and I smiled at him.
“She’s come back to you as Pen Yas ben Min.”
Pen had taken to some higher branches above the Leaf Road to keep it a surprise, but now she swung down on a vine and landed next to us, her silverbark plain to see. “Hello, brother,” she said.
“Pen! You’re a greensleeve!”
She chuckled. “Yes, I’m aware.”
Yar rushed forward to hug her, crying happy tears, and their reunion was one of those rare slices of perfection when you feel all your life’s trials are mere shadows thrown by the brilliant light of that moment.
Once they parted, Yar said, “I don’t have any expectation that you’ll be able to stay, but I’m very glad you had reason to visit us.” He flicked his eyes to my winded companions. Startled into remembering my manners, I introduced Pak and Tip and my clansmen welcomed them, according them honors they probably didn’t deserve, but that is the White Gossamer way, and in truth their courtesy shamed me. I should be as gracious as they were—I was, once—but that simple meeting demonstrated to me that my conduct has deteriorated since I’ve become a greensleeve. It would be easy to blame it on the low standards set by the Black Jaguars, but I don’t need a giant’s glass to see my own faults and I am not one to shrink when the sun provides me light. Henceforth I shall follow my cousins’ good example and recall that honor lies more in the giving of it than in the expectation of receiving it—even if Pak and Tip are perfect toads and know nothing of honor.
We descended from the Leaf Road to the forest floor and visited the stables, where Kam invited Pak and Tip to choose their horses. Pak chose Kam’s favorite horse—I could tell when Kam blinked—but my cousin only smiled and said we would be ready to ride in the morning.
“Kam. A word?” I said as Yar led Pak and Tip to their nests in the canopy for the evening.
“Sure.” I waited until I was sure we were alone before speaking any more.
“How many net launchers do you have here?”
“Enough for everybody.”
“Okay, that’s good. Offer them to Pak and Tip tomorrow but don’t be surprised if they refuse them. However, I’d like to make sure all the White Gossamers carry them. Bring them all. I’ll take two.”
“Of course. But why, if I may ask?”
“We haven’t had to fight giants up here in the north for a long time. Never in my lifetime, in fact.”
Kam’s eyes widened. “Are you expecting a fight?”
“No, I’m merely preparing for one. I’m thinking we might have trouble bringing them down with arrows. They are strong enough to wear very heavy armor, and even if they don’t, who’s to say a single arrow will bring them down? They’re more than twice our size. If someone sinks a shaft into us, we’ll go down, but would a giant?”
“Oh.” Kam’s mouth opened a little bit as he thought about it. “That’s right; we tend to think of fighting in the forest borders where we can call on root and stem to join in. And usually there are thornhands. But we’ll be on the other side of the Godsteeth.”
“Open land. There are trees on the slopes, of course, but nothing like a Leaf Road.”
“But you could still call on the plant life there, right?” he said, gesturing to the symbiotic evidence on my arms.
“Yes, but it wouldn’t be the same. Not as quick to obey, not as strong. And if I’m right, Kam, the Hathrim are going to be out on the plains.”
My cousin twitched. “The plains?”
I nodded. “Treeless plains. The giants are not used to trees, remember. They don’t think of them as shelter, only as fuel. As timber.” I shuddered, despising that word: a Hathrim root, of course, that implied trees were good only for building or burning. “So they wouldn’t think of hiding on the slopes. We’ll find them wading through the grass.”
“You realize that we qualify as food out there, right? And the horses, too?”
“Yes, I know. Out in the open like that we’ll be at a disadvantage. That’s why I think the nets might help.”
“What are we trying to accomplish?”
“We’re just scouting. We find the Hathrim and report on what we see. But we have to find them, Kam.”
“Why?”
“The Black Jaguars and Blue Moths are out to discredit me and, by extension, the entire clan. Everything they say makes that clear. They want us brought lower than we