Page 54

Kah lumbered over, his nose twitching before gobbling up all of them.

Raven suppressed a smile.

“I like her,” Kah said when he caught up to me, clearly forgetting she’d wanted to change him into a mouse earlier.

I rolled my eyes. Bears loved food.

“It couldn’t hurt to be nice to her, since we are going to need her help,” he said, licking the berry juice from his nose.

“I don’t have time to play games,” I muttered, walking faster.

To my relief, the three of us fell silent again. By late afternoon, Raven had stopped shooting me wary glances and became distant, her gaze drifting skyward like her reasons for being tethered to the ground were running out.

At dusk,Kah took the lead, using the faint light of the rising moon to guide us. With the sun gone, the temperature began dropping rapidly. A harsh exhaustion weighed down our feet as we shuffled in line behind him, our hoods up, our dirty boots crunching the dry undergrowth.

By the time the bright torches of the Market of End finally came into view many hours later, even Kah’s feet were dragging.

I gave Raven a bone-tired grin. She didn’t smile back, though I did notice the look of relief on her face.

“Halt!” the Wolf guard barked. “Only tribespeople may enter the Market of End.”

“Hail, good Annundu Wolves,” I said, striding forward after double checking my Rathalan attire wasn’t visible underneath my cloak. “We’re all tribespeople here.”

The silver Wolf sniffed the air, its yellow eyes flashing in the torchlight. “The spy,” he hissed, his breath like fog in the cold air.

I exhaled, trying to hold my frustration back. “I’m not a spy. We’ve been through this. You can clearly see that I’m a Kovak. Let us pass.”

The black Wolf stepped forward, bringing its snout level with my face. “You and your bear may enter, Kovak. The girl may not.”

“What? Why not?”

The Wolf turned his head toward her, his lips curling back to show his pointed teeth. “There’s no magic in her.”

What? Kah and I glanced at each other. The only people who didn’t possess magic were the Rathalans and some of thetribeless—outlaws and thieves who’d broken away from the eight tribes. Neither were allowed in the marketplaces.

“Impossible,” I argued with the Wolf, forcing myself not to sound blindsided, despite feeling exactly that. “She’s one of us. We’ve just escaped from Malengard and have been traveling since dawn. We need your help. The Rathalans are on our tail. We need to get inside. All of us.”

“No,” the wolves said in unison, their sharp eyes flashing a warning.

I glanced back at Raven. Her eyes were wide, like the sharp edges of their words had cut her.

From the east road, I heard the groan of wagon wheels and turned to see a group of Terrans pulling up to the entrance. They stopped short when they saw the Wolves talking to us.

“Will you enter or not, Kovak?” the Wolf’s deep voice rumbled.

I stared at the tall wooden gates looming in front of us. My muscles ached from the hours of walking in the cold. Hunger gnawed at my insides. If I left Raven behind, I could be thawing by a roaring fire with a warm meal and pint—no, several pints—of mead within the hour. But what about Lila?—

“Not,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Then move along,spy,” the silver Wolf said. “We won’t tell you again.”

Cursing under my breath, I grabbed Raven’s arm and dragged her away from the gates.

She tried to shrug off my grip, but I held firm. When we were out of earshot, I turned on her. “What’s going on? Why did the Wolf say there’s no magic in you?”

“Why does my magic matter to you?” she said, her words clipped. The wind had blown her hood down, and her sharp eyes bore into mine.

“Because we can’t enter the marketplace!” I shouted, pointing back to the gates. That, and I had no idea if this would affect my ability to get the map from her.