“I’m not sureIeven know the answer to that,” I finally responded, taking a steadying breath.
“What about today? What were you doing in that manticore-infested cavern anyway?” Corvin prodded.
“I was searching for moonstones,” I replied, reaching for my satchel to show him before remembering it was no longer at my side. My heart sank, realizing that when the manticore wrenched it off my body, I must have lost the moonstones inside. “But it looks like I lost them along with my satchel,” I said, with a deep sigh.
Farryn reached behind herself, grabbing something. “This satchel?” she asked, tossing it to me.
“Yes!I thought I’d lost it! You spotted it in the cavern?”
“I picked it up on the way out, just in case it belonged to you.”
“That’s amazing—thank you so much!” I beamed, extremely grateful to have reclaimed the moonstones.
Tercel smiled. “Typical Farryn—always taking care of everybody.”
“You were going to fight all those manticores on your own?” Zorana asked, her mouth agape.
I hugged the satchel to my body. “I didn’t know it would be full of manticores. I was following this map Corvin and I stole from Rogam’s prison cell—” Corvin was suddenly blinking very fast, and doing something weird with his eyebrows.
Perhaps he didn’t want the others to know about our recent adventure…
“Prison cell?!” Tercel spluttered, making a wild gesture with his hands.
“Stay still,” Zorana chided from behind as she finished dressing his wound. “Sorry,” Tercel apologized, relaxing his posture, though he wasn’t finished interrogating Corvin. “At what point did ‘helping her reorganize her library’ involve a prison cell?” he asked, in an increasingly indignant tone.
“It’s a long story,” he answered.
“You need to be cautious, Corvin,” Farryn reproached. “This year especially.”
“You getting imprisoned would delay everything!” Zorana added.
“I’m aware,” Corvin bit out, his mouth pressed into a flat line.
I studied him, wishing I understood the significance behind his friend’s rebuke. I sat silently for a moment, uncertain whether saying more would be helpful or get him into more trouble. “How about you all?” I finally worked up the courage to ask, trying to break some of the tension that hung unpleasantly between everyone. “What were you doing in Uvrakar to begin with?”
“Feather collecting,” Tercel responded.
I leaned forward, eager to know more. “You’rethe feather collectors?!”
“The South Sky Ternion at your service,” Tercel said with a small bow. He waved his hand expectantly at Farryn and Zorana, not ceasing until they each gave in, dropping their own playful version of a curtsy, albeit with a heavy dose of eye-rolling pointed in Tercel’s direction. “Thank you,” he said with a grin, turning back toward me. A half-frown appeared on his lips. “If we can even call ourselves that after today,” he gloomily continued, “we failed to grab a single manticore feather.”
“Speak for yourself,” Zorana said proudly, revealing a feather previously tucked within her tunic. She swished it playfully under Tercel’s nose before holding it up for everyone to see.Tercel laughed, a look of chagrined surprise lighting up his eyes. “When did you manage to grab that?”
“Probably while you were busy petting one of them.”
“Now that’s just—”
Farryn talked over their bickering. “Zorana’s the head collector of our ternion,” she affectionately told me.
“You plucked that from a sleeping manticore?” I asked Zorana, pointing at the golden-brown feather.
She vehemently shook her head. “No, we live by a strict code. Discarded feathers only. No intentional harm to a living creature. I found this left behind on the cavern floor.” She handed the feather over to Corvin. “What do you think? Will that be enough to win us the competition this year?”
Corvin’s mouth finally relaxed back into its typical, easygoing grin. “Itispowerful,” he said, running his fingers along its length. “It feels like the air before a storm. Don’t you agree?” he asked, passing the feather over to Tercel, who gladly accepted it, running his fingers through its plumage in the same manner. “Definitely. Should we see who can call forth the strongest magic from it?” he asked Corvin, lifting his eyebrows in a lighthearted challenge.
Farryn plucked the feather out of Tercel’s hand, sticking her tongue out at him. “As you are both well aware, these feathers aren’t for your personal use. They’re for the good of the entire—”
“You sound like Kygraw,” Tercel jested. He pitched his voice lower, clearly imitating someone. “These feathers are a precious, finite commodity. The ternion’s most sacred duty is to—”
