The shadow fell from the trees, landing in our campsite. Her hair was like spun gold, her pale skin ruddy from the cold. Around her shoulders was the pelt of an animal—a wolf.
"Your cargo," she purred, walking to our fire. "Hand it over."
"Not this time, vermin," Brigit said, looking to me. "I came with reinforcements."
More movement in the trees—I counted at least five more. Slowly, I rose to my feet. "I don't want to hurt you. So just be on your way."
She chuckled and kicked the fire. Did she throw something into it? "I've been watching you, Forcadelian. The mountain's already half-defeated you. Besides," she grinned, "I, too, have reinforcements."
The others fell from the trees—I'd miscounted, there were ten. Or fifteen. I squinted but had a hard time distinguishing between person and tree.
"See? She can't even handle herself up here." The girl turned to Brigit. "I'll ask again. A third time and I'll take your life as punishment for your disrespect."
"Girl, get yourself together," Brigit spat at me. "And I would rather give up my life than willingly give anything to you creatures."
Katya's worried eyes flashed through my mind. "Don't test me," I said, trying to sound tough, but there was a burning sensation in my throat. I coughed roughly, rubbing my eyes and struggling to maintain my breath and sanity. This wasn't just altitude. There was something else. Something Nestori.
With heavy limbs, I stumbled over to the carriage to retrieve the bow and arrow, but I only had the two arrows. I'd planned on making more, but I'd left my mind back in the lowlands.
"Look out!"
I moved almost too late as a sword landed where my shoulder had been. I fell onto my back, the thrill of battle jarring me out of my stupor. The blade came for me again, and I batted it away with my knife, swinging my leg around and knocking the attacker onto their rear. Almost by instinct, I drove the knife into his shoulder, pinning him to the carriage for now.
"Now," I said, straightening and facing the girl who'd come for us. "Where were we?"
"You were surrendering," she said with a knowing smile. "Or do you want to experience pain like you've never felt before?"
I snorted. "You're going to have to do better than that."
And just like that, I was back in my element. With a smirk, I jumped into the carriage, grabbed the bow, nocked the arrow, and sent it flying into the tree. A cry of pain echoed, and a man fell from the tree, the arrow in his shoulder. Two were out, but more seemed to appear every second.
"What are you doing?" Brigit cried, holding onto the reins of the bucking horse. "Kill them!"
I didn't have time to respond as the first girl was back, livid and swinging wildly with her sword. I parried with my other knife, blocked, but couldn't get far enough away to land a disarming blow.
And then, suddenly, she stopped, giving me a knowing look. "You've got the look of someone who's made a few mistakes."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, gripping my sword and ready for whatever mind games she was playing.
"The Mother has a gift for you."
She pulled something out of her pocket—a powder—and blew hard, sending a cloud of white into my eyes and nose. I coughed, taking a step back. My eyes burned, my throat burned, and I rubbed my face as quickly as I could.
"What in the Mother was…"
My voice died in my throat. Before my eyes, the woman's face shifted—elongated. The trees grew dark—black as night and as tall as mountains. I fell backward, landing hard on my hands as I craned my neck, watching this giant wolf prowl amongst the trees.
But these trees were no longer Niemenian. They'd morphed. I was back in Celia's forest, the black sky flashing with lightning. Whistles echoed around me as I swung my sword wildly. It connected with a body, and when I turned to see who, my heart froze in my chest. Oleander, the royal guard I'd killed when I was fifteen, lay on the ground, an arrow in his chest. But as I fell to my knees beside him, he changed into Tasha, the butcher's son.
Someone was screaming, far away. "The leaf, girl! Use the leaf!"
A wolf stood between the two of us, cackling and taunting me. Murderer. Murderer. I looked around as more bodies lay before me, a battlefield full of death.
"Brynn."
Felix was walking toward me, his blue uniform dark with blood. He fell to his knees as a dark shadow approached from behind.
"Felix! Look out!" I screamed as the shadow raised her sword. She was me…
"Use the leaf!"
"What?"
"The leaf!" the shadow was screaming, but it wasn't my voice. It was Brigit's.
The leaf—the small satchel in my pocket. With thick fingers, I wrapped my fingers around the bag and yanked it from my belt. I turned it over and a sprinkle of dark green pieces fell out and I plucked one from the ground, clumsily sticking it in my mouth.
Immediately, a tart, bitter taste filled my mouth. My mind swam, but then cleared, as quickly as fog in the heat of a bright sun. Tears flooded my eyes and I blinked hard. The world faded from the dark, terrifying one of my dreams into the dull, cold world of the Niemenian forest. The wolf returned to a woman, and the dead bodies faded into nothing.
"No matter," the woman said, pulling out her sword. "We'll kill you by force."
I jumped to my feet, ready to engage. Then my eyes cleared more, revealing the woman to be no more than a girl. The others, five of them, were barely thirteen. There didn't seem to be an adult amongst them.
"They're kids," I said, looking to Brigit for confirmation.
"Don't let their youth fool you, Larissa," she said. "They're deadly."
"They aren't deadly. They're desperate," I said. "Using Nestori magic to trick us."
"You'll have more to worry about than us, then," Brigit snarled. "The Mother will punish you for using her magic to rob and steal."
The girl reared back, fear flashing across her face. I took her momentary distraction to pin her to the tree with an arrow. I took care to avoid her shoulder, but her pelt was big enough to keep her pinned to the tree.
"What's the meaning of this?" the girl wolf snarled, ripping at her pelt. She'd either have to lose the pelt or stay there, and I was fairly sure she wasn't going to give up her fur.
"Does your clan elder know you're using the Mother's magic this way?" I asked the girl softly.
Immediately, she reared back in fear but shook it off. "Who cares? I won't go back empty-handed."
I turned to Brigit, who was still snarling at the bleeding children as if they'd attack at any moment. There was a way for all parties to get out of this, but I had to be careful. "Can you spare one pelt?"
"W-what?" She shook her head violently. "No way."
"What's your game, Forcadelian?" the wolf asked.
"You won't go back empty-handed, but you're clearly outmatched," I said. "If you continue to fight, I'll have no choice but to kill you."
She swallowed, her pale face determined.
"But I'm willing to offer you a deal," I said. "I'll send you back to your clan with one pelt and your lives. And you will leave us be on the rest of the trip."
"What?" Brigit cried.
"I don't understand," the girl said, casting me a wary look. "Why would you let us live?"
I smiled. "Because you'll have to explain your wounds to your elders. Think of this as your comeuppance for using the Mother's magic for evil."
It was a roll of the dice, but I had a hunch these kids were operating outside their clan's rules. They knew they were outnumbered, but youthful ignorance would get them killed. Best to send them back to their elders with their tails between their legs and the fear of the Mother in their hearts.
I walked to the boy who was pinned to our carriage and pressed my hand to his shoulder. "This will hurt. One…two…"
I yanked the blade out and his screams echoed into the night. I caught him as he tumbled forward then carried him to the older girl, who watched me with a wild curiosity.
"I don't get it," she said. "Why won't you kill us?"
"Because," I said, pulling the arrow and freeing her from the tree, "that's not what I do." I looked to Brigit, whose face was a mask of fury. "Get the wagon together. We're going on."
We traveled by lamplight for another hour. Brigit's anger was palpable, even in the darkness, but perhaps she was too angry even to speak. Finally, when we'd put enough distance between ourselves and the wolves, we stopped and made a small fire.
"They'll be back," she said as I took my seat across from her. "And when they do return, they'll not only take my cargo, but my life."
"You're welcome for getting us both out of there unscathed tonight," I said, leaning back against the tree. "And they won't be back."
"How do you know?"
"The girl wouldn't speak the truth, but her actions were loud enough," I said. "She was afraid when I said she'd have to tell her elders what she'd been doing. And even more so when you said the Mother would punish her for her actions. My guess is that they've been tasked with retrieving pelts for their elders and have been picking off travelers instead of killing and skinning them themselves."
Brigit chewed on her pipe. "Did you learn that as the vigilante?"
"No," I said quietly. "I learned that when I was a thief just like them." I chuckled as I rubbed my eyes, which were still raw from the powder. "Though I've never seen that powder they used. What was it?"
"Hyblatha."
I did a double-take. "Hyblatha? As in the flower used in calming tea?"
"The flower is used in teas and tinctures, but the seed is more potent and poisonous," she said. "It causes hallucinations. The wolf idea was already planted in your mind, and the powder merely enhances that thought. That's why she asked you about mistakes. I'm sure whatever you saw in your hallucination was exactly what she wanted you to see."
I shivered, trying to erase Felix's bloody body from my mind. "Yeah, well, it worked. Thanks, by the way, for the antidote."
"That's tinneum," she said. "We use it to cure all kinds of ails, from fever dreams to illness and even the panics." She pulled down her upper lip to show me the small leaf pressed against her gum. "I'd be shaking in my skin if I didn't have this right now."
I pulled the bag from my belt and inhaled. "Is it okay if I keep this bag?"
She nodded. "What did you see that scared you so much?"
"A giant wolf."
"No," she said. "There was something else. Something that shook you to your core. Wolves are fearsome, but that was a soul-shattering terror on your face."
I exhaled, the image coming back into my mind. "A few years ago, when I was a thief, I was sent on my first mission alone. I killed a man. A royal guard."
"First time?"
I nodded. "I couldn't get his face out of my mind. So I returned to Forcadel to apologize to his family. I was going to turn myself in." I tilted my gaze upward. "Instead, the Mother saw fit to put a different path in front of me. I used the skills Celia taught me to help a woman. I decided that, instead of rotting away in a dungeon, I could use my skills to do good. Make Forcadel a safer place."
"And you saw that man?" Brigit said.
I nodded. "But he had a different face." Tasha had been the boy I'd been physical with for a few years, the son of the butcher where I'd swept during my Veil days. He and his parents had been killed when Ilara's bombs landed in their butchery. Their deaths were as much on my hands as Oleander's.
"Is that why you wouldn't kill those wolves?" she asked.
"I'm capable of resolving problems without taking a life," I said quietly. "It just takes patience."
"You know, one day you'll have to kill again, especially if you're going to war for your princess," Brigit said.
To that, I had still no good answers, so I looked at my hands. "Maybe I can just use some of that root on the kingdom. Make them hallucinate until I take over."
She made a small noise then said, "Perhaps. Or you can sprinkle them with a little bit of your optimism if you believe that the wolves are going to leave me alone."
I didn't respond; however, I'd seen our newfound friends following us in the trees. And they didn't bother us at all.