smelled fresh and clean, this high up, and more importantly, it was entirely free of the constant stench of rotting vegetable matter. For that matter, she couldn't remember the last time she had gone so long without flying, and it felt glorious to be in the air again.
She let out a guilty little sigh and turned her mind back to business. Bernard and the First Lord were still down in the muck. It hardly seemed fair for her to waste time reveling in being away from it when they were waiting for her to help them get out themselves. She willed Cirrus to magnify her vision and approached the swamp's edge out of the concealment offered by the setting sun.
At first, she worried that the haze might lower visibility too much to make the overflight practical, but she soon proved able to see the swamp below clearly enough. It did not take her long to spot the three outposts in the general vicinity of their approach.
Two were built up into trees at the very edge of the swamp, and a third was dug out of a mound at the base of a dead tree, overlooking the swamp's edges, shrouded by brush and grown over with vines. That last looked large enough to shelter perhaps a dozen men-and all three posts had dogs tethered nearby.
Amara sailed to several other vantage points to double-check what she had learned, though she didn't dare fly directly over the enemy strong points- without the glare of the sun to keep casual glances away from her position, it would be entirely too easy for a sentry to spot her by accident.
With the sun setting in earnest, Amara descended back into the swamps and hurriedly returned to Bernard and Gaius. She couldn't find them, even knowing the general area in which they'd been, until Bernard lowered his wood-crafted veil and beckoned. She waded back to them and quietly reported what she'd seen. "We can't get through without going by at least one of their watch positions," she concluded. "Which, I suppose, is why they put them there."
"Dogs," Bernard said. "That makes it more complicated."
"Why?" Amara asked.
Bernard shrugged. "I could use Brutus to keep them calm as we went by them-but I can't hold up a veil around us at the same time. And dogs track by scent. Veils won't do much to hide us from them."
"And if you don't hold a veil around us," Amara mused, "we won't make it through unseen."
Bernard nodded. "Likely."
"That isn't a problem," Gaius murmured. "Countess, you can veil us from sight, while the good Count Calderon prevents the hounds from raising the alarm-and it would leave him with enough attention to shoot if we need to silence anyone quickly."
Bernard lifted an eyebrow, thinking it through, and nodded. "True. I didn't know you could do a veil, Countess."
"Uh," Amara said. "I... I can't." She flushed. "Not a very good one, anyway. I passed the qualifications in my windcrafting courses at the Academy, but not by much. I've never held one large enough for all three of us, and never for more than a few moments."
"Mmmm," Gaius said. "Have we other options?"
Bernard grimaced. "Not unless you'd like to begin taking action here and now, sire."
Gaius turned his gaze to the east for a time. Then he shook his head, and said, "It's still too soon. We'll need to get through the first pass in the mountains." He studied Amara. "You say your classroom veils were barely passing marks, eh?"