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I swallowed past the bruising soreness of my throat and bowed my head at the chief.
What could I say?
Could I trust that Tral would believe me? Would he punish his son for what he’d done or blame me for it? Was I safe to stay here now?
My heart panged.
I should’ve chased after the wolves.
Marching into me, Tral grabbed my bare shoulders, his spear bashing against my hip as he shook me roughly. “Use your tongue, Girl. Tell me! Tell me what happened.” His gaze fell to the cuts on my throat. To the bruises in shapes of fingers. Rage etched his face as he glanced at the parted grass where Aktor had run.
Fury made him shake, and I opened my mouth to explain. To do my best to grant the truth, but Solin strode through the grass with his head high and eyes fierce. Breaching the hunters ring, he came straight for me and the chief. He wore his furs but no necklaces or beads and didn’t carry his lynx-skull staff. His long hair was mussed as if he’d been asleep when the camp had exploded into action, thanks to wolves howling on their doorstep.
Taking me by the elbow, he pulled me out of the chief’s hold, his face unreadable and gaze stern. “I’ll deal with her, Tral.”
The chief pursed his lips, dropping his arms with a worried scowl. “Something happened here, Solin. Something that cannot be permitted to happen again. I intend to know what that is.”
Solin cleared his throat before glancing around at the hunters, ensuring they were out of listening distance. “The fire gave me a vision.” He shot me a quick look. “A vision of betrayal and pain but also one of loyalty and protection.” Lowering his voice even more, so only the chief and I could hear, he murmured, “There were wolves and shadows and cries full of war. Give me the girl, Tral, and I’ll unravel what the fire tried to tell me.”
Tral’s fingers tightened into fists, but he nodded at his Fire Reader. “Find out the truth, so I can punish those who need to be punished.” With a heavy sigh and a final nod, he turned and walked toward his hunters.
Solin waited for the men and women to tread back through the grass, his fingers biting into my elbow.
We waited until the last footfall faded.
Only then, when we were alone beneath the stars, did he turn me to face him and say, “The fire showed me a great many things tonight, Girl. Things I can scarcely believe. We begin the ritual for our trance at dawn.” Grabbing my hand, he pulled me into the grass. “The sooner we know who you are, the sooner you’ll be safe from those who wish you harm.”
A chill ran down my spine.
I didn’t think he spoke only of Aktor and Kivva.
His voice was too heavy, too weary, too knowing.
More pain was coming, and I had no idea why.
Nor how to stop it.
Chapter Sixteen
. The Stranger .
THE SKY KEPT CHANGING EVERY time I opened my eyes.
Darkness switched to dawn, night bled into day, and the moon became the sun.
I didn’t know where I was.
Who I was.
What I’d been doing.
Or why I ached with so many pains.
Everything hurt.
My eyes, my flesh, my heart, and deeper still...a bone-deep, spirit-deep agony, that carved its vicious despair through me until I trembled and shivered and begged for something, anything, to take away my misery.
My skin was both wet with ice and burning with flames. My blood frozen with frost yet gushing with blistering fire. I felt both sick and angry, afraid and furious. I was half agony, half delirium as the sky continued to spin and shift, bleeding from dark to day.
* * * * *
I woke to the cold, brutal kiss of stone.
A groan seeped out of my lips as the soft floating fur I’d been lying across shifted and left me in the cold. The scent of must, earth, and faint sweetness of decay filled my nose as I groaned again and curled onto my side.
Pain, so much pain.
Growing worse with every heartbeat.
Darker, colder, weaker.
My teeth clacked together as I quaked.
My heart galloped, stuttering and stumbling, smoking with speed and sickness.
I couldn’t swallow.
Couldn’t see or speak or sit.
Life closed in around me, crushing me from all sides, pushing me
down,
down,
down
into darkness.
Chapter Seventeen
. Girl .
“WILL YOU TELL ME? NOW that a new day has risen, and the night has taken away your fear?” Solin’s voice cut through my sleep, commanding my eyes to open.
Last night had been a night of firsts, and no matter that Solin had escorted me back to camp, guided me around the always-burning fire, and stayed silent as he’d held open the flap of his lupic, it had tainted my view of the Nhil just enough to make me wary.
