As we neared the cook fire, I coughed through the cloth in my mouth. Something was roasting over smoldering coals deep in a stone-lined pit—wild hog from the smell of it. Fat dripped from the meat, hissing as it struck the glowing embers. A few paces east of the pit, a sheer cliff jutted up abruptly. Moss and lichens clung to the gray rocks, barely visible in the light cast by the fire. The top of the bluff lay somewhere out of sight, obscured by the fog.
The hunters distributed themselves around the pit, tossing Hal on the ground like a sack of grain.
I looked around fearfully, my skittish gaze finally coming to rest on a short woman approaching us. She walked with a hitch in her step and an intricately carved cane in her right hand. A lynx slunk behind her, its spotted coat blending into the shadows. Firelight reflected in silver rings that adorned her ears from top to bottom. Though she stood short enough that I could easily see over her unruly thatch of white hair, she carried herself as though she was twice her height and half her age.
She came to a stop in front of me, fixing me with a pointed gaze. The hunters shoved me to my knees before her. The lynx stared at me, the tip of its stubby tail twitching.
“What did you drag in now, Kaja?” the woman asked, looking down at me with sharp humor in her green eyes.
“Trespassers, Elder. She had this with her.” Kaja tossed my satchel at the woman’s feet.
The elder bent down slowly and looked through my vials with interest. She held up one of the glass containers toward the light from the cooking pit. Luminous bits of fire flower glowed and sparkled as the liquid sloshed. Then she thumbed through my journal, eyebrows rising as she took in the careful script and detailed drawings in both my hand and Miriel’s, pages upon pages filled with recipes for tinctures—and enchantments made with my blood.
“It’s not often one of your kind visits our forest,” Mukira said, tilting her head at me like a predator sizing up its kill.
“What do you mean?” I asked. I hoped she didn’t know I was a demigod. I could have stolen the satchel or its contents.
She stepped forward and touched her staff to my shoulder. Magic coursed through me in a wave, and for a heartbeat I could feel the entire forest as though it were part of me. When she pulled it away, I gasped at the loss of connection.
“The gift runs in your blood,” she said.
A chill danced down my back. She knew. Her ability to touch the forest’s power must have let her sense my magic. I hoped she didn’t know the other gifts my blood carried. I hugged my arms around myself as if I could somehow shield my secrets from her view.
“After decades of little more to do than hold off the human trash trying to cut down our forests to expand their cities, we seem to have a lot of trespassers this week. Interesting that two children of the gods should appear in our lands on the heels of a dragon.” She stared at me appraisingly. “Tell me why I should let you live.”
A dragon.
I surged to my feet, eliciting growls from the two closest dogs. “Is it a white dragon? When did you last see her?”
A surprised expression passed over the elder’s face like a swift cloud through the night sky. “How do you know about our hunt?”
“I don’t know about any hunt, but I’m looking for her. My—I mean, the white dragon. Does she have a scar on her left cheek?” I asked. Whatever they wanted, I would give it for them to reunite me with Ina.
Elder Mukira did not react, but the twin girls standing near Hal exchanged a knowing glance.
My pulse quickened.
It had to be Ina.
“Supposing it is the same dragon, what are you going to do to help us kill her? If that dragon stays and hunts in this forest for even a few weeks, it will destroy the order we’ve worked for generations to protect. Our lands cannot accommodate a predator of that size. We have enough problems with the city people pressing into our lands.” Her eyes bored into me.
“If you let me and Hal go, I’ll make sure she leaves your forest,” I said, growing bolder. I couldn’t let her kill Ina.
“And how do you intend to do that?” Mukira asked.
I didn’t answer. Miriel had taught me the rules of bargaining. She who speaks last loses. We stared at each other until the others began to shift their weight, waiting for one of us to make a move.
“I suppose there’s more than one way to gut a hare,” Mukira finally mused. “I’m curious to see how you plan to reason with one of the wildest creatures alive, too dangerous even to Tame. So it shall be—but if you fail, both you and the boy die.”
This was far more than I’d bargained for, and Mukira knew it, but I had no choice.
“As you say,” I said, trying to ignore the way my stomach turned over with nerves.
Mukira kissed the top of her staff and then touched it to my left shoulder. A tingle of power danced through me as she sealed our bargain.
“So where is the dragon? Let me go and I’ll talk to her now.”
Mukira barked a short laugh. “Last we saw she crested the cursed cliff. It will have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Cursed cliff?” I asked.
Mukira gestured skyward with her staff. “No one goes up to the top. If you can see the edge at all, you’re already too close. At least once every few years, someone decides to try to conquer the winds and get into the Sanctum up there. In the heart of the Sanctum lies a pool that can be used to see any place in our lands and to communicate with other tribes. We haven’t been able to access it for generations, but the young and the foolish hope for the respect and glory that would come from reclaiming it. Every time, they die doing it—blown off the cliff and onto the rocks below.”
“They couldn’t have fallen?” I asked. It made sense that the winds might be stronger at a higher altitude, as they had often been on my mountain at home. However, there were plenty of trees up there to cut the wind. It didn’t make sense.
Mukira shook her head. “The bodies are always found too far away from the edge. Anyway, come along. Tonight, we rest. Tomorrow, you hunt.”
I didn’t want to wait to search for Ina when I was so close, but arguing with Mukira wouldn’t get me anywhere. I clung to what little hope I had. All I had to do was find Ina, tell her the truth, and stop her from killing the king. We could then grieve those we’d lost and start over somewhere new.
The elder turned to the two girls who had carried Hal through the forest. “Take him inside.”
Their eyes betrayed some surprise, but they didn’t question her orders.
Mukira dismissed Kaja and the other hunters with the wave of a hand, and they slipped away into the woods. As soon as they were out of sight they became as insubstantial as ghosts, as much a part of the forest as the trees.
“You, walk with me,” Mukira said to me. “And stay where I can see you.”
That was fine by me. I didn’t trust her either.
We followed a path along the base of the cliff, leaving behind the fire pit and all signs of human life. Every sound in the forest seemed to carry secret meanings I couldn’t decipher. Was that distant hoot the call of an owl, or another Tamer message?
The twin girls had almost left our line of sight completely when they turned toward the cliff and disappeared into an angled fissure in the rock. As we drew closer to where they’d gone, I yelped in surprise as Mukira’s bony hand clamped around my wrist and pulled me through the pitch-dark zigzag entrance into the cave.
I gasped in awe when we emerged on the other side. This cavern was nothing like the humble place I had once called home. Hundreds of candles made from purified and dyed animal fat framed the room in a rainbow of colors. Natural columns that stretched from floor to ceiling had been intricately carved, making the room feel more like a temple than a living space.
“Come along,” Mukira said, leading me deeper. We passed a fireplace with cushions scattered all around it, and Mukira’s lynx trotted over to flop down on one, starting the serious business of grooming her graying whiskers.
In a small alcove at the back of the cavern, the hunters laid Hal on a bare cot, then left when Mukira dismissed them. I knelt by his side, already pulling the lavender and peppermint from my satchel. I dabbed a bit of each essential oil on a cloth and laid it carefully over his eyes.