Yemi threw her brother’s putrid bandages into the river, then hurriedly cleaned his wound and applied a fresh poultice. She about gagged at the smell that came from the sallow and oozing hole in his breast. When she’d spread the adhesive sap on his chest and pressed a new bandage onto him, she ran back to the Sholai and splashed icy water on her face, as if that would chase away the smell.

Neri and what was left of the Owls stood vigil in the trees. She couldn’t see them but she knew they were there. What was left of the Stone Guard stood in a quiet circle around their camp. She was still shivering from their desperate scramble through the Sholai. She wasn’t as surefooted as the big men she travelled with, and slipped several times on the rocks. Neri apologised to her profusely, as he’d chosen the spot for them to ford, but she insisted the blame was on her clumsy feet.

“I can’t do anything with my feet,” she told him later through chattering teeth. “I’m only good with my hands. Give me a locked door, or a puzzle, or a needle and thread, and I’m your girl.” Neri had given her his cloak, and she huddled in it for hours, for safety as well as warmth. The cloaks worn by the Owl Guard blended in with almost any terrain, and she felt as if she’d turned invisible when he first draped it over her shoulders. Halfur had even tripped over her one night, as he stumbled around in the throws of his fever.

“How do you feel?” she asked him. He’d been dutiful about keeping the poultice on, despite the searing pain it caused him. She’d stitched the wound shut, and his skin was beginning to heal, though the inflammation had not faded, and pus still seeped out in a constant flow. At least he stopped mumbling. His mumbling had frightened her. He spoke nonsense, and his eyes rolled back in his head. She thought he was going to die then, when his fever blazed and he was in a constant state of delirium. She was glad she got to him when she did, though she wished she also could have saved the Stone Guard the humans shot. Whatever poison they dipped their arrows in, it was powerful, and worked quickly. She’d dressed all their wounds, but only one of them made it, and he was in a worse state than her brother. She didn’t expect him to last much longer, no matter how tough a man he was.

Halfur moaned softly, and almost formed a word. She was so proud of him. He did everything she told him to do without complaint, no matter how much the stitching hurt, how hotly the poultice burned, or how foul the herbal mash she fed him tasted. And because he listened to her, he was still alive. She’d wandered into the forest the first night, when she wasn’t sure if he’d make it or not. She wanted to stay by his side, but she knew he’d be angry if he heard her cry, so she found a shrub to hide in when she couldn’t hold back her tears.

“You dress wounds well, Dread Highness,” said Neri from above. He was standing on a sturdy branch.

“Dad had me learn,” she said. “And I’ve had lots of practice on my friend, Audun. He’s always getting hurt.”

Neri stepped back and dropped off the branch, caught it with his hands, then dropped lightly onto the ground. Yemi whistled. “You Owls are amazing,” she said, “you move like elves.”

Neri smiled and sat by her. “Do you know any elves?”.

Yemi shook her head. “I met a few of the elflords once, when I was small. Well, smaller.”

“Which elflords?”

“Uhm,” she thought hard. It had been years since they visited her father. “There was a really big one, as big as any human I've seen. I can’t remember his name. Something to do with wind, I think. And there was a lady. She wasn’t as pretty as I thought she’d be. And the swordy one was there, like, sword singer or something. I forget. I’m awful at remembering other kings and queens. I only remember Akihud and Karli, and Queen Nandi, because her and dad are such close friends.”

Neri nodded and gave her a pleasant look. “Do you want help learning other monarch’s names? I meet with scouts of other kins from time to time, and we often share information from each other’s lands.”

“Sure,” Yemi said. Anything to take her mind off the guards dying, and the awful humans with their scarfaced leader, and the wolf.

“The big elf is Besselian Sunwind, the Lord of Roamingstar. He’s a loud and rowdy fellow, as elves go. And he’s a fighter, through and through, but a happy man who takes good care of his people. The lady is Melia Riverchild. Legends say she was pretty when she was young, but that was a long time ago. She rules Farhome, and they’ve been through a great deal of hardship. I imagine many of the elves there are less pretty than others. A hard life shows on a person’s face. As for the swordy one, his name is Meromis Bladedancer…”

“That’s right!” Yemi clapped her hands. “Dad seems to like him.”

Neri chuckled. “No one really likes Meromis, except his daughter, and one or two of the other lords. He’s a hard man, and he’s hammered Moonveil into a hard people."

"What made him such a hard man?"

"A hard life, Dread Highness. His mother once committed treason and was banished, and so he was born in exile. She brought him back to the Starwood when he was of age to be named his father’s heir, and then she went back into exile, and he never saw her again.”

Yemi felt a sudden wave of grief for the poor man. She imagined how much it must have hurt him to be parted from his mother, and felt her lip quivering. “That’s awful,” she said, holding back tears.

“Yes,” Neri agreed, “and he’s had sadder things happen since. His son and wife were killed by centaurs, and Moonveil was invaded several times by goblins and drow. They’ve also fought against orcs, other elves, and even us.”

“He fought us? That was stupid.”

Neri laughed. “Yes, it was. But he and your father learned to respect each other from that battle. Each saw what the other could do. That's when he and Chief Yormun first envisioned the Owl Guard.”

“You seem to know more about Meromis than the other elflords.”

“You’re very observant, Dread Highness. His daughter is one of the other scout captain’s I know. Her name’s Dathenyn Wolfshadow, and we’ve become friends over the years.”

“Is she pretty?”

“Very. Well, for an elf.”

Yemi giggled. “You like dwarf women better? Or do you even like women?”

“I’m very fond of all women, but I doubt I’ll ever marry.”

Yemi nodded. It wasn’t common amongst the dwarves of the citadel, but she knew many men in her realm lived their entire lives as bachelors, focusing entirely on their crafts. “Sometimes I feel like I won’t marry either.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, the only boy I know who I like is Audun, but I can’t marry him. I think he’s like you.”

Neri nodded. “Is he a fighter?”

Yemi laughed heartily. That seemed to be all the answer Neri needed. They then sat in silence for a moment, looking hopefully at Halfur as he slept. Yemi wiped the sweat off his brow with her sleeve and felt his head, and then his cheek. His head was still very warm, but his cheek was cold. “I wish we could make a fire,” she said, shivering against the damp chill that clung to her bones. bones

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“I wish a lot of things right now, Dread Highness.”

A pair of tears made their way down her cheeks. “Why did they attack us?” she asked, unable to stop herself from sobbing. She scooted over to Neri and laid her head against his shoulder. He put his arm around her and gently rocked her back and forth till she stopped crying. She then scooted back to her spot on the grass near Halfur.

“I don’t know,” Neri said. He was good at lying, Yemi could tell, as he spoke convincingly. But she knew he was too good a scout to have no clue what happened, especially since he had met with Dennel and gathered the other guards.

“I thought they were our friends,” she said mournfully. “I really like them. And Ror,” her lip threatened to quiver again, “Ror really likes Cara, and she likes him.”

“I doubt they had anything to do with any of this, Dread Highness.”

Yemi looked at Neri, and gave him the most piteous and forlorn look she possibly could, but he didn’t crack. She sighed and looked back down at the ground, then curled up in her bedroll next to Halfur and went to sleep.

It was dark when she woke, dark and cold. The wind shook the leaves above her as Neri was shaking her. Two of the Owls were helping her brother to his feet and wrapping him in a warm cloak from one of their packs. Yemi stood quickly and sneezed, then tied Neri’s cloak about her in a sort of robe-skirt, so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground and trip her. Without speaking she rolled up her bedroll, lashed it to the top of her pack, then slung her pack over her shoulders. She was about to ask what was the matter when the wolf howled.

She wanted to fall to her knees and cry. The dreadwolf frightened her more than the men, even their scarfaced leader. She looked across the river and saw the beast padding along the bank. It’s eyes pierced through the dark of night, drinking the moonlight that shimmered over the Sholai and spitting it back at Yemi. Indeed the glow of the dreadwolf’s eyes seemed to be taunting her, whispering cruelly to her that they could not escape. Neri whistled quietly and everyone backed further into the shadows under the trees. Yemi heard the creaking of bows being notched in the boughs above her. The wolf howled again, and the Hood stepped into view.

She heard a quiet hoot above her. She was beginning to understand the Owl’s signals. I have the shot, that one meant. Neri made a quiet sound that reminded Yemi of an insect chirping. That meant ‘We’ll reveal our location’. Sometimes she thought Neri was overly cautious, but he’d kept them alive this long, in spite of the army that hunted them. In fact, if not for Neri’s caution, they all would have been shot with poisoned arrows. It his clever planning led to them discovering that the humans had run out of poison, and only had regular arrows left.

They’d come upon them in the night, and the Stone Guard that were shot weren’t wearing their full armor. The ones who were charged ahead, but they were overwhelmed by the humans, and Yemi watched one of them get torn apart by the wolf.

It was a remarkable creature; gaunt and swift, and near the height of a pony. She would have found it beautiful, were it not trying to kill them, or bound to such a hideous man as the Hood. She watched him toying with one of the Stone Guard. He’d killed three of the Hood’s men, and the Hood punished him, making his death slow. They heard his screams for hours as they fled, as if the Hood had him carried along so his cries of pain could serve to torture them as well. They found his body hanging in the tries ahead of them the next day. That was when Neri led them across the river. He’d loosened half the stones they forded over as they crossed, and one of the Hood’s scouts fell into the river and was swept away by its current. One of the Owls searched for him later and found him dead, crushed by rocks and frozen stiff. Yemi had felt traces of peace then, but now that the wolf found them they would never be safe.

They trekked northward from the river as quickly as they dared with Halfur and the sick guard. She heard the Owls talking quietly around her as they walked. The Sholai was too wide, swift and cold to cross, she heard them say, but it would narrow soon, and there were thin trees that could be felled along the banks and be used as bridges. Neri didn’t want to risk her life or Halfur’s, and continued to urge caution, and so they carried on away from the river for the next couple of days, keeping their heads low and travelling by night, while sleeping under cover of the woods by day. It seemed to Yemi that the Owls never slept, and rarely ate. No wonder they were all so hard and lean. They were different than the other elite troops Yemi had seen, though. There was a niceness about them; the kind of refinement that factored into the selection of officers who might live in the citadel, and not in Forvangur, where warriors were free to act out whatever harshness was in their hearts. Yemi found herself wondering why the Owl Guard were a loosely kept secret when they could be pleasant with non combatants, and figured it must have something to do with their personalities. It’s probably why they’re scouts. They like to be hidden.

They passed the narrow point in the river without incident. But not long after they came to a steep hill and saw a thing that crushed Yemi’s heart. Obrus rose high above the other mountains, and they saw smoke rising from the Brow. Yemi looked through Halfur’s spyglass and saw that Magni had been destroyed. The Master Lens had fallen a ways down the western slope and lay in a bent heap, and the other telescopes all had been torn down and smashed. “Halfur…” she whimpered. He took the glass from her and looked. He was silent, though his hand dropped limp at his side and he dropped his spy glass on the ground so hard the lense cracked. Yemi picked it up and tucked it into her pack anyway.

Her brother was in a dour mood all that day. He never slept, rather questioned Neri repeatedly about what he heard Salimod and the drow discussing. I knew he was lying, Yemi thought as she lay still with her eyes shut. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, she genuinely couldn’t sleep, but so long as they didn’t know she could hear them…

“Yemi,” her brother said, “sit up. I know you’re awake. Did you notice anything suspicious at the Tall Hill? Did either of the children say anything that struck you as strange?”

“No. They acted normal.”

“What about Cara?”

“She was fine. I mean, she had those dreams after the dancing stars…”

“I don’t care about that. I need to understand what’s happened.”

She nodded. “Well, I honestly didn’t see anyone acting strange, or suspicious. I’m as surprised as you.”

“I’m not surprised.” Halfur looked angry and worried at the same time, “Yemi, do you understand what’s happening?”

“No,” she said honestly, “no I don’t. I mean, I’m sad about Magni, but, we can fix it. And I’m worried someone Ror or dad or Uncle Balvor might be hurt, and I miss Uncle Lobuhl, and I don’t understand why Salimod tried to bury us, but maybe it was an accident?”

Halfur closed his eyes for a moment before speaking again. “If the goblins made it to the summit and destroyed Magni, that means no one remained to stop them, and that means Thrond is lost, which means we aren’t going back there, and it means that the goblins had help. They could never defeat us on their own. Neri sent two of his ahead men to scout the kingdom. We’ll know in three days if our people are being held captive, or if they’ve escaped. In the mean time, I need to understand what happened to us in High Alden. If Salimod did betray us, as it seems from what Neri heard, then dad will kill him. Unless dad is dead, and then mum will kill him, if she lives, and if not her, Ror will kill him, and if Ror is dead, then I will, slowly. I’d prefer to know his guilt for a certainty before one of us paints the ruins of the Tall Hill with his innards. Can you think of anything that could prove he did, or did not betray us.”

She wanted to cry, but she knew Halfur would never trust her with any serious conversations again if she did. “No,” she said, “no. Everyone acted normal. Just like I do when bad things are going on. I never know till after…”. She fought desperately to keep her composure, but it was so hard. I’m so stupid! No one else is crying. Why do I have to be so much sadder than everyone else?

“Yemi,” said her brother, his voice now somewhat softer, “you can cry, just this once.” He lifted a corner of his mouth in a faint half-smile.

She let her lip quiver, and she sobbed a little, but she had fewer tears than she thought. Halfur then rested, though he did not sleep, and Yemi distracted herself by thinking of all the ways their family could have escaped. She knew Audun would be alright. They’d explored almost every hidden passage in the mountain together, he knew his way around even better than she did. Whenever she couldn’t find her way through a maze of tunnels, or figure out the tumblers of a lock, Audun would always rock back and forth on his heels for a moment and then with a snap of his fingers figure out exactly what to do or where to go.

In truth, it was only her mother and father she worried about. Uncle Balvor would get Idana out of the kingdom first thing, she was sure, and Ror and his big friend would take care of Klar. But her father would never abandon Thrond, and her mother would never abandon him.

That night they made good time, striking a straight path that led them underground for most of the night. They passed under a network of grottos in a patch of hollow hills, and through the grottos they found a fairly large cavern that connected with some of the lesser used dimroads. She was grateful to have solid ground over head. She felt dizzy walking under the open sky, especially when there were no clouds. The sky looked much the way the ocean had been described to her, and felt unnerved by the vast expanse of rooflessness it presented, and the sun glared down like an ever watching eye. Only when the sun warmed her skin did Yemi not mind being exposed above ground. But once they were inside the earth she felt right again.

Morning was well under way when they emerged. The dimroad turned far to the north and then west, and there were no more caverns between them and the Ladder to the Moon. Yemi was lamenting their ascent above ground when Neri suddenly nocked and drew his bow. Another of the Owls pointed to the ground by Yemi and Halfur’s feet. At first she didn’t see the tracks, but there they were, massive and deep; the paw prints of a dreadwolf.