Mama woke Vero early the next day with a kiss to the forehead. Even so, Vero was in a foul temper all morning. Mama must have noticed, because she kept a firm eye on her all the time while they got dressed and made breakfast. After a quick meal of scrambled eggs on buttered bread, they trudged out to the temple in the village center.

The rally point for the levy was also at the village, so Father and Virgil came with them. They all arrived together just as the sun was coming up over the trees. There were only a few people milling around, despite the orders to be there at sunrise, but because of the season it still felt very early. No one seemed distressed that so few had arrived so far, and Vero silently fumed at Father all over again for dragging them out so early just to make them wait.

Father took Virgil off to report to the lord’s marshal. The trickle of people coming to the temple slowly began to increase, but Vero couldn’t find anyone she had the slightest interest in. She tried to sneak off to find the Slayer, but immediately found her arm caught in Mama’s grip of iron.

“Where are you going, dear one?”

“I’m bored Mama, there’s nothing to do here. I just want to go look at the Slayer. If nothing else, I’d like to see him at least.”

Mama looked like she was about to chide her, but at the last moment she relented. “Oh, very well. Let’s take a walk around the village while we wait, we’ll see if we can’t find this slayer.”

“Thank-you Mama!” Vero threw her arms around Mama and hugged her close.

They held hands and walked together through the village until they saw a colorful pavilion set up just on the outskirts. There they found the Slayer speaking with a man who could only be Abedias.

Vero had never seen that mage before, or any other, but the man certainly looked like she thought a wizard should look. He wore a long sky-blue robe and a tri-cornered hat on his head the same color as his robe. He held a wooden staff and had grey hair with a long beard. The only thing that didn’t seem to fit was his complexion, which was a dark olive shade. Wizards were supposed to spend all their time reading and experimenting in towers and things, so she thought that he really ought to be very pale.

Besides them, there were also a few handsome young knights in splendid chainmail with beautiful colored tabards. Vero tried smiling at them, but they treated her like a child and ignored her. They were all looking over something on a table. Vero thought that it might be a map, but Mama held her back from getting close enough to see.

“Greetings Olivia, you are as beautiful as ever I see.”

Vero had been so interested in the knights that she hadn’t noticed the Baron approach. He called her Olivia, but he was speaking to Mama. Mama bowed her head and did a deep curtsy. Vero watched and did her best to reproduce the movement.

“You are too kind, my lord.”

“And this must be your daughter. She looks a very pretty one as well.” He took on an exaggerated high-pitched tone and waved to her. “Hello, little one.”

Vero found his patronizing attitude very grating, and answered in her mostly courtly and dignified manner to let the Baron know that he could take her seriously. “Good morning, my lord.”

The Baron turned his attention back to Mama. “I don’t expect this hunt to be much trouble, but it never hurts to be cautious. Will you give us Queen Luna’s blessing?”

“I am not ordained, my lord.”

“You’ve still had the training. You know the prayers.”

Mama obliged. She recited a few lines in Liturgical and made the wide U-shaped sign of the moon.

“Thank-you. You’d best get back to the temple, we’ll be off very soon.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Don’t worry yourself. It should be a simple matter; I’ll have your husband and son returned to you soon, I trust.”

Vero would have liked to have stayed longer, but Mama pulled her away and dragged her back to the temple. By the time they returned, the village looked like it was a market fair day. People were everywhere and she found Virgil with a pack of their friends. She had only just arrived though when the men began to move out, and Father called Virgil away from them.

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Virgil gave Vero an empathizing look then turned away to leave. She ran after him to hug him and wish for him to go safely. Mama came and rounded the rest of the children up soon after. She took them into the temple, which was being readied as a hospital to tend to anyone wounded in the hunt.

With everyone packed inside, the temple was very tight and filled with the abrasive squalling of infants. Everyone was staying away from where Mama, the temple’s elderly priestess, and a pair of young acolytes prepared to tend to the wounded. Vero was glad to stay with Mama and help them anoint bandages with holy oil, alcohol, and medicinal herbs.

Soon they were all in a rush when they discovered that the seals on the temple’s medical stores had been faulty, necessitating them to prepare everything they needed from scratch. Then Antoine became so colicky that Yvette couldn’t quiet him, and Mama had to go look after him herself until she could calm him down. This left Vero in the care of the venerable old priestess.

Mother Zora probably wasn’t a hundred years old, since people generally didn’t live that long, but Vero thought she definitely looked like she was. She had been the priestess for the village’s temple of the Earth Mother since Vero had been born. She was blind, but she wasn’t deaf. She could actually hear quite well, which made it dangerous to curse, even very quietly, within the vicinity of the temple. As Vero soon rediscovered herself.

“Language dear. You mustn’t be so wrathful, child. This is no time to offend the gods with a blaspheming tongue, my dear.”

“I’m sorry, mother.”

“The Earth Mother always forgives my child.”

“Oh, mother! It seems we’ve run out of aloe!” Vero had been deliberately applying an exorbitant amount to each bandage for the previous half an hour to make sure of it. “I’ll run and fetch some more from the temple garden; it will only be a moment.”

“Such an industrious little one. Run along, but be quick now. It’s dangerous to linger outside.”

It was all Vero had been waiting for. The moment she was through the door and out of sight, she was off running. It had been just more than an hour since the men left, but there were so many that they had been moving slowly and left a very obvious trail for her to follow. Vero tore off after them as fast as her legs could carry her, and she felt certain that she would catch up before midday. She hoped so at least, because she had no food with her and didn’t fancy the idea of skipping lunch.

Once she was far enough that she couldn’t see the village any longer, she slowed from a run to a steady march. She realized she hadn’t brought any water either. She marched for what felt like hours and the sun climbed higher. She still had a trail to follow, but off the trail the wild grasses grew up taller and taller, until at last she was trekking through a field as high as she was. It started to seem as though the trail was just winding back and forth like a snake, but she couldn’t tell because she couldn’t see over all the damned weeds.

It was dreadfully hot, and she was just beginning to seriously question the wisdom of running off as she had done, when she heard a rustling in the plants and her heart stopped.

There was something moving in the field. It was moving fast, and it was coming right for her. She was certain she ought to do something, but, in the moment, she was too terrified to think of what.

Then a figure emerged from the weeds and her worst fears were realized.

“Mama!”

Mama crossed the space between them in a flash, with rage in her eyes, and caught Vero up in her arms like a doll. “Gods Veronique! Are you simple?! What in all the hells are you thinking, damn fool girl!?”

“I’m sorry Mama! I was just about to come back, I promise!”

Vero really did mean it. She saw that Mama’s expression wasn’t really so fierce as it had seemed at first and that she had tears on her face. Vero felt so completely awful at that moment, that she was certain that she had been just a moment from turning around on her own.

“Quiet! Just you wait until your father hears what you’ve done! And don’t think you’ll come crying to me when he’s finished thrashing you. You scared me nearly to death!”

“I’m sorry Mama! I really, really am!”

There was a loud and terrible shriek. The sound was like an eagle’s screech, but too deep and much too loud. Vero felt Mama tense.

“When I tell you to Vero, run as fast as you can.”

“What is it, Mama? What’s happening?”

A large shadow passed over them. Vero was too afraid to look up and see what had made it.

“Vero, run!”

Mama pushed her and Vero ran as fast and as hard as she could. She expected Mama to be right behind her, but when she looked, she saw that she was alone. The shadow passed overhead once more and she heard the screech again. At any moment, she expected to be snatched up like a field mouse caught by a hawk.

Then her feet tripped over something, she knew not what, and Vero tumbled to the ground. Her mind screamed at her to get back to her feet and run, but her body refused to respond. She huddled into a ball and wished for Mama to pick her up and carry her away from that awful place. She closed her eyes tightly, but she could hear the sound of powerful beating wings slowly descending down towards her.

Vero realized that she was about to die. She felt a massive form land immediately adjacent to her and waited for the horrible moment when the monster would kill her. She expected to feel sudden pain and to be torn apart at any second, but it never came.

There was an intense pulse of heat and Vero heard a wounded scream from the creature above her. There was a rush of air as the monster launched itself back into the sky. Vero opened her eyes and saw Mama on a hill holding aloft a silver icon of the moon and chanting loudly in Liturgical. The wild grains around her were scorched and smoking, and Mama was burned and bleeding.

There was a deafening screech and the griffon dived down towards her with talons extended. It was huge, larger than a fully grown bull at the torso, before even considering the enormous span of its wings. Vero watched it drag Mama to the ground and hid her eyes so she would see no more.