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While Rolan and Valerian spoke, Gullie and I ate, scratching the itch we’d both had ever since we left my grandmothers’ cottage yesterday. Gullie was only small, but she had an appetite like a Moon Child, and Moon Children needed to eat often, especially after a fight in which we were wounded, like I had been yesterday. I was just good at masking the discomfort.
Thanks mum and dad.
“Unbelievable,” Rolan finally said. “Your story could be published and sold as a work of outlandish fiction that no one would believe was true.”
“I’m not that good a writer,” Valerian said.
“Still, such a thing hasn’t happened to our world since the Veridian.” He glanced over at me. “Which her family was also involved in. Troublesome, these royals.”
“Hey, that wasn’t my family’s fault,” I said.
“It was, but I’m not passing judgment.” He paused. “What happens in Windhelm rarely affects the Fae outside of the city’s borders, but this crisis has touched us all. I still recall the exact moment I remembered Valerian existed, the moment I knew the Queen was an impostor. I was in the middle of a hunt, stalking a Wenlow through the forest. Clarity came so suddenly, it was like a bolt of lightning had struck my brain, causing me to lose my footing and fall. The creature heard me and charged. Had I taken a second longer to recover, it would have skewered me on the spot.”
“I’m glad it didn’t,” I said.
“As am I.” His eyes went back to Valerian. “But I suspect you haven’t smuggled Winter’s Daughter into the city to tell me about your story… you want something.”
“I do,” said Valerian. “Information.”
“Information?”
“I am looking for someone.”
“We are hunters, Valerian, not spies.”
“The person I am looking for is…” he paused, “Someone the guild might consider a person of interest.”
“My brother is a person of interest?” I asked.
Rolan’s eyes narrowed. “Ah,” he said, “That makes sense. Winter’s Daughter searches for Winter’s Son.”
“I do… do you know where he is?”
“As it happens, we do. Or we did. The moment he left his village, our hunters had eyes on him.”
“So, do you know or don’t you?”
Rolan took a deep breath. “The Alpha of the Moon Children made for the mountains after he was ousted by his tribe and sent away. We tracked his movements for a few weeks, but we lost him once he entered the realm of the Frost Giants.”
“Frost Giants…” I breathed. “Why would he have gone there?”
“I cannot say. Perhaps he thought they would shield him from his tribe… they hunted him relentlessly, but they abandoned their search once he disappeared into the mountains.”
“Maybe he took his chances with the giants…” said Valerian, “I can’t imagine being tracked and hunted down by Moon Children is pleasant.”
“There are ways of tricking our senses,” I said. “But I’m sure you both know how to do that very well.”
“It’s true,” Rolan said, “Our hunters are capable of tricking Moon Children into losing our scents. We travel invisibly through their forest and have done for centuries. That was when therewasa forest, at least. Now we steer clear of that entire region.”
“Do you know where the other Moon Children went after the forest was cut down?” Valerian asked.
“As far as we can tell, they sealed the entrance to their grove and cut themselves off from the world once they gave up the search for their former Alpha. No one has seen a wolf in months, nor heard their howls at night.”
“And my brother is with the Frost Giants,” I said, trailing off.
“At least, that’s the last we heard of him,” Rolan said. “It’s possible he continued through their territory once he got there and emerged on the other side of it. It’s also possible he was killed…”
The words stung. I had to swallow the ball that had surged up and into my throat just then. “He’s not dead,” I said. “He’s smarter than that. If he went up into the mountains knowing he’d find Frost Giants there, he did it for a reason.”
