Chapter 1

Under the Storm

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Rain tore through the forest canopy and smashed into the roof. A storm had blown in during the night and showed no sign of letting up. That was alright by Koji – he loved the rain and the sound of thunder rolling through the trees, and after a long, restless night curled beneath his workbench, he welcomed the excuse to sleep in a little.

In all of his fifteen years living in the forest, Koji could count the number of visitors they’d had on his fingers and toes. They were always strangers – lost hunters, passing traders, the sort who stayed only long enough to dry their clothes and move on.

But the mother and daughter who’d arrived the day before were something else entirely. As Koji folded his blankets and shoved them into a corner already claimed by sawdust and old tools, his thoughts kept circling back to the two of them.

Not even the rain could wash away the questions they’d stirred.

Koji brushed the sawdust from his hands and stood tall. If they were still here, he wanted answers – not about what the strangers had said, but about everything his mother hadn’t.

Koji pulled on his boots and stepped out into the rain, then splashed across the forest floor to the little hut he shared with his older brother, Jakai. He was already up, and his boots still waited beside his bed – no morning hunt with their father today, it seemed. Not a surprise, considering the weather.

Koji changed into dry clothes, then crossed the boardwalk toward the family room, already certain he’d find Jakai there ahead of him, working through more than his share of first meal.

As he pushed into the side door by the kitchen, a stillness hung so heavy he felt he might fall straight into it. The room was empty.

He drew a breath. “Hello?”

An uneasy feeling set into his gut. No scent of food warming over the stove. Nobody to greet him or scold him for sleeping in. No evidence that the morning had begun at all. And none of it made any sense.

He walked over to the makeshift pallets where the two guests had slept. Their boots were still there, along with their packs and the clothes they’d been wearing the day before. Koji nudged aside the corner of the blanket. Even one of their swords still lay there. It was like they’d vanished into thin air.

He glanced over at the front entry and noticed partially dried mud had been tracked in from at least a couple different sets of boots. Koji shook his head, thinking his grandmother will surely be after someone’s neck for that.

“Ma? Da?” He called for his parents. No response. They were always the earliest risers of the family – they couldn’t still be asleep.

Confused, Koji shoved his way back out into the rain and across the boardwalk to the hut his parents and grandmother always slept in. He crept slowly through the door, calling out their names. They weren’t there. The curtains were still pulled over the windows and the room was dark. As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the scene that came into focus was not at all as it should be. The room was in disarray. A shelf knocked over. A pot smashed. The blankets from their beds strewn across the ground. Muddy footprints tracked across the floor. His heart jumped into his throat. Tears clouded his vision. Panic set in.

He hurried out into the downpour and reached into his pocket, searching for his flute – the one he’d used more than a thousand times over the years to call to his family through the trees. And when they called for each other, there was always an answer. Always. He pulled it out, put it to his lips, and blew. Three whistles. Where are you? He listened through the noise of the storm, silently pleading for an answer to return. Nothing. He called again through his flute. Listening. Nothing. Once more he tried. But still – nothing. Never in his life had he sent the sound of his flute through the trees and heard nothing in return. There was only one reason for it.

They were gone.

And yet why wasn’t he?

The rain slammed into his shoulders, hammering him deeper into the mud. The workshop loomed behind him – dark, cluttered, untouched. He hadn’t heard a thing. Not footsteps. Not voices. Not even the animals.

Koji’s thoughts halted, a sudden glimmer of hope budding in his chest. He wiped his eyes. He hadn’t yet checked the stable. He ran. It was only a few flicks of the feet from the house, yet Koji couldn’t flick them fast enough. As he rounded the corner, he found its door wide open. The livestock was gone. An unfamiliar pair of human legs splayed from one of the stalls. Motionless. Dark boots wrapped in deep green cloth, stitched tight in a way Koji had never seen before.

Koji lifted a hefty rock from the mud. Protection. His ears rang with the rush of blood and his hands shook with adrenaline. He tip-toed around the corner.

The stranger lay crumpled in the straw. His clothes were wrong for this place – too layered, too carefully made – nothing like the rough leathers and patched wool Koji knew. His head was split open, the earth and hay beneath it soaked dark. A hoof from the family steed seemed to have gotten the better of him.

Koji moved closer. Still cautious.

“Hey!” Koji shouted, nudging the stranger with the toe of his boot, rock held high. The man didn’t budge. Koji kicked him harder. No movement.

Koji scurried to the far side of the stable, swapped the rock for one of his father’s hunting knives then hurried back to kneel at the stranger’s side. He placed the edge of the blade under the man’s nose – a trick he’d learned from his father. He waited. The blade didn’t steam. He reached with his other hand and touched the man’s neck. His skin was cold. Dead.

Koji yanked his hand back and jumped to his feet. A chill went up his spine. He’d never seen a dead person before. Plenty of animals, yes. But a human – never. Seeing the body there, void of life, made everything too real.

He sank, burying his face in his arms as words from the night before now came crashing back – the kind that had made Koji’s insides turn.

A warning carried deep into this forest, just for his family.

“They’re on the hunt.”

Now those words didn’t just turn his insides, they tore through him. Remnants of last night’s dinner spilled through his lips and dripped into the straw beneath his feet.

Koji’s back thudded clumsily against the wall.

If he had known then what he knew now, none of this would have happened this way. If only he could step back to that moment and tell them all to pack up and leave that instant. ‘They’re on the hunt, and they’ll find us tonight,’ he’d tell them. ‘They’ll take us, tonight.’ Could he step back to last night, they’d all still be together. He sobbed into his rain-sodden sleeve, wishing he could go back to sleep and wake up to a reality where this wasn’t happening at all.

Then a sound whispered through the rain. The storm thrashed down so hard he almost missed it. It echoed through the trees, and crawled into the stable, half-beaten by the rain. Faint. But distinct.

A flute.

Koji held his breath. Listening intently. There it was again. He scrambled to his feet and sped out into the storm, his flute and his father’s knife in hand. He blasted three whistles. Waited.

Then the unmistakable sound of five bursts from another flute bounced into Koji’s ear. Come now. I need help. A call they used only under the most dire of circumstances.

The noise of the storm made it difficult to know what direction it came from – or from whose flute – but it didn’t sound too far away. Koji moved into a different position on top of a slight hill and away from the buildings. Again he whistled thrice. A moment later he heard a reply coming from the north then bolted off in that direction. It was his grandmother’s flute.

After just a couple more calls back and forth, Koji spotted them in the distance – Jak and their grandmother. Something washed through Koji that felt like hot stew on a cold winter’s night. He bolted toward them. At their side was the younger of the strangers from yesterday – the daughter. In the heat of the moment, Koji couldn’t now remember her name, but she looked to be in terrible condition. Blood drenched her side, and she was barely able to hold her own weight, having to lean heavily onto Jak’s strong shoulders.

“Uma!” Koji called for his grandmother as he ran, catching her attention. She spotted Koji through the trees and smiled in elation.

That’s when he saw it. Like a nightmare in full form. A large figure in a dark cloak blasted through distant ferns, heading their way. Koji quickly calculated the distance between them – the man would surely reach them before Koji could. He had to be quick. He jumped over bushes and crashed through low hanging branches – whatever it took to reach their side in time.

Between the branches and large globs of rain smashing into his face, he could only catch glimpses of them as he neared. But it was clear Jak was struggling to hold the girl up and pull Uma along at the same time. And for reasons unclear, Uma was resisting his tug. She yanked herself from Jakai’s grasp and shoved her flute into his hand, pointing to it as she shouted something Koji couldn’t quite hear. Then she stepped away. Despite Jakai’s efforts to stop her, Uma scuttled out of reach and down the far side of the hill.

It looked as if she intended to fight their pursuer – and Koji wasn’t going to let her fight alone. Just a bit further and he’d be there, his father’s knife in hand, ready to swing – and not for a moment considering the fact he’d never fought anyone before. Not really, anyway. Not like this.

Just a little further and he’d reach them. With a final burst of adrenaline, Koji crested the final hill between them.

He was too late. To his left, his grandmother was being dragged through the leaves as helplessly as a mouse in a falcon’s talons. To his right, his brother and the girl stumbled down a sodden slope, pursued by yet another cloaked figure.

Koji shifted his weight and propelled himself in the direction of his grandmother, determined to free her. As he did so, two more figures stepped out through the trees. One lifted Uma over his shoulder like a sack of dirt, and the other pressed unflinching in Koji’s direction. The old lady lifted her eyes toward her grandson. She raised her hand and pointed her finger in the direction of Jak and the girl. Something in her eyes tore at Koji’s heart. They both knew it – she was already beyond Koji’s reach. A boy had no chance against three grown men.

Koji tore his eyes away from his grandmother and ducked behind a crop of large underbrush. Keeping low, he ran through the bush and behind the far side of an embankment. He slid over a large boulder and under a mossy overhang, searching for his brother. They should be right around… here! He spotted them. The girl was in worse shape than Koji had realized. A thick, deep red stain ran down her left side. Both of them still only wore what they’d slept in – even their feet were still bare. It was difficult to tell whose blood was whose with it all half-washed in the downpour.

“Koji! Help me with her!” Jakai was shaking with fatigue.

Koji slung the girl’s arm over his shoulder, taking as much weight off his brother as he could muster on his own. “There’s more of them,” said Koji. “Looking for us.”

Just as Koji uttered those words, a voice echoed through the rocks above them. They ducked behind a nearby boulder, hoping they’d not been spotted.

Koji edged an eye around the rock and up the hill. He could see someone standing at the hill’s peak – their head swiveling like an owl’s beneath a dark hood. Jak and the girl breathed heavily, gasping for air through the downpour. If it wasn’t for the roar of the rain, the sound of their heaving alone might have given away their position, but the hunter on the hill turned and walked away.

“Okay,” Koji said. “I think he’s gone.”

Jakai nodded in relief, keeled over, one hand on his knee.

“What’re we gonna do?” Koji continued scanning the trees around them.

Jakai forced out an answer between his breaths, “We need to get to the hideout.”

The hideout. Yes, perfect, Koji thought. The place only they knew. A place Koji was certain even their parents were unaware of. They’d just need to navigate over the next hill then down to the stream. From there it was only a short run alongside the water’s flow.

“Okay, come on.” Koji yanked his brother up and slid a shoulder beneath the girl’s arm as they made toward the stream. “How many of them are there?”

“I’m not sure,” said Jak breathlessly. “They had us blindfolded… As we fought away from them, there was maybe… maybe a dozen at least.”

“What about Ma and Da?”

Jakai shook his head. “They couldn’t get away… I think it was Da that caused the stir to help us escape.” They slid clumsily as they attempted to ascend the muddy hillside. The rain made the earth slick. Each slight misstep became ever more exhausting.

Once they finally crested the hill, the girl’s condition had worsened and their pace had slowed considerably. The sound of strange voices muffled by the rain bounced through the trees. The voices didn’t sound too far away and Koji was almost certain they’d be caught before they could reach the safety of the hideout.

The girl babbled something that sounded like “leave me” but Koji couldn’t be sure. Not that it mattered, they weren’t about to. Not a chance.

“Koji, you’ll have to help her down to the stream from here.” Jakai had then done the unthinkable and slipped out from under the girl’s arm and began scampering down the hill. He’d reached the stream bed before Koji had a chance to protest. Maybe it was every man for himself after all.

“Hurry!” Jakai said through a hushed yell back toward Koji then turned and disappeared downstream.

“What do you think I’m doing?” Koji mumbled to himself in a confused and frustrated stupor as he hurried the girl down the slope best he could. By the time they made it to the stream, Jakai was already around the next bend and nowhere to be seen. He’d surely have made it to the hideout already. “We’re almost there,” Koji assured the girl. She was stronger than Koji imagined she’d be – well beyond her physical limits but somehow still fighting.

The smooth rounded rocks of the stream bed were tricky to navigate on a good day, but the intense flow of the storm wash made each step a gamble. Koji did all he could to help steady her, but her exhaustion and blood loss was proving to be too much. They’d never make it in time at the pace they were going.

Koji heard a deep voice shout from a hilltop just behind them. “They’re over here!” It was too late – someone had spotted them. The hideout was lost to them. Koji would have to fight. His eyes widened as he took quick deepened breaths, trying to recover some oxygen before his inevitable clash.

An arrow whizzed over his head – maybe they’d kill him before he even had a chance to fight. He looked up and saw his brother standing just past the boulder ahead – with an empty bow held in his outstretched arm. Koji whipped his head toward his pursuer. The man on the hill collapsed – an arrow jutting from his chest. What a shot, Koji thought. That may have bought them just enough time to round the corner and slip into the hideout without anyone else spotting them. Jakai hopped over the rocks and lifted the girl into his arms.

Finally, at the end of everything they had in them, there it was. They slipped into what looked like nothing more than a little slit in the river embankment, then into the small cave on the other side. Their hideaway. They’d made it. Out of sight and out of the rain.

Koji pulled down the cover he’d fashioned to disguise the tiny opening then collapsed onto the floor, exhausted. Splayed and splattered, but alive.

As soon as he could muster the energy, Koji crawled back to his feet and pulled his own bow and quiver from a small crack in the wall. He moved toward the entry and peered through it, scanning the stream valley while loading an arrow to his string.

Jakai inspected the wound on the girl’s side and tried to stem the bleeding, shoving the edge of an old blanket over the wound.

Koji glanced toward them. “Is she going to be okay?”

The girl was dazed and barely conscious. Jakai was breathless and panicked. “I think we need to close this wound like Uma taught us, but we’d need the medicine box, or—”

“Shhhh!” Koji spotted movement just a short distance upstream and quieted his brother. “I see someone.” Koji stood stone still with bow loaded, ready to lift and draw. A cloaked figure creeped along the stream with delicate and calculated steps. Closer they came, hopping along a few rocks at a time and stopping to scan through every tree and crevasse. The nearer the figure trotted, the more Koji’s muscles tensed. Only a few more steps and this cloaked stranger would be right in front of their little hideaway. Koji could just make out part of their face. Smooth. Dainty. A woman.

A deep booming voice called out for the woman from further upstream. Koji shifted his position to see another figure in a dark cloak – a very large cloak covering a massive frame. And with a voice like that, it was unmistakably a man or a monster. The woman turned to look at him. They exchanged obscured words as the man grew nearer, gesturing back upstream, then she hopped from her perch and skipped away around the bend and out of sight.

The man stood there a moment longer, rain slamming across his broad shoulders. He was formidable – large enough it seemed he’d nearly be able to snap a tree trunk in half with a single hand if given the chance. He turned to look downstream – toward the hideout – and walked a few paces with heavy feet, coming so close that the brothers could smell his damp musk. Koji began to lift his bow, then he felt his brother’s hand on his arm, stopping him. Jakai was intensely focused as he raised his own bow. Koji felt a slight sense of relief – he wasn’t entirely sure he was up for sinking an arrow into a human person. Even if he’d tried, he wasn’t confident an arrow from his bow would do anything more than bounce right off the beast before them.

A deep red beard teased out from the man’s hood as he stood there soaking in the stream valley. He turned, then slogged his way through the water and back up the stream. He moved against the water so powerfully that Koji thought the stream might consider flowing uphill instead, just to offset the resistance. As his image and menace faded around the corner, Koji collapsed back onto the floor next to the the girl. That was close.

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