“Anything, Syl?” Rogar asked.

  “Nothing,” she repeated for the third time in the thirty minutes since their last encounter with the Anihazi. “I’ll tell you as soon as I feel anything.”

  “Right, sorry,” Rogar said, and gave her a small nod in apology.

  Everybody was nervous. More than they had been for the last few days. The proof they were dealing with something more than a Lake-Wolf had them on edge.

  “Remember, when Syl senses it,” Rogar instructed, “make sure you have one of those special arrows nocked.”

  “Rogar, you’ve told us that almost as many times as you’ve asked if Syl feels anything. We know. In fact, we’ve all got the arrows out and ready,” Leeze held up her readied bow to accentuate the point.

  “Sorry,” he apologized again, uncharacteristically. “I want us to be ready.”

  “Where do Anihazi come from, Edar?” Dena asked, trying to change the subject.

  Edar hadn’t said a word since accusing Syl of working with whatever was hunting them.

  “Why don’t you ask her?” he finally answered, venom dripping from his words, and jutted his chin towards Syl. “She’s the one who can sense it. The one with the connection.” He used Syl’s words, but they all knew he meant something else.

  “I asked you,” Dena said, keeping her voice calm.

  Knowing Dena as well as she did, Syl could hear the effort that took.

  “Why do you suddenly care now?” Edar shot back. “You didn’t pay attention when my grandmother tried to tell you as kids. You didn’t listen to me yesterday. But as soon as Syl says it’s true, you all miraculously believe it?”

  “The exploding forest convinced me,” Kule turned his head and said evenly.

  “The evidence was kind of compelling,” Rogar agreed.

  “And you know Rogar would be the last one here to side with Syl,” Dena added, trying to keep everybody on speaking terms. “So, c’mon, where do the Anihazi come from? If what you know can help us survive…” she trailed off, letting her words sink in.

  Edar huffed, but he didn’t argue again. “The stories don’t talk about their origins. Just that they come over the mountains to hunt us.”

  “Over?” Syl asked, and looked up at the imposing peaks. How could anything go over those?

  “That lines up with what the Anavilla saw,” Rogar said. “Wings that blotted out the sun, or whatever the words were.”

  “But if it can fly, why is it hunting us through the woods? Why isn’t it swooping down on us from above?” Reylo asked. “Like right now…” he trailed off as he scanned the sky nervously through the breaks in the canopy.

  “Our Ancestor’s sight,” Edar said.

  “Is that why it keeps to the forests?” Leeze asked. “Does that mean we’re safer out on the road where the trees are thinner?”

  “Lorac’s party was attacked on the road,” Syl reminded them.

  “At night,” Reylo pointed out. “Maybe it doesn’t like the sun?”

  “It’s not the sun, it’s our Ancestors protecting us,” Edar said strongly.

  “Syl?” Rogar asked, ignoring Edar’s comment.

  “I don’t know,” Syl admitted. “I didn’t feel anything like that, but it could be true.” Syl shook her head and shrugged at Edar, though he only scowled back.

  The dreams, the attacks, they all happened after the sun went down or under the cover of the trees.

  “We can’t count on our Ancestors or the sun protecting us,” Syl finally said, trying to appease both sides. “We keep each other safe, just as we’ve been doing the whole time.”

  “Right, so enough chatter and keep your eyes on the woods,” Rogar said from the front of the group. The others smirked and shrugged at each other, but the conversation ended.

  Nobody spoke until an hour later when Rogar informed them he could see Teb’s farm ahead.

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  “You sure that’s it?” Kule asked.

  “No,” Rogar asked. “I’ve never been this far. Edar?”

  “That should be it,” Edar answered. “Do you see anybody?”

  “It’s quiet,” Rogar said, barely above a whisper.

  The air was still, the forest subdued. Syl couldn’t feel the Anihazi nearby, but she couldn’t shake the sensation that something was wrong.

  “Should we leave the stretcher?” Leeze asked.

  “Hey,” Milia whispered harshly.

  “We take her with us,” Syl said, though she took a moment for Milia to see her visibly consider it. “We can’t leave her behind with her leg like that.”

  “Plan?” Rogar asked as the group closed together.

  “I don’t sense the Anihazi, but it can move quickly. Arrows at the ready. We know we can hurt it, and so does it. That should make it hesitate.

  “How many buildings are there?” she directed her question at Edar and Milia.

  “There’s the main house, where Teb and his family lives. Then there are two bunk houses for workers to stay at, and then the barns,” Milia answered. “Two big and one small,” she finished.

  “So, six buildings in total,” Syl confirmed, and Milia nodded.

  “Do we split up?” Rogar asked, and several pairs of nervous eyes snapped in his direction.

  “No,” Syl said before anybody else could speak up. “Like I said, we watch each other’s backs. The Anihazi definitely knows we’re out here, so we don’t need to hide as much. We’ll check the buildings and call out as we go. Hopefully, somebody will hear us.”

  “Hopefully somebody is alive to hear us,” Kule said flatly, but the look on Syl’s face had him backtracking. “I mean, of course, somebody will hear us. Especially your father Syl. He’s got great ears. The best ears.”

  “Kule!” Dena hissed, and his mouth mercifully stopped. “Syl, he…”

  “I know,” Syl said. “But… that isn’t my biggest worry now. That can’t be.”

  “Then what is?” Rogar asked, his face screwed up in confusion.

  Syl met the eyes of each of the others. “You,” she said plainly. “I never should have let you come with me, it’s too dangerous, and Reylo’s already been hurt,” she said, and held up her hand when mouths opened to argue. “But it was never really my choice, I realize that now. It was yours. And I appreciate each of you coming more than you’ll ever know.

  “So, now that you’re here, I have to keep you safe,” she finished.

  Dena put her hand on Syl’s shoulder. “We keep each other safe,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Syl said softly to her friend.

  “Great, now that we’ve had this heartwarming moment,” Milia interrupted coldly. “Could we go see if any of my friends are still alive?”

  “Can’t imagine how you have any,” Kule said in a whisper loud enough for everybody to hear quite clearly.

  “Stay close, and keep an eye out,” Syl said and took the lead as the group moved to Teb’s farm.

  “Still no movement,” Rogar said from her left.

  “Anybody out in the fields?” Syl asked, but there wasn’t a single person anywhere.

  “Not a soul.”

  “Should there be people in the fields now Milia?” Edar asked, surprisingly.

  “Yes,” she said. “Until dinner.”

  “Does everybody eat together?” Syl asked. “Would they all be in the main house?”

  “Dinner is prepared there, but most people go eat in small groups. Couple in each of the bunk houses, and with the weather so nice, there’s a flat rock out behind the house a lot of people like to sit on.”

  “Looks like the bunkhouse on the left is on the way to the main house,” Syl said, gesturing to the long, one-story building. “Let’s start there.”

  “Do you hear that?” Dena asked as the breeze slowed. “Birds?”

  “Yeah,” Syl said. “I think you’re right. Sounds like a lot of them.” Syl led the way and rounded the corner of the bunkhouse. The scene in front of her had her spinning around to stop the others.

  “Wait,” she said, giving her mind a minute to process the image.

  “What is it Syl? Oh, Ancestors… it isn’t… ?” Dena started but couldn’t finish when she looked at Syl’s face.

  “I don’t know who…” she started. “Crows, dozens of them. I don’t think you should see what they’re… eating.”

  Leeze’s face paled immediately, and the others gripped their weapons more tightly.

  “Wait here,” Syl told them. “I need to…”

  “You don’t need to go alone,” Dena said, taking a deep breath and stepping up beside Syl.

  “I’ve been trained to see things like this,” Syl lied, putting on a brave face. Her parents had never exposed her to anything so gruesome. And never outside a controlled environment.

  Rogar ended the discussion with a simple statement. “You’re the one who told us to watch each other’s backs. We’re going.”

  “Careful, Rogar,” Kule said. “That’s at least the third grown-up thing you’ve said since we left the village.”

  Rogar scowled while the others half-smiled, but they all eventually nodded. They’d stick together.

  “The smell will be the worst,” Syl said. “The wind’s blowing the other way, so we didn’t notice it… but after we round this corner…” She undid the scarf she used to keep the sun off the back of her neck and wrapped it around her nose and mouth. It wouldn’t help much, but anything was better than nothing.

  The others followed suit, and after one last nod that everybody was ready, they went around the corner. Together.

  A dozen black, beady eyes turned on the group, and while some feathers ruffled, none of the birds seemed willing to leave their meals.

  Syl wouldn’t be able to identify any of the bodies by their faces. The birds had been feasting well, and thick swarms of black flies filled the air.

  “Milia?” Syl forced the words past the rising bile in her throat. “Do you recognize anybody?”

  “How…?” Milia choked. “How could I? Look at… oh, Ancestors, look at them…”

  “The clothes,” Syl explained. “It looks like three men and one woman.”

  “Your father?” Dena asked her quietly.

  “Not here,” Syl said, a small relief.

  “I… I don’t know…” Milia said. The shock was too much for her.

  “When did they… ?” Rogar asked, unable to finish the sentence.

  “With the sun and heat,” Syl calculated. “A day or two at most. Maybe just after Milia left to find Jurik. Tough to say exactly.

  “We need to check for survivors.”

  “I doubt we’ll find anybody in this bunkhouse,” Rogar said, and gestured to the open door just beyond the four bodies. “But I guess we need to check anyway, don’t we?”

  “Yeah,” Syl agreed. “Then on to the main house.” If her father was here, that’s where she’d find him. A strange mix of urgency and hesitance warred in Syl’s chest as they picked their way past the bodies into the bunkhouse. Part of her wanted to run towards the main house as fast as her legs would take her.

  But given the scene outside the bunkhouse, the other part of her was terrified at what she’d find.

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