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“Another basket. This one from Argo and Urla.” Raina carried the basket with freshly picked vegetables into the kitchen. I sipped some tea. “You’re the town hero, my little Rafi.” She looked pointedly at my breeches and boots. “What are you up to this afternoon?”

“I told Lyric I’d walk over to her house for a visit.” The first tidal surge had freaked me out enough to pull back into my usual hermit shell, but the second one had boosted my confidence enough that I’d found myself venturing out more.

“Oh, I have some herbs for Isla.” Raina scuttled off to fill a basket with fresh herbs. I finished my tea and grabbed the cloak I’d been given when we first arrived in Troikana. It was probably my favorite piece of clothing because it made me feel like a true Valian. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged.

I pulled on the cloak. A heavy mist made the air cold and clammy. As I stepped out, I lifted the deep hood up over my head. Lyric lived a few miles away in a stone cottage with a green front porch. Her mom had two big white geese that patrolled the yard like attack dogs. They’d chased me twice. Lyric had shown me a shortcut through the hydra forest, which cut about a mile out of the trek. The hydra forest was uninviting and eerie to walk through alone, but Lyric had assured me there were no boneweavers or moss serpents lurking about, like in the Ironfall Wilds. I was armed with only a basket of herbs as a weapon if needed.

Walking the path through the lush, immortal trees always made my heart race. Twice, I stopped, certain that I’d heard a noise, but then a dense silence would follow. The fleshy leaves and multiple branches allowed almost no light to shine through, and the damp ground was slippery with brown moss. A pungent odor wafted up from the slushy ground with every step. The trees themselves felt almost alive with energy, which made sense considering their ability to propagate.

A weak crying sound floated through the heavy branches as I reached the darkest section of forest. I stopped to listen. It sounded like a small child. I followed the sobs and found a young girl with shiny brown hair and a yellow dress sitting on a low branch. Her small feet swung back and forth nervously, and her tiny hands covered her face. A rag doll with red hair was propped next to her on the branch. She wasn’t a child I’d seen in town, but then I wasn’t in town that much.

I moved slowly, not wanting to startle her. “Hello,” I said softly.

She sniffled and lifted her face from her hands. She had big round eyes, a button nose and a bow-shaped mouth. She didn’t seem frightened of me, so I moved closer.

“Are you lost? I can help you out of the forest, and together, we could find your home.” I reached her side.

Her tears stopped, and she smiled sweetly up at me with big doe eyes. “I can’t find my mama.”

“Well, maybe if we walk around town together, we can find her. What’s your name?” I asked.

“I’m Rossi. What’s your name?” She picked up her doll.

“I’m Raphael. Take my hand, and we can walk out of this dark forest.”

She smiled. “No thank you.” She hopped down, tore off through the trees and disappeared.

“What the hell?” I stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds, then something frightening occurred to me. Was the child sent by the Regnas or the Solamites to find me? I had very stupidly given her my name. I decided not to mention the incident to anyone because I was feeling pretty foolish about getting duped by a kid. Or maybe she wasn’t a kid at all. Lyric had mentioned to me that some Solamites had the ability to briefly change their appearance. I pushed the thought from my head for now and hurried through the rest of the forest.

A sigh of relief fell off my lips as I stepped out from the heavy shroud of trees. The incident with the young girl was still nudging me, mostly with a “Well done, Miss Naïve,” but I felt secure inside the Valian borders, especially knowing that a certain massive warrior always seemed to be around when I got into trouble. Often, when I was out, I spotted his raven hovering nearby as if keeping his eye on me. I paused and glanced around making sure that was not the case this afternoon; otherwise, surely, Revel would have seen me frivolously tell a stranger, albeit a very innocent-looking stranger, my name.

I reached Lyric’s farm. The two geese spotted me instantly and trotted my direction, necks outstretched and honking like cars stuck in traffic. Lyric heard the honking and dashed out onto the porch. “Perry and Ellie, stop now!” The geese put on the brakes, nearly crashing into each other in their haste. They each eyed me suspiciously before spinning around and heading back to the grassy spot near the house.

Lyric came hurrying over. “Mama is on a rant about spilling this morning’s porridge. Let’s go somewhere.”

I held up the basket of herbs. “Maybe these will help her mood.”

“I wouldn’t count on it. I’ll put them on the porch. I don’t want to step inside because she’ll start up again, and she’s been bothering me about the mess in my room. She forgets I’m an adult.” Lyric delivered the herbs to the porch and returned with a plan. “I thought we could go to the Black Dragon. I heard Madi and Austri are there this afternoon for the dart contest.”

“But you hate the Black Dragon,” I reminded her.

“I do, but there are not that many places to hang out in this boring town.”

“Well, I’d love to see Madi and Austri, and I’ll even try some ale.”

Lyric’s brows lifted. “You’ve never drank ale?”

“Oh, sure, remember all those times I came home drunk telling you about my adventures at the local tavern?”

Lyric wrapped her arm around mine. “All right, silly question.”

As we walked and Lyric went on about her mom’s rant, we were joined by a nosy black raven. Omni flew just ahead of us and, occasionally, stopped on rooftops pretending to be interested in the insects crawling around the thatch.

“Give it up, bird,” I called up to him. “I know you’re watching me.” The raven dropped down to a fence, and I walked up to it. His black eyes stared at me intuitively and with a drop of amusement. “I’m off for a wild afternoon of darts and ale,” I said to the raven, hoping my message would reach Revel. “I’ll try not to get into trouble.”

We walked on, and Omni flew off. “I think that worked,” Lyric said.

“Hold on. Omni is Revel’s sight animal, but can he hear what I’m saying through the bird?”