Kuma kept staring at me as I tied up one attacker and then another before she shook herself and hurried over to Emre. My hands itched to do the same, but I kept tying up attackers to keep them busy. Whether he was injured or dead there was nothing I could do. Not unless I really wanted to test if being frozen solid had been a fluke or the goddess’s punishment—and I doubted I’d get such a lenient punishment a second time.

Prevna had set about tying up the attackers near her so we had nearly all of their wrists bound to two different ropes by the time we heard something new. A sniffle followed by a low rustle. We froze and glanced at each other. When I checked on the Picker band members, it seemed like they were too busy focusing on their injuries and each other to have heard. Jika was supporting the old man, who was starting up another coughing fit, and while Harup and Kuma were focused on Emre and the injured younger man seemed content to lay where he was.

Prevna nodded at me and I nodded back. She quickly got the sixth and last attacker tied to the end of her rope. Three a piece given that the seventh was lost somewhere in the shadow paths. Then we made sure that all of their knives were in a pile out of reach before we finally eased toward the sounds we’d heard. But it was better to finish our work than leave our backs open for another bloody surprise.

I let Prevna take the lead as she slipped around the rise the attackers had run down. She had the advantage between experience and skill when it came to stealth. The only noise came from the coughing old man as she stepped carefully over the pine needles littering the forest’s floor. She waited until I flanked the area we thought the noise had come from. A larger pine tree. Not the best place to hide when whoever was there hadn’t climbed up into the branches but the wider trunk could do in a pinch. Like when you came upon unexpected enemies you thought you’d kill in a few minutes.

Prevna darted her hand around the trunk and twin shrieks pierced the air. A small shape took off in the opposite direction—and launched itself directly into my arms. An elbow caught me in the ribs but it didn’t have enough force to make me do more than grunt. We struggled for a few more seconds before we got our new charges to be still.

I had a small boy was barely older than a toddler. He had done his best to keep his feet and hands flailing until I pinned him against my chest and growled in his ear that he’d regret it if he hit me again. Then he just bawled and howled. I wasn’t sure if that or the coughing was worse but nothing I did would make him shut up and I didn’t have anything to gag him with.

A girl who was likely somewhere between seven and eight was on her knees in front of Prevna. Prevna had her by the back of her collar and her hair. The girl was crying too but she didn’t make a sound unlike her brother. The pair looked too similar not to be siblings between their pale hair, identical noses, and the way the girl watched the boy in my grasp.

I wasn’t surprised to hear more movement in the surrounding forest given the racket we were making but I didn’t like that it came from multiple directions.

The first, and closest sound, was from Jika as she walked around the rise to see us holding the two kids hostage. The second was the short aborted sounds of the adults we captured waking up and cursing. The last came from the direction the attackers had run from. I couldn’t quite make out what it was but that didn’t matter when a handful of seconds later a whisper woman stepped out of the shadow of the tree the kids had used as cover. She was followed by another woman who had to be her firestarter, given the second woman’s lack of black lips and their linked hands.

Though their attire was different from what I had come expect of whisper women and firestarters. Rather than the common swirling gray and black dress and blue overcoat, or the purely functional padded cloth coats and leather caps the whisper women and firestarters had worn to fight the fish on the shore, these two had found something between form and function, though it still had the feel of a uniform.

They had sleeveless gambesons that had a middle split for movement but otherwise covered them down to the knees. Black braiding made the edges cleaner and contrasted with the tan colored cloth. Their waists and chests were wrapped in a variation of the huntress’s protective belt. Really it was more of a paneled vest that looked like it provided more protection and flexibility. Leather guards protected their shins and forearms while lighter blue cloth covered the rest of their arms and legs. Belts full of weapons and pouches hung around their waists though they didn’t wear anything to protect their heads.

Apparently the whisper woman had paid the price for that. A large bruise was swelling her left cheek and I didn’t doubt her eye would swell closed given time as well. Slash marks also marked their gear but I didn’t see blood staining anything or holes torn into the cloth.

The boy finally shut up as the whisper woman leveled her gaze on him. Then she focused on me. “The undying girl?” The bruiser looking firestarter leaned forward to whisper something in her ear and the whisper woman added, “Eliss and Mishtaw’s apprentices? What are you doing here?”

Sometimes I hated being so easily identified because of the three dots on my chin. “Cleaning up your mess apparently.”

Prevna immediately shot me a look that said I should have known better than to start out so combative and I better start living up to her expectations now. I glared back at her for a moment before letting out a very small breath.

“We’re helping the Picker band we’re staying with get their injured to a healer. Otherwise they’d be as good as dead.”

The whisper woman didn’t look like she thought that’d be such a big loss and Prevna didn’t like that reaction. I took that as tacit permission to lean slightly more aggressive again but I let the whisper woman speak first to see what I could needle her best with.

“You should have stayed at the camp and out of the way.”

I tilted my head toward the curses coming from the other side of the small rise. “I’d like to think we were exactly where we needed to be given that this whole group could have holed up somewhere on the mountain if we hadn’t stopped them after they escaped…someone else.” I stared pointedly at her bruised cheek.

Logically, I knew I should be more civil, especially when Mishtaw would be likely hear of this sooner than later, but something about the way the woman had showed up with an accusing tone and the assumption she immediately got to be charge when it looked like she had been knocked over the head by the very people we had captured set my teeth on edge. She hadn’t even bothered to introduce herself.

The whisper woman gestured sharply to her firestarter. “Let Sig take the children and show me the others.”

The kids squirmed and did their best to try to bolt for freedom but they had absolutely no chance of success as soon as the muscled firestarter took them from us. She clasped the girl around the neck and had her walk in front while the boy was held against her chest much like I had. Prevna led the way back to where we had fought the attackers, Jika mutely stepped to the side and stared at us all, wide eyed.

Everyone else quieted down as soon as our new group stepped into view as well. The attackers who had woken up and were struggling against their bonds stilled and Kuma took a step back from where she had apparently started keeping an eye on them. The old man had stopped coughing at some point and was laying back against his travois, exhausted. Harup slowly rose to his feet from where he had been fiddling with the other travois.

“There’s only six.”

“I know.”

The whisper woman seemed close to losing her patience. “There should be seven.”

“There was.” I gestured to the shadow I had stepped through with the man but apparently subtly wasn’t this woman’s strong suit.

She spat, “You let one escape?”

I met her gaze for gaze. Angry glare for a cold one. “No.”

Prevna tried to give me another warning look out of the corner of my eye but I couldn’t let my attention waver from the whisper woman.

She stepped closer and tried to use her height to intimidate me though she wasn’t much taller than average. “No?”

“No.”

I would have kept challenging her authority, kept going until she snapped because there was no feasible way she would have actually given into a Sprout, would have pushed because she had insulted Prevna and my capability and now that I had started the challenge I wanted to know what her breaking point was, but no one else seemed to be handling the tension nearly as well. I would have kept going anyway, but Kuma undermined our battle of wills by blurting out the truth.

“We were fighting the man and then she grabbed him by the hair and…disappeared. When she came back she was alone.”

“You…” The whisper woman closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “In the paths?”

Despite her reaction I kept my head high. “Where else?”

She let out another exasperated breath as she opened her eyes. “You little fool.”

Prevna had slipped up next to me and she clamped a hand on my shoulder before I did something extraordinarily stupid. Or maybe she meant to ground me, because between that woman’s look and her choice of words I couldn’t help but feel icy numbness crackle at my core, rising at the memories of her. Prevna’s hand kept me present but it was a close thing as I heard the echoing of one of the last things she ever called me before I was abandoned. I definitely no longer had the focus to spare for going head to head with a whisper woman.

Prevna asked the question I couldn’t, “Why?”

The whisper woman made a sharp negating gesture. “Your mentors can explain. I don’t have the time or the patience.”

Then a breeze rustled and her lips moved but we couldn’t hear what she said. She blocked us from being able to lipread her either with on her hands. No doubt Mishtaw would soon be receiving an earful of everything the whisper woman thought we had done wrong.

As soon as she stopped speaking on the wind, Prevna indicated the captured adults and children. “What are you going to do with them?”

The whisper woman glanced back at the kids. “They’ll go to the Seedling Palace where we can keep an eye on them. Make sure they don’t take after their parents’ misguided ideas.” She looked forward at the tied attackers. “They’ll get what they’re due. What’s necessary for peace.”

Prevna didn’t ask for a more detailed answer, but then again I wasn’t sure she wanted one. It didn’t take long before the whisper woman’s head tilted as she listened to the answer the wind had brought her.

“You’re to keep going to the healer’s band. Your mentors will meet you there once we are finished here.”

It didn’t take long for it to be clear that Emre hadn’t made it through the fight. Which meant we were down one of our travois carriers and had a body to transport. The Picker band members clearly felt his loss but they were keeping it together until we left enemy territory. Everyone was also injured to some extent though Prevna and Jika had gotten by with the lightest injuries. Neither the whisper woman nor the firestarter looked willing to give up their captives to help us out with the predicament.

In the end, we got the younger man up on his feet and leaning on Kuma so they could support each other as we continued on and hopefully make all the way to the healer. Emre’s body was tied onto the newly vacated travois that Harup would pull now. Prevna, Jika, and I would switch between dragging the old man along. It wouldn’t be sustainable but Harup thought we were at least two thirds of the way to the healer’s camp, so the hope was that we’d make it through that final push without any further trouble.