“What in the Light were you thinking?” Frain said angrily. He’d arrived on Nell with Dell by his side. His anger didn’t stop him from dismounting and embracing her tightly. She’d missed his touch. “You’re a sight.”

Shallin’s confrontation with the shaman left her weary. She sat on a log nearby. They had come to her, and the evidence of the battle was everywhere. “Yeah, I’ve had better days,” she admitted. “Thanks for noticing.” Shallin tossed him the skull. “What do you think?”

He turned it over in his hands. “You did this? Alone?” She’d never seen quite that level of incredulity on his face before. She knew why.

“I didn’t have a choice. He struck first. Self-defense is a bitch.”

“You should be dead.”

“Just be thankful I’m not, ass.” Shallin thought he’d show a bit more admiration for her feat. She should have known better. “Have you ever seen marks like that before?”

“Without a Cadre…” Frain mused. “Sorry. No, I haven’t. Why’d you etch them?”

“I didn’t. I was picking through what was left of my Cull and noticed it.”

Frain’s eyebrows narrowed. “This wasn’t a trophy he carried?”

“Nope,” she said, waving the shoulder blade. “Same thing here. Every bit of bone looks like this. Check it yourself.” Shallin gestured at the black sooty mess. “Not much left but it all corroborates what I saw at Pellago.”

“I knew that’s where you went. I couldn’t stop you from going before, so it didn’t make sense to follow.”

“Glad to know you’ve got my back. Partner of the year,” Shallin said, crossing her arms. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t follow me.”

“Okay. I did try to follow. Whatever road I took kept turning me around and I kept getting lost. It wasn’t until the storms came up that I managed to make any headway. Even then it was a pain in my ass.”

Shallin laughed. “I’ve never known you to get lost,” she admitted. “You’ve got a steel trap of a mind when it comes to maps.”

“Maps help with strategy. It’s good to know your whereabouts at all times.”

“Yet you couldn’t find Pellago. I was there for a day or so, wandering about. Several houses had symbols like this. It’s connected to the incursions, I’m sure of it.”

Frain didn’t look so sure. “Perhaps.” He traced one of the many swirls on the skull. “See how they curl inward? Like spinning inward to a vanishing point.”

“I noticed that too. I met some of the folks in Pellago. It had been mostly abandoned. Anyway. They knew their time was at an end. They had this…colony of ants.”

“Were you dumb enough to get bit by some ants?” Frain chuckled. “Why do I think that likely?”

Shallin slugged him. “Of course not. Listen. I watched the whole colony devour their queen, then lay down and die like some macabre ritual. The folk I stayed with saw it as a portent of doom.”

“That’s ominous if you believe in superstition. More likely the villagers had poisoned the colony.” He dismissed her speech with a wave of his hand. “They’re just pests. Why do you think this shaman attacked you?”

Shallin stood and paced, frustrated. She knew he’d act like this. Never taking her seriously when she had something important to say, he would change the subject.

“It wasn’t like that at all, Frain. It was an altar. An altar. Protected and set aside as something sacred.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Shall?” Frain busied himself by drawing the swirl in the muddy dirt and studying it. “Everyone worships the Light, not bugs.”

I don’t even know if it’s worth telling him about the Kindred. He wouldn’t believe me about that either.

“Nothing. It just meant something to them more than it means anything to us. I won’t question their beliefs.”

“Not even when they’d have you question yours?” Frain stopped and leaned in, picking at the mud and rubbing some between his fingers.

“What do you mean?”

“How long ago were you in Pellago?”

“A day ago, why?”

“Don’t trust them. Whatever they said, it’s wrong.”

Shallin strode over to him. “You weren’t there, Frain. Don’t tell me who to believe. You didn’t see what I saw.”

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Frain nodded, scratching more swirls. “I don’t get lost, Shall. Pellago doesn’t exist. Do you want to know what I think?”

“You think I’m a fucking liar, that’s what,” she said, throwing her arms up in anger. “None of this matters. I’m just wasting my time.”

“I think you found something, but it wasn’t Pellago.” He tossed her the skull he’d been examining. “It wasn’t coincidence the shaman attacked you. You escaped his trap.”

“What?”

“Here’s my guess. It’s as good as yours but with less evidence, I admit. I’ve heard the same rumors as you. This symbol here,” he said, pointing at his drawings, “is pulling me in. I want to ignore it but I can’t. Like the swirl of a drain, hungering for the water above.”

“I didn’t consider it dangerous.”

“You wouldn’t. That was the point. Like a game to lure you in. A mystery you needed to unravel. I need to as well.” He kicked dirt across his etching, ruining it. “I know it ends with him,” he said, pointing at what remained of the shaman.

“I ate dinner in town. They tended Dell. You’re telling me it’s all lies? That I made it all up?” Shallin hated the implication. She knew what she’d seen, who she’d spoken to.

“Don’t do that. Raising your voice won’t work on me, Shall. Hear me out. Somehow he did something to your mind. It was subtle and you didn't notice it. You still don’t.”

Shallin put her hands on her hips. “Oh, and you think you do?”

“The way those symbols are driving me to distraction? Yes. Don’t pretend there isn’t a correlation.”

She refused to consider the possibility. It made no sense. “Shamans don’t alter people’s minds. There’s no way you didn’t see that fight I had, even from a distance. If he could get inside my head, he would never have just attacked me.”

“The suns will be setting soon. There’s a smaller town to the west. The inn isn’t great but it’s shelter,” Frain said, changing the topic again. “We can get some rest and talk about this in the morning when our heads are clear.” He twirled his finger in the air, spiraling it inward. “Please,” he said more urgently.

“You really think…?” His gesture wasn’t normal. Shallin could hear the tenseness in his voice. The shaman wasn’t in her mind, but he was definitely in Frain’s. She set the skull on a rock and smashed it with another one, battering it repeatedly until she pulverized it to dust. “Fine, we’ll go,” she agreed.

Nell and Dell set a quick pace, putting distance between them and the battle site. Aftershocks continued and the sky remained clear. Frain refused to speak, but she saw him still making the swirling sign with his finger from time to time.

She worried about him and began to consider that he might be right. Could she trust all she’d seen? Baral hadn’t appeared until after she’d examined several of the very same swirls. Maybe the hypnosis took time to settle in, becoming a convincing reality.

The whole town seemed surreal, out of place. She had never heard of the Kindred, of people who could communicate with animals. Shallin didn’t want to use her lack of worldly experience as an excuse.

She became more agitated as they traveled. Frain’s gesticulating diminished until he held Nell’s reins and led her forward. Shallin saw lights in the distance growing closer as they approached. Twilight surrounded them, but the road was straight.

Shallin followed Frain. He knew the way in town. She hadn’t come this way, something that surprised her. Surely she would have passed through on her way to Pellago. The town’s simplicity would inspire no artist, but in the early evening it seemed lively.

The inn lived up to Frain’s description. Broken shutters held closed with wire kept the light and heat in, to an extent. Chipped paint flecked off the door frame and walls inside. A skinny balding man sat at a table reading a book. He was the only person in sight, and smiled when he saw Frain.

“Back again so soon? Found the lady you were looking for, eh?”

“Aye, it was easier than I thought. She didn’t want to be lost,” Frain replied.

“Well, double the custom, double the price,” the innkeeper said. “Unless you’d like cozier accommodations. I warrant she’ll keep you warm.”

“That’s highway robbery, Ilium,” Frain said, dropping two coins. “But two rooms are fine.”

“Sorry to hear you’ll be lonely tonight.”

“I’m not,” the Sentinel said.

“Well, it’s your business, not mine. Will you be taking a meal here or there?” Ilium looked eager, wanting to charge extra. “House special.”

“Just baths for the both of us. It’s been a long day.,” Shallin said. “If you don’t mind.”

Ilium’s face turned sour. “Of course, mistress. We’ll heat some water for you. May be a bit, the fire’s burned low for the night.”

“Whatever you can get will be fine, Ilium. Doesn’t need to be scalding.”

“It won’t be, I promise,” Ilium grumbled, setting out a key each for them. “Last two rooms in the hall. Eleven and twelve. Don’t care who takes what.”

“We don’t either. Thanks Ilium,” Frain said.

“Not the friendliest guy,” Shallin said as they walked toward their rooms. “The Light doesn’t shine on his mind.”

“Had a long chat with him last night. He runs a brothel on the side.”

“In this town? There’s no one here,” Shallin scoffed.

“Don’t remind him. Once you’ve had your bath he’ll want to hire you.”

“Fuck off,” she said.

“Are you offering?” Frain’s mood had turned playful, almost back to his normal self. Shallin relaxed.

“No, I’m not. I never am. I’ll take this one,” she said, picking room twelve. “And I never will,” she said, coyly shutting the door. Shallin had one bag with her solitary change of clothes. She waited for her bath water to be brought in, three buckets full. Just enough to scrub the grime that had accumulated over the last several days.

Shallin pulled her top off and looked at the extent of her Price. Scars had gone far past her elbows, criss-crossing her biceps and traveling up her shoulders to terminate at her ribs and breasts. Everything ached.

She sat in water that barely came up to her waist and ladled the tepid water over herself. Two culls just a few days apart. It’s amazing I’m even traveling, she thought. Her body needed time to recover, and she hadn’t allowed herself to stop. She struggled to keep her eyes open.

Shallin washed her clothes and hung them to dry, dressing in the ones from her pack. She laid on her bed and closed her eyes, wondering how she could explain mind-controlling shamans to Lady Desdemona, and more importantly, tried to think of ways to counteract them. Without some sort of plan, she’d be presenting very preposterous claims to the Headmistress.

Across the hall, she heard Frain’s snoring, something she’d grown accustomed to on the road with him so many times before. As her snores joined his, memories of her newest Cull added themselves to the encyclopedic knowledge of battles in her mind.