CHAPTER 1
NAKIIS
This fire is too hot, making my wounds ache, but I asked Igaa to smother the flames a week ago, and she refused. She claims that I summon ice in my sleep, and she wants no spark of our scraver magic to linger in the air too long. She doesn’t want any risk of Xovaar or his minions finding us until I can heal enough to protect myself.
I told her not to bother. Xovaar already killed me. The death part is just taking a while.
I force my eyes open and discover the cave we share is full of sunlight, the scents of early summer filling the air. Wherever Igaa has hidden me, we must be far from any roads or houses, because I’ve heard little beyond the occasional drone of insects outside the cave. At night, it’s crickets and cicadas, but it’s bees right now. A honeysuckle bush must be nearby, because the aroma is unmistakable.
I blink again, and my eyes are slow to reopen, my vision a bit hazy around the edges. Igaa’s fire isn’t blazing anymore, but the summer warmth pressing in from outside the cave would melt any ice immediately anyway. I wish we had been able to reach the forests ofIishellasa— or, at the very least, the banks of the Frozen River. Igaa could have cast me into the flowing rapids, and I would’ve slipped under the surface. My death would’ve been swift: painless and cold.
Dying here, in this miserable heat, seems to add insult to injury.
I let my eyes fall closed again. The cave is empty. Has she been gone long? I’ve stopped being able to measure time by a matter of minutes and hours, and now it seems that the days slip out of my grasp between my wakings. Even now, I have no idea how much time passes before my eyes open again, only that the angle of sunlight has changed. The droning bees have moved on.
A twinge of worry flickers through my head. So many of the others have already been destroyed by Xovaar and his allies. I can’t lose Igaa, too.
Then again, maybe I should stop fighting. I’ve already lost.
The air currents change, speaking a language all their own. I might not be able to fly, but my wings twitch a little as the slightest breeze flickers across my feathers, a momentary chill breaking through the brutal heat of the day.
Magic.Alarm cracks through my chest, and my wings rustle, as if I have the strength to flee a threat.
But then I recognize the flare of power on the air, and my heart settles, my eyes falling closed in relief.
Igaa.
The scent of fresh meat strikes me at once, and then an animal carcass is unceremoniously dropped on the cave floor in front of me.
I don’t move.
— I know you’re awake,Igaa says, speaking her thoughts to my mind, the way we do when we’re high in the air and the wind makes speech impractical.—Eat.
My eyes remain closed.—I’m not hungry.
A human woman might beg and cajole, but Igaa isn’t human, andshe’s likely had quite enough of my resistance to her tending. I’m not surprised when the air currents shift again, just before her claws take hold of my chin and twist, forcing my jaw open. A second later, a scrap of raw flesh is pressed between my teeth.
I’m stronger than she is, and in another time or place, I could knock her hand away.
Right now, I can barely hold my head up.
— Eat,she says again, pressing my mouth closed as if I might spit it out just to spite her.
It’s tempting.
But no, the fresh blood is a bloom of copper on my tongue, and even if my brain is ready to give up, my body isn’t. Against my will, my mouth automatically begins to chew.
Igaa’s grip gentles. When I swallow, she presses another wet piece of flesh in behind it.
I want to resist. This all feels so futile.
But I don’t.
After a few more pieces, I turn my face away, and her sharp claws press into my jaw again.
This time it draws a growl from my throat, but even that sounds pathetically weak.—Igaa. No.
She sighs.—I should find your magesmith. I suspect his magic could heal this.
