We stepped into a wide, low cavern filled with pillars and the glowing plants that had lit up the inside of the village’s meeting hall. Here, however, instead of just glowing bulbs there were unfurled white, golden, and amber flowers the size of my head everywhere and their vines also had a muted glow. After the dark passage way it really was like stepping into the light of a new dawn.

Prevna and I shared a look of surprise before we hurried to catch up with the others, who were already winding their way through the pillars towards the other end of the cavern. I couldn’t help but run my fingers over one of the flowers as we passed, despite knowing unknown, likely magical, plants could have plenty of hidden dangers. The petal brightened where I touched it and when I looked closer at where the others had passed I saw similarly brighter spots where they had accidentally touched the plants. This was apparently not a placed easily snuck into without notice.

The far end of the cavern had been overtaken by a wide pool of lava, seemingly still until you noticed the subtle shift of swirls of deeper currents on its surface. Given that I couldn’t imagine any beast that lorded over the inner valleys squeezing itself through that crack we just came down, I assumed this was a hidden offshoot of the lake filling most of the valley. If the myth really was true, perhaps a quiet place of rest away from the humans that had crowded the Dawn Crawler’s domain until they had discovered that seam in the rock.

The lava pool filled the air with heat but the air down here was still, so I couldn’t dismiss the sudden gust of wind that pressed my clothes to my back and whipped my braid into my face.

I whirled around. My hand went to the sling on my belt but I stopped short of pulling it free.

A lizard with a head as big as I was stared back at me from barely three feet away. Someone cursed behind me but I didn’t have any attention to spare them as I watched more and more pale white scales that had opalescent flashes of red, amber, gold appear from seemingly nothing. It looked like a salamander except it had scales instead of smooth skin, external gills that might have lava running through the fronds, and wings tucked securely against its body. Its tail was also at least three times as long as the rest of its body. It wound around and around the chamber, crossing places I swore we had walked through, and yet for all the flowers the creature might have touched none of them lit up in warning.

And it was a beast. Its gaze seemed intelligent, but in the same way a bane pack could pick out and corner prey or the storm birds could understand all their commands and not panic at having riders on their backs. I couldn’t imagine bowing my head to it any more than I had to the water snake I had killed, no matter dangerous it might be.

“Master.”

I turned slightly to see Logar and Deamar lower themselves to the ground. Reverence on the first’s face and shocked awe on the second. Part of me wanted to scoff. The…lizard might have been beautiful and terrifying in its ability sneak around despite its size, but was it really any more terrifying than the water snake which had been an even larger scaled beast? Or the fish that had walked on their fins and fought us? Or the abomination that was the corpse gorger?

I could understand fearing it, respecting its territory, but I couldn’t fathom worshiping it. Not when there was an actual goddess pulling of miracles whenever she had the whim to do so and the reminder of power She granted was marked into everyone’s skin.

But perhaps that was the point. The men of the village were willing to look to anything that wasn’t the goddess and since they hadn’t made it all the way to Her sister’s territory they had a lizard. Perhaps Minhel, the spirit of the mountains, would have been a better choice but perhaps her image was too close to the goddess and Her society they were escaping from.

At least it was a smart beast. With how it had appeared we had our backs to a pool of molten rock we couldn’t enter and it had…blocked off our only escape. My breath caught as the panic I had been rationalizing away bucked against my rib cage.

We were trapped.

And the only way was through that horrid crack that no one should have even been insane enough to squeeze themselves through in the first place, but I couldn’t even reach that narrow escape because the Night Crawler had planted itself between us and it.

And no matter much I was inclined to belittle it because of how easily the men called it “Master”, I couldn’t deny that it was larger and more powerful than me. I didn’t even have a spear this time to defend myself with and no matter how annoying the village men might be I didn’t want to find out how dangerous they could be if we did hurt the Dawn Crawler. I doubted they’d cower at the idea of the goddess’s punishment if harm came to their master.

Prevna stepped up close behind me so she could murmur in my ear, “You’re not trapped. You can survive anything, so just breathe and you’ll see the sky again.”

I hated taking comfort from her again when I was supposed to be giving her time and space, but I closed my eyes and pretended her words were true. I wasn’t in a tent with judgmental eyes boring into me and questioning my worth, my talent, and just waiting for me to make a mistake or complain. I was stronger now and, no matter how I might have usually preferred it, I wasn’t alone in the cavern.

“So?” Malady’s voice cut through the silence. “How are we to be judged?”

Prevna stepped away again as my breathing evened out enough that everyone else wouldn’t be able to tell how much the panic was still twisting around in my guts. I also moved back so I wasn’t still the closest one to the beast.

Nine Claws spoke, just a bit of censure in her tone, “Perhaps we should let them perform whatever rites they may have first.”

A swift look of understanding swept over Malady’s features before she resumed her more common look of mild disapproval. Logar nodded to Nine Claws before he focused back on the Dawn Crawler. He pulled a package that had been tied to the small of his back free and unrolled it to reveal some dead creature that looked like it was some cross between a hare and a squirrel.

The great lizard stretched its head forward and snapped up its offering in a single gulp. Then it settled back into place, somehow expectant.

Logar said, “Master, we ask for judgment. These outsiders you see before you are suspected of bringing disorder and danger to the valleys while my son and I seek judgment for approaching these strangers with pride and greed as our predecessors when they betrayed you and these valleys.”

I still thought it was odd that he was talking as if the Dawn Crawler could understand his every word but I knew better than to question it out loud. Besides, either the beast could and we’d somehow get an actual judgment or we could cater to the man’s beliefs and pretend like we all had been given glowing approval.

Logar faced the four of us. “Ask the Master if you may approach and, if he doesn’t protest, lay your hand on his snout. He’ll give his judgment.”

Malady’s mouth pinched further but she didn’t protest when Nine Claws stepped forward to go first. She asked, “May I approach?”

The Dawn Crawler just stared at her, which I guess wasn’t a ‘no’, since it let her place her hand on its snout. She gasped softly when her fingers touched its scales and Malady looked about ready to pull her away, but when nothing else happened she didn’t interrupt despite her clear desire to. Nine Claws stood with her hand on the Dawn Crawler’s snout for a handful of seconds before she pulled away, shaken. Then she brushed her hand against the closest flower and it glowed a brilliant, unnatural blue.

Logar smiled at her. “It seems our Master has no grievances against you.”

Nine Claws gestured to Malady to take her place and the fire starter complied immediately. Her turn being judged followed the same pattern of asking to approach, placing her hand on the creature’s snout, and then after pulling her hand, looked vaguely annoyed, she brushed her hand against another flower that had originally been bright orange only for it to turn that same bright blue.

Prevna was never one to miss something exciting and new so she went next before I could insist on going first. However, she almost looked giddy after she took her hand away and then she placed her hand on the creature’s snout again. The Dawn Crawler huffed out another small breath and she took her hand away after only a moment had passed but she didn’t seem scared when she brushed her hand against a flower and got the same blue as the others.

Then it was my turn and I couldn’t help but think something was likely to wrong. I walked back to the spot I had been when the Dawn Crawler had shown itself to us.

“May I approach?”

The Dawn Crawler didn’t react, just like with the others, so I walked forward with all the confidence I could muster and placed my right hand against its snout.

Flashes of my time in the inner valleys flooded through my mind’s eye and I could do nothing to stop them. Our fight with the rats and the plant monster, drinking the resistance mixture, looking at the various places Tike had taken us to, hiding in the tree to escape the fleeing horde of monsters, running my fingers through the plants clinging to the cliff wall in Steamer’s Fall. More and more than I ever would have shown the lizard on my own.

Then there was a new stream of images, images that weren’t my own. Dozens of scenes of various animals scattering and plants growing every which way. A handful more of insects following each other in a line, baby animals wobbling after their mothers. Somehow it was all directed at me and I got the impression that the Dawn Crawler was telling me chaos followed me wherever I went which I didn’t think was fair once I shoved aside the mind bending idea that the great lizard was communicating with me in an impossible way.

More images and short scenes, though these seemed to be absolving me of complete blame for the trouble that had happened in the valley since we arrived. Everything needed to survive and, despite the Dawn Crawler not being around as far as I knew when the fire dancers swept close to the village, it seemed to know we weren’t responsible for that either.

My hand released from the spot it had rested on the Dawn Crawler’s snout and I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. In a way I didn’t want to look at too closely the way the Dawn Crawler communicated was a bit too similar to getting lost in a memory. I brushed my hand against a nearby flower but instead of perfect brilliant blue one petal had a turned light purple.

Logar cleared his throat. “It seems our Master has found you guilty of one light grievance.”

I tried to move away, to deny that I had ever done anything wrong, when the Dawn Crawler pinned my foot under one giant claw and scooped up Deamar with its tail. Deamar yelped as he was pulled to stand next to me before he looked desperately back at his father for guidance. Then he reluctantly pressed his hand against the creature’s snout.

A handful of seconds later he had snatched his hand back and he was glaring at me.

“What?” I snapped at him without thinking.

My answer came as the Dawn Crawler used the tip of its tail to smack my hand back down onto its snout and I was flooded with images again. Images of animals being driven out of their group when they were sick and beyond saving, when they weren’t contributing enough, when they were more trouble than they were worth. Then came a vibrantly clear image of Deamar and me at the top of the mountains and I got the feeling we were leaving the inner valleys behind where there was only peaceful mist and quiet left behind us. Trouble taking trouble away.

I snatched my hand back. “No.”

I wouldn’t be tied to Deamar, of all people, just because some lizard thought it was a good idea. He’d be leaving anyways because of Nine Claws’s decree about the trial the village’s young men were supposed to undertake.

Still, I couldn’t stop Deamar from touching the one purple petal on the flower I had touched so that it briefly turned a darker purple before changing again to the same blue as all the rest. The Dawn Crawler let Deamar go and then touched the tip of its tail to Logar’s forehead.

The man nodded back at the creature once the tail dropped away, resigned. “He will go as you will, Master.”

When Logar touched a flower it turned all blue. So, in the end, only Deamar and I were judged to be troublemakers and apparently we were supposed to solve everything by leaving the inner valleys in peace.