It was hard to beat early autumn weather in the south.

Summer could get oppressively hot, even for the cold-blooded dragonettes. Sometimes it could get so bad that patrolling huntresses had to stop two or three times an hour to seek shade and douse themselves with water.

It was better than living up north where winters got so cold that entire keeps had to hibernate or freeze to death. What the dragonettes who made their homes in more temperate climates didn't seem to understand was that the heat of midsummer could be just as brutal in its own way as the deepest winter.

But fall? Things were so nice in the fall. The warmth was energizing, not overwhelming. Erdalin - or Lin as she preferred - sighed contentedly as she spiraled up a thermal.

That was another great thing about this time of year. Now that things weren't so uniformly hot, there were thermals again. It was nice to be able to just extend her wings and relax as nature did most of the work for her.

"You look like you're having fun!"

Her huntring partner, Tahni, descended until she was just far enough away that they didn't interfere with each other's air.

"It's a whole lot better now than last week. I'm sick and tired of all that wind."

"I won't argue about that. It does feel nice to be in the air again."

The downside of the season was the occasional windstorm that blew through the region. Days and occasionally weeks passed where a dragonette taking to the skies would also be taking their life into their hands. Turbulent gusts were known to overwhelm even strong fliers, so most of the Luffin Keep's residents stayed firmly grounded for as long as the storms lasted.

"How long do you think until the next one?"

"Hmmm..."

Of the pair, Tahni was older by far. In fact, she was a gilded huntress. Lin was still a greenhorn, and she was on the young side for even that.

Some people thought her advancement was due to being a member of the keep's nobility. And there might be something to that. But none of those doubters were huntresses. No huntress in the Luffin Keep would have tolerated dead weight among their ranks, nobly born or otherwise.

"I think," Tahni continued, after some consideration, "that we should have at least a week of good weather. And at least a few days of fair flying after that before it takes a turn for the worse."

"And you're sure that you can't sense the weather?"

That earned her a thin smile. "Very sure. I just know how to pay attention."

In fact, Lin knew very well that the gilded huntress's magical talent lay in other things. Specifically, the ability to feel things moving around her. From air currents to burrowing creatures, if it was within a few wingspans, Tahni could sense it. But that just made her knack for predicting the weather so much more impressive.

The young dragonette's thoughts took on a tinge of wistfulness. She hoped that her talent would be as useful as her partner's. But whatever her magic was, it hadn't yet made itself known.

It wasn't like she was late on that particular front. Not many dragonettes knew their power at her age. Her brother Stonar had been one of the few that could claim that honor. His enhanced physical strength and speed had manifested at fourteen, and she was only a year older than that.

Hells, Tintin was two years older than she was, and he hadn't managed to figure out his ability yet. Lin knew deep down that there was no way that he was a blank. He only needed time. Just like her.

'Who knows. Maybe he's figured it out by now. He's been gone for almost two months, after all.'

"Do you see anything?"

Lin winced. She had gotten lost in thought and almost forgotten what she was here for. Today, they were mainly looking to bring home meat for the kitchens. It took a lot to satisfy Luffin Keep's large population, and after a week grounded by the winds they were starting to have to fall back on preserved stocks. There were always cattle, but they needed another month or two of fattening before the slaughter.

A herd of antelope would be ideal. Or whitetail deer, if they could find them. And a flock of migrating birds wouldn't be amiss, although it was very early in the season for them.

Not that prey was the only thing to watch for.

Huntresses were the keep's first line of defense. They kept an eye out for signs of brigands, darklings, or other creatures of the dark in the surrounding area, although such incursions were rare near a long established keep like theirs.

More recently, they had other duties as well. Mainly, searching for anything to help make up for their copper mine's lagging production.

The exact state of the mine wasn't widely known. No doubt the mine workers had their suspicions, but they were mostly criminals working off their crimes. Careful juggling of schedules meant that none of the current laborers would be finishing their sentences until late the following year. The supervisors and engineers were all either born in the keep or had lived there long enough to be trusted with the secret.

Of course, all of the new fields and expansion projects had residents curious, but they had been explained away as diversification. Something to fall back on if the mines ever ran out or the price of metals took a sharp downturn. There was plenty of copper in the warehouses, so miners were being temporarily redirected to the new projects while they shipped out the surpluses. That was how the entire project was being spun, anyway.

It wasn't even a lie. Lady Norvinia Luffin made certain to never lie. Not to her people, and especially not about something guaranteed to soon become public knowledge.

The secrecy didn't need to last long. Hopefully they had at least a year before the true state of the mines leaked out, and maybe another before it became widely known. But for now, only a select few knew the details: The Lord and Lady, their advisors, some of the more prominent residents, and the senior huntresses.

As part of the keep's ruling family, Lin was the only greenhorn huntress who knew the reason for the odd orders. Like why they were being ordered to deliver samples of rocks from across the island to the mining engineers or investigate every little stand of trees within a day's flight.

Those efforts had mostly wrapped up. She had heard of a few promising leads, but no details. And the farming projects were nearing harvest. A few of the crops appeared to grow well in the plains surrounding the isolated hill where Luffin Keep sat. There had been doubts that they could survive the long, dry summers without a massive irrigation project, but a handful of the hardiest crops appeared to relish the environment.

Enough projects were bearing fruit that no one doubted that keep could transition to a new income source once the mines ran dry. Provided they had the time to get fully established.

For now, Lin forced thoughts of the distant future out of her mind. Instead, she focused on searching for dinner.

Unfortunately, it appeared the herds were elsewhere today.

"I don't see anything," Lin said after a good minute of scanning. "There's the watering hole to the east. Maybe we should check there?"

"Lead on, then."

Lin gave the other dragonette a look, but only received a level gaze in return. She sighed, but turned slightly and angled for the watering hole.

Tahni did this sort of thing from time to time, especially with newer huntresses. It hadn't been that long ago when Lin found herself suddenly in charge of a hunt.

She'd screwed up, of course. They'd returned to the keep hungry, tired, and sore. The ribbing that she had gotten from the other huntresses hadn't been entirely good-natured, either.

She had done better after that. It helped that all of the huntresses had gone through something similar, with most completely botching their first hunts. Some rather spectacularly. More than a few were willing to give advice once the first try was out of the way.

The next time her turn had come around, Lin had been more prepared. It hadn't exactly gone smoothly. They had flown further than they needed to and she had somehow forgotten the antlers from one of their kills. But they had made it back in the early afternoon with the meat from a pair of young antelope, so that qualified as a success.

Things had continued to improve from there as the young huntress learned. She wasn't particularly nervous today. She knew of two other good hunting grounds within a short flight, and a few marginal ones after that. If none of those worked out, well, she didn't think Tahni would blame her for coming up empty handed.

The watering hole certainly looked deserted as it came into view. That was a little unusual. It was fed by a small spring, which made it the only consistent source of water in the area. There was almost always at least something there.

Lin frowned down at the empty bank from high above.'Maybe a predator just came through. That would clear things out.'

Movement drew her attention. The form of an antelope emerged from the tall grass. Male, from the size of its horns. It warily looked left and right for threats. Herd animals rarely looked up, though, something that Lin was grateful for.

She pointed it out to Tahni. Of course, the other huntress had already noticed the animal, but she nodded, and the pair banked to circle around it and wait.

Nothing else emerged. The buck didn't have the look of a herd leader, anyway. Young and not particularly large. Probably driven off once it grew to be an adult. It hadn't yet managed to establish its own herd.

Once again, Lin looked to the more senior huntress, but Tahni just returned her gaze.

At least it wasn't a hard decision to make. Lin unslung her bow, and selected an arrow as she began to descend. Once she was low enough, she angled into a dive.

The antelope never knew what hit it. One moment it was drinking from the muddy pond, the next an iron tipped arrow punched into its back.

It managed a reflexive leap so high that it only missed Lin by a wingspan. Then it landed and collapsed into a boneless heap.

"Good work," Tahni complimented as they both landed and Lin checked to make sure her prey was dead. It was, or near enough. The shot had been perfect, slipping past the ribs and punching through a lung and into the heart.

There were a few small trees scattered around. They were thorny and never grew large enough to be useful for anything except some rather smoky firewood.

Lin selected one of these and threw a rope around the thickest branch she could find. Tying one end to her kill's rear legs, the pair lifted it into the air. After making sure the antelope was secure, the young huntress made a quick incision with her knife and a stream of blood came spilling out of the wound. They weren't in a rush, and bleeding now would help the meat's flavor and make butchering that much cleaner.

It also left them time for a short break. Lin eyed the murky pond water skeptically and decided that she wasn't hot enough to need a dip.

The two shrugged out of their packs and settled down on a patch of hard ground. Tahni hunted through her gear for a few moments before making a pleased sound as she withdrew a canteen. After taking a swig, she offered it to Lin.

Expecting water, she was pleasantly surprised to taste ale. Not a particularly strong brew, but the flavor wasn't one she recognized. Well, not exactly. There was something familiar about it.

"It's a recipe Tavot's been working on," Tahni answered the unasked question. "He gives me samples of his brews."

Lin took one more sip and then passed the container back with a contented sigh. "Well, you can tell him that this one is pretty good. What's in it?"

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"I'll pass it along," she said with a small smile. "He mixed one of the new grains they're harvesting with a touch of needlefruit syrup."

"Really?" The young huntress couldn't help but crack a tiny smile as the name and taste triggered an old memory. A time when a very young Lin had stolen a bottle of needlefruit syrup and shared it with Tintin. And when they had been discovered, her brother had covered for her.

"His job in the carpentry shop keeps him busy, but Tav is getting really excited about this," Tahni continued, oblivious to her charge's thoughts. "He says that if next year's crop is any good, then he should be able to make enough for all of the major feasts. Maybe even sell some, if he can find a steady supply of wood for barrels."

"Well, good for him," Lin said, and made a mental note to mention it to her mother. She probably already knew, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure. None of the surrounding islands had much in the way of breweries so it was one more potential export to investigate.

They sat there for a few minutes, passing the drink back and forth as they rested. A quick glance to the antelope showed blood still occasionally dripping from its neck. There wasn't any rush, so Lin didn't feel any need to get on with the butchering just yet.

"Do you see that?"

Lin blinked and looked to the other huntress, before following her pointing finger. She squinted, then grunted. "Smoke?" A moment later she blinked. "Lots of smoke."

Tahni was already rising, grabbing her pack. "You remember what's in that direction?"

"Oh. Oh!" Lin scrambled up, reaching for her own gear.

Their island didn't have much in the way of usable timber. The winds and the hot, dry climate were hard on them. But there were a few groves, carefully tended and harvested sparingly.

The smoke was coming from one of those.

'If it burns...' Lin didn't let the thought finish. She wouldn't let that happen. They were close, and there wasn't nearly enough smoke for the whole thing to have caught. Maybe a tree or two. Or some brush. If they were fast, they could save it.

How a fire had started was a mystery. A wind-blown dragon crew was a possibility. Glassmoles didn't usually leave the sandy stretch on the far side of the island, but it was vaguely possible that one of the sand drakes had gotten utterly lost and set a blaze with its fiery breath. She doubted it was anyone from the keep, but it was still a possibility.

'Fire first, questions later.'

The good news was that for all the smoke, it wasn't all that spread out. In fact, it seemed to be concentrated into a single dense column.

When they arrived after just a few minutes of hard flying, they found that the grove was safe. The smoke was all coming from a large fire pit situated well away from the trees, and loaded with enough green wood and leaves that the smoke had to be visible from the keep itself.

"I wonder who started it?" Lin asked rhetorically as they circled in for a landing. Without new fuel, the fire was already starting to die down. There wasn't any danger to the trees or the grasslands beyond. Whoever had set it had cleared the ground for a couple of wingspans in all directions.

A drag mark leading to a fresh stump made the source of the fuel clear. Given the scarcity of wood in the area, that was a serious crime on its own. One that someone would need to answer for.

"I don't know," Tahni replied. "But we need to find out."

Someone had dug a long, shallow trench to the fire pit. It was easy to see from the air, and Lin landed beside it.

The trench was full of gray ash. Gingerly, she prodded the far end, exposing a few embers. But for the most part, it was barely warm. The makeshift fuse had been set much earlier in the morning.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Is this a trap?" Without waiting for a response, Lin unslung her bow and started scanning the trees, then the surrounding grass. It was tall enough in places for any number of unseen attackers to wait in ambush.

Tahni didn't bother with her own weapon. "I'd say that someone wanted us here, that's for sure. But if they wanted us dead, they would have sprung an ambush as soon as we arrived. Besides," she pointed to the line of ash. "They wouldn't have bothered with this if they were going to stick around."

That made sense, and Lin nodded slowly as she lowered her bow. But it didn't answer the biggest question.

'Why?'

A distraction for an attack on the keep? The fire would have been visible from there. No doubt more huntresses would be arriving any minute. But such an obvious distraction would only put everyone who remained on alert.

Little else made sense, though, which meant they were missing something.

By unspoken agreement, the pair remained near one another as they examined the area. The whole setup was unnerving, and Lin couldn't help but feel like someone was lining up an arrow on her back. Once she even spun around, sure that she was going to spot a shadowy figure. There was nothing but waving grass and gently rolling hills as far as the eye could see.

Their examination turned up plenty of tracks. Several dragonettes, judging by the different sizes of prints. At least one dragon, too. Not an enormous one, but the massive four-toed depressions were unmistakable.

A trader might have set a signal fire, if they were in trouble. Serious injuries or attacks weren't unheard of, and the strong winds might have led to a hard landing. It still didn't fit.

Lin's examinations brought her towards the trees, and something caught her eyes. A wooden box sat on top of the raw stump. As she approached, she saw that it was the size of a small book. It looked hastily made. The wooden slats were roughly cut and unpainted.

"Don't touch that," Tahni warned, and Lin flicked her ears in annoyance.

"Do I look like a hatchling?"

"Some days I wonder. Now step back."

The senior huntress extended her bow in one hand and used the far end to flick the box off its resting place. She immediately jumped back, but her caution proved unnecessary. There were no explosions or curses. Not even any noise other than the dull thump of the wood hitting hard packed ground.

"I think it's a note," Tahni said after a moment's consideration.

"A note?"

"Paper has a certain feel to my magic. Paper or maybe cloth," Tahni explained as she gingerly approached the box once more. A moment later, she smiled self-deprecatingly. "You can also see it now that the top has fallen off."

She picked up the slip of paper and the scrap of torn cloth next to it.

Wanting to feel useful, Lin examined the remains of the box. A quick glance confirmed its poor quality. The fitting was nonexistent and whoever made it had used some sort of glue to hold the pieces together, instead of pegs or joints. Some of her younger siblings could do better than this.

"So, is this asshole's handwriting better than her carpentry?" she joked.

But Tahni didn't answer. Her ears were pinned back and her entire body still as she read the note with wide eyes.

"Hey, Tahni?" Lin asked, an ominous feeling beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach. "What… What does it say?"

When her partner didn't answer, Lin reached over to touch her on the arm. The other dragonette jerked like she'd just been prodded with a red hot iron.

For the first time in the young huntress's memory, Tahni looked unsure. She kept flicking her gaze between Lin, the note, and back to Lin. "It... Your... I don't think..."

She stopped and took a deep breath. But a flutter of wings interrupted whatever she planned to do next.

Four huntresses landed in quick succession, led by Nista. Not bothering with any greeting, she strode straight up to the silvered huntress leading the other group.

"Tahni, we saw the smoke from the keep. Can you tell us what's going on here?"

"Get some altitude. Now." Tahni's words were hard, but they had a rasp to them that took the newcomers aback. Like the scrape of rusty steel on stone. "Look for whoever did this. Stay in pairs."

The other huntresses looked at each other, but Tahni was senior and the first one on the scene.

"Can you give us some idea of what to look for? And where?" one of them asked.

"Fly north and west, away from the keep," was the answer. "I don't know who they are or how many, but... they have a dragon." She pointed to the tracks in the clearing.

"If they have a dragon, they're long gone. We didn't see anyone coming in."

"Search anyway!" Tahni shouted and the questioner actually took a step back, her ears flattened in shock.

Without bothering to wait for a reply, the gilded huntress got a running start and leapt up into the sky. After only the briefest hesitation, Lin followed.

'She told us to stay in pairs, after all.'

And something about how the other huntress had looked at her... the thought sent a shiver down her wings even as she beat them hard to gain altitude and turned back for the keep.

Whatever was in that note couldn't be good. Anyone willing to risk a wildfire to deliver it couldn't have the keep's best interests in mind. But then why had Tahni been so unwilling to discuss its contents?

'Blackmail. That has to be it. Someone figured out the mines are nearly exhausted. But...'

But any huntress hearing about an attempt to threaten the keep would have been furious, even if she didn't already know the truth. There had even been discussions on what to do in exactly this eventuality.

So why had Tahni looked like her first born hatchling had been corrupted? And why had she given Lin that look?

The gilded huntress never even bothered to look back, and her pace made any conversation impossible. Lin was gasping for breath less than halfway back to the keep, and beginning to wish that she had dumped her pack back at the fire.

There was no point turning around, now. It would still be there when she went back. If she went back.

It would have been a grueling pace for a fresh and well rested huntress. Tired as she was, Lin found herself falling further and further behind. She made a flight that should have taken her half an hour in a bare twenty minutes, and her partner had already disappeared inside of the keep by the time she landed at the main entrance.

"Are you alright?"

The young huntress couldn't recognize the speaker through her darkening vision. But he brought a cup of cool water and Lin took a huge gulp. Rivulets escaped through the corners of her mouth, and she only added to the mess when she splashed the remainder over her head and wings.

She had come a membrane's breadth from overheating during the flight. Another minute or two at that pace would have seen her falling out of the sky.

Having narrowly avoided passing out from heat exhaustion, Lin finally recognized the male. "Thanks, Tav," she panted. Then, in a tone that sounded far too plaintive for her liking, she asked, "Is there more?"

He nodded. "Yeah, plenty. You look like you need it even more than Tahni did." He offered a bucket, and Lin accepted it gratefully.

"Where did your mate go?" she asked between gulps.

"Your mother's study. Do..." He hesitated before pressing on. "Do you know what's going on?"

"No, but I'm going to find out."

About two-thirds of the bucket's contents remained. Lin dumped it over her head, before passing it back to Tavot. Her legs didn't want to move, but she forced them anyway.

Thankfully, there was only one flight of stairs between the main entrance and Lady Luffin's study. Any more would have proved an insurmountable challenge for the exhausted dragonette. Even during the worst of her training, she had never felt this spent.

The ornate wooden door to her mother's study was closed. Normally, Lin wouldn't dream of intruding. This time, she pushed straight through.

Tahni was there, slumped in a padded chair. Her duty completed, the huntress had apparently collapsed.

But the Lady Luffin...

Lin's mother always took a hands-on approach to running her keep. Her responsibilities left her busy day in and day out, but she never let that prevent her from spending what little free time she had with her children.

Most of them, at least. Tintin had been an exception there. They never had the best of relationships, and his sister had her suspicions of why.

Unlike her brother, Lin had seen her mother often growing up. She had seen her in moods ranging from depressed to ecstatic. Tired to manic. Confident to frustrated.

But in all that time, she had never seen her... defeated.

"Mom...?"

Lady Luffin barely looked up from the note on her desk. Her ears drooped and she looked like she had aged decades since breakfast that morning. She was drained. Even the blue of her horns seemed dull.

It was the pain, the pure undiluted anguish in her eyes that did it. And that, above all else, terrified Lin.

"Erdalin..."

The rasping croak that came out of her mother's throat made Lin flinch. It was more like a noise she imagined a darkling would make than the sound of the first voice she could ever remember hearing.

"Erdalin," Norvinia repeated. The effort she was putting into those words made Lin's recent flight look like a leisurely glide. "Your... it's your brother..."

"Tin?" It was barely a whisper.

Her mother nodded, and then pushed the note across the desk before turning away.

Lin knew that she didn't want to see what was on that piece of paper. Just like she knew she had to read it anyway.

She could never remember crossing the space to her mother's desk, nor how the note got into her hands. She did remember the words.

...killed Trader Reed and her crew...

...have Aytin, son of...

...blood as proof...

...ransom of three hundred gold...

...your reply in three days...

"We can't pay it."

After finishing the note, Lin felt numb. Nothing had sunk in yet. It was like she was coasting on the winds just ahead of an enormous thunderstorm. One strong enough to scour the land free from grass and trees and whatever insignificant buildings dragonettes had foolishly erected in its path.

"I'll... we..." Norvinia was trying desperately to hold back tears. She had already been swept away by the grief. "We have... reserves..."

Not enough. Everyone knew that. The demand was insane. No one save for the richest of the capital's noble families had that sort of money laying around.

"They might accept less," Lin offered. She could feel the emotions welling within her now. Threatening to break through the wall she had built. "Or set a trap. Send the guard after them."

But they would be lucky to scrape together a fifth of the demand. And the note said that Tintin was days away, hidden.

One look at her mother told her that she knew the truth. That short of the gods themselves stepping in, her brother Aytin was well and truly dead.

The storm hit. And Lin's world went black.