by Brandon Mull
Radenbridge’s Greencloak was a middle-aged man. He might have once been a competent warrior, but now he sported a paunch and moved with ungainly steps. He wouldn’t be much help. Anuqi shook her head. The Greencloaks sounded good in the stories, but the reality of them never quite matched up.
“We no longer have the Nectar of Ninani,” the mayor said. “But some among you have summoned spirit animals all the same. Come forward!”
A boy was the first to come, with a large yak trotting next to him. It turned when they arrived at the front, eyeing the crowd suspiciously. Then it gave a grunt and leaned down to explore a patch of grass sprouting from between the cobblestones.
Anuqi’s body tensed. A tall girl came forward, with a tree frog sitting on her shoulder. A horsefly flitted past and the frog’s tongue whipped out and plucked a snack from the air.
Finally a third child, a slight girl with black pigtails, came forward. Her parents had to push her out of the crowd. She vaulted the steps quickly, then took up a position almost behind the taller girl. A Great Dane padded along next to her, looking almost as spooked by the crowd.
Anuqi pushed her way through the press of bodies. The Greencloak stepped forward.
“You have summoned animals and are counted among the Marked. Will you accept the call of the Greencloaks, and serve—”
The chaos erupted before he could finish.
As she charged forward, Anuqi could see and hear it around her: swords screeching out of their scabbards and panicked screaming from all directions. Anuqi caught a glimpse of Raisha in the crowd, her face the very picture of shocked innocence. Anuqi felt a fresh spike of hatred for the unctuous girl.
As the mercenaries advanced from the crowd and the Radenbridge locals fled, Talon emerged from under the stage, grabbing the first boy and girl and their spirit animals and pulling them with her.
The local constable and the Greencloak had drawn their weapons. Anuqi darted past them. The square suddenly exploded as Grif flashed onto the scene, moving faster than Anuqi could have imagined. Grif slashed the leads of the horses and the knots holding the birdcages closed. Everywhere he went, clouds of feathers and beating hooves followed.
“For Arax!” he yelled as he sliced a knot and a stallion charged past.
The panicked animals stampeded through the square, turning confusion into complete pandemonium. Anuqi dodged a crazed mule and reached the girl with the pigtails, the final one to summon an animal.
Anuqi looked down at the girl in front of her. Her eyes were wide, her arms wrapped around the Great Dane’s neck.
“Come with me. We have to get you out of here,” Anuqi said.
“But who are you?”
“I’m … a friend.” Anuqi realized with a jolt that this was the same thing that Talon had said to her. The word that she’d had such a hard time accepting. “I can help you. I can get you out of here before those men take you. If you will trust me.”
Please, Anuqi thought. Let this girl be more ready to trust than I was.
For a long moment, the girl shrank back. Anuqi reached out her hand, trying to put the concern she felt into her eyes. Then, reluctantly, the girl took Anuqi’s hand. They ran together, dodging chickens, geese, and an irate goat.
Anuqi glanced back as she ran. The last thing she saw before rounding a corner was the town’s Greencloak holding off two of Raisha’s mercenaries by himself with deft swings from a long sword. Perhaps there was more to him than she’d initially thought.
As her feet pounded on the cobblestones and she pulled the girl along beside her, Anuqi hoped he would make it out alive. The Greencloak was buying them precious seconds.
Around the corner, they caught up to Talon and the two other children. The girl with the tree frog held her spirit animal close, while Talon and the boy were trying to get the yak moving forward. It was slow to start, but with the boy urging it on, it was trotting along by the time Anuqi caught up.
“Let’s go!” Anuqi shouted. The odd mix of humans and animals accelerated down the cobbled street.
At the next turn, Grif emerged from an alley grinning like a madman, his face covered in mud.
“Their horses?” Talon asked.
“Cut loose, spooked, and headed for the hills,” he answered, sliding easily into their pace.
They reached the town gate, where the guards were struggling to lower the portcullis without much success.
“There’s a rock in the gears!” Talon shouted brightly as they charged through. The guards watched in shock as the crowd of people and animals passed them by. Anuqi looked back as they sprinted across the field outside the walls, and saw the gate lowering to the ground.
“Told you it would work,” Grif crowed as they reached the trees. There was a sudden crash. “I also loosened the screws on the winch,” he added. “Once it starts down, there’s no stopping it.”
There was shouting at the gate as the mercenaries reached it, only to find it closed. That would buy Anuqi and the others time to make their escape. Anuqi had to admit, she was shocked that their plan had succeeded so far. Maybe Talon and Grif really were capable of pulling this off. Though she still wasn’t sure what they were up to.
Anuqi took the lead as they reached the edge of the woods. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground that had fallen overnight.
She led them off the road immediately, heading up a tiny deer trail for a few minutes and then into the deep brush. At least here, horses wouldn’t be able to follow.
While Talon and Grif had prepared their tricks in the city, Anuqi had been plotting out their escape path. She might not be much of a fighter, but when it came to tracking and making their way through the snowy landscape, she would wager she knew more than any of these city dwellers.
It was winter and the ground was frozen, but even so she knew they were leaving tracks in the snow that Raisha and her goons would be able to follow.
“What’s your name?” Anuqi asked the pigtailed girl.
“I’m Maena,” the girl answered. “My family runs the town’s mill. Will … will I be able to go back to them?”
“You’ll need to stay hidden,” Talon said. “But once Raisha and these mercenaries have passed, they won’t come back. Raisha is a prominent merchant’s daughter. She has too much to lose for a few animals.”
Anuqi knew what that meant. For normal spirit animals.
For the reborn Great Beasts, like those she and Grif had summoned, Raisha and Zerif would likely never stop hunting—not until they had them all.
Anuqi led them through the woods and a quarter mile down a shallow winter stream before they crossed to the other side.
“My feet are freezing,” Maena complained.
“Moving water makes it hard for the trackers to follow us,” Anuqi told her. “They’ll have to track up and down both sides of the stream looking for signs. This should gain us enough time.”
“Raisha is a pampered brat,” Talon added. “And she’s from southern Zhong, so I doubt she’s very familiar with snowy terrain like this. But her mercenaries are experienced hunters. They’ll know how to track us.”
Anuqi stopped them when they reached a rocky slope, which was mostly free of snow. There would be no tracks left here. She beckoned the three village children and their animals to a large boulder with a hollow behind it.
“This is a good spot to lay low,” Anuqi said, pulling aside a thicket of branches that had been covered by snow. Yesterday, Anuqi had carefully prepared it after discussing the plans with Talon and Grif. Once the branches, snow, and leaves were replaced, anyone inside would be almost invisible.
“Hide in here,” Anuqi ordered. “Once they pass you, wait an hour then head back downstream.”
“We’ll take care of Raisha’s people,” Talon said. “But for now you need to stay out of sight.”
The three looked back at Talon, wide-eyed.
“You can do this,” Talon assured them.
Maena nodded, then stepped forward and
wrapped Anuqi in a hug. “Thank you,” the girl said. Her Great Dane barked at them. It wasn’t quite the warm furry embrace of Suka, but Anuqi squeezed her back.
“You’ll be okay,” she whispered. “Don’t worry.”
Once the three were huddled in the hollow behind the boulder, Anuqi covered the opening and used the branch of a fir tree to brush the snow smooth around them.
Grif picked up a pile of sticks that were lying by the rocks. He handed a pair to Talon and a pair to Anuqi. Anuqi took a look at the bottoms of hers. They were carved into the rough shape of yak hooves.
“We’ll need to walk slowly and leave extra prints for a bit,” Anuqi instructed Grif and Talon as they set out. “If they stay focused on our trail, they won’t realize half of their prey have escaped.”
“We’ll see who the predators are … and who are the prey,” Grif said darkly. His right hand squeezed his dagger.
As they walked, they pressed the sticks that Grif had carved yesterday into the snow along their path. Hopefully Raisha would see only that they had stopped briefly, and the humans and animals had all continued up the ravine.
“I knew your skills would be useful, Anuqi,” Talon said with a grim smile as they ascended to the top of the ravine, stepping heavily. “You may not be a fighter, but you’ve a cunning to you.”
Anuqi said nothing, but the thought warmed her. She would need all of that cunning in order to eventually rescue Suka.
They kept moving through the evening and into the night. Anuqi used every trick the Ardu hunters taught her—backtracking, circling around, and hopping on rocks—to try to obscure their trail. But they would always leave a few “mistaken” broken branches or tracks.
“Let’s not be too good at this,” Talon said with a chuckle as she intentionally put a few extra footprints along the way. “We’re trying to slow them down, not lose them entirely.”
The moon rose as they crossed open farmland. They first saw their pursuers at the edge of a sheep pasture. The figures were distant, barely specks on the horizon. But as the night wore on, the moon made its way across the sky and the shadows shifted on the snow—and the mercenaries kept gaining.
“I’m sorry,” Grif said, starting to puff as they moved along. The boy finally seemed to be losing stamina. Running around like he had in the city, Anuqi was only surprised he’d lasted this long. “I won’t be the cause of your deaths—let me stay behind. I can slow them down so that you can make it close enough to use the horn.”
Anuqi glared at him. “You’re not getting off that easy. Stuff your honor.”
“Keep moving,” Talon shot. “We’re close now.” She touched the horn around her neck. “Another mile and the Greencloaks will come running.”
Anuqi looked behind them. She could make out the individual figures now, their weapons gleaming in the moonlight. She kept her legs moving underneath her, trying to ignore the chill seeping in through her soaked feet and wind-tossed face.
With every step the mercenaries grew closer. Part of Anuqi wanted them to catch up. Let them take their best shot. She had her snow knife buckled at her hip. If she went down fighting, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about the emptiness inside her where Suka had been. She could make Raisha pay for what she’d done.
Grif fell behind. Anuqi was about to urge him on when she saw the furious expression on his face as sweat dripped from his hair, even in the cold air. He was already giving it everything.
Finally, breathing heavily, Talon skidded to a stop at the bottom of a ridge amid a stand of trees. She pulled the horn over her neck and held it for a long moment.
“We’re here.… I just need a moment … to catch my breath,” she said.
Anuqi took a long look back across the field, where the enemy was approaching. They had gotten so close! If Talon was right, a large force of Greencloaks were camped just over the rise.
Now that they were closing in, Anuqi noticed something alarming about the mercenaries: Raisha wasn’t among them.
Her whole body tensed as she searched. There, over to the right, just a stone’s throw from their tracks, was another set in parallel. Anuqi spun around just in time to see a figure stepping out of the trees.
Before she could open her mouth, Raisha was behind Talon. A sharp dirk gleaming at Talon’s throat.
“Drop the horn,” Raisha commanded. Talon let it fall to the ground.
“Grif, Anuqi,” Talon said. “Run. It doesn’t matter if I die.”
“Move an inch and I slit her throat,” Raisha said, a cruel grin spreading across her face.
Grif’s daggers were out, but he stood unmoving. “If you hurt her,” he said, glaring at Raisha, “you will feel my daggers.”
Anuqi stood frozen for a moment. Was she really going to let herself be captured for someone she’d only just met? Talon had told her to run.
Anuqi finally spun and started up the hill, but it was too late. The mercenaries had crossed the pasture and were already in the trees, weapons drawn. Anuqi only made it a few steps before one of them crashed into her, sending her staggering. Her foot caught under a root and Anuqi went down, yelping with pain.
She tried to fight back as the mercenaries tied her hands, but her ankle throbbed with every movement. Finally she gave in and let them tie her.
“I’d make you tell me where those spirit animals are, but we don’t have time for another wild chase,” Raisha said. “Still, I’m sure that Zerif will enjoy questioning you when we meet with him. You have other friends out there, don’t you?” she asked Talon.
Talon’s sharp features were set. Anuqi had never seen the girl so still.
One of the larger mercenaries hefted Anuqi onto his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. She passed out as her ankle was wrenched once again.
The wagon smelled like a barn. It was full of cages, and each contained an animal. There were birds, ferrets, dogs, and even a porcupine. With every bump they hit, the entire array would explode with noise.
Talon, Grif, and Anuqi were in cages as well. These weren’t like the cages in the market, wooden affairs tied shut with rope—they were steel and secured with real locks. The mercenaries had forced them to march through the rest of the night and all the next day, before reaching their wagons and imprisoning them in one full of stolen spirit animals. Grif and Talon had taken turns supporting Anuqi and her broken ankle, which had given her a stab of pain with every step.
“I’m sorry,” Anuqi said, eyeing the cut on Talon’s neck where Raisha’s dirk had rested. “I shouldn’t have run.”
Talon shrugged. “I told you to.”
“I guess I paid for it,” Anuqi said. The massive swelling of her sprained ankle had gotten worse.
“Enough of that!” Grif hissed. “Let’s figure out how to get out of here.”
They each tested the locks and bars of their cages. Anuqi pushed, rattled, and prodded, but there was no give to their prisons. Talon appeared to be making friends with a robin in a nearby cage, but it was just as stuck as they were.
Talon pointed at a pile of weapons and gear in the corner near Anuqi. “Can you reach any of that?”
Anuqi stretched her hand out through the bars of her cage but couldn’t get to them.
“What about that pouch at the end?” Grif said. “Maybe it has something small that we could pick the locks with? A sword won’t be much use, inside a metal cage.”
Anuqi strained, but it was a few handbreadths too far. “Sorry, my arms just aren’t long enough,” she said.
“Hold on,” Talon said. She reached through the metal bars of her enclosure to the robin’s small wooden cage and snapped a few of the spokes. The bird hopped free.
“These are spirit animals,” Talon explained. “Smarter than most animals.”
Through a combination of pointing, nodding, and whispered instructions, Talon was able to convince the robin to flutter over and drag the pouch the few feet required so that Anuqi could reach out and grab it.
The pouch co
ntained flint, a ring of steel, and a gray powder that Anuqi didn’t recognize.
“Hold it up to the light,” Talon instructed, peering through the bars. “It looks like Zhongese blast powder!” she said at last. “If you light it off by your lock, it should blast it off. Then you can make a run for safety.”
It was worth a shot. Anuqi shifted her weight to get started and her ankle twisted again. Pain blazed up and down her leg. She looked down despondently. She could blow the lock and run, but how far would she get trying to sneak away on a sprained ankle?
“Let me go,” Grif said quietly. “I’ll come back for both of you. I swear it on my honor. And on Arax and Suka.” He scuttled forward in his cage, looking at her with big, serious eyes. “Trust me. I won’t fail you.”
Anuqi sat still, considering. She’d tried to escape alone once already, and look where it had gotten her.
She looked from Talon to Grif, sizing up the willowy young woman and the tiny warrior. Her companions weren’t much to look at, but together the three of them had already saved several spirit animals. Three kids wouldn’t have to feel the cold emptiness that had been sucking at Anuqi every moment since Suka had gone. Perhaps the time had come to put some faith in her new friends.
She untied the powder and tossed it over to Grif. It was the work of a moment for him to put the blast powder inside his lock. Talon tossed him an old letter that she had hidden in her shirt, which Grif lit after several attempts.
He waited until the wagon hit another large bump, then lit the blast powder as the wagon shook and the animals went wild. The tiny explosion was muffled by the cacophony.
Grif coughed, waving smoke away. What was left of his lock hung flimsily on the cage door. Grif prodded it with the steel striker, and the charred lump of metal fell to the wagon floor.
He was out of his cage in an instant. Grif grabbed an ax from the pile of supplies. A few blows to the floorboards, timed with the wagon’s bumps, revealed the dark ground passing by below.
“Wait until you see a mud puddle,” Anuqi suggested. “Your clothes are brown and dirty, so you should blend in. If polar bears use snow cover to hunt, you should be able to use mud cover to stay hidden.”
