Six just huffed in his face and walked deeper into the woods … where the mouth of a cave awaited.
It shifted again, another little snapshot of the past.
They were in the cave now.
‘Come on,’ Arawn growled, kneeling in the darkness while Six lay with her wings draped over both Ezer and Kinlear, her breath forming before her in too-large clouds. Frost coated the walls. ‘Vivorr, please. I need you!’
He lifted his hands before him, whispering an invocation.
There were tears on his face, and he looked terrified, desperate …
‘Not again,’ he whispered. ‘Please, not again.’
He looked back at Ezer.
And his eyeswere so full of concern, so full of … of what they’d held when he looked at her in her dreams.
And then a flame, bright and burning, surged to life in his hands.
The vision ended.
Ezer sat up, her head spinning.
‘You … went after Arawn for me?’ she asked Six. ‘For us?’
She’d reached out to him through the speaking stone. But there was no way he would have found them without Six.
The raphon twitched her tail once in confirmation. Her hot breath washed over Ezer’s face, and she lowered her head, nuzzling Ezer’s cheek with the tip of her beak. So gentle for an animal so large. ‘Thank you,’ Ezer whispered, and pressed a kiss to the raphon’s feathered head. ‘You saved us.’
Six began to purr and laid her beak back down against the cave floor. Almost as if she’d been waiting for Ezer to wake before she herself slept.
‘Kissing a raphon. That’s … certainly got to be a side effect of a concussion,’ said Arawn. ‘Not something you see every day.’
Ezer turned to find him standing at the edge of the firelight, a bundle of sticks in his arms. His eyes locked upon her, full of concern.
‘I couldn’t find you. The stone’s tracking ability doesn’t stretch beyond the wards. If it wasn’t for Six thundering into camp …’ Arawn said. ‘She’s lucky most of the garrison was out tonight. I managed to get to her before anyone else did.’ He looked at the raphon. ‘She saved you. A bond like that … it does not come often, Minder. Not even with the war eagles.’
He set down the sticks and walked slowly to the fire, careful to avoid Kinlear.
‘Tell me what happened.’
He dropped another stick on the fire and sat down beside her.
‘Shadow wolves,’ Ezer said. ‘It was my fault we went beyond the wards,’ Ezer said, when Arawn practically growled towards Kinlear. ‘Not his.’
He went quiet, listening.
‘Sixflew.She carried us away; she outflew the wolves, and for a moment, it was wonderful. Until we crashed.’
And now they were here. In a dark cave somewhere outside the wards.
‘Six refused to go back to the wards, and now it’s far too dangerous to journey by night. We can’t go back until daylight,’ Arawn said. ‘I’ve runed the front as best I can to shield our scent, but I’m no scribe.’ He looked down at her hand. ‘I runed you, too. I hope it’s okay, I didn’t know what else to do…’
‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’
Behind them, Kinlear began to cough again. They both turned, watching him.
‘His vial is empty,’ Arawn said.
