I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Thirty-Three

The landing came hard, and I tumbled several meters before my roll found its end in a prickly bush. At least I hadn't broken something. I stood and brushed myself off. Far off, the campfire still glowed, half a kilometer from the base of the mountain but crisp as crystal in the clear air. I looked back to where I had come from and found only empty sky.

All right. No, I could do this. I had made up my mind.

I took a deep breath, washing my senses in the mountain air. That prickle of magic that had opened the window for me would be my last until I had a grounding better than the one I'd been using. I was not walking further into a war with Coyol unarmed. If I could gain control of my fire magic, I could keep myself, Jem and Emma all safe from whatever came next.

Something to be proud of. Something to love.

I hiked my bag over my shoulder and set out down the rocks.

The fire had simmered down to coals by the time I neared the camp. It reminded me of the hunting or fishing settlements that members of Grillo Negro would set up on lengthy trips. Those were temporary, so this one was probably connected to something larger, too. I stumbled towards it. Only when I reached flat ground had it sunk in just how exhausted I was. It was long past midnight, and I'd been on my feet since early morning after a terrible night's sleep. Those dreams felt like years ago.

Was I really about to meet other people? After years of imagining this moment, it felt surreal. Like I had fallen asleep on the couches after all, and was dreaming this walk where the ground stretched away before me, demanding a seemingly endless number of steps. Other people. What would they look like? Would they even be friendly? What would I say?

Before my tumbling mind found answers, I was suddenly close: a hundred meters out at best. My steps froze as a dog's growl rippled the darkness. It barked, and two others joined it. Shadowy figures around the fire scrambled to their feet.

"I'm safe!" I called, one hand on my knife in case I had to fight. I repeated in English, then Nahuatl. "I'm safe!"

Someone called the dogs in Nahuatl. The growling stopped, and a four-pawed shape emerged from the darkness as I awaited further instructions. The dog trotted circles around me, then sniffed my jacket hem. It wagged its tail. I wondered if a trace of Xolotl or his dogs lingered on my clothes.

"You can come," called a woman's voice. Someone else threw wood on the fire.

I walked the rest of the way to the camp with the dog trotting at my side. Two men and three women stood in the firelight with their hands on their weapons. Their eyes widened when they saw me.

"Gods above!" a woman murmured. "You are not from the village."

I swallowed hard. "I'm from a village. Are you as well?"

"From Tepepia. Who are you?"

Their hands had eased, so I took mine off my knife. "Adriana Atenco Mendoza, from Grillo Negro. I'm lost."

"Well, I can see that much." The woman looked me up and down. She was very short, with a round face both warm and stern. Her hair, like mine and all of her companions', was thick, black, and straight. Hers was braided to her waist. "Come. We can talk around the fire."

They hemmed me in as I followed her to the coarse furs laid out around the glow of their campfire. I took a seat on the bare ground, but was waved up again. One of the men brought me a sitting-fur of my own.

"I'm Izel," said the woman when I had settled myself. The others followed with their names. "How did you lose your village? Are they nearby?"

"Not nearby." I decided to stay as close to the truth as I could. I couldn't keep a lie straight through the slow spin that my body's want for sleep had put on my brain. "My two friends and I were sent to investigate smoke... a town that caught the disease and burned. But the disease wasn't gone entirely. We were split up, and I had to run before it caught up to me."