“The mythical beasts respect might above all things. That was true in Alti, and it is true in our modern age. The agency, for all their shortcomings, understands as much. In our dealings with the beasts, there is never a hint of weakness or indecision. While that breeds enmity, the agency would have us believe it likewise breeds peace.”

~ Bek Trent, M.A.S.O

For days, Silver and the others had walked through the thick growth of the forest. There, the air was close and humid, oftentimes chilly. So it was that, when a breeze picked up through the trees and brought with it an unexpected warmth, they all slowed as they followed the tree wolves through the deepwood. It was not long, after that, before the trees ended abruptly in the sheer, bone-white stone of a cliff. Greenery rooted to its exposed walls wherever they were not worn smooth by the elements.

Craning her head back, Silver paused. “Elorian, what do you think of this?” she prompted, aware that the tree wolves were slowly coming to ground. The beasts approached the sheer cliff face without hesitation, but it struck Silver that Illian’s party would be at a disadvantage against those white stone walls. That feeling grew more pronounced when the alpha padded through a great chasm in the cliff face, increasing the odds of an ambush decimating their tiny human party. The chasm split the stone from earth to canopy, leaving a clear view of the pale blue sky.

“These are their dens,” the wolf rumbled. Silver nodded slowly, still uncertain as they were led into the chasm and the cool shadows at its base. Silver fell into line behind Illian, Gormin, Cevora, and Sori.

“Lesser beasts must hide the entrance to their lairs,” Seijelar rumbled from somewhere behind them. The comment was quickly followed by a series of hisses and roars that echoed through the chasm, a sound that raised the hairs along Silver’s neck even though she knew it was merely the dragons conversing; it sounded like something out of a horror movie.

“What manner of beast builds a doorway too small for a dragon to enter, leaving us to scale the walls like common lizards?” Seijelar continued to grumble.

It was beyond Silver, at the moment, to observe to her crimson beast that hardly any entrance was large enough for a dragon. Instead, she tipped her head back and stared. The scents of damp earth and wood and rock drifted up all around them. Sunlight glittered off mica shards embedded into the cliffs, and she could count the striations where centuries of dirt had piled layer upon layer, obscuring plant and bone and who knew what ancient secrets. White seams laced the strata, leaving thin, delicate trails of crystal, and trees grew over them, cracking the stone slowly over the centuries. Sometimes, shadows passed over the cliff face high overhead, birds or tree wolves or other beasts.

But nothing attacked them.

And it was not long before Silver stood on the other side of the cliff, reveling in a view still more magnificent. The cliffs did not end. Instead, they curled around in a massive horseshoe, overgrown with the curling limbs of the trees, and pocked, Silver now saw, with holes – holes just large enough to admit a tree wolf. It reminded her of the nightwings’ caverns, but laid bare to the sky, and coiled around an expanse of open earth at least the length of a football field. There were tree wolves everywhere, nearly a hundred of them, she was sure.

“I can’t believe something like this exists,” Ami said in a hushed voice.

“Maybe the king ought to be a bit more worried about the beasts than he is,” Sori agreed, glancing in their direction. Silver also glanced back, seeing Kit and Terald with their heads together, brothers in every respect. Kit grinned at her.

“Be on your guard,” Illian warned, eyes raking them all.

Illian must have noticed that they were watched from every side, the silence deafening. In the weeks that she had spent with the tree wolves, Silver had not realized how adept she had grown at reading their every motion; as the humans passed through their home, she saw again and again the slight angle of ears and tail that spelled trouble, and the glitter of claws fully extended to draw deepening furrows in the softer earth underfoot. As her worries mounted, Seijelar’s hot breath gusted gently against her shoulder.

The dragons had shed their invisibility to stand beside their human companions. If anything, this fact made the gazes of the surrounding tree wolves more hostile, but it gave Silver some modicum of relief; if something went wrong, they would die fighting, or at the very least, die watching their dragons shred one or two of their killers.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched the backs of Cevora’s and Gormin’s heads out of the corners of her eyes, seeing them turn as one towards one towards Sheurai.

“The den is this way. Follow.” The human words sounded strange in the tree wolf’s jaws, but no one questioned them.

“The dragons may bathe in the sun at the top,” a larger, darker tree wolf growled softly in the beast’s tongue, passing Silver as he trotted towards the head of their line. Silver immediately realized he was male – when the beasts spoke to her, it tended to be obvious – and was surprised when he fell into step beside Sheurai and kept pace easily. They were used to walking side by side. Mates? It seemed likely. Mates and alphas of the pack. There was something beautiful about it, and something that made her wonder if Zien ever grew weary of solitude; if the female had a mate, Silver had never seen hide nor hair of him.

“We will remain here, amidst the grasses,” Seijelar snapped her jaws near Silver’s shoulder, an unnerving sound, “Amidst the wolves.”

Silver gave the dragon’s head a grateful pat, and was rewarded with a purr of pleasure. She knew from a glance that the two alphas had heard.

Silver was not surprised when their two guides came to a narrow cave carved into the stone of the cliff face and vanished inside; Zien’s pack inhabited similar spaces. The others of Illian’s party looked more dubious, but Silver knew how large the space inside probably was, and tried to communicate as much. At least the entrance to this cave was wide enough for them to duck low and walk in, two abreast.

“Not large enough for dragons,” Seijelar muttered as they funneled inside.

“Will they all complain this much when they’re older?” Terald asked of no one in particular as he ducked in behind Silver. She stifled a nervous laugh.

If she had worried for a moment that they would be blind inside the cave, those worries were quickly assuaged. As with the nightwings’ caverns, these caves were lined with small veins of gently glowing, luminescent stone. The result was a diffuse glow that reached to every shadow of the open space around them.

The humans settled roughly around the edges of the cavern, leaving Silver wedged between Cevora and Bek, nearly directly facing the two tree wolves. Elorian draped across her booted feet in what she hoped was a more comfortable position than it appeared. As if in answer to her thoughts, the wolf sighed comfortably.

“I will speak your language the best I can,” Sheurai growled softly, “listen well. This one is my mate and alpha, Yanrian. This place is home of Yan Shimelorian, pack of the crescent moon. Tonight, we ask…remain here.”

Silver watched curiously as the darker tree wolf inclined his massive head slightly, slowly closing his eyes. Those eyes, she noticed, were so dark they might have been ebony if not for a slight tint of amber. She had never seen a tree wolf like him before.

“Please tell me, why did you bring us here?” Cevora asked coolly.

The two alphas turned their gazes on her as one, and Yanrian spoke. Sheurai turned to Silver, ears flared - her meaning was clear, but she said it aloud anyway. “Human, speak for us.”

“I will,” Silver agreed.

“Tonight, the beasts convene here. I have called on them to decide if the humans pardoned by the dragon kin are worthy of our following. Tonight, we will determine what comes next.”

Unlike Sheurai, Yanrian did not speak in a way that any human could understand, and Silver felt his gaze on her as his ears slid back. As promised, she repeated his words for the others. They looked impressed that she could understand.

“Worthy of your following?” Gormin repeated, glancing between Silver and the two tree wolves as if unsure they would understand what exactly his question was. Sheurai’s calm regard suggested no translation was necessary.

“It is rare for one of the srinn of men to venture into the Issurak, and rarer for them to stand beside the beasts against their kin,” Silver translated as the beast spoke, “We recognize this. Although the dragons’ reach is great, they cannot force our loyalty and trust. For this, we have simpler means.” The alpha’s eyes settled on Cevora, then slid to Silver and to the wolf at her feet.

“What sort of means, exactly?” Illian asked.

Silver looked at him, then at Bek, seeing the question mirrored in everyone’s eyes.

“I have called the mur,” Sheurai growled.

“Mur?” Cevora repeated, evidently surprised. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned more firmly into the wall, arms folded across her chest defensively. “I see. Then we will be…?

“Yes,” Yanrian growled before his mate could answer. “This meeting decides where our loyalties lie…by deciding wherein lie yours. The mur deer told of your coming. We told them we would never greet the humans as allies.” His words were spoken with very slow deliberation. “If the mur find no fault in you now, we will admit our mistake. You will fight beside us, and we beside you. So the dragons have chosen.”

Silver translated faithfully, noticing that everyone else seemed clear on what exactly the mur were, and what they would do. She decided not to ask.

“And what happens if we fail this test of yours?” Illian asked, staring hard at the two tree wolves. Yanrian flicked his ears thoughtfully.

“You go,” Sheurai shaped their human words, snarling slightly, “back to your kin. Tell them. The beasts do not walk with them.”

“This is fair,” Cevora agreed.

“Then when the moon rises,” Sheurai growled in the beast tongue, “they will come. Rest here until then. Yanrian will remain outside. You are safe here, humans. For now.”