Page 152 of Silver in the Bone

The powdery snow was as much a help as a hindrance, silencing our steps but slowing them in turn. The isle couldn’t have been more than a few miles long and wide, but it had never felt bigger as we trudged forward.

Somehow, impossibly, the forest had taken on a more sinister appearance. Half buried in snow, the fallen trees were indistinguishable from the creatures burrowing below. Icicles, black with sooty moss and decay, hung from the skeletal tangle of branches like barbed fangs.

Now and then, clumps of snow crashed down, startling us as they crusted in our hair or slipped beneath the collars of our jackets. My toes and fingers were stiff with the cold after only an hour of walking, and I was so focused on the ground directly in front of me, I almost missed the tracks at the edge of the barren riverbed that ran alongside our northerly path.

Tracks that looked as if someone had crossed the open field on the other side of the water and disappeared not into the trees but over a snow-dusted hedge maze.

Tracks that were nothing like those of the Children, who clawed the ground on hands and feet. A fine line cut through the snow, too clean for any earthly being. It reminded me of the way the revenant had floated just above the ground, as if the heat or force of her magic had marked the ground where she passed.

I gripped Emrys’s arm and pointed. He squinted, following my line of sight. His lips parted, but whatever he might have said was cut off by a steaming glob of bloodied saliva dripping onto his cheek.

Emrys reared back with a sharp inhale, swiping at it. I turned my gaze up.

Children clung to the highest branches of the old trees, shadowed and covered in a thick rime of snow. A curtain of it drifted around us as one shook itself, snorting as it settled again, leaning more heavily against the trunk. Its leg dropped down, kicking the creature perched on the branch beneath it.

A lightning bolt of adrenaline fired through me as the second creature snarled and took an irritated swipe at the first. My grip on Emrys tightened. The two of us stood rigid, not daring to breathe.

The wind whipped at the trees. As it died, the sound of rattling purrs rose to replace it. All around us, the mounds of snow shifted.

Emrys took a step back, carefully retracing his steps. I did the same, trying to make as little noise as possible in the crunchy snow. When he looked at me again, the question was plain on his face. Run?

I shook my head. Not yet.

I eyed the river, my mind spinning with possibilities. The leaves and debris had been concealed by the snow, but I had no doubt the Children slept beneath. Edging us carefully out of the trees and along the riverbank, I leaned forward, looking back and forth along the river—and saw our opportunity. A half mile or so ahead, a narrow stone bridge connected the forest beside us to the field and the strange, rounded hedge beyond it.

We shared another look.

Ready? I mouthed.

He nodded.

The Children in the trees spat and hissed at one another, mauling those around them awake until they became a thrashing knot of gray skin and claws. The Children that were knocked to the ground immediately climbed back up to rejoin the squabble, squealing with unbridled glee as the fight spread and turned savage.

Rent limbs and blood splattered the white expanse of snow. My pulse beat a terrible song in my veins. Emrys and I stayed low and hugged the edge of the bank as we ran past the growing melee of Children. I didn’t dare look at them, or so much as draw breath, until the din faded and my hand touched the frost coating the bridge’s stones.

Then we ran, harder than before, fighting through knee-high drifts until my legs and ankles throbbed from tackling unseen rocks below. We followed the trail of fresh footprints to where the hedge wall beckoned. The moment it was in reach, we darted behind it, keeping our backs to the browned leaves and snarled branches. My ears strained, trying to pick up on any indication that we’d been scented and followed.

None came.

I blew out a hard breath, lungs burning. Emrys placed a hand to his chest and gave a shaky laugh. His grip on the sword turned his knuckles white.

As white as the massive sun-bleached bone he leaned against.

Seeing my expression, he looked back, only to stumble away. “What in hellfire is that?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But at least it’s dead.” Then, because that had a different meaning in this Otherland, I added, “Dead dead.”

The bones were all around us, each arching over the hedge to meet at a knobby joint almost like ...

A massive skeleton’s spine and ribs.

“Should we ... ?” he asked, using the sword to point at the tracks.

The hedge fed into a labyrinthine enclosure, but there wasn’t far to go to find its center, and what was hidden there.

I’d been right. A gigantic creature had curled up and died there, its body giving life to the hedge. Behind us, the delicate bones of the folded wings were still there, supported by the gnarled growth. The skull, nearly as large as the stone cottage next to it, was filled with rows of serrated teeth.

Dragon, I thought faintly. Mari hadn’t been teasing me.

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