12 Tangled Branches

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees." -Khalil Gibran

"Need a hand?"

Monty's bespectacled face could be seen by the light of the branch's lantern, looking down on Luke, Julie, and Seth several branches below. He and Fayola were perched comfortably on what appeared to be one of the APO's highest limbs. Julie was leaning against the trunk, trying to regain her breath and her balance at the same time. Luke's hand at her elbow was some help, but not much. Seth was breathing lightly, but the sheen on his face showed his exertion.

"Now you ask!" Luke gasped up at Monty, who appeared to be amused at their efforts.

"Here, give me your hand. There's enough room up here for all of us. I'll pull you up." Monty lay flat on his stomach and let one arm hang down to their level.

Luke looked nervously at the Silva's hand. He appeared to be deliberating inwardly. Monty seemed to read his mind.

"My arm isn't going to come out of its socket. It may be misshapen, but it does have muscle."

Looking chastened, Luke grabbed Monty's hand firmly.

"Now, jump a little, and then grab my arm with both hands."

Luke gave a small little hop on their branch, and Monty's arm curled upward, hauling Luke up with him. Fayola, who looked almost bored, leaned over and snagged Luke's other arm, helping to more or less drag him onto the upper branch.

Julie went next. Monty had spoken truthfully; she could almost feel the power of the ligaments contracting in his shoulder and forearm as he pulled her up to their lookout perch.

Seth, prideful to the last, scrambled up under his own power.

As soon as Julie turned around and sat on the branch, she gasped. It seemed that the world of the Silva was full of overwhelming sights.

They were so high they were literally above the treetops. The huge oak's canopy stuck out amid the slightly shorter tops of every other tree in the forest. Below, the entire Eastern Forest spread out like a dark green sea, lit by the pinprick lights of a hundred lanterns. Down below, Julie had felt like she was looking at a nighttime city. Up here, it was like looking out at a whole different world. Above, the stars curved over them like a ceiling. Julie had never felt so close to the sky, as if she could leap up and touch it.

Fayola was standing up, balancing without the aid of the trunk. She had her arms spread wide, as if she was drawing in all the stars and all the forest. She didn't speak; she just held the stance like part of a ritual. The sharp-featured Silva girl looked ethereally beautiful, bathed in a combination of lantern-light and starlight. Monty just crouched, his eyes behind his glasses scanning the sky and the treetops and everything around them. Julie had a feeling that although they had each seen this layout a hundred times, it was having the same powerful effect on them.

"Welcome," he finally said, in a soft, reverent voice, "to the home of the Silva Offendo."

"It's amazing," whispered Luke. He had crouched down too, mirroring Monty's balanced pose. "I had no idea there was so much of it."

"No one ever guesses how big the Silva is," Monty said. "They all think we're a little rogue band scraping out a living in the trees. But there are hundreds of us. Maybe even a thousand. We control almost the entire breadth of the Eastern Forest; it's under our surveillance every hour of the day and night, one way or another."

Seth shook his head in amazement. "What a task that must be. And Tamal oversees it all?"

"Tam's our main leader, the big boss." Monty grinned, and Julie wondered yet again at how easily and informally the Silva spoke of Tamal. "There are a couple other area leaders that he trusts to run some of the outlying parts of the forest, but mostly it's all him and Rhona. The bird bonds carry messages pretty fast, so it isn't too hard to keep everyone in touch."

Julie seized the opportunity to clarify a few things she had been thinking about. "So Rhona is his deputy?"

"You could call it that," Monty conceded. "Tamal considers her pretty much on his level, but she tries not to take too much leadership. She says she's not cut out for the top position. Load of mulch, in my opinion." Monty shrugged, making his disproportioned shoulders look even odder.

"So how did Tamal get the job?" Luke broke in eagerly. He loved this aspect of things; the rituals, the chain of leadership and command. It was warrior stuff, like the things his father had taught him. "Did he fight duels with the other contenders? Did he have to win challenges or something?"

Seth and Fayola made a soft derisive sound at the same time, and then looked at each wryly. Fayola explained. "Bandits aren't that honorable, or that organized. We choose leaders based on a lot more than whether they can win a fight. To tell the truth, Tam wasn't really picked as a leader. He just kind of became the leader."

Luke looked confused. "Well, someone had to let him have the position."

"Nope," said Monty with his usual straightforward cheerfulness. "Tamal was just…there. He came to us really young, but he was just pure energy packed into a human body from the start. That was my first impression of him. He was fast and agile, racing other Silva was one of his favorite sports. He was smart; he came up with all kinds of new ideas for stealth and fighting and governing. He could fight, sure, but he could also talk. I can't count the number of times I've heard him talk someone down without landing a single strike. And he had…personality. He made people like him. He listened when you talked, he sat with you when you felt awful, he solved things with you. He made you feel…safe. Protected. Led."

"All the qualities of a good leader," Seth said, nodding.

"So, when the old leader was killed by some stupid rich baron who challenged him to a duel, Tamal just…took over. No one argued about it. It just seemed…right."

"No one argued?" Luke looked disbelieving.

"Well…" Fayola said, "Tamal dealt with the few who did. And he did it in such a way that it gave everyone else even more respect for him."

"That's right. I pinned them to tree trunks by their tunic sleeves using rusty daggers, and then I told them that I was going to let Vega bite their fingers off…one…by…one."

The voice growled out of the tree shadows behind them, low and husky. Julie scrambled around on the branch in time to see a standing figure with a white ghost on its shoulder. She made a soft squeaking sound of surprise. Luke had gone white as milk.

"Nice going, Tam." Fayola smiled wryly at the silhouette.

"Yeah boss, are you trying to give them heart failure?" Monty was nonchalantly rubbing his glasses on his tunic now, as if Tamal showed up like this often.

"Just making sure you were telling these three groundcrawlers the true version of events." The branch bounced as Tamal folded himself down lithely onto their limb without so much as a wobble of balance. Vega, who had appeared to be ghostlike in the dark, tilted her moon-shaped face from side to side, looking at them all.

"Isn't it getting a little crowded up here?" Seth observed innocently.

"You should consider it an honor that I came to check on you," Tamal retorted smartly. "You have a problem with that…thief?" Tamal was grinning as he made a sudden, sharp leap towards Seth.

It was a joking move, but it was enough to startle Seth into lurching sideways. Crammed tight as they were on the limb, Seth knocked into Luke, who pitched forward with a yelp of terror.

Monty and Julie both lunged forward at the same time, grabbing Luke's wrists just as he was about to topple off the branch. With some grunting and pulling, they managed to haul him back. Luke was breathing heavily, more from fear and adrenaline at his near fall than from exertion.

Taking a few deep breaths, Seth scowled at Tamal. "Real funny. You see, there are too many people up here."

Tamal was still smiling crookedly, but when he spoke he sounded genuinely guilty. "Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking about what you'd do. Usually the Silva have much better balance; a simple joke like that wouldn't bother one of us."

"Sure, a joke. Ha ha." Luke was gripping the branch much tighter than before.

"Got to keep the limitations of you groundcrawlers in mind, huh?" Tamal gave them a teasingly superior grin. His eyes flickered over Julie.

And suddenly the smile disappeared as if she had slapped it off.

Everything seemed to happen very quickly. Julie had only enough to register the look of terrifying fury that blazed to life in Tamal's eyes before he had grabbed her by the front of her shirt. With a single movement, he twisted her around and slammed Julie into the trunk of the tree with such force that she lost her breath. She heard Icarus scream in protest, as the gyrfalcon flew furiously at Tamal. He did not even seem to notice the gray-feathered bullet.

Icarus was not the only one protesting. Seth and Luke, both giving vent to angry protests at the same time, started scrambling to her aid. But that was when Julie discovered where Monty and Fayola's true loyalties lay. Without question or hesitation, both Silva reached out and grabbed the two guys, yanking them forcibly backwards. Julie was slightly gratified to see that not only did Seth and Luke look absolutely livid, but Monty at least looked sympathetic. That obviously didn't make him any less loyal to Tamal though.

She was forced back to focus on Tamal when he gave her a rough shake. "Who are you? Who sent you?" he hissed at her. The bounding, devil-may-care leader of the Silva Offendo was gone. There was an angry, slit-eyed warlord of the trees in his place.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" gasped Julie angrily in reply. "Who do you think sent me?"

"No one sent you, huh? Then what in the forest fires of hell is this?"

Tamal had seized something that was hanging down Julie's shirtfront and yanked on it, hard. It dangled over his palm, and in the moonlight Julie saw it shine.

It was the oak leaf pendant that Silas had given her. The sign of the Watchers. It must have tumbled out of her tunic when she had leaned over to grab Luke. What had the old man said about it?

…had to make sure you weren't with the Silva…I shot one of their leaders with a well-placed slingstone, for which they've never forgiven me…I wouldn't let the Silva see it if I were you…

"Look, we just stopped to ask him for directions," Julie explained hurriedly. "I didn't mean anything by wearing it…I know he shot you once…did it leave a scar or something? I'm sorry…"

"What? Leave a scar?" Tamal looked, if possible, even more furious. "How dare you? How dare you come here wearing his filthy mark!"

"It was just a slingstone!" shouted Seth from Fayola's grip. "Get off of her, will you?"

"What do you mean, just a slingstone? He has far worse things than a slingstone at his disposal! And he's as good as branded you…what kind of spies are you? Does he think we're stupid?" Tamal ranted.

Something wasn't quite adding up to Julie. Tamal couldn't possibly be going this insane over being hit with a rock. Now that she thought of it, Silas's comment about the Silva terrorizing him just because he'd hit one of them with a slingstone didn't quite make sense either. It didn't match what Julie had seen of the Silva so far.

"Wait a second, wait a second! Who are you talking about?" Julie asked.

"Lord Bloody Maeron, who do you think I'm talking about!?" thundered Tamal. He looked almost crazy in the flickering lantern light.

There was a sudden, intense silence.

Julie stared at the innocent, silver pendant. Silas had told her it was the Watchers' symbol. But before her stunned and disbelieving eyes, the little leaf rotated on its chain, revealing the flip side of it.

Viewed from the back, the oak leaf suddenly became an etched portrayal of a peregrine falcon viewed face on, its wings angled upward to form two points of the leaf, its tail fanning over where the stem would have been.

"Oh, great Ichor," Julie whispered.

She had never thought to look at the other side.

Julie swallowed, feeling sick but knowing what she had to do.

"Tamal," she said quietly but fiercely. "I swear by my bond Icarus that I didn't know what it was." There you had it. The most powerful and binding oath on Rathya. The gyrfalcon himself, who was now swooping above her head, gave a cry of affirmation.

For a few moments, Tamal looked at her. His steady brown eyes held hers for a long time. Then he closed them, and spoke.

"That's nice, Julie. But I'm afraid when it comes to Maeron, nothing is good enough for the Silva."

Without opening his eyes or releasing his grip on Julie, Tamal whistled. As if she had materialized out of thin air, Rhona was suddenly there.

"Take the three of them to the Laburnum Prison," he said, his voice flat. "Set a guard over them. Tell everyone not to listen to anything they say. Give 'em the bare basics for food and water."

Rhona stared at Tamal, her light eyebrows raised in incomprehension. With his little finger, Tamal twitched Julie's pendant at her. Something close to sorrow stabbed through Julie when she saw the look of furious betrayal cross Rhona's face. She looked over Tamal's shoulder and saw Fayola and Monty giving her the same deadly stare. It was hatred in their eyes, hatred and fear. Only Tamal's face had become a mask.

Tamal shoved Julie at Rhona, and the Silva deputy pinned her arms behind her back. She was not gentle or accommodating at all now. A scuffle broke out suddenly as Luke tried to wrench away from Monty, but the crippled Silva once again proved that he was anyone's equal, yanking Luke back into a crushing hold.

"Don't," said Monty tightly, and he almost sounded like he was pleading. "C'mon, don't. You'll fall and break your neck, groundcrawler." Finally, Luke went limp. Seeing him like that made Julie feel more helpless than ever.

And so Julie, Luke, and Seth were dragged away in disgrace, when just hours before Tamal had called them guests and promised to protect them. Julie would have fought harder against Rhona's rough treatment, but she was still in shock, still trying to piece everything together.

So Silas had been an agent of Lord Maeron all along. His disgust for the governor, his concern for them…it had all been an act. And he had purposely saddled them with a mark that belonged to Maeron, so that if they did encounter the Silva, they would be either killed or imprisoned.

Julie winced as Rhona dragged her over a branch, the bark skinning the top layer of skin off her leg. But she already knew it was useless to try and ask the deputy to slow down or be more careful. They were the enemy now.

"Rhona? What's the Laburnum Prison?" Julie figured this question couldn't possibly hurt.

"Shut up." Julie flinched again. This time, it was Rhona's voice that caused her that stinging pain, not a tree branch. She had really been starting to like and respect Rhona. Hearing such harsh disgust in her voice was hard.

Julie decided to try one more time. "Rhona, please. I would never want to hurt anyone. We're on the run from Maeron. Believe me."

"You want me to start carrying you by the hair?" Rhona snapped. "We show respect, groundcrawler. We believe in giving chances. But that doesn't mean we show mercy when you turn out to be a lying, two-faced traitor."

Icarus! Julie thought desperately. Talk to Tupac! Tell him to convince Rhona.

Icarus, who had been flapping agitatedly after Julie, whistled shortly in response. He had made several attempts to dive bomb their captors, but each time Rhona had skillfully rebuffed him with an upraised fist. Julie thought she saw Tupac's head jerk as Icarus contacted him.

A moment later, Icarus spoke morosely in her head. I am sorry Julie. Bird bonds must be loyal to their human partners, and we cannot help feeling as they do. Tupac loves and trusts his bond; he believes as she does.

Julie sighed heavily. Just then, her head came up as Rhona whistled sharply.

The had come to a tree which seemed to stand alone, looking odd in the middle of the rest of the forest. Its branches curved over instead of spreading regally like the other deciduous forest trees, and its leaves were rounded instead of shaped or flared. But most strikingly, it was blooming cascades of yellow flowers, huge swathes of bright gold that hung down in waterfalls. It would have been gorgeous if it had not somehow filled Julie with a sense of foreboding.

The branches of the strange tree were too thin to climb on, so Rhona led them down the trunk of one tree and onto the forest floor. It felt so strange to be back on solid earth again that Julie stumbled in Rhona's grip. She heard her surprise echoed by Luke behind her in a strangled gasp. The Silva deputy still showed no emotion or accommodation.

As they ducked beneath the willowy branches of the strange tree, Julie felt like she was passing through a curtain. Underneath, the moon and starlight was dappled, and it was even darker and eerier than outside. Julie immediately went on edge, and she had to literally bite her lip to stifle a shriek when a shape materialized from right next to the tree's trunk. The moonlight reflected oddly off its eyes, which looked paler than normal.

Rhona halted, and Julie heard the footsteps of Luke, Seth, Monty, and Fayola behind them cease too. Still with that cold expression, Rhona shoved Julie forward. Already feeling unbalanced from her sudden exposure to the ground, Julie stumbled onto her knees, landing almost on the feet of the shadowy figure. Twin thumps beside her told Julie that Luke and Seth had been tossed in similar manners. Even in the dark, Julie saw Seth's hand slip subtly down to his left boot, and she realized he must still have Sheridan hidden there. Well, that was something.

Icarus landed on her shoulder, whistling softly with a mixture of fury at their captors and concern for his bond. There was a rustle of feathers as Athena and Corax found their respective humans as well.

From above, Rhona spoke icily. "Three groundcrawler spies for you here. We discovered her…" Julie felt Rhona's hand brush the side of her face roughly, "…carrying a pendant with Maeron's mark on it. These two are traveling with her. Tam's orders are for you to hold them all until he says otherwise."

The shadowed figure inclined its head. Julie still couldn't tell whether it was male or female, or its age. All she could see were the ghostly pale eyes silhouetted in a dark face.

Rhona looked down on all of them, and as her gaze flicked down their lineup, Julie thought she saw a kind of sorrowful disappointment. Then her face snapped cold again, and she turned. "Enjoy the Laburnum Prison, groundcrawlers," she called over her shoulder.

Monty and Fayola followed her. Fayola didn't look back, but Monty did, his face solemnly sad. He gave a slight wave of his fingers at them, and Emil the mockingbird gave a soft, haunting whistle. Then their three escorts were gone, and Julie and the two boys were left alone with the shadow.

"Get up." At first Julie thought the voice might be the wind stirring the tree's branches, it was so breathy and ethereal. Then she realized it had come from the shadowy shape.

Swallowing, but filled with a kind of primal fear that had to do with the dark and with the unknown figure, Julie rose. So did Luke and Seth.

"Follow," breathed the shadow, walking toward the tree trunk.

Julie looked at Luke. She knew by the expression in his hazel eyes that he was thinking what she was; they could run. The figure's back was turned. There were no more guards.

As if reading her mind, the figure paused and whispered, "Do not run. The Silva's territory extends for miles. We would recapture you in minutes, and Tamal might not be so lenient for a second offense."

Julie shivered. This longer speech gave her a better idea of the figure's voice, and it was creeping her out. It was a raspy gasp, like the person was breathing the words out like smoke. She froze, and then spoke inwardly to Icarus. What do you think?

Do as he says. I do not like him Julie. He is too blank. I cannot sense anything from him.

Julie swallowed, and then straightened her spine, determined to be brave, and walked toward the trunk. She almost stopped again when she saw the figure was walking into another high curved entrance in the tree. It seemed like every structure the Silva built was a hollowed out trunk. But this one seemed ten times more ominous, given the circumstances.

She started slightly as Seth veered in front of her, and at the same time she was aware of Luke closing the gap between them so he was close behind her. She managed a shaky smile. She felt suddenly very glad of Luke and Seth's innate chivalry, and touched by their gesture of protection. But it didn't completely shake her fear as darkness closed over them and they entered the prison.

Inside, it was pitch black. Julie stopped instinctively, unable to see where she was going. Abruptly, a light flared several feet from her, and she gasped softly. The figure had lit one of the Silva's strange lamps, enclosed in slanted glass panes. And now they could see him properly, for Julie saw that it was indeed a him.

She wasn't sure if it was a good thing though.

He was older even than Tamal, at least seventeen or eighteen. He was built slender, almost skeletal, his arms and legs long and bony. His face was angular, and fairly pale in the flickering lamplight. His hair was jet-black, and looked as if he cut it with a knife, because it hung in uneven patches around his ears, shoulders, and face. But his eyes were most terrifying. They were a washed out grey, and at close range Julie could now see that his pupils were bluish, not black.

He was blind.

Almost as if he knew they were staring, the figure gave a crooked grin. His front canine teeth looked unusually sharp. "I'm Colby," he breathed, and the whisper seemed to slither around the hollow walls of the tree. "And you three are…?"

Julie wasn't sure they ought to engage in formalities with a creepy blind jailer. She swallowed hard.

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and realized that Seth had bent over slightly and was starting to work Sheridan out of his boot, silently. Relieved that he seemed to have a plan, Julie opened her mouth to say something defiant when Colby's head snapped around and his eyes focused perfectly on Seth.

"Put it down, kid," he said quietly. "I'm the best and only jail guard the Silva have. You kill me, and no one is gonna make bets on how long you live. And I think you're smarter than that, eh, thief?"

Seth straightened in shock. Before he could ask the obvious question, Colby answered. "Never been around a blind person before, have you? Let's just say this; don't try anything around me that you wouldn't try around someone who could see. Maybe even less."

Colby sighed, another breathy sound. "Let's just run through the basic stuff, shall we? This is the Laburnum Prison. Going with the assumption that none of you are tree experts, we are currently standing in a laburnum tree. Which just so happens to be…"

"Poisonous." Seth spoke unexpectedly, interrupting. "Every part of the laburnum tree, bark, leaves, roots, flowers, is poison."

Colby looked straight at Seth, this time with a sharper gaze. "That's right. Who taught you about that?"

"We thieves have a wide range of…talents," Seth said evasively.

"Yes, the tree is poisonous. Swallow a piece of it, and you'll die within the hour. Rub against it too hard, and your skin will burn." Colby said all this like he had recited it a thousand times before. "So basically, this prison is a death trap. Don't try to escape."

"We're innocent, you know," growled Luke. "They think we're spies, but--"

"I don't care," breathed Colby dispassionately. "I've seen so many people come and go that I really couldn't care less what you did or didn't do. I do what Tamal requests of me, and that's it."

That was when Julie realized what she'd been missing. "Where's your bird bond?" A cold wave of pure fear rolled over her, making her almost nauseous. "You do have a bird bond, don't you?"

The idea of a Rathyan not having a bird bond, to be one of the Bondless, was literally nightmarish. Children, even those too young to fully understand the idea, nursed a nagging fear that when the time came for them to visit the Hatchery, no egg would crack for them. The thought of being alone in a world where everyone else had a constant companion was too much. Those who weren't chosen, for whatever reason, often went insane.

It took Colby so long to answer that Julie feared the worst. To be trapped in a poison tree with a Bondless was beyond terrifying.

Then Colby smiled, exposing those weird pointed teeth again. "She's right behind you. Aren't you, beauty?"

Julie whirled around, and had to stifle yet another cry of fear. Two red eyes glowed like coals out of the shadows behind them. Something moved.

And then, like a demon out of nightmare, something stalked forward on two stick legs, walking slow and stiff. It had a huge, thick beak that tapered to a razor point and a squat, compacted body with wispy bluish feathers. And scariest of all, its eyes were blood-red, with tiny dot pupils. As the three prisoners stared, the creature clacked its beak and issued forth a rattling croak that sounded like a sick person with the lung-rot.

"This is Delilah. She's a night heron. My eyes in the dark and my company in the silence, aren't you, lovely?"

The way Colby's voice softened almost to a whispery croon made shivers trace down Julie's spine. She couldn't help but think that yet again, a bird had been matched perfectly with its bond. Delilah was just as terrifying as her blind human partner.

The heron stalked stiffly over to stand next to Colby's leg, and he reached down with the hand that wasn't holding the lantern to smooth his hand over the bird's head.

"I'll show you to your rooms now," Colby said abruptly. Holding the light, he began walking up a winding staircase that Julie hadn't noticed before.

Julie and the two boys had no choice but to follow. To close out her fear, Julie found herself focusing on the weird movements of Delilah's sticklike legs as she climbed each stair. It was a grotesque but fascinating sight.

She almost crashed into Seth's back as he stopped behind Colby, and she realized that they had reached the top of the stairway.

Up here, at the crown of the trunk, the laburnum tree appeared to have grown an unusual mutation. The wood had bulged outward in several places, forming thick knots that had been hollowed out into roughly circular chambers. They were only a couple feet deep, and Julie could see already that they would leave a person, even an adolescent one, little more than standing room.

But she had no doubt that these were their cells.

Colby stood aside, Delilah at his heels like some bizarre trained dog. He made an impatient gesture. "Choose your room."

"Don't you have a…group room?" Julie knew how foolish she sounded, but the idea of being alone in one of these holes was terrifying.

Colby expelled a quick laugh like a cloud of smoke. "You think the Silva are that stupid? Get in."

Julie swallowed, and with Icarus hunched low on her shoulder, she walked into one of the left hand cells. She wished desperately for some shred of the hot courage she'd felt defying Pete, or Jafar, or Tamal. But somehow there was nothing left for her to use against this blind, skeletal warden. She saw Luke slouch defeatedly into the cell right next to hers, Athena nearly rubbing her head against the edge of the doorway. She heard the eagle owl's muffled hoot of helpless fury through the wood that separated the rooms.

Seth, however, did not enter his cell right away. He looked at it for a few moments, as if assessing a new house. Then, faster than Julie could blink or Colby could stop him, Seth whipped his dirk out of his boot. But he did not attack Colby, or his bird bond. He simply reached up and used Sheridan to score the wood above the entrance to the cell. As he stepped back, Julie saw that he had carved a crude 'S' above the doorway, and that cradled within the lower curve of the letter was a second letter: 'C'. Seth smiled tightly, grimly.

"There, Corax," he murmured, addressing the raven. "Now when we escape, they'll always know exactly who they were privileged to hold in their prison tree."

Then he walked calmly forward into the cell and leaned against the back wall in a cool slouch that reminded Julie irresistibly of Tamal.

Julie was astonished to hear Colby give another rasp of laughter, this one more genuine than sarcastic.

"That's good," he breathed, as he swung closed huge, tangled doors made of roots and twigs that would serve as cell bars. "I'll admit I find it intriguing when my captives have spirit. Just remember, poison." He rapped the inside of the tree with his pale, bony knuckles. The jailer felt around for something on the outside of each door, and then knotted each one closed with a huge, thick root. Then, with a subtle hand motion to Delilah, he descended the stairs, taking his lantern with him.

Julie swallowed hard. Reaching up, she caressed Icarus's smooth head, unable to suppress a shudder at the memory of Colby doing the same to his own bond.

So, Ic, now what do we do? Any words of wisdom?

Only that we should not give up hope. After all, one can usually find something good in all situations.

Oh yeah? And what's the good here? That we aren't dead…yet?

No. That the wisdom of bird bonding almost always holds true. You may find Colby's heron to be a frightening creature, but she could have been a falcon or a vulture. The fact remains, Julie…herons are not birds of death.

Julie leaned her face against the thick screen of sticks and roots that formed the door, left with hardly anything but that cryptic sentiment to give her comfort.