Forsaken by the one person who was supposed to love her unconditionally, Red must brave the magic and monsters of the Wylds to find her true place in the world.
*****
Plague...
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"So where is this messenger of the Gods?" I asked Rana, as she handed me a sudsy plate to dry by hand. I didn't bother trying to convince her to rinse it off in the kitchen sink; the last time I'd gone to do it myself, she hadn't taken lightly to the implied criticism of her dish-washing abilities. I had a feeling that if we weren't stuck in Gretchen's cramped kitchen, she would have morphed into her wyvern form so that she could actually bite off my head.
"I don't know for sure, but its nest lies east of the Grey Fist mountains. I figure we should start looking there," she said with a shrug.
I frowned at the bit of soggy bread still clinging to the rim, resolving to pick it off while she was distracted. Rana had somehow come to the conclusion during breakfast -- without consulting anyone, of course -- that we would all be accompanying her on her quest, the details of which were still exceptionally vague. I didn't know what Sebastian's plans were, but I needed a little more information under my belt before committing to the idea. If lycan poachers truly were abounding, then I needed to make sure Eddy would be safe with her kind before setting off without her.
There was also the fact that the lycans, despite what they were accused of, had sheltered and raised me. And I was fairly certain Rana's unspoken plans involved annihilating every single one without discrimination. But I didn't want to dwell too long on the conflicting emotions that arose from that train of thought.
"What is it, exactly?" I asked. "Another wyvern like you?"
Rana snorted. "There are no wyverns like me."
Patience, I bid myself, even as my fingers crumpled the tea towel. "Is it a person, like you and I, or is it some kind of device that simply carries messages to the Heavens? How does it work, exactly?"
She sighed, as if I was the one testing everyone else's patience. "Ever heard of a phoenix?" she asked, plopping another plate onto the drying rack faster than I could keep up.
The tapestry in Gretchen's room flashed before my eyes. "Sure. According to Brollo, they were big, fiery birds that built their nests from ashwood. Though I heard recently that the ashwood actually comes from thorns that grow around the bird's nest once every thousand years."
Rana nodded emphatically. "My people call it the Thornwood. In the temple carvings, it's only supposed to last a day and a night before receding back into the earth, but it's been around for years. The brambles stretch so far into the sky that you can't access the nest by wing, so I'm determined to find it on foot."
"If the nest lies east, then why were you flying west when we found you?" Sebastian asked, venturing into the conversation for the first time since breakfast. I was almost startled to remember that he was here with us; his demeanour as a man was much the same as when he was a wolf, brooding and quietly observant.
