“I’m right here! Must you talk about me as if I’m a wayward child?” Han protested, rubbing a hand over his shaggy hair.
“Enough!” Mariah hissed. “Let’s just go to sleep. In the morning, we’ll see what Ruby has to say, and we can figure out what to do next.”
Without another word, her two companions grunted and huffed their way through getting ready for sleep. Almost in sync, they turned their backs to her—to each other—and didn’t say another word.
With a sigh, Mariah turned toward the fire and stared at its flickering light until sleep came to take her.
Chapter Sixteen
Ambush
“Rise! They come!” The voice hissed in Mariah’s ear and yanked her from her sleep. It was Ruby. As consciousness filled her, the sounds of the woods began to fill her ears. Far away, she could hear the growls and yelps of wolves fighting. How many were there? Putting a hand under Mariah’s arm and pulling her forcefully from her blankets, Ruby muttered, “It seems I have spies in my camp after all. We have been ambushed. Some of my father’s wolves were caught sneaking into the Den, heading straight for you. My sisters are holding them back for now, but you must go. These woods are not safe for you.”
The next few minutes flew by in a blur as she and Ruby roused her companions. They gathered their things in a rush, stuffing everything they could into their packs and slinging them onto their backs. Shira and Mariah transformed, and Han mounted Shadow. Then, surrounded by Ruby and half a dozen wolves, Mariah flew, and the rest ran, Shira, the wolves, and Shadow, on all fours. They headed west, toward the closest border of the woods.
They had not even covered a mile before four of Loleon’s wolves came at them, breaking away from Ruby’s defenders and chasing them, even as the wolves they had been fighting tried to catch up.
Mariah circled back, swooping down and catching the nearest enemy wolf with her talons, aiming for its eyes. She only managed to leave a gash across its head before she had to beat her wings forcefully to rise and escape its snapping jaws. Nearby, she heard Shira’s roar fill the woods, and as she came back around, she saw the bear stand on her hind legs and bring a giant paw down on top of the head of one of their attackers. The creature went limp and fell to the ground, even as Shira turned toward the next attacker.
Fighting as if she had been a part of the pack her whole life, Shira rejoined Ruby and her allies in defending their group. Neither Mariah with her talons nor Han with his sword out atop Shadow could get in among the fray without risk of hurting one of their own, but it was over in moments, and they were running again, away from the sounds of more battles behind them, more wolves in pursuit. How many were still fighting for the old alpha? Perhaps Ruby still had further to go than Mariah had realized. Her hopes of getting help from this new order died in her chest as they fled.
By the time they reached the edge of the woods—Had it been an hour? More?—Ruby had lost one wolf, and all of them save Mariah had sustained injuries in the form of cuts, scratches, and bites from the offending pack, even Shadow, who had kicked backward and sent at least one enemy wolf flying through the trees, nearly losing Han over her head in the process.
Blinking at the sudden bright light reflecting off the snow all around them as they emerged from Laikos, Mariah landed on Shira’s back and looked back to the wolves. The forest was silent for the first time in hours. However, Ruby only lifted her nose toward Mariah and her companions before giving a single bark and turning back to the woods, her pack gathered around her. Then, she disappeared back into the trees without another sound.
Mariah contented herself with the fact that it was more of a goodbye than she had received the last time they had parted ways.
* * *
No one wanted to stop so close to the trees, so Mariah and Shira transformed quickly, and they all began to move forward, trying to gauge where they had emerged. The morning was quiet. During the struggle with Loleon’s wolves, what had begun as a westward trajectory had zigzagged north and even east and west again as they had alternately run from and turned back to attack various enemy wolves who had come at them seemingly from nowhere.
Following the path of the sun, Mariah, Shira, Han, and Shadow moved through snow-covered plains dotted with trees, farms, and small streams. It felt familiar to Mariah, although it was not the path they had taken from Laikos before. When they felt they were a safe distance from the forest, Mariah left her companions resting, tending to their wounds, and eating a meal in a small copse while she shifted once again and began to circle over the area until she discerned their location.
It was not long before she rejoined her companions. Settling herself on the ground, trying to ignore the cold that seeped in through her clothes, she told them, “We are just north of Kannuk.” Very close to where Shira had been attacked by Cam. Across the road somewhere to the west lay the very woods where the incident had happened, where they had buried his body. “We should head a bit north before we cross the road. We don’t want to come out too close to Kannuk.”
“Then, we’re heading to Direstrand?” Han asked.
Mariah nodded. Shira remained quiet, her eyes on her lap, and Mariah wondered if she was thinking about the attack as well.
“Unless someone has a better idea. If we find no help there, I fear our cause is doomed.” Mariah swallowed tightly.
“It is a great thing you are attempting,” Han said. “Take hope in the fact that you’ve gotten this far.”
Mariah looked at him and then shook her head. This far? It seemed to her that they had gotten nowhere at all.
Chapter Seventeen
Westward
After a brief rest, they began their journey toward Direstrand. Before long, Mariah found herself becoming impatient that they had to travel on two legs, that their pace was dictated by Han and his horse. Not that they could have traveled for long in animal form, for bears were not common in the plains outside of Kannuk, and Shira would’ve likely been hunted down quickly if she were spotted. At the very least, they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves. Grudgingly, she admitted to herself that Shira couldn’t actually travel much faster than Shadow. She was just frustrated that their journey had hit nothing but wall after wall. They were no closer to doing anything other than putting themselves and their friends in more danger for no reason.
Once the little group got past the North Road a ways, the land was mostly open, with only small copses of trees dotting the snow-covered farmland here and there. Mariah felt exposed, and so did her companions. On their third day of travel, after a brief discussion, they decided to dip southward back into the northern part of the Foxgrove, even though it would take longer to get to Direstrand that way.
They all worried that Captain Atha or other soldiers would discover them in the woods since that was where they had last been seen, but they felt that the chance of their getting caught was greater outside the cover of the trees. The captain would be looking for them closer to Eaglespire or around Sanden Point, they hoped, and truth be told, as Han pointed out, they were always at risk. They were Ceo San after all, and in Varidian, they were not considered free beings. Any law-abiding citizen could turn them in and be perfectly justified doing so under the king’s law. It was up to them to make sure that no one found out what they were if they wanted to remain unchained.
Han had said it so matter-of-factly that it got even Mariah’s hackles up. Shira looked like she was about to murder the man with her bare hands, though, and so Mariah kept her own reaction to herself, finding a way to distract her friend with conversation as they continued walking.
The further they traveled, however, the more Mariah’s mood soured. As if that weren’t bad enough, at night Shira had begun continuously tossing and turning, muttering in her sleep. Concern for her parents often escaped her lips, as did the name Biorna. It seemed that Shira was dreaming of the bear goddess once again, if the dreams had ever stopp
ed. However, she was reluctant to speak of it in front of Han and, in fact, seemed to instead take all her frustrations out on him. She lost no opportunity to tell anyone who was listening, which was basically Mariah, that she didn’t trust the man, even though they hadn’t been set upon yet by any of his former colleagues.
She baited him time and time again, and although Mariah could tell he was trying not to get drawn in by the barbs, the two of them were always going at each other. It wasn’t like it had been with Xae, the playful banter that Shira had developed with the boy. No, there was real animosity from her friend toward this man. It got worse when Han spoke at any length to Mariah or tried to strike up a conversation that didn’t involve Shira. To Mariah, it seemed that he was just trying to find ways to pass the time, but Shira took it differently.
It finally came to a head one afternoon when Han had gotten somewhat ahead of them, and Shira asked Mariah in a quiet voice, “Do you fancy him?”
The question shocked Mariah. “What?”
“I said, do you fancy him?” Shira ducked under a branch and kicked at the leaves beneath her feet as she walked before spitting purposefully on the ground.
The thought hadn’t even occurred to Mariah. They were in the middle of—as Ruby had put it—trying to start some sort of uprising against the king, and they weren’t even getting anywhere with that. They’d be lucky if they found someone who would give them the time of day, let alone help them. At times, Mariah thought they might as well just walk into a village and announce themselves as traitors, but that would only get them thrown into a jail cell until the Trappers could come for them.
She wasn’t really ready to give up, but it was a hard thing, walking through these endless woods so far from her home across the sea with no answer about what had happened to her parents except that they had somehow escaped from Eaglespire. They hadn’t seen a Ceo San child as far as they could tell since her flight over the camps, let alone come anywhere close to helping any. Not for the first time, Mariah wondered if she was just setting herself up to get taken again and not really helping anyone. And in the meantime, she was putting her closest friend at risk of being killed or taken as a slave.
“Why would you say that? Fancying someone”—Had she ever fancied anyone?—“is the last thing on my mind.” She had spent so many years alone, she supposed, she thought that’s the way she always would be. The thought of herself romantically attached to someone? It was even funnier than picturing Gwyn married after all this time. With her words, Shira’s posture relaxed, but Mariah didn’t stop. It was as if Shira’s question had opened a floodgate. “I’m more worried about whether we will survive to see your parents again. I’m more concerned with whether I’ll ever see Gwyn and Bria again. If we’ll ever see Xae. I’m beginning to think this whole ‘mission’ has been a big mistake. I would have been better off trying to convince your family to get out of this gods-forsaken land and come to Cillian than start on this mission. And you’re concerned that I might fancy Han?”
“Well, it’s just that … Well, I’m pretty sure he fancies you.” Mariah had to admit she had wondered that herself. “I’ve been sure since back in the cave, you know, when we took him prisoner. The way he looked at you, like a lovesick pup! The way he just turned sides ’soon as he knew who you were … It don’t matter, really.”
Shira’s posture had definitely changed. She seemed to be sinking in on herself. Her mind seemed to have gone somewhere else.
Lowering her voice as much as she could, Mariah took a deep breath, letting all her frustration out on the exhale, and laid a gentle hand on Shira’s shoulder. “Have you still been having the dreams? From Biorna? You sleep … well … sometimes you seem as if you’re being chased or harassed. I’m worried about you.”
Instead of answering, Shira stopped altogether and sunk down to the ground, her back against a tree. With a glance ahead, Mariah saw Han top a rise and then disappear out of sight. She let him go, grateful for the privacy. He would either stop and wait or come back to look for them soon enough.
Mariah sat down in front of her friend, grateful that the ground was dry for once from the warmer weather they had had over the last few days. Knee to knee with Shira, she reached across the gap between them and took her hands. “Tell me.”
She was stunned when tears began to leak from the corners of Shira’s eyes. “I don’t know what she wants from me, Mari. Biorna. My parents, it’s worse now. Somethin’s definitely wrong. I can feel her, my ma. She’s terrified. And Da, I can feel him too. He just wants Ma to feel better, but he’s scared too. I want to go home. But she won’t let me. Stick to your mission, she says. Don’t leave the Hawk. Don’t leave the Hawk. I don’t want to leave you, Mari. You’re doing the right thing, but …”
It was Mariah’s turn to comfort her friend, to hold Shira in her arms and let her cry, as the other woman had done for her outside Eaglespire after she had discovered the ruins of the house she had grown up in. Mariah clenched her jaw shut against the anger that welled up in her. If she could have spoken to that damned bear goddess, she would’ve given her a good piece of her mind. What was the point of what she was doing to Shira? Why show her these things if she wasn’t supposed to do something about it? The gods, the Keepers, everyone seemed to be manipulating them and steering them toward their own ends with no thought of what they were doing to the people they were using.
They could just burn as far as Mariah was concerned. They could just burn.
She suddenly had an idea. “Do you want me to go back?” she said into Shira’s ear. “To Grof, I mean, to check on them?” Shira leaned back, staring. “It might take me a few days, but I could, if you’re okay staying alone with Han. I could make sure they’re really okay.”
“No.” Shira shook her head, sniffling and wiping at her eyes. “It’s not Han. It’s just that I already know. They’re not okay. They’re not even there anymore, in Grof. I don’t know where they are, but it’s not home”—her voice began to falter—“and it’s bad.”
Mariah suddenly found it hard to breathe. Pain rose up from her gut. The finality and certainty in Shira’s voice were unquestionable. Until her friend had said those words, she had allowed herself to believe that Biorna was just toying with Shira and that Rose and Jahl were safe and sound at the Hideaway back in Grof. “Are you sure? What about Grelem?”
Shira nodded, wiping once more at her tear-stained face with the sleeves of her coat. “I don’t know about Grelem. She hasn’t shown him to me.”
That gave Mariah a little comfort. Maybe the boy was okay, but her heart began to race anyway as she tried to figure out what had happened, whether there was anything she could do. Xae. Eventually, Xae would get the message and hopefully find Grelem. Beyond that, she kept meeting dead ends, circling back, coming up blank when she tried to figure out what to do next. Shira’s parents could be anywhere. What had happened to them?
“Lady. We need to keep going,” Shira interrupted her thoughts. “Biorna wants me to stick with you, I think to go to Direstrand and get help. Help for what, I don’t know, maybe help for my parents …” Her voice sounded hopeful at the end.
“Why do you trust her? It seems like all the gods want to do is torture us.”
“Your Gwyn, you told me, she followed what Old Cat Eyes told her to do, right? She made you stay away from here, away from Varidian. Didn’t let you go home, even though it meant keepin’ your ma’s note from you?”
Mariah nodded.
“And you’re still alive, Mari. You waited until you could change to come back, and you survived. And the dungeon. Anyone else would’ve died there. Even Tibbot would’ve sooner or later. But you did what that god man said, and you got out. So, I’m listenin’ to Biorna.”
As Shira spoke, Gwyn’s words came back to Mariah. She had said that maybe Mariah was meant to play a small but pivotal role in freeing her people. That is why she had started this gods
-forsaken quest, wasn’t it? A pebble in a pond. She could be that, she reminded herself. She could save a few, couldn’t she? They could save a few?
So, she would trust Shira and her decision.
“All right, we’ll keep on. For now.”
Chapter Eighteen
Direstrand
Things changed after that moment in the woods. Shira’s attitude toward Han became more accepting. They didn’t seem to be true friends or anything, but Mariah’s friend began to tolerate the man instead of constantly trying to start a fight with him.
She noticed that, in turn, Han seemed more relaxed and good-humored. As they came upon the outskirts of Direstrand, they were even all laughing together as Shira regaled them with a tale of how she had once tried to trick young Grelem into falling overboard out of the Hideaway’s skiff only to end up in the water herself. “He’s a clever little beast.” She chuckled, and Mariah could hear the warmth in it.
When she looked up, however, just after they topped a little rise, Mariah spotted a cluster of houses framing the road. She and her companions fell silent. They had reached Direstrand.
They had wasted no time getting to the village from Laikos. No longer than a week had passed. They had been quite fortunate that they hadn’t come across any groups of soldiers or even anyone other than peasants and merchants traveling the road north of the woods.
That was about to change. Mariah forced herself to keep walking as four soldiers walked toward them down the road out of Direstrand. She adjusted her muslin scarf, though, and whispered, “They won’t be expecting three.” She eyed Han knowingly.
As far as they knew, the guard didn’t know yet that Han had changed sides. It was more likely that his former colleagues thought him missing or dead since he had disappeared while pursuing Mariah and Shira, who had already killed at least two of their number. It would stay that way as long as no one identified him traveling with them. He had shaved his beard, and Shira had trimmed his shaggy hair into the style her father wore, closely cropped around the ears. He looked so much younger, and the longer they could keep him from being noticed on sight, the better.
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