Abeke stood beside her, leaning against the archway and absently stroking the leopard’s velvety head. She didn’t bother turning when Rollan came to join her. The Granite Ram, their only other talisman, dangled from her neck, the pale gray pendant prominent against the dark of her skin.
“Hey,” Rollan said. “I know you were supposed to be your village’s Rain Dancer and all, but can you lighten up on all the dancing?” He looked up at the sky for emphasis.
Abeke’s eyes flickered to Rollan’s cloak, then went back to surveying the bleak landscape. She didn’t seem amused by his joke, and in embarrassment, he let it fade away. “Hey,” she just said.
Rollan turned serious. “Olvan says we should be able to set out soon, in the next few days.”
“Any new messages?”
He shook his head. They’d sent out dozens of stormy petrels and pigeons to their Greencloak allies and friends in other nations, hoping that some of them would receive the call for help in time to come to their aid. Abeke had sent several doves to Nilo, to deliver the news to her father and sister.
Friends — we make for Stetriol in a week. We need your help.
As far as Rollan knew, Abeke’s father hadn’t responded.
“Sorry,” he replied.
Abeke nodded her thanks, lowered her eyes, and turned away again.
Rollan pursed his lips, for once lacking a witty quip. Where was a good joke when you needed one? Abeke had been like this often lately, staring off at the horizon while lost in thought. He knew she was probably dwelling on Shane’s betrayal, and how Meilin had been forced to turn on all of them. And by the way she lowered her eyes in shame, he knew she still blamed herself for all of it.
Meilin. Again, Rollan scolded himself for returning to the thoughts that kept him tossing at night and pushing away his meals. Where is she now? he wondered. What was she thinking?
What must it feel like, to have no power over yourself?
The pain of losing Meilin irritated him for an instant. He’d done so well, for so long, on his own. But now there were people at stake, whose absences hurt him, and he didn’t like it one bit.
As if she could tell what he was thinking, Abeke tilted her head toward him and cleared her throat. “It looks good on you,” she said, offering him a weak smile.
Tarik’s cloak. Memories flashed back to him of the elder Greencloak’s last stand, of the hopeful look in Tarik’s eyes when he saw his own cloak draped in Rollan’s arms, just before he sacrificed himself. A pain spread in Rollan’s chest, until he felt like he could barely breathe.
Still, there was something comforting about Abeke’s words. As if Tarik wasn’t completely gone. Even now, the cloak protected him, shielding him from the rain. Essix ruffled her feathers again, and flecks of water went flying.
“Thanks,” he muttered. “Who knew I’d have to wrap myself up to keep warm at this time of year?”
“Olvan says the Greencloaks in Nilo are reporting weird weather there too.”
“Like what?”
“Like layers of ice over the watering holes. He said some of the animals don’t know what to make of it, and they can’t get to the water.”
Ice. In Nilo? Rollan tried to imagine the oasis where they’d found Cabaro, encased in a thick layer of ice. “Well. That sounds like a nice, normal summer.”
Abeke couldn’t help smiling a little at his sarcasm. “I can’t remember seeing that — or even hearing about it — when I lived in Nilo. The tribes must be in chaos.”
“Or skating around and playing games. I mean, I would.”
That coaxed a genuine laugh out of her. “I can see it. Planks of wood and antelope bone strapped to our feet.”
Rollan leaned in with a conspiratorial grin. “I bet Uraza would love that. Wouldn’t you?” He nodded at Uraza, who regarded him with a rather withering look.
The two chuckled a little, and then their moment of humor faded.
Rollan realized that Abeke must be wondering how her father and sister were doing. He shifted his boots against the damp stone floor. “Do you think they’re okay?” he asked.
Abeke shrugged. For a moment, she threw her shoulders back in an illusion of confidence. “I haven’t thought much about it,” she said, almost too careful about her carelessness.
The lie in her words and posture was so obvious that Rollan could have sensed it even without his gifts from Essix. Still, he just nodded along. He had lost his mentor, the only man he’d ever thought of as a father … but Abeke’s true father had turned his back on her. And the person Abeke had always considered a good friend — Shane — had used her friendship too.
“Abeke,” Rollan suddenly said, touching her arm with his hand. She and Uraza both turned to look at him in unison. “Look. I know what you must be going through. You don’t have to pretend around me.” He hesitated. He’d never been all that good at gestures of serious emotion. “It’s not your fault,” he finally said. “Shane’s betrayal … He’s the one who should feel guilty, not you. You couldn’t have known. You love and you trust. And I just wanted to say … well, that I’m sorry people keep taking advantage of that trust.”
Abeke studied him for a long moment. She still looked sad, but Rollan thought he could see some of the guilt lift from her eyes. After a while, she nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry that you’ve had to wait so long to trust others,” she replied.
The two fell into a comfortable silence. After a while, Rollan shook his head and nudged her gently. “The ice will pass, I know it. All I can say is that I’d be mad if Nilo was hogging all the blue sky and sunshine.”
Abeke cracked a wry smile. Uraza let out a comforting rumble deep in her throat, then nudged the girl’s hand with her head.
Suddenly Rollan felt Essix’s weight shift on his shoulder. An instant later, she pushed off from him and launched herself into the air with an earsplitting shriek. The movement nearly sent him tumbling backward. He flinched, his ears ringing, and looked on as she soared up into the sky. “Hey!” he shouted up at her, annoyed. “I know you’re loud — you don’t have to show off!”
“What is she doing?” asked Abeke.
“I don’t know. Probably decided she was hungry after all.” But the migrating birds were too far off in the distance now. Something else must have caught her attention. Rollan looked at Essix as she flew farther away —
— and then, abruptly, the world rushed forward around him, and he could see through her eyes.
He soared up, up, above the castle and into the open air, and then he looked down at where their small figures stood at the entrance. Essix’s gaze turned sharply to focus on one of the castle’s battlements. She shrieked again. This time, it was the distinct cry of something going very, very wrong.
Rollan looked closer. There, along the slippery, wet edge of the battlement’s stone barrier, walked Conor.
Conor didn’t walk in a concentrated way. He swayed and teetered dangerously along the ledge, as if he wasn’t quite awake. The hairs rose on the back of Rollan’s neck. What on Erdas is he doing up there? Rollan blinked, feeling his vision rush back to the ground and return to him. He pointed up in horror.
“Is that Conor?” he said incredulously.
“What?” Abeke exclaimed. She looked too. Immediately she straightened, then squinted as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing either. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Conor!” she shouted up at the battlement. “Hey, Conor!”
But Conor didn’t seem to hear her. He didn’t seem to notice anything, actually, not even the fact that he was now inching his way along the edge of the battlement. Where was Briggan? Rollan glanced frantically around the top of the tower, but the enormous gray wolf was nowhere to be seen. Briggan must have been in his passive state.
A chill ran down Rollan’s spine as he thought back to Meilin’s strange, Bile-addled behavior. What if Conor was somehow affected by the Bile too? Rollan felt a sudden urge to call out for Tarik — un
til he remembered, with a pang, that Tarik was no longer there to help them.
“Come on!” he hissed at Abeke, grabbing her hand. He dashed through the entrance, back into the castle, and toward the stairs leading up to the battlement. They ran up the steps two at a time. Rollan almost tripped on one step, but caught himself and hurried on. Uraza bounded beside them, each of her strides equal to three of theirs.
By the time they emerged at the top of the wet battlement, Uraza was already there. Rollan wiped rain out of his eyes, and his gaze settled on Conor’s teetering figure.
No!
Essix shrieked again and dove for the boy. Rollan lunged forward as fast as he could.
He reached Conor — right as Conor slipped off the edge.
Copyright © 2015 by Scholastic Inc.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013953382
Map illustration by Michael Walton
First edition, January 2015
e-ISBN 978-0-545-52260-1
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