Wuzhui traveled at full speed.
He raced across level ground, crossed mountains in his path, and flew over rivers. A Dark Nightmare Pegasus had considerable stamina, but traveling day and night like this still left him exhausted. Every four hours, Loa let Wuzhui stop for a brief rest and fed him fresh flesh he had prepared in his Space Ring before continuing on.
Wangcai lay on Loa's shoulder, unable to keep his eyes open against the wind. He simply buried his head in Loa's collar, leaving only his tail swaying outside.
"Boss, how much farther?"
"Almost there."
Loa's answer was always those same two words.
He did not know how Bob was doing. He only knew that every moment of delay put Bob in greater danger. The metal containers, the runes, the escort party mentioned in those letters-put together, those clues pointed to only one thing-the Dark Church!
Several days later, Loa had entered the Dark Alliance's territory.
The Blackscale Kingdom lay on the eastern frontier of the Dark Alliance and was one of the gateways into its heartland. Loa had chosen this route because intelligence from the Dawson Chamber of Commerce indicated that the escort party had last disappeared in the direction of the Blackscale Kingdom.
Wuzhui was utterly exhausted, all four legs trembling slightly when he landed. Loa patted his neck and said softly, "Thanks for your hard work."
Wuzhui gave a low whinny. There was no resentment in his dark golden eyes, and he simply stood quietly to one side.
Loa left Wuzhui outside the city to rest and entered Blackscale Royal City with Wangcai.
Blackscale City had no branch of the Dawson Chamber of Commerce, but before Loa left, Matthew had given him the contact details for the chamber's undercover agent there.
The meeting place