Sy faltered. He’d never seen her so shaken. He took her by the arms and guided her toward a fallen log near his resting place, to sit. Sitting beside her, he tried to draw her back out of herself. “How did you escape?”
It worked; she took a shaky breath. “We clung to a fallen tree beneath the surface. We could hear – when it was safe. Once it stopped, we had to fight the current to surface. I know you’ll think me a lunatic, but it was like – it was like the river knew we were there and wanted to keep us.”
“And when we made it to shore,” Perrine interjected, “who was there to greet us but a badger the size of a boar, with tusks to match.”
“Perrine killed it. It was…quite impressive.” Cherry blossoms sprouted on her cheeks at the memory. “We attempted togather our bearings, but when we sat for a rest we noticed there was this…acidicmoss, eating away at a stone. It was seeping this brown liquid, like burnt grease. Almost as if the stone was bleeding, and it smelled burnt, too.Moss, Sylas.”
“We’ve been so busy, the spirits haven’t even had a chance to haunt her,” the falconer said off-handedly. “The forest’s in a real tizzy. And I’m starved.” Perrine turned to the bird on her shoulder. “Fetch us some rabbit, will you, love?”
Sy marveled at her companionship with the fierce creature; not least that it seemed to understand and obey her. He watched it soar away, fighting the wind’s strength with dips and weaves.
“She always comes back,” Perrine said, noticing him watching.
And he noticed the way Sabina watched her. “The practice of falconry is usually reserved for nobles in Gescany. Is it not in Preule?”
“Sy,” hissed Sabina.
“Oh, you’re allowed to torture my companion, and I’m not even allowed to question yours?”
“She’syourcompanion’s dearest friend. Is that not enough?”
“You vouch for Anya’s opinion? The foresthaschanged you.”
“Usually,” Perrine interrupted, grinning at Sy. She did have a winsome grin, he’d give her that. “Not in my case. They train them with hoods and bells and tethers, keep them in mews. Gruesome stuff. That one,” she said, pointing in the direction the falcon had flown, “chose me. Found her caught in a trap when she was barely more than a chick. Fed her, nursed her. Started bringing me mice, then rabbits. Figured we could make a go of it.”
“Some would argue it’s cruel to keep a bird as a pet, regardless of the method of capture.”
“I am going to turn your lipsblueif you don’t close them,” hissed Sabina from the side of her mouth.
Perrine laughed. “Some would. I say, let a free thing choose. I chose to help her, she chooses to stay with me every time she comes back. Maybe one day, she won’t.” She squinted into the light as the falcon returned, a dead rabbit in her claws. “Seems today’s not that day.”
Perrine sent her for another and began building a fire, while Sabina told Sy more of her adventures in the Lichtenwald. She had heard a child crying, a young girl. Reading the pain on her face as she recollected the sound, he wondered who the crying child, the one only she could hear, had sounded like.
Anya thought the forest had marked her, she told him. But Anya had saved her from it, twice.
As she had saved him, more than once. All with an axe hanging over her head; not over her head, but cutting into her, deeper, day by day. All with more incentive than anyone to let them all hang.
Remarkable woman, he thought, a bit awed.Unmarred, unmatched.
Sabina’s curt sigh brought him back to the present. “You aren’t listening.”
“I am,” he said gently. “And what I hear is that you should consider returning to Äbender.”
“Where do you think we’re going?”
He didn’t bother hiding his surprise. “You’re giving up?”
“Changing tacks, rather,” she said, straightening her torn skirt, to little effect.
“What about you?” Sy asked the falconer. Her falcon had returned with the second rabbit, and Perrine was skinning it.
“I’ve never seen the forest stirred up like this. I’m simply not that ambitious. At least, not in that way.” Her knife stilled as she exchanged a private look with Sabina, and Sabina’s cheeks again went pink.
Sabina turned back to Sy. “Perrine is escorting me back to Äbender, where we plan on discussing certain…businessopportunities,” she said primly. “I’ll loan the money from my dowry. My brother will simply have to allow it; I won’t takeno for an answer anymore. Perrine is a very talented chef, you see, and we’re going to open a restaurant together. In Preule.”
“Then…you’re leaving Gescany. For good.”
She pursed her lips. “It certainly seems that way.”
