Page 24 of Keldori By Daybreak

“He’s the one who blew you up,” I snorted. “We don’t know what Ferrin and his sister have told him, so he might try blowing you up again.”

“He wouldn’t,” Fana insisted.

“And,” Orla continued, “Iseult might try to blow you up too, considering you attacked her home not that long ago.”

Ciarán itched at his chest armor, possibly remembering the burn scars Tiernan has left splashed across his torso there.

“Then it’s settled. Fana and I will come up the mountain with you,” I said. “Everyone wants to blow you up, so you'll need us.”

“We need you out of the way,” Ciarán snapped.

“But I want to help.” Fana set her chin down on her bag and glared at the camp fire.

“You will help,” Orla assured her. “Just-Wren worked hard keeping you safe this summer, and now you get to keep her safe while you wait by the lake.”

“Then promise me you won’t let him hurt Tiernan.” Fana pointed a finger at Ciarán.

“If Tiernan is a good boy who stays out of the way and lets us take the Lyrian, I won’t touch him,” Ciarán promised.

Fana frowned at Ciarán and hugged her pack tighter.

A muffled meow made Fana’s eyes grow wide, and she stared resolutely at the fire as we all turned to look at her again.

“Fana?” Orla prodded. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Fana feigned innocence and fought to keep a straight face as another meow sounded from inside her pack.

Ciarán crossed the cave to rip the bag from Fana’s thin arms. A cloud of fur leapt out and bolted to hide in the far corner of our cave. Once there, Jonquil tried to reclaim her dignity by sitting back on her haunches and licking a blonde paw while she glared at us over her flat nose.

“You stole my grandmother’s cat?” I forced myself into a sitting position, aching ribs be damned.

“I don’t want her to get volcanoed.” Fana shrugged. “Sorcha said we packed food.”

“Yes, for us!” I seethed. “We can’t take a cat with us!”

“Why not?” Ciarán scooped Jonquil into his arms, and she batted at a bit of leather string that hung from his vambrace. “We’re already traveling with a child and whatever you want to call yourself. What’s one more helpless creature tagging along?”

“I’m not a helpless creature,” I retorted

“Oh, please.” Ciarán grinned. “At least the cat can fend for herself.”

“I can make a better flail than Jonquil.”

Ciarán laughed, though I wasn’t sure if it was with me or at me. I opened my mouth to follow up with a better retort, but a haunting, grating howl, like claws raking down a stone wall, silenced all of us. My heart jumped into my throat, and Ciarán dropped Jonquil into Fana’s lap as he returned to the mouth of the cave.

“That was a rotsbane,” Orla hissed.

I turned cold at the thought of the horrible, shadow-shrouded, four-armed beasts that scoured Skalterra in search of magick to devour.

“They almost never come north of the mountains,” Ciara hissed.

“Except for that one, apparently,” I snapped back.

“The Rift is open,” Ciarán said. “They can probably smell Keldori. They want the Skal.”

“Are we safe here?” Orla asked.

“Keep the Skal bottles closed. No magick.” Ciarán looked at me, and the warmth in my palms dissipated. “It’s daytime, so it’s stuck in the shadows of the ravine. We can rest without it bothering us as long as the sun is up.”