Theo woke in the tent, his back aching. He was not made for living like this—but he also knew better than to whine about it, because Bruni would make fun of him all day for it. His hand still ached, and he winced when he caught sight of his red palm with all the blisters.

  Opening the flaps of the tent, he found the early morning light filtering through the trees, casting long shadows and illuminating patches of dew-covered grass. It was beautiful.

  Uncomfortable to sleep in, but beautiful. Theo breathed in the crisp air, letting it fill his lungs as he tried to focus on the path ahead rather than the myriad ways this could go wrong.

  “We shall start with the stone giants in the Grimpeak Wilds,” Emberion had said the night before as they made their way back to camp. “If we find them affected, we will go to the Empty

  Plains to see the witch. We should, however, be aware that she might not greet us kindly.”

  Theo suspected that ‘might not greet us kindly’ was code for ‘will most certainly try to kill us’. This quest just kept getting better.

  Nibblet came out of the tent too and climbed onto Theo’s shoulder. She chirruped her good morning and Theo petted her.

  “Good morning to you too,” Theo said. “Ready for the day’s dangers?”

  She chirped the affirmative.

  He turned and found Freya already up, stoking the fire and boiling water for tea. She looked up as they approached, her expression one of mild concern.

  “Good morning,” Freya said. “Did you sleep well?”

  “Not particularly. You?”

  “Fine.”

  “What about Bruni?” Theo glanced toward the other tent.

  “Not up yet.”

  Theo cocked his head to the side. “Is that a bad sign?”

  “I have no idea how much dwarves usually sleep,” she said, shrugging. “He was up early yesterday, but that might just have been because he didn’t want us to leave without him.”

  Theo didn’t mention how Bruni had complained about Theo sleeping in, so dwarves probably didn’t usually sleep late. He sighed. “It’s the same sickness as the rest of the dwarves, right?”

  Freya shrugged. “I’m not a dwarf healer—”

  “No, you’re not, and you shouldn’t talk about people behind their backs, either.”

  Both Theo and Freya turned to see Bruni. He was on his feet, his red beard as wild as ever, and he had the same grumpy expression on his face as always. Were his facial muscles stuck in that position? His arms were crossed over his chest, making them look huge, and he scowled at them.

  “We’re not talking behind your back,” Theo said, pursing his lips. “We were just talking.”

  “About me, without me,” Bruni said. “That’s the definition of—”

  “Oh stop it,” Freya said. “We expressed our concern. Do you want some breakfast?”

  “I do,” Theo said, even though the question may have been directed at Bruni. “Please.”

  Freya poured hot water into a cup and gave it to him, and when he looked into the cup, he saw little bits of herbs floating around in there. “Tea.”

  “Thank you,” Theo said. He took the bread he had brought out of his pack, grabbed a slice of cheese, and sat down to eat.

  “What happened to your hand, boy?” Bruni asked, glaring at Theo’s hand as if it had offended him.

  Theo shrugged, not in the mood to hear about his stupidity. “Fire ivy, or something. It’s fine.”

  “Doesn’t look fine.”

  “Well, it is,” Theo said.

  “Why would you touch burning ivy?”

  “Because I want you to call me stupid again,” Theo snapped, tired of him.

  Bruni scoffed. “No need to hurt yourself for me to do that.”

  Then he turned and headed back to the tent. Theo and Freya both looked after him.

  “Could he be more annoying?” Theo asked, exasperated. “It’s not like I did this on purpose. I didn’t know it was… fire ivy or burning ivy or whatever.”

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  Freya opened her mouth to reply, but Bruni exited the tent and came stalking back. He came up to Theo and grabbed Theo’s hand in one of his own (dwarf hands were large, Theo thought absently), turning it palm up to show off the blisters.

  With his other hand, he crumbled something into Theo’s palm. Tiny bits of green and brown fell onto Theo’s palm. Theo only stared, dumbstruck. He should probably pull his hand away from the angry dwarf, right? But Bruni rubbed the small bits—and to Theo’s surprise, the pain of the blisters lessened.

  After a minute or two of rubbing, Bruni made Theo clench his fingers into a fist. “Hold it there for another ten, fifteen minutes. It’ll help.”

  Theo stared at him. “It—it’s already helping. It feels better.”

  Bruni grunted something intelligible.

  “Thank you,” Theo said.

  Bruni looked at him like he was about to say something about Theo’s general stupidity again, but then didn’t.

  Freya handed him a cup of tea.

  Bruni wandered off, sitting down a little away from them.

  Theo looked at him for a moment longer before turning to Freya. “Where’s Emberion?”

  “Out hunting,” she said. “Left when I got up.”

  “Oh.”

  Well, he couldn’t exactly expect the dragon to go all vegetarian just because he wasn’t eating Theo. Dragons ate meat, that was just the way of the world. Besides, Theo liked meat, too. He just hadn’t given much thought to hunting it—another thing his mom had never forced him to take part in.

  A few minutes later, Freya came to sit down next to him. Wordlessly, he handed her a slice of bread and some cheese, and she bit into it and chewed slowly.

  “At least he’s feeling better,” she said quietly, giving a small nod in Bruni’s direction.

  “Yeah,” Theo said, chewing thoughtfully on his bread. “But if the reason is what me and Emberion think, he’s gonna get worse.”

  “Oh?” Freya asked. “And what do you and Emberion think?”

  “That there’s some old artifact causing all this,” Theo said. “An amulet.”

  “An amulet.”

  Theo shrugged—he wasn’t the one who came up with it. “But first, we’re going to the Grimpeak Wilds to see the stone giants,” Theo said. “Emberion says if they’re affected too, then it must be the amulet.”

  Freya pursed her lips. “We’re going to see the stone giants? Didn’t we read about their viciousness? The dragons sounded like tame little kittens in comparison.”

  “We’re just going to look at them,” Theo said defensively. “And then we’re going to the witch. The one the people were talking about in the tavern.”

  Freya raised an eyebrow. “The witch? Are you sure that’s wise?” She shook her head. “Oh, who am I kidding? Wise has long since left the building.”

  “We think she has an amulet that’s causing all of this,” Theo said.

  Freya’s other eyebrow rose to join the first one in surprise. “We? You and Emberion must’ve had a good long talk last night.”

  “We did,” Theo said. “He told me about an old amulet that could be causing all of the problems we’re seeing. The dragons and the dwarves—and if the stone giants are affected, then it’s definitely it. And we think the witch may have it.”

  “And what made you come to that conclusion?” Freya asked, leaning her head to the side and taking another bite of the sandwich.

  Theo shrugged. “Honestly, it’s just a hunch.” A hunch and a prophecy.

  Freya huffed a laugh. “So we’re going to face a mad witch on a hunch?”

  “Yes?”

  “If you’re going to lead, you need to sound surer than that,” Freya said with a wink. “But where you go, I go.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” Freya said. “Mainly because that’s what I’m paid for.”

  Theo chuckled, recognizing the humor in her voice. It felt good to laugh—there had been too little laughter ever since they left the castle behind.

  “So a witch, huh?”

  They looked up to find Bruni standing there.

  “Yes,” Theo said. “Emberion and I decided last night.”

  “Who died and made you king?” Bruni asked. He smirked, “Henceforth, thy shall be known as Theo, the King of Clumsy.”

  Theo stared at him. He had hoped that Bruni’s brief display of kindness with the leaves Theo was still holding in his hand meant they were getting somewhere—at least out of Bruni constantly calling him names, but apparently not.

  “We just thought it sounded reasonable,” he said.

  Bruni scoffed. “Reasonable? You?”

  Theo came to his feet and glared down at Bruni (yes, he liked the height difference; it made things easier). “You know what? You need to stop. I get that you don’t like me, but I was sent to fix this problem, and I’m going to do my best to do so. If you want to tag along, you can, but if you keep being rude, I’m going to ask Emberion to eat you.”

  Bruni glared at him. “So big and mighty with a dragon at your back, huh, boy?”

  “No,” Theo snapped. “Just tired of you and your rudeness.”

  “I’m a dwarf,” Bruni said. “It’s part of the description.”

  “Then we have no need of you and you can go back to your caves and leave us alone,” Theo said, hands flying to his side.

  Bruni narrowed his eyes at him, and Theo, for the first time, glared right back. Theo had faced a dragon—had flown on a dragon’s back—so how much of a threat was Bruni, really? The dwarf was just annoying.

  Then, to Theo’s immense surprise, Bruni let out a chuckle. “Interesting. You do have a backbone. Brains, not sure yet. But a backbone is a good start.”

  Theo kept glaring at him.

  Bruni shook his head. “Would you share some of that bread? Smells delicious.”

  Theo’s eyebrows rose of their own volition. “Now you want my baked goods?”

  “Listen, if they’re good enough for a dragon, I just thought I—but if you’re going to be like that—”

  Theo snorted and grabbed a cookie—only two more left now—from the bag. “In that case, have a dragon-approved cookie. And be happier, dwarf.”

  “I said bread—”

  “Oh good heavens, just say thank you,” Theo snapped.

  Bruni snatched the cookie from Theo’s hand and bit into it with more vigor than necessary, as if the cookie was a piece of meat stuck to a bone and he would have to rip it off.

  But then, as the explosion of sweetness and chocolate and salty goodness hit his taste buds, even the grumpy dwarf quieted. A blissful look came over his face for a second, transforming him from grouchy to… was that gleeful?

  Intense pride traveled through Theo, because amidst the bleak prospect of heading off to find stone giants, then possibly a dangerous witch, and Bruni being sick, and his horse being lost somewhere in the forest, he could still make another person get that sort of blissful look on their face. His baking did that.

  “That’s actually… very good,” Bruni muttered, looking down at the cookie.

  “Good thing stupid people can still bake,” Theo said drily. Then he added, “Thank you for helping me with my hand.”

  Bruni gave him a long look before nodding curtly. “’s what I do.”

  Theo didn’t know what to say to that, so he held out some bread. “Here, have some bread too.”

  Bruni snorted, and whether he still thought Theo was stupid or not was not entirely obvious (he probably did), but there was no sour comment forthcoming, so Theo counted it as a win.