Page 26

“No, it’s delicious. Just not hungry.” I forced a smile, but my face felt tight behind it.

Lyric squinted at me. “Everything all right? Revel seems a little tense, too.”

“All good.”

Austri got to his feet and took the last swig from a flask before handing it off to Revel to drop into the sack. He waddled off in the same direction Revel and I had just come, and the rest of us fell into our usual formation.

“I need to ask Austri something. Be right back,” I told Lyric.

I could feel the heat of Revel’s gaze on the side of my face as I rushed past him to the front of the group. Austri had been staring at his compass. He glanced up. “Rafi, you should be back with Lyric.”

“I’ll go back there in a moment. Austri, I’d like you to take me back home.”

“That’s where we’re heading, Rafi.”

“No, I mean back home, to the cottage. I could pay you once we got there. I have some money in a savings account.”

His chuckle was deep and gritty. “Now, what would I do with human money?”

“I have a gold necklace. I could give you that.”

His head turned, and he tilted it to look up at me. “We trade and barter in Norvale. Goods and services, those are the monetary system.” His eyes glossed with sympathy. “Ya can na go back there, Rafi. It’s not safe. Your home is in Norvale. I’m sorry.”

Austri kept walking, and I dropped back to Lyric.

“What were you asking him?” Lyric asked.

“Just wondering if I wasn’t better off going back to the cottage.”

“You’re not still on about that, are you?” Lyric took hold of my hand. “You’re safer in Norvale with us, Rafi.”

My face dropped, and I watched my tattered black boots squish into the wet ground. “Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps telling me.”

Lyric sensed I wasn’t in the mood for talking, so she stayed silent, but she kept a firm hold of my hand, as if she worried I’d take off at a run. If I’d been anywhere less grim, less scary than the Ironfall Wilds, I probably would have.

I sank into an even darker mood, but once we stepped free of the suffocatingly lush trees, slim rays of day broke through the mist. Lines of glowing light rained down, illuminating the tall majestic peaks of a mountain range.

I stopped, stared at the mountains and took a deep breath. For the first time since we’d entered the Wilds, the air tasted sweet and fresh. Lyric stopped, too. “Those are the Avion Mountains. They border Norvale on the north. We’re almost home.”

“Home,” I repeated, only my image of home was entirely different than hers. Homesickness was starting to edge into my bones, my chest and my soul like a burning acid.

Lyric tugged my hand to keep me moving, but my feet felt as if I was wearing cement shoes. Revel stared ahead. We hadn’t made eye contact once, which was a good thing. We came to a river, much smaller and less fierce than the river in Dante Fell. I’d allowed him to carry me across when I should have just turned and run. Here, we crossed over a bridge.

Austri picked up the pace again. Lyric laughed. “He’s heading toward his pint of ale.”

We reached a wide dirt trail that was marked with wagon wheel ruts. In the distance, I heard the clamor of a busy town. We reached a wooden gate. A tall young man with dark blond hair and a shaggy beard stepped out of the connecting tower. “Who is entering Norvale?” he asked, then his eyes rounded. “Austri, is that you?”

“Sure is, young Jodon, and we’re a group of weary travelers, so open the bloody gate.”

Jodon quickly opened the gate and nodded quietly to Revel as he passed. Revel picked up his pace, too. It seemed he’d finished his job of getting us through the Wilds alive, and he was done babysitting. The black raven landed on his shoulder. He turned the first corner and was gone. Austri hurried off after him, but at a short-legged pace.

Madigan and Lyric stood on each side of me as we turned the corner. The town came into view, and it felt as if we’d stepped back in time. A gray and drizzly sky shrouded a village that was dotted with stone cottages and shops. Sellers walked up and down the sides of the unpaved road with carts overflowing with produce, fabric and handmade tools. A deep gulley carved the town in two, and every twenty or so feet, along the banks of the gulley, tall, crudely built wooden towers loomed over the squat shops and cottages. Flaming torches topped off each tower. Voices and laughter and the general clamor of business filled the streets.

I took a deep breath, and all the heavy sadness flowed out of me. Something lighter replaced it, a feeling that pushed tears from my eyes.

Lyric turned to me. “Oh, Rafi, you hate it,” she said quietly.

I shook my head. “No, Lyric.” I looked at both my friends. “I’m home.”