The new hideout turned out to be a hollow in the side of the bank of the same stream that swept by the festerlings’ nesting grounds much further down. The exposed roots of a tree held the ceiling together while a large, built up cluster of branches and stones helped divert the stream away from the hollow it had initially carved. The bank was steep and tall here, higher than my head, but that meant that the hollow was comfortable enough to stand in for most of the group. If we needed to hide from the festerlings everyone could fit inside, though it would be cramped.

Which made me realize that our first hiding place in the bushes would have been much too small for everyone even if the festerlings’ increased ranging hadn’t driven us away. It was something I should have realized when I first developed our rescue plan, but I had been more focused on proving to Fern that we could do it, rather than the consequences of doubling our group after.

Still more clever than smart. Not that you ever learn what you should.

I did what I could to focus on my new predicament rather than the bitter phantom of her words.

Fern had brought us out of a shadow on top of the stream’s bank, rather than on the pebbled sandbar in front of the hollow. And my legs were still more than ready to give up on me after the strain I put them through. What would normally be a slight challenge to get down to the sandbar now looked like an nearly insurmountable challenge.

Fern made it look easy enough. A light step there, a sure step there, grip an exposed root to keep her balance while she half swung down the last few feet. When she looked back at me to see if I had made any progress I was still where she had let go of my hand, trying to make it look like I wasn’t gripping my improvised walking stick like a lifeline.

I didn’t doubt that she knew that I was hurt, but either she sorely underestimated the difficulty of getting down a steep embankment, or she was seeing how far I could be pushed before I asked for help.

Logically, I knew I should, even if it made me look weak. Just like I knew, logically, that I had already strained my ankle and hip more than I should and I would look just as much, if not more, a fool if I fell into the stream on my way down. Which was currently the most likely outcome.

But I had gotten this far on my own already, and not even Rawley, with all of her patience, had been able to force me to ask for help. I edged closer to the bank’s edge. It didn’t look any more promising from the new angle.

Perhaps I could make some excuse about keeping watch up here? Slide down later when no one was looking?

The idea was tempting, but Fern didn’t look like she would accept it. Not when this felt like a challenge; a small way for her to prove that my insistence on rescuing a few people before the hunter squad arrived wasn’t all benefit.

Fine.

I couldn’t blithely hop down the embankment like she could, but I wasn’t useless. Sliding down wasn’t the most dignified, but it sorely beat tumbling into the water or asking for her help like some toddler who couldn’t walk proper yet.

I wasn’t in the mood to be smart, so clever would have to do.

It was tempting to glare at her the entire way down, but instead I put my attention toward keeping my weight off my bad ankle and making sure I didn’t lose control of my speed and tumble head-over-heels anyway.

She did get a perfunctory glower when I stood up on the sandbank—careful to keep the majority of my weight on the festerling leg. Then I did my best to march past her, though it came out as more of a limp, and finally took in everyone waiting in the hollow.

Breck had noted my descent with a keen look from where she was keeping watch on the opposite side of the hollow’s entrance. She gave me an acknowledging nod, but otherwise kept her focus where it should be. She looked more banged up then she had before, but her wounds had also been treated.

The reason for that was evident in the hollow. Sid, the healer, was bent over the form of a small boy. Clearly, he had already recovered from the confused, lethargic state the festerlings’ saliva induced and had gotten to work quickly. I gave the bandages and salves I could see a quick once over, but, irritatingly, there wasn’t anything I could easily nitpick. Then again, if there had been, that likely would have been even worse.

The boy must be the fourth, unexpected rescue then. From the family that had been caught. He looked like he was about the twins’ age.

My lips pressed together at that realization and I turned my attention to the two remaining people in the cave. Wren and Nii. Wren was sitting, leaning back against the wall, while Chirp snuggled against her neck for all he was worth and cooed out a soft, bell-like song. She looked tired, but not overly harmed. Nii stood against the opposite wall, head just shy of the root bound ceiling, restlessly alert like always, but also more on edge than normal. Like she expected to be jumped or berated any time someone looked over at her.

I didn’t like seeing her afraid, even if I had been the cause of most of her discomfort since my blessing was revealed. It didn’t suit her.

As it was, Nii noticed me notice her and gave me a tight, reluctant nod before doubling down on the piece of clothing she was fixing.

Fern strode past and gestured to me. “Sid, treat her.”

He looked up from the boy and took in my scratched and bruised form. I did what I could not to be obvious about the weight I was putting on the festerling leg rather than my own, but I could tell he marked it. The healer scrambled to his feet and bustled over to me as I lowered myself to the ground at the hollow’s entrance, opposite of Breck.

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I let his skittish fussing wash over me as he checked over my injuries. He even tried to to lecture me about walking on my ankle, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. Nii kept glancing over as he treated me, but I did my best not to confirm the rumors that had been circling around since my trial. She already knew about my blessing and given her reaction to that she didn’t need to know about my past as a healer’s daughter. Luckily, Sid’s technique was…passable and I had enough presence of mind to hold my tongue with he made a mixture with a couple plants I didn’t recognize. It helped, too, that I wanted distance from his nervous energy as soon as possible.

By the time I was bandaged and treated to Sid’s satisfaction—I would have been done twice as fast with the amount of double and triple checking he did—it was dark out and the others were chewing on cold rations. No fire tonight, not while we were within the festerlings’ territory.

The boy had woken up during that time too, scared stiff to be separated from his family and surrounded by black lipped young women when the last thing he remembered was being attacked by spider creatures. Whisper women weren’t exactly a comforting presence, they were too distant and connected to the goddess for that, and we might as well have been full whisper women in the boy’s eyes.

But Wren, being herself, had broken through his fear easily enough and was now distracting him with Chirp’s help. He giggled, of all things, as Chirp graciously accepted his latest treat.

I got my own travel rations and then it was time to deal with the fact my clothes were a mess after my run-ins with the festerlings. I didn’t have the energy to wash them, not tonight, but sleep wouldn’t come easy in the stiff and smelly fabric. So I edged myself around the corner of the hollow and over a few feet to the sandbar’s edge and slowly, painfully began to change clothes. Better the illusion of privacy than giving them all a clear idea of how hurt I was. Of course, Sid could easily spill what he knew, but I didn’t want to show off the huge bruise that was forming on my hip or how I had to wriggle into my pants rather than stand up and put one leg in at a time like a normal person.

Fern took first watch that night as the rest of us packed into the hollow. I made sure to be against the wall so that contact was limited. Still, somehow the boy ended up next to me with Wren on his other side. It would have been nice not to have the awkward distraction of her close by for one night. The boy didn’t look thrilled to be near me either, but Wren smiled at me, tucked him in close, and fell asleep shortly after.

Then, just as I was drifting off myself, he breathed out a question, “Was it really your idea to rescue us?”

I cracked open my eyes just enough to glower at him.

He shrank back into Wren, before he quietly rallied. “You don’t look like you’d want to rescue anyone.” A pause and then, “And I’m nearly as big as you.”

My glower intensified before old, nearly forgotten skills dredged themselves up in my memory. Sometimes the twins had been scared of the shadows at night, sometimes she had actually been harsh with one of them and they were both too distraught to sleep. I wasn’t comfortable enough with the kid to rub his back or run my fingers through his hair the way Adley had liked, but Kem had been partial to stories. I didn’t have the energy to tell one now, but sometimes the promise of one had been enough.

I whispered, “Looks can be deceiving. I’ll tell you how I got one of those creatures in the morning if you go to sleep now.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“Really.”

He thought for a bit before asking one more question, “Will you save my parents and sister, too?”

I noticed with mild amusement that Ulo had been left out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t know that she was captive too. Despite my injuries, I didn’t let the silence hang for long before answering his question. “We won’t leave them to rot.”

At his stricken look, I realized I could have worded that better, but I didn’t bother with taking the statement back. It got the point across. “Go to sleep.”

I pointedly shut my own eyes and thankfully, I wasn’t bothered again until it my turn to take watch. Waking up to Nii poking me with a twig wasn’t really much better than the boy’s questions, but I would take what I could get.

Not that I had to be pleasant about it.

I rubbed my hands over my face as I sat up. “You’re not going to become life ridden just by touching me.”

Her face pinched together, but she kept whatever she wanted to say to herself.

My joints were very displeased to be moving again, but I kept the pain off my face as I slipped around her and settled on the sandbar. Not my most elegant of moves, but it worked. I thought she might take the opportunity to get a few more hours of sleep, but she dashed that bit of hope by turning toward me.

“Can’t you walk?”

I tapped my swollen ankle. “Been warned off it for now.” Then just to goad her, “Unless you want to help hold me up?”

She shook her head, half exasperated, half disbelieving.

I gestured to the hollow. “Then go sleep.”

Nii stayed where she was and stared at me. I did my best to ignore her and keep my own gaze up on the trees lining the stream, but the seconds kept passing by and my patience had worn very, very thin.

“What?” I snapped.

She hesitated, so I turned to glare at her. “Are you waiting to be blamed for slipping away in the night and making us chase after you and Ulo? Hurting our chances of getting to the Rookery in time? For being caught by the festerlings? Because I can do all that, but stop being flinching scared. It’s annoying and it doesn’t suit you.”

She didn’t…recoil at my tirade, but she did draw back, shock widening her eyes. For several long heartbeats I was being stared at again, before she dropped her head into her hands and sighed. When she lifted her head again she had the weakest of smiles on her face.

It was my turn to blink in surprise. Whatever else, I hadn’t ever expected her to smile at me.

“Why did you pick me to be one of the first rescued?”

Well, it seemed like Fern or Breck had been blabbing to anyone who would listen about my plans.

I turned back to the scenery. “Your mark. Being able to hit their small weak points with accuracy to immobilize or take out the festerlings seemed like a practical asset to have.”

She was quiet for another handful of heartbeats before she asked, “And your mark? You really don’t think it makes you life ridden?”

I let my head fall back against the steep embankment. “My mentor thinks that She is keeping me close to Her. In a state of dying. Not life.”

“What do you think? We all know our blessings best.” There was a bit of censure in her voice.

I looked at her sidelong. “I know I won’t die, but if someone doesn’t treat me, I’m not sure I’ll live either.” I swallowed, remembering my time being frozen. “Not in any meaningful way. Not like we are now.”

Nii looked a bit thoughtful and conflicted and confused, like she had a dozen more questions she was gearing up to ask me, but I had woken up only a handful of minutes ago and I was tired and sore and not in the mood to be understanding.

I rubbed a hand over my face again and focused back on the trees I was supposed to be watching. “Go away.”

She hesitated for another moment before she slipped further into the hollow.

Finally.

I enjoyed the quiet, relative solitude while I could before the others began waking up with the dawn.