Chapter 1: Callista
Winter 1009 yap
9 months after events in Ice and the Elves
The Terrarinor River, separating the northern border of Moorehead from the southern border of Hemlit
My brother’s magic lit his trail across the great Terrarinor River like smoke highlights the trail of heat from a candle. Ignoring it would be wisest—Alastor was technically an adult—but I’d embraced the habit of looking out for him years ago, and I couldn’t leave him to whatever fate he was about to find in the land of the elves.
Plus, I’d asked him to go hunting. If anything happened to him, I’d feel responsible.
I lifted my skirts up, carefully folding the pockets over so nothing spilled, and tied them around my waist. This river had never been passable during my life, but the wind storm last night had toppled a tree several hundred feet tall that nowspanned the gorge like a bridge.
And naturally, my brother had to cross it.
I climbed up the icy, gnarled branches and spread my chilled hands to balance while I stood up on top of the bark. Underneath the makeshift bridge, stony cliffs guarded the ravine—cliffs that surrounded a terrifying river. I pressed one foot forward, closer to the death trap that waited below.
When the cliffs gave way to the raging river, my hands trembled. I dropped to my knees and clung to ridges in the bark.
What was I thinking?
I had worse balance than everyone I knew.
Of course, I’d only really known three other people well, but that didn’t matter. I always tripped. Always fell. Always stumbled. Always found disaster. And I thought I could cross a river on an icy tree trunk?
I forced a few breaths into my chest, tightening my hold on the tree. This tree was so wide that I could not hope to wrap my arms around it. The thing was more than stable enough for me to balance on while I crossed the river that separated humans and elves.
But if I slipped, I would die.
There was no way to survive that fall. And if I were dead, I could not help my hotheaded brother who felt like trespassing into the elves’ kingdom.
I had to make it across.
But I didn’t have to stand up. I reached forward and gripped another handful of frigid bark. I moved my other arm forward, and then my knees. It was a good thing I’d worn leggingsunder my skirts.
Alastor probably ran across thisbridge. He might have even skipped or turned a flip. Just the thought of it made my stomach turn. He probably saw it and decided it was the perfect opportunity to find out what had happened to our mother when she left us to visit the elves and disappeared thirteen years ago.
My crawl was hesitant and awkward and freezing, but it worked. I kept my eyes on my hands and the surface directly in front of me. Eventually, I slid off the tree’s roots and onto the foreign stone cliffs. I sank to the ground and quieted my breathing like Motab had taught me decades ago.
Elves.
I now sat on Elven lands. I gazed across the river to the human kingdom I’d left behind. I didn’t really belong there, but I’d never beenherebefore. And the things Motab and Fotab had told us about elves had always been enough to keep me solidly on my side of the river.
Until now.
If Alastor didn’t need rescuing, I was going to kill him myself.
I brushed off some snow that clung to my skirts with the last bits of residual terror about falling into the Terrarinor, and stood to follow his trail again.
For hours.
He hadn’t found any kind of path at all, but crossed a fairly straight line through fields and into a forest. The trees thickened, but the magic he’d dropped led me on—almost as if he’d wanted me to follow him.
I bit back a curse. Just because he had turned thirty this year didn’t mean he could now tell me what to do. He never would have made it this far without—
A roar filled the skies and interrupted my thoughts. I stumbled but caught myself before hitting the ground.
A dragon.
