[h2]The Woods[/h2]From here, Simon and Talan could hear the distant waterfall, where the remains of the pirates' bridge lay mangled in the foamy dark. The campfire glowed between the trees, as did the smaller glimmer of the inn's beckoning lamp. The green lantern appeared in the inn's doorway, moving in slow gestures, held by a tall brown woman. Everywhere else, the woods were quiet and full of shadows: leaves of every shape and color trembled in imperceptible breezes. The birds were sleeping.

Above, the thin canopy revealed a star-crusted sky, deep-black and violet and blue.

A voice rose up out of the inn, barely audible from this distance: [i]"I am Princess Anise Sinclair of the Kingdom of Riverforde! Don't just walk away without answering me!"[/i]

The woods went quiet again: nothing but the soft rumble of water whispered through the woods.

For the moment, nothing intended to kill them.

But as Talan and Simon returned to the campsite, they would find they had a guest.

Tyaelaem sat cross-legged beside the fire that Talan had made, roasting a wild potato on a stick in the flames. The boy was just as clean and undamaged as Anise had first found him: a youth in a white rabbit mask, barefoot, with scraggled brown hair and thin gray garments. He still had the canteen strapped across his shoulder, and a pouch at his waist glowed slightly yellow from inside. The campfire cast an orange flickering glow on his mask. He lifted his head and smiled.

"The Fox and the Wolf," he addressed them. He spied the rabbit over Talan's shoulder. His smile twitched, but his expression was hidden. "Come on then, come come, this is safe to eat." He gestured with the steaming potato that they both should sit down, as if this had been his own campfire all along.

[h2]The Inn[/h2]Rhea woke up in the mud, aching and trembling; her hair dripped and her soaked robes clung to her. She crawled, sloshing through shallow water, out from under the twisted wreckage of the bridge. There was no sign of Talan in the dark of the woods. She'd lost her grip on him sometime between the fall and the landing.

But there was an inn.

It took Rhea a very long time to convince herself it wasn't a hallucination. She approached the back of the inn cautiously, her water-filled boots squelching with each step; she touched the stone wall as if it might disappear, peeked through a window, and saw a fire in the hearth and people moving and talking inside. A Lantern sat on the table, as if it were nothing more than a source of light.

While Anise knelt sobbing on the floor, Rhea slipped in through the kitchen door. The pirate stepped quietly around the back of the room, moving around tables and chairs, slowly closer to the ragged princess. Even though Anise clearly wasn't a Kith, it was unclear what powers she might possess.

"What you can do right now," Rhea said in a commanding voice, "is stand up, and bring me the Lantern."

Rhea was Anise's height, dark-skinned with thick black hair that hung heavy and dripping. She wore crude leather armor under soaked, clinging dark robes. She had no weapons, but dark, sprawling tattoos on her skin mimicked the symbols on the lantern's iron casing. Anise might vaguely recognize her as one of the figures walking alongside the captured and unconscious Randold, seen from afar long ago.

Rhea extended her hand in threat toward Anise: an eye was tattooed on her palm, the same as the knight Anise had killed. She caught sight of the scabbard at the princess' hip, and her eyes widened in recognition.


Outside the inn, something big was moving.

A pair of bright yellow eyes stared down at Robin and MC from the quiet shadows; it was unclear how long the great black wolf had been watching. A breeze brought the pungent smell of its hot breath, like rotting flesh.