“You will need to remain here awhile longer,” the shaman instructed Ava.

  “In this secret room. By myself?”

  Ava was so tired of being locked up. So tired of talking and convincing, when there was action to be had. It felt like the tale of her entire bloody existence.

  “Tul Eriksein and a few of others will be leading the Attican company to the Spires in a few hours,” the shaman said. “I’ve already recused myself from the situation and must lead our people to safety as I intended.”

  Madri clasped her son’s shoulder. “Surel will go with you. Malik and I will join the company heading to the Spires.”

  Malik nodded. “I’ll volunteer to serve as shaman, at least until the Attican mission is complete.”

  “I must go too!” Ava said. “I’ll follow in the woods or something.”

  Joren looked at her skeptically, eyes drifting to the leg brace in the corner.

  “I’ve covered worse terrain in the academy trials.”

  “We don’t doubt your ability, Ava,” Madri said.

  “Everyone doubts my ability,” she said, trying to hold back the venom she felt. “I can keep up with a marching regiment, I promise you. We don’t know when my father will find you. I should be there! You saw my father fly.”

  “Can you fly?” asked Joren.

  Her mouth twisted. “I can cover ground when I must.”

  The shaman shook his head. “You’ve entrusted the future of your rebellion to us. Now, you must trust us.”

  “And if something goes wrong?” Ava demanded. “I’ll just be trapped in this fucking safe room?”

  “Only until after the Atticans march up the Soul Road,” said Joren. “Then we’ll find a way to smuggle you aboard one of our ships.”

  Ava hated being left out, but she had no good argument, and her manipulations were useless on the shaman and his wife. She could only hope her father would turn up before they sailed to Valgland.

  “When will your father return?” asked Madri.

  Ava grimaced. In truth, she did not know. Perhaps he was in the woods somewhere, waiting for the right moment. Perhaps something had gone terribly wrong. But she couldn’t give voice to any of that.

  “He will return at the right moment,” Ava insisted. “I was left to convince you of our cause. Whether it is down here or up in your Spires, my father will find a way.”

  Joren’s brow furrowed. She could sense unease in his mind. “You said this other Gate is out over the Ever Sea. Even by runeship, the journey there and back must certainly take days.”

  “He will be here in time,” Ava insisted. “We have to be ready.”

  ***

  The rebel council consisted of Lord Rykus, the Sky Captain Verina Arkhovia, a dark-haired woman with piercing dark eyes, a brown-skinned man with flowing dark hair, and Deven lè Nir. The strange woman was Taikan, she wore a modest but regal gown of intricate material, embroidered with twirling shapes of flying birds. She looked like someone who had never seen the broad edge of a sword, let alone a battle. The man was Chardonian. His robes many colorful layers, like the feathers of serpent. His sleeveless tunic revealed broad shoulders and muscular arms, etched with faint tattoos.

  Deven wore a trim white uniform with a crest of black Morph wings. Her Elyan uniform. Her violet eyes flashed, and her silver hair flowed in waves past her shoulders. Her sleeves were short, revealing strong arms etched with tattoos. She stood tall. Powerful, captivating.

  A crudely drawn map was spread across the table at the center of the council chamber.

  Rykus gestured to a circular marking at the end of a long squiggle. “That’s Yerida.”

  “This is… Faltara?” Riese asked.

  It was so strange to see the forests and coastlines of her girlhood reduced to some brushes of ink on parchment. The words meant nothing to Riese.

  The map spanned the entire table, though most of the island contained empty space, showing just how little was known about Faltara from the outside world. There were four other thick circles, presumably the four clan villages, and a vague mountain range along the spine.

  Riese had never seen a map of the entire island before. Knowledge of the coastlines was necessary for the fishing folk, but for a hunter from the Jackal clan, knowledge of the forests and mountains of the heartland was all that mattered. She traced her fingers over the patterns. No hunting tracks. No landmarks. These squiggles meant little to her, though the fjord near Yerida looked to be reasonably accurate. Made sense.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “This was drawn by our navigator during the journey from the island,” Rykus said. “He estimated the island is roughly fifty leagues in length, maybe twenty across at the heart. Does that sound accurate?”

  Riese chuckled and shrugged. “No idea, I’m afraid. We hunters learn the land in our minds.”

  The other council members grimaced, but Rykus remained cool as he went on.

  “The general shape of this map we stole from a Beirusian trader. But traders only deal with the southern passage between Faltara and the uninhabited northern regions of Valgland. The northern part of Faltara is largely a mystery.”

  Riese nodded. “It’s not well-known to many of us either, outside the Saber clan.” She pointed to the top of the island, which was rounded. “The fishers called this the Tip of the Spear. But that looks like little more than a nub.”

  “A Beirusian ship circumnavigated the island many years ago, but the trip was nearly perilous, so I don’t expect it’s very accurate. But this interior is more detailed than any other depiction I’ve encountered.”

  Riese shook her head, surveying the squiggles supposedly demarcating the heart of the island she knew so well. None of it looked like the Faltara she knew.

  “Which village is Starholm?” Riese asked. “The Dragyr village?”

  “You can’t tell?” asked the Taikan woman, whose name Riese had gathered, was Shei.

  “I can’t read,” Riese said. “Again, little use for a hunter. I can tell you these mountains are nowhere near accurate. All the mountains and valleys look the same. Where’s the Dawn Crag? The Mountain of Souls? Where’s—”

  “We’re hoping you can assist with some of the details.” Rykus gestured to a region of forest near the middle of the southern island. “That is Starholm.”

  “That’s too far north,” Riese said. “It should be closer to Yerida. There’s a whole valley that runs south along the foothills of the Narrow Peaks. There’s a break in the spine of the island, somewhere around here.” She gestured to a point between Yerida and Starholm.

  “Do you know the distance?” Rykus asked.

  Riese shook her head. “A stag rider could cover it in a day during the summer. Several days in early winter. Impossible later.”

  “And how would a stag’s pace compare with a horse?” asked the Taikan woman.

  “Never seen a horse.”

  “We won’t have horses anyway, Shei,” said Rykus.

  The woman huffed, crossing her arms.

  The Sky Captain leaned close, studying everything with intense focus.

  “And this circle?” Riese gestured to one at the edge of a river on the eastern side of the island. “I assume that’s River’s End?”

  Rykus nodded. “It’s a day’s ride from my village, but that looks farther than Yerida.”

  “Look, we know this is hasty guesswork,” Rykus said. “But let’s try our best.”

  “We need to know where these Spires are located with as much accuracy as possible,” Verina Arhkovia insisted.

  Riese grimaced. “It is a relatively similar distance from each of the main clan villages, so knowing where you think our main villages are located on this map matters.”

  “There’s a path out of Yerida, correct?” Rykus asked.

  Riese nodded. “There’s a path from all villages. We call it the Soul Road.”

  “How far from Yerida?” asked Verina.

  Riese shrugged. “A two day journey with women and children and a dozen alkine carts.”

  “Alkine?” asked Mathias, the Chardonian man.

  “Something between a sheep and a stag, isn’t that right?” Rykus asked.

  Riese chuckled. “Never seen a sheep either, I’m afraid.”

  Deven smirked.

  Riese peered at the map. All the mountains looked the same. These people truly had no idea where any of the major peaks or valleys were located. The entire interior of her homeland was just a mass of trees and peaks to them.

  “Do you have a quill?” Riese asked. A servant fetched one and a small well of ink.

  “Thought you said you couldn’t read or write,” Shei said.

  Riese rolled her eyes. “I can draw.”

  She stretched out toward the middle of the table, and began to sweep the quill over the ill-defined mountains, trying to imagine the path from Yerida.

  “There’s a valley up here,” Riese said. “Huge walls of unclimbable stone. Maybe half the distance from Yerida. All the village paths converge here. About halfway through that valley, there is a small… nook. Near a wide mountain that looks like a woman lying on her back.”

  “Lying on her…” Shei said.

  “There’s a section that resembles a head, nose, sharp drop, and then there’s two big rounder mounds. I trust you get it. My mum says all the first chieftains were men, so…”

  Deven smirked again as Riese updated the map with a womanly figured mountain. “You Faltari are primitive.”

  Riese caught a flash in her eye.

  “And then?” Verina asked.

  “The nook passes through the mountain to another valley, then, up through a forest of snowpine. There’s a final pass between the tallest peaks somewhere around here, I’d guess.”

  Riese marked them on the map. “It’s not actually right there, because this map is terrible, but somewhere around there is a valley. The tallest peaks are on the western side of the range. So, you’d fly over those to reach—”

  “We thought the tallest peaks on the island were further north,” said Mathias.

  Riese rolled her eyes. “Maybe. We rarely venture past Skarida. That’s wild sabercat territory beyond, and the terrain would be impossible to navigate with carts. Anyway, the peaks of Kalengal Valley are not the tallest in the range. It’s the heart of the island because of the Mountain of Souls. ”

  “Right.” Rykus drew back from the table.

  Verina studied the map in silence for sometime. “If that’s so, then, we flew right over that region on our way to Yerida. But I don’t recall anything resembling these Spires.”

  Riese shrugged. “I doubt you would have noticed them unless you knew they were there. They look like any ordinary peak unless you’re in the valley.”

  “We were flying at night, as well,” Deven said.

  Verina studied Riese for a moment. “Young lady, the hope of our entire cause lies in your hands.”

  “Believe me, I’ve realized that,” Riese said. “Look, you brought me here. You asked what I know and I’ve said it. That’s where the Spires are. And that’s where you’ll find the Gate to the Abyss. The rest is up to you.”

  “The girl is right,” said Rykus. “Chardonia is already threatened.”

  Mathias grimaced, but nodded. “I must take our Morphs to aid our own war effort as soon as we finish deliberations.”

  “Taika loathes Attica,” Shei said, “but there will be no chance at raising forces without a reasonable chance of victory.”

  “Until after this mission has succeeded,” Verina clarified.

  “The akiri are insistent,” Shei said. “Taika lost everything in the last war. No one here could ever truly understand the devastation we endured. You all know only tales of a true Firestorm.”

  Rykus nodded solemnly. “This is our window of opportunity. We will need to use every resource we have to make sure we do not fail.”

  Deven’s eyes went wide. “The Rebelmounts?”