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Even with my enhanced, wolf-like senses, I hadn’t been able to pick up his trail. There were other scents—small animals, bugs, and of course, all that snow and rock. But no Radulf. At least, not until I made it about halfway up the mountain pass.
There was a small outcropping of rock that created a kind of natural alcove which was mostly shielded from the elements. It was there that I first caught wind of what could’ve been my brother. It was a strong scent, and it was definitely someone’s pee, but it had been there for so long it was difficult for me to tell whether it was his or not.
The good thing was, there was enough of it for me to be able to pick up a trail and follow it. With nothing else to go on, I picked up the pace and made sure not to lose the scent. Colbolt, ever the trooper, was able to keep up with me as I hurried up the mountain side, though that wasn’t surprising. Wild Maukibou were born in the mountains. It’s where they came from.
In many ways, this was his territory more than it was mine.
Wordless, I continued my search up the mountain pass. There wasn’t much to say, and I needed to conserve my energy and save my breath, which was becoming harder and harder to hold onto the higher we went. Luckily, the scent was also getting stronger and easier to follow. The only problem was, we were deep inside of Frost Giant world by now.
Already I could feel eyes on me, causing my flesh to prickle and my fur to stand up. They were here. They were probably everywhere, but we couldn’t see them because they blended perfectly in with the ice and the rock all around us. All the stories I had ever been told about Frost Giants told of their ability to ambush wayward Fae that venture into their land.
No one ever sees them coming until it’s too late.
“Colbolt’s getting nervous,” Valerian called out, “And so am I.”
I slowed, then came to a halt. Turning my nose down to the ground, I tried to home in on the trail I had been following all this way. “It’s stronger up here,” I said. “It may even be fresh.”
“Fresh?”
“Not more than a couple of weeks old.”
“He could still be long gone by now.”
“He can’t be long gone,” I said, spinning around slowly and taking in my surroundings. We were in a valley, with icy mountains rising up along either side of us. This was the perfect place for an ambush. If the Frost Giants wanted to, they could cut off our entrance and exit, and we were dead.
Only the giants had no reason to attack us. We hadn’t made any hostile moves, and there were only two of us—three of us with Colbolt. Still, my nerves were all over the place and my alertness was high. I had a scent caught in my nose that could only have been my brother’s, but I couldn’t see him. So, I did the only thing I could do.
The only thing I thought would work.
I tilted my head up, arched my neck, and howled. Only I had never really done this before, so the sound was strained, and choked, and it fell off immediately. I coughed to clear my throat, then turned sheepish eyes up at Valerian.
“What,” I said, a little defensively. “I don’t howl often. No one ever taught me.”
He shook his head. “Nope, nothing from me,” he said, popping a thumbs up at me. “Keep going. You’re doing great.”
“You sound like Gullie.”
“And Gullie agrees,” she said, patting the back of my neck. “Try again… you’ve got this.”
Taking in a deep breath and scanning the area around me again, I prepared to howl, only this time I noticed a small handful of rocks and snow slipping down the side of the valley and landing on the path ahead of us.Thatsent my heart into a frantic race because I couldn’t figure out what had caused it. Radulf? Frost Giants? I had no way of knowing.
I swallowed hard, cleared my throat again, and then with a deep breath held in my lungs, I turned my neck up and howled. This time, the sound was smoother, deeper, and more intentional than the first time I had tried it. I concentrated on pitch, and length, on the depth of my voice and the emotions I wanted to express.
Fear.
Hope.
Desperation.
Family.
It was hard to keep them all straight and focus them into a sound that made sense, but the longer I howled, the easier it became. It wasn’t that I had never howled before—I had—but howling inside of the castle wasn’t allowed, and if I did it on my little escapades out of the city, I would’ve been easily found. I didn’t have much practice, or any practice really, but my throat seemed to figure out what it had to do after a moment or so.
When I was done with the first howl, I paused and scanned the area around me, settling my gaze finally on Valerian. “Anything?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, “But that was… beautiful.”
If I could have blushed, I would have. “Thanks,” I said, “I’m not very good at—”
