by Brandon Mull
“I told you that girl did something to her!” Anuqi protested. “I saw it!”
“We’re all devastated that Suka is gone,” her father added. “But can’t you see what this is, Anuqi? Someone is trying to take advantage of you.”
“I’m going to go check the snares,” Anuqi said, grabbing her parka and roughly pushing the tent flaps back. She stepped out and shrugged the parka over her shoulders. She’d already visited the snares—she didn’t really need to check them until the morning—but Anuqi wanted space to breathe.
As she trudged through the snow, an icy wind blew across the tundra. She really should have brought snowshoes, but there was no way she was going back now. Anuqi leaned into the wind’s biting caress. Suka’s power was in that Arctican chill, and when she let it envelop her, Anuqi could sense that, somewhere, Suka was still out there. For a moment she stopped and hugged herself, as her body reached out for a connection that she knew was dead. A wave of answering pain blossomed in her chest.
The message probably was a lie, but her parents were still wrong. One way or another, Anuqi would find her spirit animal again.
As she walked, she felt the wind tugging at her. It gusted, twisting through the hills like a roar. Almost like the roar of a polar bear.
Anuqi glanced up at the sky, where the aurora was beginning to appear—green brushes of light against the starry sky. The legends of the Ardu held that the aurora’s lights were the spirits of her ancestors, playing in the sky forever. Perhaps her grandmother was up there, looking down on her plight. And, knowing Grandmother, probably also muttering curses at outsiders and demanding that Anuqi peel her some fireweed to soothe her gums. But still, she would be watching.
The wind roared. Anuqi knew what she had to do.
When she returned to the family tent, her parents had already gone to sleep. Anuqi had suffered through their snoring, his low-pitched and hers high, for all her life. Now, whatever else happened, at least she would have a break from that.
Creeping with a stealth honed by prowling through the tundra and avoiding predators, Anuqi gathered up traveling clothes, snowshoes, food, and her trusty snow knife. She would never truly feel safe again until she had Suka back, but the knife strapped against her thigh made her feel slightly better.
It was the work of a moment to pull back the wolfskin that her mother hid all her valuables behind. Finally, Anuqi piled up old skins so that it would look like she was in her bed if anyone checked.
The low-pitched snoring stopped for a moment. Anuqi froze, her heart pounding like seal-leather drums in her ears. If her parents woke up and discovered her, they would never let her out of their sight again.
But then her father sneezed, and his snoring resumed. Anuqi slipped out of her parents’ tent like a soft night breeze and started away.
At the edge of the village, she strapped on her snowshoes. With the night’s head start, she would be too far gone for anyone to catch her. And with the wind gusting steadily and a light snow falling, tracking her would be difficult to impossible.
As she started out across the snow, Anuqi looked up. The aurora was in full force now, greens and blues spilling across the sky. This outsider might be another liar, but she was determined. The dull ache where Suka had been was still there, but somehow slightly less as she tracked across the tundra. One way or another, she was going to find her spirit animal. Anuqi would not return to the lands of the Ardu until they were reunited.
Anuqi left her snowshoes behind when she reached the Arctican channel, and packed her thick parka away when the ferryman’s boat touched down on Eura’s northern shores. The trek was long, and more than a few copper coins had been lost to innkeepers’ hands just to get directions. By the time she reached Radenbridge, Anuqi’s bag was empty.
Radenbridge was not a large town by Euran standards, but it was easily several times the size of any of the settlements in Ardu lands. Even in her lightest hide clothes, Anuqi was too warm, and she felt out of place amid the crowds of pale foreigners.
Except I’m the foreigner here, she realized with a grimace. Not them.
The Smiling Fox Inn was not hard to find, right on the main thoroughfare. She dodged wagons and a stray dog as she crossed the street to the largest building in town. It was marked with a red fox that was grinning as if it had just raided all the chicken coops Anuqi had seen on farms along the road.
She glanced up as she approached the inn. The sun was still out, but she had been watching the skies. It was the last day of the waning moon. Ignoring the stares of the passing Eurans, she pushed open the door and walked in.
The inn’s common room was the largest building she had ever been inside, two stories tall with tables and benches strewn across the stone floor. She stood frozen for a moment as the patrons bustled around her, calling for food and drink.
A small man appeared at her shoulder, wearing a stained apron and a perpetually annoyed expression.
“Come, come, you’re drawing attention,” he said, taking her by the elbow and guiding her to a dark table in the corner. “Just sit here. I’ll bring you some soup.”
“I don’t have any money left, so—” she started, but the man hushed her.
“Just sit here,” he repeated firmly. “I’ll bring you everything you need.”
She nodded, grateful to finally be off her feet after the long journey. And with no coin left, she hadn’t had any real food in a day. She was famished.
The man brought her a bowl of steaming-hot stew, which Anuqi attacked with vigor. When she picked up the bowl to drain the last dregs of broth, she noticed a small piece of paper folded underneath the bowl. As stealthily as she could, Anuqi grabbed the paper and held it below the table, straining to read it in the flickering firelight.
She stared at the markings on the sheet. They looked scratched, like they had been scrawled by one of the chickens in a panic before the smiling fox arrived. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if the note had been gorgeously penned by the head scribe to the Queen of Eura; she still wouldn’t be able to read it.
She stared at the page. Why had she come so far, for a “friend” who didn’t even know that most Arcticans couldn’t read? And now she was stuck. She didn’t have enough coin to afford the passage back home, even if she could make it that far.
When the innkeeper returned again, she was still looking at the piece of paper in her lap.
“What are you doing?” he hissed. “You’re starting to draw attention to yourself, as if you hadn’t already.”
She glared at him. “I can’t read this,” she hissed back, feeling the color rise in her face at having to admit that.
He rolled his eyes but leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “It says to go to the top floor, to the last door on the right, and knock four times,” he said. “Now, get out of here and forget you ever spoke to me.”
Anuqi nodded sullenly.
“That skinny shrew didn’t pay me nearly enough for this,” he muttered as he walked away.
Anuqi waited for a minute, pretending to pack up her few possessions. Then she made her way up the stairs. She tried to put on her best casual walk, but wondered as she mounted the stairs if that was just making it worse. There had never been a call for trickery and lies among the Ardu, other than coming up with the occasional excuse for why she was out with Suka too long.
Suka … Anuqi tried to put her friend out of her thoughts as she reached the top floor. Was there some chance she would find out where her spirit animal was? Would this “friend” be able to help get Suka back? Probably not. But she’d come this far. Anuqi knocked four times.
The door swung open a crack. A beady eye and the point of a crossbow peered out. Anuqi stepped back and gasped, but the door opened fully and the crossbow was lowered. The eye belonged to a tall young woman with thin cheekbones. The girl glanced up and down the hallway with sharp movements, and then motioned Anuqi inside.
Anuqi stepped in. The room was bare and basic, much like the
ones she’d stayed in on her journey through Eura to get here. There was a chest, a rug, and a modest straw bed. Sitting on the corner of the bed was a tiny boy.
The young woman closed the door and cleared her throat. “Thank you for coming. We weren’t sure if you would believe the note.”
Anuqi said nothing. Had she believed it? She had almost wanted to, but it just seemed too far-fetched.
“I’m Talon, and this is Grif,” the girl said.
Anuqi eyed the two of them. The young woman looked frail, and the boy was tiny. She groaned. She knew the note had been too good to be true. “You two? You’re going to help get my spirit animal back? What, you and the eight-year-old over there?”
“Hey, I may look eight, but I’m actually eleven, and I punch like I’m fifteen.” He held up a tiny fist, making his best menacing face.
The girl who called herself Talon started laughing, high-pitched and flighty, and Anuqi couldn’t help but chuckle herself. The boy scowled at first, then grinned. He hopped down from the bed and performed a mock bow.
“Grif Burnam, at your service,” he said, straightening up to his unimpressive full height. He was wearing a gray cape and had two tiny daggers sheathed at his belt.
“You … you look like the world’s smallest adventurer,” Anuqi couldn’t help but say. She had to admit, he was almost cute, with his tiny battle gear and determined face.
“And what if I am?” The boy raised his chin, gaining perhaps a quarter inch in height. “I go places others can’t go. I see things others can’t see. I’m the one,” he said, practically glowing with pride, “who found out who would be in Radenbridge this week. And with stolen spirit animals in tow.”
Anuqi glared at the tiny boy. “Do you mean that Suka is here? In Radenbridge?”
“No,” Talon interrupted softly. “I’m sorry, Anuqi, she’s not here. But the girl who helped Zerif steal her from you is. And she has other spirit animals, stolen from others like you.”
“So you brought me all this way, but you don’t know where Suka is? You want me for something completely different?”
Talon sighed. “Zerif’s power is growing. We have to fight him any way we can. If we keep harrying him, we hope to discover more of his plans and methods. When we learn enough, hopefully we’ll be able to find your spirit animals and rescue them. Until then, we’ll strip him of his allies. But we need your assistance.”
“Help us, and my daggers will be sworn to your service,” Grif said, puffing his little chest out. “I will help rescue your spirit animal, or die trying.”
Anuqi stifled a laugh.
“He’s serious,” Talon said, nervously checking the window and listening at the door for a moment. The girl seemed to be always in motion.
“Why do you even care?” Anuqi asked, raising an eyebrow at Grif. “What’s in this for you?”
Grif’s confidence suddenly sagged, just for a moment. Then he straightened up.
“There were strangers in town the day I summoned my spirit animal,” he said. “There are no Nectar Ceremonies anymore, so it just happened out of the blue—the sky darkened and there was this flash of light. Zerif struck before anyone realized what was happening. Our Greencloak was an old man; he went down immediately. My father was slashed across the chest, and the other adults ran away. I hid and watched. Zerif took him. Zerif used that weird worm and took my spirit animal. I never even got to touch him.”
“I’m sorry,” Anuqi said automatically. Something about the way he said it, so calm and tight, made her believe him even more than if he’d started bawling. “I … I know what that’s like.”
“Grif summoned Arax the Ram,” Talon said with a sad smile. “Another reincarnated Great Beast. Zerif and Raisha stole him away, just as they did Suka, and two others before them. Now do you see why we have to fight? They will continue taking spirit animals, unless they’re stopped.”
Anuqi shook her head. It was all too much. Grif, with his tiny daggers, was about as threatening as a baby seal. And Talon looked as if a stiff breeze would blow her out to sea. If Anuqi joined forces with them, she was likely to get hurt or killed. And then what would happen to Suka?
Even so … Anuqi noted that Grif did seem to wear his weapons with a certain confidence. And Talon’s crossbow was still loaded and cocked, even if it was pointing down at the floor. Anuqi had never been a fighter. Ardu children were trained to trap, track, and survive in the cold, but the closest she’d come to fighting was tussling with the other kids in her settlement.
More than ever, Anuqi wished for Suka. Her warmth, her strength … and her massive claws. With her polar bear at her side, Anuqi had always felt safe. Like nothing could harm her.
She looked pointedly at the crossbow. “Do I have a choice? Or will you just make me do what you want, like everyone else?”
“You’re completely free to go,” Talon said, sighing as she unloaded the crossbow and set it on the bed. “I’ll never force someone to serve against their will. Those days are in my past.”
Was this girl serious? Anuqi could think of only one way to find out.
Anuqi nodded, then stood up and walked out the door without another word. She went down the stairs and waited, perfectly still, listening for the sounds of movement from above. There was nothing.
She weighed her options. She could try to make her way home. With no money left and her parents likely furious with her, that was a bitter prospect. Or she could place her trust in these two oddball characters and their mission.
Anuqi breathed in deep. She’d come this far. She would have to try, at least.
A moment later she was back up the stairs, knocking on the door.
Talon opened it, staring at Anuqi in surprise.
Behind her, the boy was laughing. “Told you she’d come back,” Grif said.
Anuqi gave him a dark look. “I just needed to know if you would actually let me go. If you were telling the truth.”
“Then, by all means. Come in,” Talon said, glancing nervously back and forth down the hallway as Anuqi entered.
“How can we hit back at them?” Anuqi asked.
“Raisha is camped outside of town,” Talon explained. “She has a whole troop of mercenaries with her. Radenbridge’s Greencloak is about to hold a ceremony inviting any children who summoned animals to take the green. There are three this year, with three bright, shiny new spirit animals.”
“We think Raisha is going to hide in the crowd,” Grif added. “Pretend to be part of a merchant’s caravan. As soon as the children are all called up, her men will strike.”
“And we do what?” Anuqi asked, incredulous. “Take on a whole troop of mercenaries by ourselves? Shouldn’t those cursed Greencloaks be taking care of this?”
“The Greencloaks are too far away,” Talon explained. “The Keeper and a whole party of them are headed toward Brecksbury, a day’s journey from here. But they won’t arrive until tomorrow. Plus … ” Talon faltered, suddenly awkward.
“Talon’s got some kind of history with them,” Grif said. “I’m guessing she was a criminal, but she doesn’t talk about it.” He raised his hands in the air, as if talking about an errant puppy.
Anuqi glanced at the wiry girl. That would explain her nervousness. Anuqi wasn’t sure she wanted to work with a former criminal, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just shrugged. “Hey, I’m no friend of the Greencloaks,” she said. “When they need you they’re all high-minded and virtuous. And then they leave behind a trail of destruction. Just strangers bringing sorrow. And when I could have actually used their help, they were nowhere to be seen.”
Talon gave a tight smile and bobbed her head quickly, like a bird. “I know about what happened to the Ardu. My plan should help prevent the same disaster from happening to Radenbridge.”
Grif lay a hand on his dagger, which to Anuqi was one half menacing and one half adorable. “Raisha won’t know what hit her.”
“All right,” Anuqi said with a sigh. “I’m in
. How are we possibly going to pull this off?”
“Have a seat, and we’ll explain everything. We don’t have much time to make our preparations.”
Anuqi sat cross-legged on the floor, and the three set to work.
The Radenbridge town square was alive with activity. A crowd had gathered, filling it to the brim and overflowing into the streets. Vendors hawked their wares, and a large stage had been set up at the center.
Radenbridge was a market town, and in addition to the presentation, this was a market day. Livestock of all kinds milled about. There were cows, sheep, goats, horses, and other animals tethered all around the square. Cages filled with chickens, geese, and pigeons were lined up near the stage. Animal calls and the clacking of hooves on cobbles filled the air with a strange sort of song.
Talon had given Anuqi new clothes to wear: a woolen cloak and a slouching hat that obscured her features. With her head downcast, she looked like just another farmer or shepherd in from the hills surrounding Radenbridge.
Anuqi let herself be pushed back and forth by the crowd, slowly working her way through the swell to the back of the stage. It wasn’t much different from working the waves in a kayak, even if the number of people around her made the hairs on her neck stand on end.
She cast her eyes over the crowd, trying to note who looked suspicious. There were no mysterious cloaked figures, but there were certainly plenty of tough-looking men who could easily be mercenaries.
Then, at the edge of the square, Anuqi saw her: Raisha. The girl seemed to be enjoying bossing around a pair of burly mercenaries. She had a slight sneer on her face, the same expression she’d worn as she ripped Suka out of Anuqi’s life. A vicious-looking dagger was sheathed at her waist.
The Arctican girl turned away, smiling tightly to herself. If nothing else, Talon and Grif had given her the chance to fight back. Even if their plan seemed unlikely to succeed.
Anuqi kept her head down as Radenbridge’s mayor gave a brief speech and the town’s Greencloak stepped forward. She didn’t dare look back at Raisha. If she was recognized, the whole plan could be ruined.
