The rain continued and so did the lightning and thunder. Rosalea sat in the entryway of her shelter with Nauru in her lap and Sasha next to her watching the lightning. Each bolt that crackled angrily down from the heavens had a slightly different color from the rest as if several mystics were using the storm to call lightning to their fights.

Sasha shivered even though her body was hot, and Rosalea thought again about the possibility of an antidote for the poison she had been inflicted with, but she did not know any more than she had ever known.

The dragon is carrying Nakai away, which means that it is not in the town or able to protect it, she thought as she stroked Nauru who was pressed as close to her as he could get. If there was a chance to kill Beryn and change the way the town functioned, it would be now, but I would have to potentially face off with Connall’s pack again.

She looked down at her right hand where the string burn was white and raised against her fingers. I only hurt him, she thought, but there was still a sickened feeling in her that was hard to overcome.

But, as she tenderly rubbed her fingers against the burn, she thought about Annie. It had been among the first of her memories to come back to her after she had escaped the Ieshans. I stood by, and they killed her. She looked out into the storm, thinking about the noise Connall made as he went down as lightning boomed down into the valley. I did not hesitate to kill that bear that attacked Rhainnon; I melted it. What’s the difference? Connall talks? All the animals used to talk to me.

She closed her eyes, the unsettled feeling started to dwindle as she thought about what she had lost. She had not fought Ulric’s attackers either. She had just taken him and run, and now they were out there, living without consequence. She had not found or killed the murderers who took Fen. Was that just?

She didn’t know. She was starting to care a little less about what would bring justice to the situation and more about the practicality of it. If Beryn is allowed to go on, this war will stay in the human’s favor. It might still be in their favor, even if she is killed. She might have a clever second-in-command.

She looked the way that the dragon had flown, and she thought about it collecting Mystics. It must have a castle or a lair of some sort outside the reach of the mystics here. They seem like they do not leave the forest… because they need their bond with the Moryshin?

She stroked Nauru with her left hand, letting cool water pool in her palm and roll over her string burn of her other hand. She still did not really understand this Moryshin concept.

“Is your hand bothering you a lot?” Taigan asked from in his tree.

He was so vigilant. She wondered how he was faring with his dragon curse. “It hurts. I could barely pull your bow back, so it was a little foolish to fire it.”

“I see, string got you.” She nodded, and he slid out of his tree. “I did not really expect to see you attacking any mystics.”

“They were going to kill you and Amalia. I am only sad that I missed,” she said with color coming to her cheeks.

Taigan walked to her, his clothes and hair clinging to him in the wet. “That does not sound so much like you.”

Rosalea looked away as guilt pressed through her. “It would not have been a kindness to let them kill you,” she said flatly.

He nodded. “I understand,” he said. “I suppose no one expected him to be working that closely with the dragon?”

He invited himself into the entryway by sitting down next to her, so she was pressed between him and Sasha, with Nauru in her lap. “No, I did not expect that to happen.”

He was silent, and she stared out into the storm. The rain was slowing down. “It’s a little crazy to me to think that all of this was caused by two people a few hundred years ago making statements about the future. I do not think I would have believed any of it, if I had not met you.” She tilted her head and looked at him. He smiled, “You remind me of one o the wolves when you do that.” She blushed and looked away again. He gently rested a hand against her forearm, “You have been with them a while, right?” She nodded. He continued, “I… I feel like you are a patient and kind person. You wait a long time before you lash out. But, when you lash out, I think it changes the direction of things.”

“When I was in Kaylar’s dragon town,” she showed him her right hand, and he made a little noise about the string burn, “I tried to be kind, and it got Annie killed. They treated her like a hostage that would compel me to do something I did not know how to do. Something you are very skilled at.” She turned her left hand over, showing the slight scars that remained from the horrible damage that had been there only days prior.

“You think that is what will happen here?”

She looked out into the rain, they could not really see anything of the forest in the smoke and haze. “It is happening. I am here, without magic, unable to do what I need to, and people I care about are getting taken hostage right now. Nakai saved us, and he might be dead right now.”

Taigan nodded. “It is that way in the Uryan clans every day. Sometimes it is your day to die, and you look after each other as much as possible.” He stared out into the rain with her, fingers still resting on her forearm. “I… agree though. That dragon spell took me right off my feet. I am lucky I had you and Taj helping, or… I am not sure what would have happened. It is different than the dragon spell for this?” he lifted his hand off of her arm to point at his right palm.

She nodded, “A brand is a more serious version of the spell you felt.”

He shook his head. “No wonder no one likes them.”

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Rosalea sighed, “I think that I have this one particularly riled because you are not supposed to mix branded people with regular people. Once you are branded, you are not supposed to go on existing to the outside world.”

“Outside world?”

“Well, Kaylar kept a whole estate completely secret from everything in the woods. The Ieshans still knew I was there, and I worry about Lio, but I have to hope Kaylar will keep her safe.”

Taigan made a musing noise. “So, what do you think you and I should be doing right now?”

“Hunting Lady Beryn down while her dragon is gone.”

“What will stop it from burning the forest in retaliation?”

“Nothing provoked it to order that today,” Rosalea observed.

Taigan still pursed his lips. “My instincts say we start with the dragon. It is the more credible threat. And then any mystics which have sided with it. You cannot act with sleepers in the ranks.”

Rosalea had not heard that concept in a long time. The Uryans had lightly accused her of it before sending her away. It is not quite the same. No one is forcing Connall to sabotage.

Both Sasha and Nauru suddenly sat up, their more sensitive ears catching something Rosalea and Taigan could not hear.

“We must go,” Sasha said. “My old pack is coming here!”

Rosalea strained, and in the rain, she could just hear the howling of wolves. “Taigan, you get on Honor and take Sasha. She cannot go far on her own.” Nauru whimpered but danced out of Rosalea’s lap. Taigan got up, Taj flopping wetly down onto him from above. Rosalea handed up Sasha. Her heart pounded. This was a little predictable maybe. They are calling to each other, and there is no one here that can answer to warn them off.

She wondered about Miri and Mere again, feeling sick, but she decided their best hope was to go further north - as far away as they could from Connall’s pack.

Taigan trotted with Honor, Rosalea did her best to run alongside - but they could not go any faster with Taigan having to steer Honor with just his legs and Rosalea just running alongside.

“This way!” Nauru called. “I heard Miri!”

Rosalea followed Nauru, glad that he could hear. So much for getting ready to just rush off the mountain and kill Beryn.

They moved at this pace for quite a while. Miri kept calling, and Rosalea realized there was a lot of urgency in her tone, so she tried to push herself to really run toward the pup. When they finally found her…

Rosalea would always be glad that they found her. She was dangling high in a tree with a branch around her waist and locking her into place. Beneath her? The charred remains of Mere. The old lady must have been struck by a poisoned arrow. There was a burn path that was only a dozen feet long, but there was a longer blood trail.

Rosalea let Taigan boost her up until she could chop the branch free. They all nearly toppled for a moment as Rosalea lost her balance, but Taigan caught her and kept his feet. He set her down, and she unwrapped the branch.

“She was hit. She didn’t change, but the mark spread so fast, and then she changed,” sobbed Miri, and then she repeated it as Rosalea squeezed her tightly.

Miri was not injured. Rosalea was relieved for that, but seeing the twisted, blackened remains filled her eyes with tears. Black ooze ran off the wolf and soaked into the ground.

“We have to keep moving,” Nauru said in a shrill, anxious voice. “They are still hunting us.”

Taigan climbed back on Honor. Rosalea felt exhausted as she handed up Sasha, and Miri sniffled and trailed behind Rosalea and they all followed a probably only four-month-old puppy north. Rosalea felt incredibly vulnerable.

***

The dragon had escaped. Amalia and Raisa could see it in the way their mother and remaining brother walked. Neither sister had been able to fully keep up with the poison and injuries they had. Amalia was entirely missing an ear and her leg was so swollen she could barely put it down.

Now Nakai was in the clutches of a dragon… to be killed later? Why was it hoarding mystics?

“We have to band together, trap it, and kill it. The Gods should have killed it, but they do not care about us,” Raisa snarled about her litter mate being missing. “And after it, Connall and his whole pack should be stripped of their connection to the forest and banished!”

Amalia felt her heart skip a beat as Raisa’s rage manifested in hints of dark flame starting to sprout form her neck and shoulders. Bazil, with his naturally dark aura walked up to her calmly and pushed his forehead against hers. “Be calm, or you will go demon. You are right to be angry, but it must be a calm, calculated kind,” he soothed.

Raisa trembled, but the dark pressure gathering around her dispersed.

How do I tell them what I know? I was thwarted from getting her to the Moryshin.

“We must go back. A god has asked us to look after those two humans, and we left them behind. I do not know what else Connall and his pack will get up to, and I have not seen Miri or Mere,” Nekana said.

That put the fear of the situation back into everyone, and so, even though it was painful to leave Nakai behind… he was beyond their reach. Miri, Mere, and Rosalea could still be helped.

Amalia and Raisa limped behind, and Bazil raced ahead. Nekana stayed with her daughters.

“I cannot believe he mauled you like that,” she said, looking at all the blood all over Amalia and her destroyed ear.

“I was shocked,” Amalia admitted… “I think if Rosalea had not actually shot him, I…” She hurt all over, she could barely limp along the more time went on and her adrenaline waned. Shocked is a good word for it. I cannot comprehend that Nakai is just gone like that. I cannot comprehend that Mere and Miri might be taken from us. I cannot even feel joy that…

“Mother…” Amalia said, waiting until her mother glanced back at her. “I want you to ask Rosalea what her liana called her.”

“Why?”

“Trust me?”

There was silence as they made a slow and steady way back toward home. Then Nekana said, “Interestingly enough when I first got her name, she said she was called Rosalea.”

Raisa frowned. “So it is not her name? Who cares? She is an awful lot of trouble.”

“Well, you were quick to strike that dragon down with your lightning to save her.”

“And you, stupid,” Raisa said flatly.

“Fair,” Amalia said with a hint of a smile.

I am the only mystic to have ever left his forest and returned to it. I had to find a Uryan. I found one married to an Ieshan.