tattoo just says ‘MOTHER.’ What’s it mean, Arren?”
Arren pulled his sleeve back into place. “It’s the sign of the Wolf Tribe. The moon is—well, Northerners believe it’s the eye of their god.”
“Do you?” said Gern.
Arren shook his head. “It’s just a tattoo. I thought it would look good. I was a bit drunk at the time.”
“It does look good, sir,” said Gern. He paused to pour himself another beer. “So, what’s all this Flell’s telling me about you leaving?”
“It’s nothing much,” said Arren. “I’m going down South for a while. There’s a problem at one of the villages, and they’ve asked me to deal with it.”
“Why, does it have something to do with trading?”
“No. They just need a griffiner. Oh—” He glanced at them all. “I’m not really supposed to talk about it, so just keep it to yourselves, okay? You haven’t told anyone else, have you, Flell?”
“No, just Bran and Gern. Why the secrecy?”
“I’m not allowed to talk about that, either.”
“So, why are you going South, sir?” said Gern.
Arren took in a deep breath. “Well, it’s like this . . .”
6
Rivermeet
The journey southward began the next day, at dawn. Eluna woke him up as usual, and once he had fed her the last of the rats from the cage, he dressed warmly and slung his bow and arrows on his back then strapped them securely in place. Eluna was impatient to leave and shifted around while he put her harness on.
“There,” said Arren once it was in place. “We’re done. Just wait a moment.”
He went back to his half of the house and picked up the box of food. Gern had agreed to collect it some time during the morning, so he left it on the doorstep before he closed the door and locked it from the inside. He’d hidden all his valuables under the floorboards, but he wasn’t particularly worried about them. Very few people would risk breaking into a griffiner’s house. Nevertheless, he put the shutters over the windows and locked the back door to the balcony before he returned to the stable and passed through it to the second balcony, the one without rails, where Eluna was waiting.
The griffin stretched her wings and flicked her tail, inviting him to get on her back.
Arren climbed on, put his arms through the loops of the harness and braced himself. “All right. Let’s go.”
Eluna chirped eagerly and stood tall, bracing her paws and claws on the wood. She darted forward with a sudden burst and hurled herself off the edge of the platform and into space.
Arren couldn’t hold back a yelp of fright. The wind snatched at his hair and cloak, pulling at him like a giant hand. For a moment they were falling, straight downward, and Arren buried his face in Eluna’s feathers and gritted his teeth. She was there, she was solid, she was a kind of solid ground to hold him up, he wasn’t going to hit the ground, he wasn’t—
Eluna’s wings opened. Arren’s insides gave a giddy lurch as she pulled out of the dive and swooped upward, shooting into the sky like an arrow. She reached soaring height and levelled out into a steady glide, and Arren breathed deeply.
“Are you all right?” Eluna asked. A griffin’s voice carried well, even in flight.
“I’m fine,” said Arren.
“Good.”
The journey began.
At first Arren did his best to keep still and either looked straight ahead or kept his eyes shut, but as they flew on he found himself fighting the temptation to look downward.
“Look at the sun,” Eluna said suddenly.
Arren did, and his heart soared. There were mountains to the east, far away in the distance, and the sun was rising from behind them. Bright golden light was spilling out over the landscape, tinted with pink, and the mountains themselves looked black against the red-and-orange cloud behind them. Above that the sky was pale blue, almost purple. It reminded him of Flell’s eyes, and with that thought his fear was suddenly gone.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, half to himself.
Eluna said nothing, but he could almost sense her satisfaction as she flew on.
His fear did return a little later, when he risked a glance downward. They were flying very high, much higher than they had done the previous day. Idun had already vanished, but when he looked back over his shoulder he could just see Eagleholm shrinking in the distance. It looked like nothing, a tiny black hump on the horizon.
He shuddered and looked away. His heart continued to beat rapidly,