Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

A barrage of images sped through Lily’s mind. Swinging through treetops. A beloved grooming the scales on his blue back. Peacefully warming in the sun. Awoken and commanded to kill. Shown a face by the angry one within—a face that must be found.

“Breakfast!” Lily piped, surprised, when she saw the face. She broke off the mindspeak with her newly claimed Woven and turned. “They’re looking for Breakfast—except he’s an Outlander??

?? she finished doubtfully as she assessed the image she’d seen. It had been Breakfast, but he’d had long, braided hair and war paint on his face.

“Lily, get back,” Rowan said. She felt him pulling on her arm, trying to get her to step away from the Woven who stood only inches away.

Without warning, the simians turned as one and sped back into the trees, hooting and howling as they went. All but one. Lily’s claimed Woven stayed where he was while the rest of his family group sped off.

Follow them, Blueback, Lily told him. She added an image of him turning and leaving her in case he didn’t understand. The Woven took her command and knuckled his way off into the darkness.

“Ro!” Caleb called.

“Here!” Rowan called back. He turned and made a disgusted sound. “He’s gone.” Lily looked at him, her mind still sorting out what Blueback had shown her. “Carrick is gone,” Rowan clarified.

“Lily’s fine,” Caleb said into the darkness behind him. Tristan appeared behind him at a jog, and they joined Rowan and Lily.

She reached out to the rest of her mechanics, searching for Breakfast. She found him, still shaken, as he and Una joined them. Una was covered in Woven blood. She started wiping at it to get it off her.

“They tried to carry me off,” Breakfast told them, offended. “They would have, too, if my girl hadn’t stepped in.”

“It wasn’t me,” Una said, declining to take any credit. “We were totally outnumbered, and then they just dropped him and ran off.”

“They weren’t looking for Breakfast,” Lily replied. She grabbed Rowan’s arm, her alarm growing. “The shaman Red Leaf. They came for him.”

Lily could hear braves calling out in alarm. Caleb and Rowan cocked their heads, listening to the coded signal calls for a moment before sharing a dismayed look.

“They got him,” Caleb said.

“Why would the Woven want the shaman?” Una asked.

“Not the Woven,” Lily said, shaking her head. “Grace. Why would Grace want a shaman who knows how to spirit walk unless it’s because of what I told her in the redwood glade?”

The coven’s eyes went wide as they realized what Grace wanted.

“Let’s get him back,” Tristan said, already breaking away from the group. “Come on, guys, let’s go.”

“There are too many,” Rowan said quietly.

Lily pulled heat from the torch, but it was a small flame. She gave her mechanics as much force as she could, and looked at Rowan. “She can’t learn how to worldjump, Rowan. She can’t.”

He nodded, but his face was furrowed with a doubtful frown. “Breakfast, stay and guard Lily,” he ordered, and then the rest of her mechanics took off so fast it was as if they’d disappeared. As soon as they were gone, the darkness seemed to grow eyes that watched her hungrily.

“Stay close to me, Breakfast,” Lily said. “Carrick is out there.”

“If we’re lucky he’ll get eaten by something ugly,” Breakfast said, kneeling down on the ground to build a proper fire. “I doubt he’d risk coming back for you tonight.”

Lily nodded and relaxed some. She reached out to Blueback in mindspeak. Find the human your kind has taken, she told him.

For a moment Lily was crashing through the underbrush and then vaulting up to the trees to careen through the branches. Blueback chased down his group by scent and sound, but when he caught up with them, none of them had Red Leaf. Blueback started to retrace his steps to find one of the other family groups that had been a part of the raid. He smelled for the human, but there were so many humans in the forest that night he couldn’t be sure which was the one Lily wanted.

You may stop now, she told Blueback. Go join your family, but watch for the stolen human.

She reached out to Rowan, only to hear from him what she had already learned from Blueback. The Woven trails broke off into over a dozen different directions and there was no way to be sure which group had taken Red Leaf. She called her mechanics back.

We know where they’re taking him, Lily told them, trying to quell her unease.

“Breakfast. Red Leaf is the other you,” Lily said. “You can reach him in mindspeak.”