Page 56 of For the Strange and Surprising

“Were you being exceptionally loud?”

I cough before I can stop myself. “What? No. I mean, I guess it could have been near enough to hear the water splash when we jumped? That’s really the only explanation I can come up with, but that doesn’t feel right. How would it hear us over the falls?”

“It is a bit far-fetched,” she mumbles. “Their hearing is worse than ours.”

“I’m not sure that matters right now, Isolde.”

“What do you mean?” Ecaeris all but growls.

My temples throb as the adrenaline finally fades. “The beast came onto the shore and checked out our clothes. It had a smoke cloud surrounding it that I’ve never seen before. Ada called it an… Aura?”

Isolde’s face falls. “Did you see it too?”

“I did. I’m worried about that and more. They may not have exceptional hearing, but we know their sense of smell is better than ours.”

“Shit,” Ecaeris cusses, storming out of the room.

His mother frowns at the use of an earthly cuss word, but she stands to pace without a reprimand. That’s enough to strengthen my concern. Isolde has not once missed a chance to fuss at us about all of the filthy language William Battlerain accidentally taught us as children.

I know it isn’t the best time, but while I’m alone with her, I can’t miss the chance to inquire about Ada.

“Isolde?”

“Yes, dear?”

“The land speaks to her too.”

She nods in acknowledgment, her steps faltering as the weight of her attention lands on me.

“But she isn’t a hunter.”

It’s a statement that I’m confident in making, even though it’s a skill only hunters have.

“She is not.”

“And you know what she is.”

Isolde flashes me her signature coy smile. “I know exactly who and what she is, Connak. You’ll know soon enough, too.”

I learned long ago that the best way to get information out of the queen is not by asking her the questions you want answered. It’s by telling her what you already know. She always leaves us with more questions because she wants us to work the solutions out for ourselves.

This feels a lot like a riddle, though.

The land speaks to you, but you’re not a hunter. What are you?

I come up empty as I attempt to think through all the possibilities.

I need to find out more about Ada.

Ecaeris storms back in with a massive map, stretching it across the desktop as he bombards me with questions that I can answer.

“Which way did you go to get to the falls, which way did you come home, and which way did the beast go?”

I trace my index finger over each of the paths. “We took the longer route to get to the falls, and the shorter one to get home. The tracks went left, toward the delta.”

“Isn’t that where the mountain passage is?” Isolde recalls.

He nods. “It’s heading into Shade territory. I’ll alert the guards, but hopefully, it’s not our problem now.”