Course hairs tickled Daine's face. Opening her eyes, she saw nothing but Cloud's nose.

"Let me up." Her voice emerged as a croak. "I'm fine." She wasn't really- Lily could tell her sister's body ached all- but at least whatever it was that knocked her sister out was over.

"Swallow his." Onua brought over a cup of water. Drinking it, Daine tasted herbs. A tingling filled her veins and left her feeling much improved. The only sign of the pain that had knocked her down was mild stiffness.

"I didn't faint 'cause I'm a baby or anything-"her older sister began, trying to cover up her momentary weakness.

"Don't be silly." Onua gave Daine a silvery feather. "Don't touch the edges." She warned. "They're razor sharp."

Lily had helped gather some of the feathers from around camp. They seemed too… unique to just let them go to waste. The women had burned the bodies that had been shot down while Daine was passed out. The human parts of the monsters had burned into ash, but the metal of the wings burned red with vengeance refusing to break down.

Daine inspected the feather closely. It was metal, etched and shaped like a feather. If it was steel, as it seemed to be, it was paper thin, impossible to bend. Moreover, it felt wrong, as the sight of the creatures had felt wrong. "What were those things? Do you know?"

"I've heard tales, but – they aren't supposed to exist, not here. They're called Stormwings." The girls heard awe and fear in Onua's voice.

"What are Stormwings?"

"The Eaters." Onua wrapped the feather and put it away. "But they're legends. No one's seen them for three, four centuries. They lived on battlefields, desecrating bodies- eating them, fouling them, scattering the pieces." She crouched beside Daine again. Lily was rubbing her older sister's arm gently. "Listen- I need to leave you girls and the ponies for a while- I hope not too long. I can't tell you why."

"We could follow. This is a marsh, remember? Quicksand, mud bogs, snakes – you told me you don't know anything about marshes."

"I can't help that. What I must do is important. You stay put-"

A picture of the Stormwings as they'd first seen them flashed through the girl's minds.

"Its that hawk, isn't it? That black one" Daine stated bluntly.

"The one you tried to call out to, but he couldn't make it and hid in the reeds."

Onua refused to say anything, so Daine continued.

"You want to go after him. Why is a bird so important?

Onua's eyes glittered with annoyance. "Never you mind. He is, that's all- he's more important than you could imagine. If something happens to me, take the ponies to the Riders. Tell Buri or Sarge what happened-"

The girls saw how they could repay some of what they owed this woman for taking them in. "We'll go."

"Out of the question."

The girls were quick to argue. Daine retrieved her crossbow and quiver from the packs while Lily made sure she still had her weapons and some bandages.

"Don't be silly. It's only a few hundred yards out. How much trouble could we get into? Besides, I know about bogs. And I can find lost animals."

If they waited, the K'mir would find a good reason to keep them back. She saw a game trail leading into the reeds and took it.

"I'll yell for Tahoi if we get stuck, "she called.

"Daine! Lily!"

There was no answer.

"When I was that age, I listened to my elders," Onua muttered, conveniently forgetting she had done no such thing. She grabbed Cloud's rein as the pony tried to follow her mistress. "No, you stay here. And don't try to argue."

She tied the mare's rein into a string for the first time since they'd left the fair and settled down to wait.

The trail took Daine to a pond. She decided to take one path while Lily took another. She skirted it, always making for the spot where the monsters had left the wood. A grouse darted out of the brush. Following it, she walked a trail that lay on firm ground to reach the trees at the marsh's edge. There she sat on a rock, wondering what to do next. If the bird was alive, it had come down somewhere nearby to hide from the Stormwings. It was nice, this green wilderness.

The scents of growing things filled her nostrils; the sounds of animals and plants waking from their winter sleep filled her ears. What had the badger said, in her dream? If you listen hard and long, you can hear any of us, call any of us, that you want.

Surely listening wouldn't bring on the madness. She wasn't trying to be an animal; she just wanted to hear them. She'd taken advice from worse people than badgers in her time.

Besides, if the hawk was alive and hurt, it might be thrashing or crying its pain. She'd hear it, if she listened. She'd have to be incredibly quiet, then.

She settled herself and slowed her breathing. Her blouse itched; she eased it. A burn throbbed on a finger; she put it out of her mind.

A breeze fanned the tips of the reeds, making them sigh.

Two plops ahead: a pair of mating frogs. She had no interest in that.

A rustle on her left, some feet behind: a pair of nesting ducks. Didn't people think of anything else?

A gritty noise at her side was a grass snake, coming up to sun. It was nice on the rock, the warmth simply perfect on her face and on the snake.

There— left, closer to the trees. She frowned. It didn't sound like a bird— like the hawks and falcons back home. She felt dizzy and befuddled, almost like the time she had swiped a drink of her mother's home-brewed mead.

That yip was a fox, who had found a black bird. A large one. Daine headed in his direction. The fox yipped again when she almost made a wrong turn. She found him next to a large, hollow log. The hawk had concealed itself inside.

"Thank you," she said. The fox grinned at her and vanished into the reeds while Daine looked at her new patient. "Clever lad, to think of hiding there," she murmured. (And since when did hawks ever think of concealing themselves?) "Come on out— they're gone." She put her hands into the log's opening, praying she wasn't about to get slashed.

The bird waddled forward, easing himself onto her palms. Moving very slowly, she lifted him out and placed him on top of his hiding place.

He stared at her, beak open as he panted. One outspread wing seemed broken in two places, maybe even three. Her hair prickled at the back of her neck. Anyone less familiar with hawks might have taken this bird for one: she could not. He was too big, and hawks were not solid black. His color was dull, like velvet— there was no gloss to his feathers at all. He wasn't wrong as those Stormwings were wrong, but he was not right, either.

She cut reeds for splints. "I'm from Onua— Onua Chamtong of the K'miri Raadeh," she told him. "You recognize the name?" She didn't expect an answer, but she knew a kind voice was something any hurt creature responded to. "I have to splint that wing. It's broken." She cursed herself for not having bandages of any kind, and cut strips out of a petticoat.

"It'll hurt," she warned. "Try not to peck me, or we'll never get you fixed." Ignoring his gaze, she gently spread the wing. The hawk cried out only once. That was another strange thing, she thought; other birds had savaged her for less pain than she was giving this one. She secured the outspread limb onto its reed framework, feeling him shake under her hands. "You're being a fine, brave lad," she crooned, securing the last cotton ties. "Your ma'd be fair proud of you— wherever she is. Whatever she is."

Lily had separated from her sister to help cover more area to look for the missing Hawk. At first she could still maintain a line of sight with her sister, but after a few minutes it was lost.

Lily wasn't the greatest at navigating through nature to find an injured bird. Her sister was the one animals really spoke to. She could always figure out what an animal needed, whether it was sick or sad. Lily was better with plants. She could make anything bloom bigger and better than imaginable. Her plants never died in her gardens. Sometimes, she felt her imagination played games on her when she was tending to wilted plants. They appeared to come back to life as if by the Gift. Lily knew she didn't have the Gift any more than her sister did. While her sister was the one to deny they had any sort of abilities, Lily refused to be that stubborn. Her sister could do something special with animals. It wasn't the normal Gift that their Ma had tested them for. It was a different more chaotic type of Gift.

The wind whispered through the tree canopy, leaves rustling. Lily could tell that something was coming. Rain for sure, but something else. This felt more like how the Stormwings had felt. Similar in the chaotic feel of Daine's magic mixed with something else. It made Lily excited and scared at the same time. Straying too close to that type of excitement usually resulted in her losing parts of herself until she found them again.

Deciding she was more than likely walking in circles, Lily decided to sit down with her back against a tree facing the direction she had been traveling in. Closing her eyes, she rested her head back against the bark.

The woods were silent except for the trees and the wind. Lily tried to focus on listening for her sister, for the crying of a wounded animal, anything really. But instead, it was the same thing over and over.

Heartbeat.

Breeze.

A rustle in the tree.

Heartbeat.

Repeat.

Time passed without Lily realizing it. She must have dozed off without realizing it. Getting up off the ground, she stretched before turning back towards what she thought was camp. She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep so easily! Lily hoped her sister was alright and that she had found the injured bird. She felt guilty had having fallen asleep when her sister needed her. Lily didn't notice as she ran off that a ring of wildflowers that had started to bloom around where she had slept.

Repairs made, Daine slung the crossbow on her back. "I've got to carry you," she explained. "Try to keep still." When she gathered him up, taking care not to bump the wing, he trembled but didn't bite or slash. "You're the oddest bird I've met in my life," she murmured as she followed the trail back to the road. "Heavy too." She was sweating by the time she found Onua. Lily hadn't returned yet from the looks of it.

"His wing's busted."

"Horse Lords be praised, you found him!" The relief on the K'mir's face was scary, as if he's a friend or something, Daine thought. Onua lifted the hawk from Daine's arms, examining him with delicate fingers. Somehow Daine wasn't surprised to see that he was as calm with Onua as he'd been with her.

"If we move the packs onto one of the gentler ponies, he can ride on them," Onua suggested. "We have to get well away before we camp."

Looking around, Onua realized that she was one person short.

"Daine, where is your sister?"

"I don't know. We split up to cover more ground to look for the hawk." Daine said worried. She couldn't lose her sister too after everything that had happened.

Suddenly, as if by magic, Lily stepped through the brush as if she had never been gone. Daine noticed she looked suspiciously clean for having just stomped through a marsh.

Onua hugged the tiny girl quickly before getting them together to move out.

Daine shifted the packs to a mild-mannered chestnut gelding. On the road, the bird rode quietly, panting without making any other sound. They left the marshy valley and entered the wood, moving on after dark. Onua lit the way ahead with her magic. It wasn't bright, but it was enough mixed with the light from the overhead stars. They had walked for hours before she took them off the road, onto a small path. Here she lit a torch and gave it to Daine.

"Farther up there's an open shed for drying wood. It's big enough to shelter us and the ponies." She dug out the materials she used to work her magic. "Get a fire going. I'll be there as soon as I can. Lily,come with me. I need your help." She went back to the road, a bag of powder in her hand. Tahoi started to follow: she ordered him to go with Daine.

"I think she wants to hide our trail," Daine told the dog. She led the pack pony, and the others followed obediently. "But why? The monster— what's her name? Zhaneh Bitterclaws— can she see in the dark? Apart from revenge, why follow us?" She glanced at the hawk. Meeting his eyes directly still made her head spin. "Not for you, surely."

The bird shuddered.

The shed was big, with three walls to keep out the wind. Moreover, it had a fire pit inside, and a well outside. With relief she freed the ponies, watered them, and fed them grain from the extra stores.

Tahoi had brought in three rabbits that afternoon. As soon as the fire was going, Daine skinned and gutted them. Two went on the spit for her and Onua; Tahoi got half of the third. Cutting strips from the remaining half, she offered it to her patient. He turned his head away.

Perhaps he hadn't gotten the scent. Daine waved it in front of him. Again he turned his head aside.

She sniffed the meat: it was no different from what Tahoi crunched so happily nearby. She laid it on the pack in front of the bird, having moved his travel arrangements to the floor of the shed. The hawk picked the morsel up in his beak and threw it away.

Getting the rejected meat, she offered it to Tahoi. The dog ate it and returned to his bones. Planting her hands on her hips, Daine scowled at the bird. She'd heard of captive animals refusing to eat, but such a thing had never happened to her.

"There's many a hawk would be happy for a nice bit of rabbit," she told him, not even realizing she sounded like her ma. "Now, I'll give you another piece. Don't you go throwing that away, for I won't give you any more." She offered a fresh strip to the bird, who sniffed it— and turned his head. She placed it before him, and he threw it to Tahoi.

"He won't eat," she told Onua when the K'mir and Lily joined them.

"What's the matter with him? I never had an animal that wouldn't eat for me."

The woman crouched near the hawk, her gray green eyes puzzled. "Let me try, Maybe it's 'cause he doesn't know you."

"I've fed plenty of animals that never met me first," Daine snapped, cutting another strip of meat for Onua. The hawk refused it as well.

Onua scratched her head. "Try cooked meat. I have to ward this place. There're armed men all over the road, searching." She walked outside the shed.

"For us?" Daine asked. Onua shook her head and began the now-familiar spell. "Not for you, surely," the younger girl whispered to the hawk. Cutting meat off the spit, she cooled it with water and offered it to her patient. He sniffed it for a while, but refused it in the end.

"Maybe he's sick," Onua suggested as she ate. "I broke my collarbone once, and I was queasy for a day or two."

"That's shock." Daine rested her chin on her knees. "I s'pose that might be it."

The hawk wasn't normal. Lily couldn't tell what was wrong about him, but he wasn't normal. She hopped if she could sleep tonight she could figure out the mystery of the Hawk.

"He's not just any creature girls." Onua finished her meal. "He may be a little strange to care for, Daine. Just do your best – please? Lily, try to give him some space. He's probably disorienated."

The girls woke up in the night to hear a quiet murmur. Peeking with a half-closed eye, they saw that Onua sat with the hawk, talking softly to him. And Ma said Daine was fair foolish with animals, Lily thought. Rolling over, she went back to sleep.

That night she dreamed of the shadow with the evil eyes, a tall lanky man in chains, and death surrounded by sand.