A dear friend has become a deadly enemy, and Winter has taken control of her ally's assassins. The renegades are left with no choice but to flee the forest they call home. But Winter's most feared weapons may not be obeying her of their own free wil...
When their pursuers found no way to reach them—and maybe no way to prove where they had disappeared to—they darted away into the forest. Sethral put her head on her paws. There was no point in even trying to get up. She was too weak and shaky to stand. Taz had settled down with Phoenix curled against his flank. He startled so hard the vine floor shook. In the faint glow from Phoenix's fur, Sethral saw something move in the dark behind him. It must have touched him. There was a pause, then a Coppertail's head dipped into sight, held low, offering Taz a leaf.
It was beautiful. Its fur was so fine it feathered at the cheeks, dark and glossy. Its eyes were big like Halo's, and its muzzle was daintier than any Coppertail type Sethral knew. Taz took the leaf. As the Coppertail withdrew, its head dipped, and Sethral caught the silhouette of two short, pronged antlers curving off the top of its skull. Taz seemed to have forgotten what he was doing. He stared into the darkness where the Coppertail had vanished, until Phoenix whimpered. Taz curled tighter around him and offered him the leaf. Phoenix took it and snuggled down again.
"Do we have to move again yet?" said Ryatzi into the darkness.
Halo made a sound like two stones clicking and plopped down at his side.
"We can stay the night," said Ryatzi to the group at large.
"Good," said Firebrand. "This one's already asleep."
She had Dusk beside her. Sethral counted through each of the renegades. At Whipper, her heart plunged almost through the ground. "Tetch, we need to find Wing."
"Go to sleep," said Fletch.
He wasn't leaving an option in it. Sethral couldn't believe anyone could sleep right now. Wing was still out here. He had been out here, all this time they had been down in the canyon. Had he faced down Bluejay? Had he won? Escaped? What if he was hurt, or starving? He could hunt out here, but half the ground predators were most easily detected visually. They needed to find him. They needed to get back to him, and soon.
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She must have been exhausted. There was sunlight overhead: just tiny chips of it, too small to even make spots on the ground. Sethral lifted her head. The second canopy stretched away around the renegades like a second forest floor, only more fragile, dipping like nets where vines and roots bridged the spaces between the flat-canopied trees. Through this rose the columns of this forest's giants. They hardly seemed living. Something this large could hardly be living. Their trunks towered up and up, into the deep green shadow through which the sunlight chips sparkled like stars. Vines and air plants and great, broad leaves curled up every trunk until each was a vertical forest in itself.
She wanted to move, but exhaustion heavier than a coat of mud wrapped her body. Everyone around her was sleeping. Everyone save for Halo, who sat at the edge of the group and just gazed into the forest. She was relaxed. She looked over and chirred softly as Sethral shifted positions. It was too much work. Sethral closed her eyes again.
