Mishtaw took a moment to take me in, blanket wrapped and tied to a stake. “Why am I not surprised to find you here?”

I just stared at her. Too shocked at the random appearance of my new mentor to take offense at her tone, somewhere between jaded and insulting. If a whisper woman was going to appear by all rights it should have been Barra. But there was no way too mix up the two. Not between Barra’s niceties and round about way of doing things, and Mishtaw’s direct pragmatism.

Mishtaw crouched down to begin untying me despite the knife on her belt that could have made the process faster. “What’s your reason?”

I resisted the urge to swallow and give a sign of my sudden nerves. Mishtaw always heard me out but that didn’t mean she’d blindly accept my answers. And she always seemed to understand more than I wanted her to.

She paused, “I could leave you tied up and send you back to the Rookery.”

“You’d take me with you to go after Juniper?”

“Depends on your answer.”

I gave her my reason as she resumed untying the kidnapper’s knots. “Juniper went missing and someone needed to go after her. It didn’t seem like anyone from the Rookery would help because of all the hurt birds and people.”

Mishtaw leveled a look at me. “From what Tufani told me you didn’t even bring this matter to her attention. You wanted to do it yourself.”

The last bit should have been a question but there was no mistaking the certainty in her voice. I glared back at her. “I wanted to help Juniper.”

She snorted. “If you wanted to help her you would have told Tufani instead of sneaking away on your own. The tribe wouldn’t abandon a Sprout, especially one in their care. No, this was one of your impulsive actions, wasn’t it?”

“Why are you here?”

Mishtaw made a satisfied noise as she got the last of the knots untied and she stood back up before she went over to the stake. She wasn’t able to pull it out of the ground but she did get that end of the rope untied as well before she gathered it up in loops and tied it to her belt.

“Well?” I pressed. My hands were still tied and the blanket had slipped down around my feet. I felt like a toddler at the mercy of an adult and I didn’t like it.

“If you won’t answer my question I don’t see why you should expect me to answer yours.”

“Fine.”

When I didn’t continue Mishtaw pressed her lips together. “I assume you didn’t tie yourself to the stake? Tell me what you noticed.”

There was no point in holding that information back. I told her all about the kidnapper and his weird jewelry and clothes and incomprehensible speech. I told her about Juniper’s attitude and condition too. She freed my hands and tied the blanket around my shoulders while I spoke.

“He had the harp?” she asked. “How many arm bands did he have?”

I couldn’t see how the number mattered, but I answered the question after I nodded to answer the first. “Two on each arm. He put straps on it to carry it on his back while Juniper is in his arms. It wasn’t natural how he could carry it without tipping over backward from the weight.”

Mishtaw made a dismissive, cutting gesture. “That’s a common trick the Envoys have. From what you’ve said he has the speed and endurance boosters as well. The storm bird should still be faster but we shouldn’t waste time.”

She let out a sharp whistle and the storm bird that had been circling overhead let out a an answering cry before lowering closer to the ground. The long knotted rope Mishtaw had climbed down hit the ground near us. She started climbing immediately. I wasn’t looking forward to the unstable climb, especially with the blanket weighing me down but the rope was already to lift from the ground again as the storm bird kept flying. I latched on and climbed as quick as I could after Mishtaw so that I wouldn’t get tugged off by any branches the rope accidentally got too close to before the storm bird rose high enough clear the top of the trees.

It was a miserable climb. The rope wanted to move every which way between the open air and Mishtaw’s movements making it shift. It was also much longer than the standard ladders I’d seen to get into a storm bird’s saddle so far. Tufani had mentioned the use of the knotted rope when whisper women needed to go some place that didn’t have a good landing spot for the birds but I hadn’t appreciated the sheer climbing challenge it represented at the time.

My arms and legs shook by the time Mishtaw helped heave me into the saddle and I couldn’t speak I was panting too hard. She got the fur blanket off me and stowed away in a sack tied to the saddle before she rolled up the knotted rope and got that stored as well. She pointed for me to wedge myself into the side of the saddle like I had when I had flown with Tufani. My arms strongly protested gripping anything else but I did as she ordered. This way there was at least a chance I could finish what I had started.

She settled down next to me and slightly over top. I focused on maintaining my grip to take my mind off the enclosing contact while she gave the storm bird directions with a few taps of her foot. Then we were off, faster than I remembered any of the storm birds going before, except for maybe when they were trying to throw us out of the saddle.

I did have to fight to maintain my grip and not elbow Mishtaw in the neck or chest as the storm bird picked up speed in great swooping dives and rising on the wind currents. Mishtaw seemed more comfortable in the saddle than I would have given her credit for, but maybe flying was one of those things you didn’t forget how to do.

Questions pressed at my tongue but I didn’t want to accidentally bite it and with how fast we were flying the wind would likely whip away anything I said before Mishtaw could hear it. At least it meant Mishtaw would be less likely to dig into my reasons for everything too.

But what was an Envoy and why did she seem to recognize the group the kidnapper might belong to? Why was she here? She had abandoned me practically as soon as she had been named my mentor. Was Barra awake? Had she reached out to other whisper women? Were the rest of cohort fine despite the snow and still headed back to the Rookery? Would we be able to rescue Juniper?

All questions that needed answers, but I probably wouldn’t get them until this whole idiotic situation was over. So we flew in silence as the wind rushed past and feathers rustled. As the day continued on some of the clouds broke up and let more light through. So there might be some decent shadows to escape into when we reached Juniper and her kidnapper.

Mishtaw shouted in my ear, “We won’t be able to sneak up on them. We’ll need to cut them off.” She pointed at something but I couldn’t raise my head enough with how we were positioned to see over the bird’s wing. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a large harp attached to a running man’s back.

The bird suddenly banked to the left and I had to bite back a yelp. I didn’t like that I couldn’t see why we were moving away from where she had pointed, but if we were circling around to get into position I had to be ready for whatever came next.

I couldn’t have been ready for what came next. Mishtaw tapped our bird with her foot and it dove straight for the trees. Mishtaw yelled in my ear again, “Hold onto me as soon as the dive stops.”

The last thing I wanted was to let go of the handles but I figured she needed me out of the way to let down the ladder or knotted rope. The bird’s wings snapped out and I twisted and latched onto her arm. We skimmed over the top of the woods as she hauled me into a sitting position, eyes focused solely on the area in front of us.

“Now.”

She shoved back from the left handle with her feet and then we were tipping over the bird’s right side, just behind its wing. That was when I noticed she didn’t have the safety lines tied to her belt or anything else to connect us to the bird. No ladder, no rope.

Just free fall.

A short scream burst from my throat though I really should have been used to falling by now. I tried to twist, to see if we were about to crash into branches or unforgiving ground, but Mishtaw held me tightly in place. I could turn my head enough to see over her shoulder. A large, decent shadow cast by a large pine outlined by a ray of sunlight that had broken through the clouds.

Mishtaw reached out a hand and I expected hear her bones snap but then the oil and smoke world of the shadow paths surrounded us. I braced for impact again. The world wrenched around us and I had to close my eyes against the queasy sensation threatening to up end my guts. The shock of cold air and finally a thump against ground that wasn’t nearly as hard as it should have been.

I opened my eyes to find that we were under the same tree whose shadow we had just fallen into. Mishtaw was already up and brushing the snow off her pants. “We need to move quickly. We’re in front for now and the bird will act as a distraction, but he might not keep his path as straight as he has been. This way.”

She ran off in the direction she’d indicated and I scrambled after her. “Why didn’t we just drop on top of him?”

“No good shadows and the rope would take too long. He’d see us coming and adjust before we’d ever reach him.”

“Why are you the only one who came?”

“The other fliers are escorting the rest of your cohort back to the Rookery. Now run.”

We ran.

Mishtaw didn’t use her blessing yet but it still felt like we were nearly flying over the snow and past the wide spaced pines. I kept my eyes out for any hidden roots or other tripping hazards as we sprinted toward the kidnapper and Juniper.