Fern didn’t have a special branch like Grandmother did when she prayed for whisper women to bring the carved trunks for funeral pyres, so that they would know where to bring their bounty. But we had plenty of pine trees and their shadows, and Fern had her own prayer and blood.

We gathered out on the sandbar while she climbed back up the steep bank and settled next to the large shadow of the tree that was holding our hollow together. She pricked her bless mark twice in quick succession before smearing the blood over both of her palms and pressing them down against the shadow.

“Drink the blood, show the way. Goddess, please help me so that your daughters can’t stray.”

We didn’t have the best angle to see what happened next, but I didn’t catch the usual flicker of blood flaking away to nothing. Instead, the part of the shadow between Fern’s hands began to glow a dull, ominous red. It wasn’t bright enough to truly illuminate anything, even if it had been dark out, but it was creepy all the same.

A hint of a shudder passed down Fern’s back, but she kept her hands firmly in place.

Wren stood up on her tiptoes. “What is that?”

Fern didn’t spare her a glance, but she answered, “Blood gate.” She nodded toward the glowing area between her hands. “The goddess’s eye marks the shadow so the hunter squad knows where to go, rather than step through any of the other thousands of shadows around us.”

Wren’s eyes went wide. “Can we do that?”

“It takes a certain level of proficiency.”

Breck noted, “I haven’t seen whisper women need such a gate before.”

Fern’s features tightened but she answered Breck’s unspoken question too. “Lone or stronger shadows are often easy to pick out, especially if you have an idea of where you are trying to go. Someone with strong intent wouldn’t need it and they could bring along those less skilled at traveling, but otherwise, if you want a group to show up through the exact same shadow—”

“It helps to draw their eye and mark the way.” This came from the wide shouldered, strongly built woman who had just shoved her way up out of the shadow. She surveyed us as her squad stepped out of the shadow after her. “Name’s Arwin. We heard you had a bit of a festerling problem?”

The last two people came through the shadow and Fern lifted her hands and shook them like they had gone numb. The red light faded and died.

Fern stood to face the seven newcomers. “We do. We’ve killed six so far, but we believe that most of the clutch is still alive. They still have six prisoners.”

Arwin peered a bit closer at us when she heard that. “Oh hoh? You and the little ones? Impressive.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Ima? Wanna wager?”

Another tall woman shifted into view, though she wasn’t as bulky as her squad leader. “Not when we all know you’ll win.”

Arwin looked like she was going to keep the banter going, but Ima’s movement had revealed the man she brought with her and we recognized each other at the same time.

“Flickermark girl.”

I scowled up at Morgan. I doubted I would ever warm up to him after he spilled the truth of my blessing to everyone in hearing distance at the arena.

Arwin looked mildly amused at my attempt to burn Morgan where he stood with my gaze. “Do you know her?”

He shrugged. “She’s the one who helped Ressia win bragging rights from me.”

“You told everyone about my blessing!” I snapped. Too late Esie’s warnings to be a model of good behavior buzzed through my mind.

The healer blinked. “Was it a secret?”

I kept my tongue quiet that time around even though I really wanted to say that it could have been. I doubted that admitting to keeping your blessing a secret was approved of among the whisper women and it wasn’t like I had sworn Ressia to secrecy when I blurted out the truth to her. Still, he could have held his tongue a bit better when we met in the arena.

Arwin landed on the sandbar in front of me and Fern looked annoyed that the situation had spiraled out of her control so fast. “The one who can’t die?”

A gasp of shock from behind me from the boy. I ignored him as I tried to remember my manners. I didn’t like the situation turning in this direction any more than Fern did.

I inclined my head to the whisper woman and tried to turn the conversation back to the task at hand. “Will you take care of the rest of the festerlings soon?”

“Soon.” She flapped a dismissive hand before her expression brightened. “Up for a wager?”

I clenched my jaw but I wasn’t quite idiotic enough to dismiss the wager out of hand. “What is it?”

She glanced around, considering. “Looks like you’re low on spears. If you win, we’ll replenish your supply along with a few other things you probably lost to the festerlings.”

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“And if I lose?”

Her smile widened. “Rumor has it that you’re quite the interesting girl, jumping in water snake maws and receiving patronage from the Lady of Calm Waters. What do you think more supplies are worth?”

I would have preferred faster healing, but it wasn’t like whisper women would be much help with that. After a day of rest I could stand easily enough on my rolled ankle, but it was still tender.

More supplies would certainly be helpful. I had felt the lack of spears when the festerlings had passed overhead just a little bit ago, but I also didn’t want to get bound up with a whisper woman I had just met and I didn’t have a whole lot I could offer her. Besides, she could be on Jin and Yule’s side of things and I didn’t need to give them any more things to use against me.

We could manage with what we had.

“I think I don’t need to wager with someone who can’t even name the bet or its terms.”

Arwin barked out a surprising laugh. “Fair. Next time then.”

Ima dropped next to Arwin and clapped a hand on her shoulder as she looked at me. “Smart. She has an unfair advantage when it comes to luck.” She glanced back up to Fern. “Tell us the situation in detail.”

Fern told them the story from when we first entered the festerlings’ territory, though she had Breck, Nii, and I fill in on the parts she hadn’t been present for. It turned out that I had been correct in my assumptions about what had pushed Nii and Ulo into the ominously quiet territory. They hadn’t wanted to risk turning around and running into us, Ulo had been persuasive with the need to continue straight, and they had thought they could face or run from whatever they came across. Instead, they had been ambushed by the festerlings and quickly overwhelmed.

I kept my own telling of distracting the festerlings much closer to a report than what I had told the boy that morning. Arwin and Ima both looked faintly impressed when they learned I had killed one my own and I neglected to mention that I doubted I could manage another.

All in all, it didn’t take them long to collect what information we had about the festerlings and their nesting ground. They didn’t like the news that some of the festerlings were ranging around since it would take longer to hunt them down and make sure they hadn’t missed any of the creatures.

For all that they only had six whisper women they didn’t seem too worried about being outnumbered. Nor did it take long for Arwin decide on their strategy.

“Kane, do you think your barrier can cover their nesting ground and then some? Good. Crack and cover like usual then, folks. Break their joints and jaws, so Ima can get in and finish them without much fuss.”

I glanced around at the hunter squad but didn’t see any weapons that looked liked they’d have the strength to crush or crack the festerlings’ protective shell. Arwin noticed my searching eyes and beckoned over a woman who was wearing a lot less clothing than normal. No sleeves and shorts rather than pants. Which let the six large tattoos of axes on her arms and the front and back of her legs stand out prominently; they had the inky black of bless marks.

The woman obviously knew what Arwin wanted as she smiled down at me and touched one of the axes. “I’m one of the rare ones whose mark actually matches their blessing, and it’s a bit easier to carry these bulky things when they’re in my skin than on a belt. Besides, a quarter of an hour is more than enough to take care of a clutch of festerlings.”

Arwin winked at me and Fern. “You’re lucky they’re one of our specialties.” Then a thought seemed to come to her. “Do you want to watch us work? You might learn a thing or two.”

Ima sighed from where she stood on Arwin’s other side. “They can barely stand.”

That was gross overstatement of our injuries, at least when it came to everyone else, but it was true that setting ourselves up on the edge of a fight probably wasn’t the smartest of moves.

“They can stay outside of the barrier.” Arwin waved her dismissive hand again. “If there are any festerlings that go after them they can hide in the shadows until we can take of them or they can hold their own. They already faced them a couple times already and took out a few.” She glanced at us. “You can do that, right?”

Fern clearly didn’t like the idea, but she also wasn’t willing to go against a higher ranked whisper woman. “If you’re set on the idea.”

“Great!” Arwin clapped her hands together. “Morgan, hurry up on checking the seedlings! They’re going to be watching us and the sooner they’re ready to go the sooner we can take care of the beasties!”

Morgan raised an acknowledging hand, but otherwise kept his attention on Breck and Sid as he interrogated the younger healer about his work. His casual acknowledgment and Arwin’s acceptance of it made me grit my teeth. Such a thing would never have been accepted back in the tribe.

Morgan took a half and hour to finish checking over all of us. I did my best to ignore his activities and the sour taste in the back of my throat as he asked Sid about this or that treatment, why he used one ingredient and not another. I kept out of the hollow too. Somehow the whole scenario was worse than when Sid or other healers had treated me and the last thing I needed was to act like a fool where everyone could see me.

When the healers got to me, however, I couldn’t stand to be the subject of a healing lesson. I had placed myself on the edge of the sandbar, nominally where it was less likely for someone to overhear, and spoke in a low hiss.

“I have a sprained ankle, a deep bruise on my hip, and a handful of minor cuts and bruises. Get me a couple of cold compresses for the ankle and hip and I’ll be fine.”

They both blinked at me in shock.

I snapped at Morgan, “What? Ressia didn’t tell you that too?”

I knew I shouldn’t have let even more people know about my healer’s background than those that already knew or guessed, but they were doing everything that had been taken from me, that I had taken from myself, and Sid was learning. What if Morgan mentioned something that she had never taught me? Something I’d have to watch them do or discuss and I could never try my own hand at?

That was a torture I couldn’t stand. Not when I had injuries I could have treated just as well myself. Injuries that I wouldn’t even have if I had just stopped myself from acting with the same impulsive, pride-filled reaction that had cost me my healer’s beads in the first place.

Morgan looked uncertain, so I pressed him further. “You don’t need to go over the same lessons with me that you already went over with everyone else. They had cuts and bruises, too. Get the compresses and I’ll be fine.”

He relented.

There wasn’t any snow handy for the compress, so they filled a couple of water-proof pouches with cold river water and I tied them to my ankle and hip. Since I wasn’t about to undress to get the pouch directly against my skin the one on my hip barely provided any relief. The one on my ankle worked quite well though. Both would come off in a handful of minutes when the healers were no longer looking. If we did have to fight I didn’t want the odd weight to throw me off.

The hunter squad had scouted a bit on their own while Morgan finished double checking everyone and they had decided to pull those of us who would watch through to where the old bush hideout was. The boy would stay behind with Sid and Morgan in the hollow.

Finally, it was time for the others to be rescued and the festerlings thoroughly taken care of.