Note: I don't know if it's fixed or not now, but I'm sorry for my computer being stupid and taking out all of the paragraph thingies in the first chapter. Hopefully it's fixed now.

The next day the four set out after a cold breakfast. There wasn't much talking; they were all bears in the morning except George, and he knew better than to talk to them before they were fully awake.

Numair suddenly broke the silence saying, "Daine, what did you do with Kitten again?"

Kitten was a nine year old dragon that Daine was taking care of. Her mother had died and left Skysong, which is Kitten's full name, with Daine. "Jon wanted to know if he could use her for the Immortals class he's started for the pages and squires. So I wrote him saying that she would stay. And she wanted to stay with Tkaa." The baby dragon had become good friends with the basilisk.

Numair looked thoughtful.

They rode on until nightfall, and, like the night before, talked around the fire. Numair stayed after again, speaking into the fire. He came back to the others, lying out in their bedrolls, his eyes wide.

"Numair?" Daine whispered.

"That was Tkaa," he said quietly. "Kitten's not with him. He thought we had her."

Daine sat up sharply.

"What does that mean?" Onua asked.

Silence followed. No one knew the answer.

"It's that cursed Emporer of Carthak," George growled.

"Kaddar wouldn't do that," Daine said defensively.

"Daine," Numair said, gently patting her arm, "he is better than his uncle, but he's Carthaki. He was raised Carthaki. And he knows how powerful Kitten is. If he was so much better than Ozorne, than this war would have been over by now."

Onua put her head in her hands. "What is this war about?" she asked no one in particular. "Money, power, the joy of killing? You think you get a better ruler, but nothing changes."

"It's about power and land," George said distantly. "The only reason Tortall isn't like that is because we're big enough already, bigger than most of the places around here."

"Carthak is big, too," Daine argued. "Kaddar has a rebellion on his hands and he wouldn't jeopardize the shaky peace treaty." She pointed an accusing hand at George. "You're just holding a grudge against Carthak for something a previous ruler did. And you…" She pointed at Numair. "You're just jealous about the interest Kaddar had in me. Kaddar risked his life several times to help you, me, and everyone else in Carthak."

"Whose side are you on?" George joked.

A noise in the woods scared everyone to their feet. Daine had her bow in her hands in seconds, so did Onua. George had sword drawn and knives ready. Numair didn't need any other weapon than his magic.

"Please, don't hurt me," a small frightened voice squeaked.

A dirty girl walked out of the woods.

George didn't lower his sword. "Who are you and what were you doing in there?" he asked. His voice wasn't gentle.

"My name is Atalaya of Dairtsneg. My parents were killed by immortals and I'm lost." Her blue eyes were wide and her fingers and small mouth shook as she walked out of the woods. Cold sweat ran down her face. The girl was thin and pale, looking about sixteen years old. Her hair was light brown and in messy braids.

"George, put down your sword," Onua said, her voice kinder than usual. "Can't you see she's scared?"

Numair didn't take his eyes off Atalaya, still unsure about her. "Come join us." He indicated that she should take a seat. Sitting himself, he said, "Dairtsneg's near the City of the Gods. That's a long way to come."

"Me and my family were in the Tusaine Mountains when we were attacked by spidrens," Atalaya said grimly. "I just started walking. I found the River Drell and followed it."

After more questioning, Onua took Atalaya to the creek to wash then gave her an extra bedroll.

It took Numair a while to fall asleep, but when he finally did he had a dream. Daine's father, the hunt god Weiryn, visited him. He looked tired and explained that it took a lot of energy to come to the mortal world, even the dream one.

"Protect your friends and my daughter," he said, "for, as you know these, are dangerous times in Tortall. History has been known to repeat itself. Learn from your mistakes. And don't forget to trust others, but do follow your instincts. The human mind is very unpredictable."

Weiryn faded away, but Numair continued to dream. No, Numiar decided, it was more than a dream…