Untitled Starfell #2 (Starfell #2) - Dominique Valente Page 0,36

‘merali’.

The horned woman stepped back, dipping her head towards him, almost like a bow, then said nothing.

Willow stared, not understanding. What was that about? ‘Do you know who took him? Did you see?’

The horned woman shook her head. ‘We cannot say. It is not our way, I’m sorry.’

Willow stood up abruptly. They knew who had taken Nolin Sometimes, but wouldn’t tell them? Anger and frustration bubbled up inside her. ‘Why? Please, he needs us! If you know anything, you have to tell us. We’re so worried about him – anything you know could help us find him. Please – he’s our friend.’

The horned woman shook her head. ‘This we cannot do. Beroc was right to remind me. It is helia – risking the lives of others, especially ones who are so young, is forbidden—’

‘Pardon me, but I’d hazard that I am older than all of you combined!’ huffed Feathering.

The horned woman gave him a rare smile and said, ‘That would be the worst sort of helia – to risk a rare creature such as yourself. You cannot ask it of us.’ Her eyes grew guarded again as she stepped back and repeated, ‘Please do not ask me more of this. We will remember him, your friend. He was … strange, but one of us in many ways. We shall remember him when we say the blessings at the purple moon.’

Willow felt anger flush her face. They were speaking of him as if it were already too late! As if he were dead. As if they had given up all hope.

‘B-but he’s still alive – I’m sure of it! He doesn’t need a – a – blessing! He needs our help! And you could give it, if he’s your friend as you say! You don’t have to risk anything, surely, in just telling us who took him?’

‘No, that would be the worst thing we could do,’ refused the horned woman. ‘We are not afraid of the risk to us, but to you. We say this as a caution, not to be unkind: it is best if you leave it now.’

Willow frowned. She didn’t understand these fierce magical people at all. They knew who’d taken Sometimes, but wouldn’t give them any clues to find him, even though they claimed he was their friend and that they didn’t want to be unkind!

Essential snorted. She seemed just as exasperated as Willow. ‘Why did you take us then? What do you want from us?’

The horned woman looked sad. ‘After the breach, we had to be sure of who entered our lands. We will protect the forest and fight intruders if we need to – but we won’t start a war for a quarrel that isn’t ours.’

Feathering looked confused. ‘What breach? What quarrel?’

‘I will say no more. However …’ The horned woman turned and there was the sound of birdsong. One of the wind monkeys looked cross and made an odd piping sound, but the rest of them nodded.

The flame-haired man looked at Willow and said, ‘You have a courageous heart. It will lead you to foolishness – this we can see. While we cannot encourage you to continue, we know you are unlikely to heed our advice, so we will give you something that might help.’

Willow stared. From the corner of her eye she saw Oswin share a confused look with Essential, muttering something like, ‘This better be good, after all the monster-’andling they been doing.’ He glared at the wind monkey who kept trying to pet him.

‘We wish to offer you this,’ said the horned woman, handing Willow a small bright blue seed in the shape of a tear. ‘A seed from the Great Tree itself. It will grow wherever you need it to. We hope, however, that you will have no cause to use it – that you are prevented from your search.’

‘WOT?’ There was a harrumph from within the hairy green bag.

Willow blinked. ‘Wot’ indeed. It sounded like the forest-touched community was half giving its blessing and half giving them a curse. She felt something ominous creep inside her heart at their words, underneath her frustration. What terrible danger lay ahead that these creatures were so unwilling to even mention, let alone send her into?

Willow took the seed with a frown. She wasn’t sure how a seed would help with anything really.

‘You may go now,’ said the woman, and several of the creatures pushed them all towards Feathering. One leaf-haired woman picked up Willow and another helped Essential climb on to his