I had two options to still see the river mouth at the start of the delta: try to make my way along the raised pathways again or get a bird’s eye view. I was partial to the second option since it would also allow me to get better insight into what was happening throughout the delta with my own eyes, but I knew my strength hadn’t recovered enough to climb the knotted rope up to the storm bird’s saddle. Walking all the way to river mouth was also debatable, but I was sure I could force myself to cover the distance if I had to.

  That said, since Anore was here, there was another way for me to get up into the sky, I just wasn’t sure how to communicate it with her as there wasn’t an official signal to tell a storm bird to catch you in its beak. It wasn’t something I had ever seen the other storm birds do except when directed by a rider, but Anore had done it twice without hesitation on her own. And given the way Tufani had reacted to finding me in her nest, those were unlikely the only times Anore had used her beak to catch those she considered wingless, helpless chicks.

  Which meant that if I got her attention and pretended to be in danger, she might swoop in to save me. Bramble Watch was surrounded by a ring of water which was in turn surrounded by trees and raised walkways so that the tribe members could attack the fish from all sides if they ever got close to their home. That area likely had the most open space in the delta unless I went to one of the major waterways and took my chances with the fish again.

  I made my way back to the top of the defensive bramble wall, near where Prevna and I had our talk the day before. I didn’t cramp on the way to the wall this time and I was quietly gratified to have proof that I was recovering. I whistled and Anore screeched back me from where she wheeled overhead. Another storm bird was flying with her and the knotted rope was dangling from its saddle. It flew high enough to keep the rope from knotting with any errant branches or other obstacles. When I squinted my eyes against the sun’s glare it looked like there might be someone on Anore’s back.

  Rather than plunge off the wall for no reason, I tried to send a whisper to the rider but the wind kept dissipating immediately after I tried to send them a message which meant they weren’t a whisper woman. I tried to send wind whispers to the fire starters in Mishtaw’s group so I’d know what it felt like when the boon failed—though that didn’t help with gauging when the whisper I sent to Prevna or another whisper woman went through other than getting confirmation through a reply.

  The mystery rider also hadn’t responded to my whistle, which meant they didn’t know what it meant or hadn’t heard it over the sound of Anore’s flight. Or were ignoring me. I cast a glance at the drop to water below. Things would certainly be easier if I could get the other person to direct Anore to grab me, but that didn’t seem to be happening any time soon.

  Compared to falling off the root wall or jumping off the bone ribs in the Rookery, the fall from the top of Bramble Watch wasn’t that far at all. Part of me doubted that Anore would be able to catch me before I plunged into the water.

  But falling was easy. Might as well take the risk if it meant getting in the air.

  I whistled again and let myself slip over the side of the bramble wall before anyone could stop me. Someone shouted and air rushed by but I didn’t feel a bird’s beak close around me before I plunged into the water below.

  Everything ached as memories tried to surge. Rough fish scales, chest begging for air, helpless. I clawed my way to the surface, gulped down a large breath of air, and went to glare at the sky only to find the water dropping away from me and the clouds getting closer.

  Anore had fished me out of the water. She gave me a suspicious look with the eye I could see. I rested my free hand on her beak and resisted the urge to complain that I wasn’t facing the right way. Even if I was facing the sky I could still turn my head to see parts of the delta we were passing.

  Because Anore was not sticking to circling Bramble Watch any longer. It seemed like she was suddenly a bird on a mission. I didn’t doubt that there’d be some makeshift nest I’d have to escape by the end of it.

  “Needed a wash, girl?”

  I peered past Anore’s head to find none other than Tufani peering at me from the saddle. The Tamer didn’t seem at all surprised to see me or impressed by my antics. However, I struggled to contain my surprise. Even though I had asked Ingrasia to negotiate to bring some storm birds here to see if they would be as helpful as I thought, I hadn’t expected Tufani to come along as well.

  “Shouldn’t you be teaching the next cohort how to fly?”

  “The birds come first!”

  Of course that was her answer. I had more questions, but shouting against the wind wasn’t the best form of communication and I was missing my chance to see what was happening in the delta with my own eyes.

  The waterways still writhed with fish but the point they seemed centered on was closer to the sea. That was likely Juniper leading the horde on a merry chase through the delta. A second, smaller ball of concentrated fish were converging on the river mouth. It looked like something was blocking them from getting further up the river but I couldn’t get a good look at what it was or why the river behind the block looked odd. We were too far from the shore for me to accurately gauge how things were going there, but the tribe’s choke points and other defensives seemed to be holding up well given the circumstances. Perhaps with our new knowledge and resources they might not break before the fighting was through.

  I was shivering and trying to hide it by the time Anore landed outside the delta. The storm bird didn’t let me go then either. She kept me in her beak while Tufani climbed out of the saddle, got the saddle off her, and then she waddled over to a nest of grass and twigs that wasn’t as impressive as what she had been able to make in the Rookery. Anore settled into the nest and then tucked me right against her chest feathers. It didn’t take long for me to stop shivering, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough for the bird to let me go. Last time I had been in this position it had taken Tufani’s say so for me to break free of the nest, but she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to have Anore release me.

  I heard her taking care of the saddle, talking to someone, thumping this way and that with her cane while some of the birds called out to each other in the background. Just to test my theory, I tried to wiggle out of the makeshift nest, but Anore promptly tapped me on the head with her beak and then tucked me back into her feathers.

  This was one part of my grand plan to get into the sky that I should have been better prepared for. But I also wasn’t to willing to admit that the thought of being in the air had overridden some of my planning ability. It had been years since I got to fly and the temptation had been to much to pass up, especially when it did have the potential to be the most efficient way to get around delta.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Warm?”

  I glanced up to see Tufani looking over the lip of the nest at me and nodded.

  She nodded back. “Good. Anore will make sure you stay put. I need to check on the birds since you dragged us out to this place and then we can talk about what you expect and what my birds will actually do.”

  “Did you leave someone back in Bramble Watch?”

  “One of my feather hearts.” She held up her cane. “Not so easy for me to get up and down those knotted ropes. She’ll report back too.”

  She disappeared again and I had to grit my teeth against the time slipping away. I needed to gather all the information I could in order to finally take care of the horde in the delta, but I was still missing key bits. Between the birds and the crystals I had some ideas we could try but if Ambervale had betrayed the goddess then that was also something that needed to be taken care of sooner later and not ignored.

  Ideally, we would draw Ambervale out from wherever she was hiding and turn the crystals against the horde without any of them becoming an abomination, but the logistics of that was where I kept getting stuck. No matter what plan I came up with I couldn’t deny that the delta was still a weak point waiting to be exploited. This situation had proved, crystals or no crystals, that with time, sheer numbers, and persistence the Lady Blue could push the delta’s defenses to the brink and eventually break them. One way or another I was determined to take care of the horde this time, but it didn’t sit right in my gut to then walk away for everything to be torn apart the next season.

  The delta was a gaping wound leading right to the heart of the goddess’s territory and everything in me demanded that I find a way to fix it or excise the wound. Something permanent.

  Someone slipped into Anore’s nest on silent feet. I tensed, but Anore’s lack of reaction told me this wasn’t likely an attack. Instead, the storm bird cocked her head and stared down at the intruder with a baleful eye.

  Kaylan just snuggled down further into the bird’s feathers and let out a relaxed sigh. “This is the life.”

  Anore gently took ahold of Kaylan’s tunic with her beak, like she was going to pluck the whisper woman from her nest, but Kaylan cracked open an eye and stopped her. “I’ll get you two treats when I’m back in the Rookery. The good ones that Tufani keeps hidden.”

  Anore kept her beak in place and Kaylan grinned. “Fine. Three. You drive a hard bargain.”

  With that Anore let her go and made sure she was adequately tucked in. I was still trying to figure out how Kaylan had found me and why she had appeared now after disappearing.

  Finally finished settling in Kaylan glanced over at me. “Heard you went through a tough scrape, glad to see you’re recovering. I owe you a story and a tour.”

  “How did you find me? And what happened with the person that caused you to run off in the first place?”

  She shrugged. “Listened in at the right time. Are you still interested in hearing about the last time a Chosen was picked?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. It was obvious that she was avoiding answering my second question, but I also didn’t have any leverage to get her to tell me. Putting aside that particular curiosity for the moment, I asked, “What happened?”

  Kaylan rested her head on one hand. “This was nearly ten years ago now. I had become a whisper woman a couple years before. Unlike this time, no one expected the Chosen to ascend to the Silver Forest. She had been healthy and wasn’t a thorn in anyone’s side—a neutral party that helped to balance the more aggressive voices in the Chosens’ circle. One day everything was normal and the next she was found crumpled among the Seedling Palace’s roots.”

  Kaylan swallowed, cleared her throat. “Some suspected foul play, but no one could say that outright since the goddess didn’t punish anyone for stepping into Her domain. It was decided that she had slipped from a path in the Palace and fell to her death.

  “In those days, the whisper women were focused inward, even more so than we are now. The fish had only begun to barely stir from the depths, missions to the other territory were few and far between as Ingrasia was still figuring out the balance of training her team and spying, and few of us bothered to have any contact with the tribes. We had grown used the peace your patron created and all that mattered was rank and achievements. Your sect versus everyone else. There were hundreds of us with blessings and boons and nothing distract us from ourselves. Desperate to prove ourselves and not feel futile when there was nothing to fight and nothing to spy on. The only clear goal was to reach as high as you could: become a Sect Leader, High Priestess, one of the Chosen.”

  This story was more personal than I expected it to be. I rarely thought about what it had been like in the Seedling Palace before I came to Seed Landing. There had been too much happening, and what history and stories I did focus on tended to belong to the more distant past.

  “There was no time to rally behind pre-picked candidates,” Kaylan continued. “Everyone tried to claim the Chosen’s spot for themselves. Nothing was off limits except for overstepping the goddess’s domain, but even then accidents happened. More than one whisper woman slipped from great heights or ate something she shouldn’t or were crippled in the fighting. Grudges were settled, and the goddess just watched. Even sect heads and seconds participated. It was chaos. Proxy wars would crop up over practically nothing to the point that when fish did nibble at the shore we ended up fighting each other over the right to defeat them more than actually killing the fish. That more than anything probably let the Lady Blue know we were ripe for the picking. We were destroying ourselves.”

  She smiled self-depreciatingly. “Fair to say it was like what you expected this proxy war to be. Little loyalty, no trust, and we all got nowhere from it just like I warned you. In the end, the goddess played us all for fools, as She does. She Chose someone who stayed out of all the fighting and backstabbing, the mind games and false promises and spying. Another neutral party.”

  We were silent for a while as I absorbed what she said. I asked, “And you think this time will be different?”

  She nodded and then looked me right in the eyes. “The goddess spoke to you. That makes all the difference.”

  I remembered how still Esie had gotten when I told her that detail. Perhaps I should have kept that tidbit closer to my chest, but it hadn’t seemed that different from when I felt Her gaze when my blessing acted up and I had felt how small, if still overwhelming, that bit of attention had been.

  I tried to make Kaylan understand. “It was barely anything.”

  Her eyes still bore into me. “The goddess only speaks to Her Chosen and Her Beloved. It is enough.” She focused back on the sky and let out a breath. “Last time we broke ourselves because we forgot who the true decision maker was and Her nature. This time we know where the true threats lie and were Her interest might be.”

  “You participated in the last Succession War?” I knew the answer based on how she told her story but I wanted to see what else she might say.

  “I did. I was used. Others knew of my blessing and ambitions. They can’t advantage of either anymore.”

  We fell silent again. Perhaps there was more to Kaylan’s laziness than I initially thought.

  “And this is a farce of a proxy war because you all aren’t going to fight me for the candidacy?”

  “We are here to support the true candidate.”

  I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or queasy at the sentiment. Conflict was much more familiar than whatever that meant.

  “How did you manage to keep the other whisper women out?”

  Kaylan had no problem looking pleased with herself. “We might not be aiming for your spot, but we have influence.” And then tacked on the end as if I might miss it. “And this place was considered a lost cause. No one wanted to be saddled with a failure, so they were more than happy to let Esie take a stab at it and hurt her chances in the process.”

  “They think she’s the one you all are backing?”

  Kaylan raised her eyebrows at me, all innocent. “Who else but the Lady of Calm Waters favorite? A well connected, well known, and highly influential whisper woman that doesn’t have any interest in becoming Sect head. One of the Chosen is the logical other choice in their minds.”

  “But Prevna came and Esie said it was to help a Chosen candidate,” I protested.

  She nodded. “Some will know that means you, others might just think you were causing trouble for Esie and she needed Prevna to get you in line. But regardless, the original assumption has done its job. We have control over the area.”

  “And you think I can make this not a lost cause?”

  “I think you’re good at surprising me.”

  I guess we would see if I could surprise us both.