These people, Iris decided, were insane.

  That wasn’t an opinion, that was a fact that anyone with eyes could see.

  The entire village of Ishvaat was in total uproar. On their way to the temple, the streets had been full of business. Literal business — stalls with brightly colored pennants, stores open with swinging wooden signs, the smell of grilled meat and the shine of vegetables for sale.

  Iris watched the entire city scramble to hide any trace of their existence.

  “Eos,” Iris said. “What the heck is going on?”

  “Ishvaat does like to party,” Eos hummed, her fingers drumming along the bridge railing. Iris watched three people collapse an entire stand in the blink of an eye.

  “They look like they think someone’s gonna kill them,” Iris said. “They’re hiding.”

  “Oh, no, no,” said Eos. “…Well, yes, but not for that reason.”

  “Okay,” Iris said as a group of teens ran past. Eos sidestepped them easily, but Iris was nearly decapitated by a length of colorful rope tied between their wrists. “Are you going to tell me the reason?”

  “My apologies — I thought I had explained it,” Eos laughed.

  “You said that we have to catch their sacred beast and beat the rest of the town to it.”

  “We must tag the sacred beast. Tie a cord of thread around him.“

  “Okay, but like, you didn’t actually mean the rest of the town, right?”

  Eos paused.

  “Eos?”

  “The Temple Trial isn’t just seen as a holy celebration of skill,” Eos said, with enough guilt for Iris to figure it was a confession. “It’s also like a village-wide party. One that everyone is invited to and is welcome to participate in. And as far as I know, everyone does. But no, it won’t be the whole town against us — just the elders. The youth participate alongside us, trying to tag him themselves. It’s a bragging right you carry on your name for the rest of your days.”

  “What? What if people have plans? What if it’s really important, too, like — on someone’s actual birthday?” Iris said. Her mind flashed to her Mama’s ballroom. What if nobody had showed up? Not even for her Mama’s carefully curated shrimp platters? “Like, something they planned for months?”

  Eos laughed. “The Temple Trial would be like a great present,” she said. “Of course, no one is required to join, but if it’s someone’s birthday today, I doubt they’d begrudge their guests for celebrating the next day. It seems wild and chaotic but it’s truly like nothing else. Some generations of Ishvaat go without ever participating as a youth, or an elder. Some go without participating at all.”

  “But you know stuff about it?” Iris asked insistently.

  “Of course,” Eos answered, giving Iris a grin. “I was responsible for initiating four of them, in my time here.”

  “What? Four? How many did you win?”

  “None,” Eos said ruefully. “Now come on, bug. We better hurry.”

  Eos started running, diving into the crowd. Iris followed, because — well, what else was she supposed to do? She didn’t know her way through the crowd.

  Still, the thought rang in her head.

  She was playing with a loser.

  Eos lead them through the winding city of Ishvaat. It was a city built on the most uncomfortable land Iris had ever been on. (Well. Second most uncomfortable, from the way Mama tells it, but Iris had been too young to really remember it.)

  The city rose up and down small hills, the streets paved with slabs of coarse stone or lined with tiled stairs. Scattered, violet sand wormed its way into Iris’s shoes.

  “Eos, where the heck are we going?”

  “To see an old friend of mine,” Eos said, which was totally unhelpful. “I would hope he didn’t move away. I don’t think he would. He and I — we share a love of home.”

  “That literally tells me nothing,” Iris said.

  Eos shook her head. “You see the braids?” she asked.

  “I mean, a bunch of people here wear their hair in all kindsa braids—“

  “No, no, bug, the colored threads. Like…there!”

  Iris felt her body being pushed back as Eos pressed them up against a wall. There was a group of kids, maybe Iris’s age, all looped together with that same multicolored rope, worn like loose bracelets around their wrists. The dangling ends were held in their hands. The group was chanting some kind of song that must’ve been the Ishvaati language. And chasing after them were a few adults, fumbling around with what looked like flat wooden bowls.

  (Iris silently cheered the kids on. Stick it to the adults.)

  Once they’d passed, Eos started dragging Iris along again.

  “Stay close,” Eos said. “It’ll be easy to get separated once the Trial truly begins.”

  “Yuck,” Iris said, shaking her hand free. “I’m not a baby. We’re going to pick up some bracelets from him?”

  Eos didn’t answer for a moment, dodging a man carrying basket of fruit above his head. Her eyes looked distant. She was thinking about something, and again not answering Iris’s question.

  Eos blinked back to awareness. “Oh! No, bug. Something better.”

  They stopped in front of a nondescript wooden door. Eos held her hand up to the wood, and paused. Iris rolled her eyes and rapped on the door for her.

  “Oof,” Eos said.

  “You were taking too long. So what are we here for?”

  “Well,” Eos winked at Iris. “We’re hoping to pick him up.”

  Iris made as grossed-out an expression as she could imagine. A man opened the door just in time to see her make her “trying-not-to-vomit” face. Great first impression. (Mama would’ve laughed.)

  He didn’t look much like anything. Iris figured that Eos would have bad taste, but she never figured Eos for boring taste. The man in front of them just looked like a guy. He was tan. He was also tall, skinny, with dark wavy hair dropping into his eyes. It didn’t hide them enough to keep Iris from seeing them widen.

  “Utu,” Eos exclaimed brightly.

  “You,” he said, but he still sounded stunned. “Of course it’s you.”

  “Of course it’s me,” Eos agreed with a grin.

  The man leaned against the doorway. Around his wrist, Iris could see that same colorful thread wound around all the young people in town. His trailed a long way into the house, unspooling into some hidden room with warm light. There was the smell of fresh-baked bread. Iris shivered. It suddenly felt super cold outside.

  “Only for you, would they run yet another trial.”

  Eos winked. “Because I put on such a good show?”

  Holy moly. Was that guy blushing? He was totally blushing. Iris fought the urge to gag.

  “Something like that,” he said.

  Eos tipped her head to him and gestured back to Iris. “This is my friend,” she said, “Iris. I’m hoping to help her catch Enkidu.”

  “Yeah, that sacred beast is going down,” Iris declared. Now that Utu was watching her, Iris made sure he could see her sizing him up. Iris also made sure he could see her not being impressed. “This guy is going to help us?”

  “Well,” Eos said, smiling hopefully at Utu. “I would certainly like him to. If only for old times’ sake.”

  Utu paused. His finger looped around the thread on his wrist.

  “I have part of a team already,” he said.

  “Room for two more?” Eos asked.

  “…There might be,” Utu murmured, each syllable placed very, very carefully. Iris whipped her head back and forth between him and Eos. “It depends on how long you’re staying.”

  “Who can know the ways of the Challenge?” Eos said cheerfully.

  Whatever Eos had said was definitely the wrong thing. Iris watched Utu’s face fall. There was some real expectation that had plummeted off a cliff and died.

  “You are fun,” said Utu. “Just not a fun that stays.”

  Eos’s smile faded.

  “…I suppose not.”

  Utu shook his head. A voice called from inside the house, something that might have been his name. Iris tightened her grip on her staff. Whoever was calling was maybe a girl, definitely someone young. He looked back into the house.

  “So many changes,” Eos murmured.

  Utu looked back to Eos. Whatever he saw in her face just seemed to make him more sad. “Maybe not enough changes,” he said. “You still look scared, Eos.”

  Iris watched as he reached out a hand and brushed his fingers over her questioning brow. Eos closed her eyes. She held his hand to her cheek. Iris glanced away, staring down at their shadows over the pebbles.

  “I’m braver, now.”

  “That’s good.”

  Their shadows over the sand moved away from each other. Iris caught the silhouette of him passing something to her, his hand caught in sharp relief against the orange light. Whatever it was, Eos accepted it.

  “Blessings to the beast?” Eos asked, her voice soft and hopeful.

  “No,” murmured Utu. “Blessings to you.”

  Eos stood back and watched the door swing closed. They were both in the dark of the alley now, watching light spill from the windows. In Eos’s hands was a wound-up bunch of rope. All the colors of the rainbow, dyed in individual strands and braided together in a thick, ropelike band. The faint sheen of the thread was fading in the impending night.

  “…That was gross,” Iris decided. “That was a boy.”

  Eos shook her head, and then her whole body, like a dog shaking off water.

  “He and I are the same age,” Eos said. Her voice was light, but Iris could see the way her eyes kept darting around. Sweat was beading on Eos’s forehead. “I thought you said I was old?”

  “Did you like him?” Iris asked. She leaned her staff against the ground, patting Eos’s back. She did make sure to keep her shoes out of range of any potential splash zone, though. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

  “Like him, yes,” Eos said. “But he and I, we were only ever having fun. This —“ she gestures to her face.

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  “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you,” Iris said.

  “That seems like an overstatement,” Eos said. “But… I had hoped we’d find a few more friends willing to lend their aid.”

  Eos looked down at the rope in her hand, something between a smile and a grimace on her face. She looked constipated as hell, and still like she was two steps away from collapsing. But she was obviously trying to keep it together. She was stupid to lie, but… Iris could appreciate an effort.

  Iris turned around, hands on her hips. More and more, she was seeing candlelight through the windows across town, more stalls shuttered, more people in the streets. She’d just have to do everything around here, wouldn’t she?

  “Come on, gimme that,” Iris said. Eos gave up the thread without too much protest — aw, yuck, it was sweaty where she’d been holding it.

  Iris grabbed onto Eos’s arm and dragged her along. Left, right, left, right, up, up, to the side. By now, there were hordes of people in the streets — children and teens and young adults. But also other people, clad in long, red cloaks and carrying torches to light the dark streets. It gave Iris just enough vision to spot a bench off to the side. Perfect!

  Iris had to reach uncomfortably high to get to Eos’s shoulders, but managed to get her to sit.

  “Hah, that’s very kind of you, bug, but I’m fine—“

  “You’re a really bad liar,” Iris cut in. “Just take a beat to get it together, and I’m gonna figure this out.”

  Eos seemed to accept defeat, sinking her back into the bench. Her eyes were trailing over the figures in red. “How—?”

  Better take whatever it is you want than wait for permission, or whatever the saying was. By the time Eos looked back, Iris had already dived into the crowd.

  Dodging people was much easier without toting Eos around. There were enough people flooding the streets that Iris couldn’t see the other side. A theme was emerging, of the children in a million different colors all trying to tie themselves to each other, and the red-robed elders roaming in mass gangs. And if you could believe it, the elders were loud.

  They carried crashing cymbals and clacking, wooden instruments that created a head-splitting racket. At least they also had the bells.

  Cutting through the nightmare sound was the jingling of bells. They were sharp and clear, like Mama’s voice. And apparently, they sounded an awful lot like the bells the beast was supposed to have. So of course the elders would have them.

  Iris had to suck in a breath and press herself against a wall as a group of elders passed, swinging red-hot torches around above their heads.

  Oh yeah, and they had torches.

  The old people turned like dogs to sheep on the kids, wrangling them into circles and herding them into some spooky, dark alley.

  Eos had warned her about this. The elders oppose the youth. Tradition presses up against change. How Ishvaat remembers to respect both its elders and its youth.

  Iris would make them respect something, alright.

  Iris was feeling pretty chipper about her plan. It was all a win-win. Eos could go catch her old lady breath on the bench — and also, figure out whatever the heck she had going on, because it was clearly something — and Iris could do all the heavy lifting.

  Not that it was that heavy. Catching a beast. That’s all it really was, in the end — a hunt. And Iris knew plenty about hunting. Mielikki Kynago — Mielikki the Huntress — had taught her plenty about all the boring stuff. First, tracking. She had to track what she was hunting.

  Enkidu Iknaia. That’s what Eos had called the sacred beast. Or, his name, apparently. (Iris had wanted to scoff. The sacred beasts in the Inner Rim temples didn’t have names, they were named after the cities. Or maybe, Eos had suggested, the cities were named after them. They’d left it at that, over dinner.)

  He was some great big hairy thing. His fur looked braided, like the beards of the people of Ishvaat, thick and dark and cordlike. He had a “confusing” face — whatever that meant — with massive horns upon his head. Started like an ox, and split into a thousand antler-like branches. That’s what Eos had said.

  Not that Iris needed to listen to Eos about all that. Keep it simple. That’s what Mama would’ve said.

  Find the scary beast. Tie the cord around one of his antlers. Do it all before sunrise. Win.

  Easy peasy.

  Well. Should be. Iris wasn’t picking up anything like tracks on the ground. That’s what she got for trying to track in a crowd on a ground covered in sand. Ugh. Mielikki’s advice once again being useless. Well, she usually tracked people, anyways…

  Iris’s eyes drifted to the flow of the people around her. Eos had said that the people of Ishvaat, especially the elders, had a great sense for where the beast might be. (Probably because they did it before. Iris bet if she lived here, too, she’d get good at it.)

  Ugh. These streets were too narrow and too hard to get a view of where people were going. West, maybe? Iris rubbed her thumb on her staff. She could fly up and look over the city, but then people would definitely look at the cool girl in the bubble, and her cover would be totally blown. Damn.

  She’d have to trust they really were pushing the groups west. One way to test it.

  Iris started running east.

  A blur of red cloaks fluttered in front of her face. Bingo! Iris skidded past a group of kids and dodged their rope, sending the red cloaks careening.

  Heh. Too easy. Except for some idiot who got in her way — Iris clipped the edge of a cloak, slipping on their fabric and sprawling her arms around to catch herself.

  Iris whipped around. “Hey, watch it!”

  A snarling snout snapped at her. Gnashing teeth narrowly missed the curve of her nose as Iris yelped and windmilled backwards. Her heart lodged itself in her throat. What could she do? Her staff! She grabbed it, tight, and brandished it at whatever beast she’d just found.

  But the “beast” morphed in the light, turning into a chattering wooden mask, articulated jaw, clicking eyes. A whole circle of them — Iris’s mind flashed to the wooden bowls the elders were carrying. That’s all it was, she told herself, heart thumping in her throat. They were hooting and shouting, and the sound was making the blood pulse in her head.

  Forget it. Iris wasn’t gonna spend another second messing around here. She bounced her staff against the ground, letting it ring against the stone, and screamed into the hoop at the top of the staff.

  Her scream swelled and pushed a bubble up and out to wrap around and take her up, up, up.

  …quiet.

  Iris plopped down to sit, humming to herself. She could still hear the villagers below. Dang people probably thought she was cheating by using this. They didn’t sound too happy.

  Her bubbles weren’t built to block out sound. She sort of needed it, in order to not die, and to move around, and to keep calm. Iris shook her head. Not that she needed to calm herself down. She was fine!

  And while she was up here, she might as well take a look around.

  Iris drummed her hands on her bubble and hummed, letting the vibrations run from her chest to her fingertips.

  The sun was touching the tip of the mountain, and the sky had turned into a searing blood red.

  Iris felt tears streaking down the side of her face and squeezed her eyes shut.

  Up would be nice. Above the city to get a good look at what could possibly be a giant monster.

  Down was where she was going, though, at least below the horizon of the buildings. Had to keep some anonymity. And what the heck was she going to do if Eos found her?

  Her bubble ended up gliding into a nice, dark alley. No torches, no screaming cymbals. She rested her head against her staff. Maybe once her heart stopped pounding. Stupid thing. Iris would smack it if she could. She sat cross-legged on the floor.

  She just… needed to prep for what was next. Yeah! Iris took the braided cord and started tying it around and about the hoop of her staff. Like a bug net. It was a really damn ugly net, but it’d work if she just slammed it down over Enkidu’s head.

  Iris closed her eyes and took deep, humming breaths. In, out, in, out. Blood stopped rushing to her head. It made room for a different sound.

  Bells. They were coming from behind her.

  Iris turned around.

  There, perched on the edge of the building was a shadow. A thing, Iris thought. It didn’t even register to her as a beast at first, because it was some formless shape of moving darkness. Eos had lied. His fur did not look like the hair of Ishvaati citizens, or the saturated cords tying the children together. It was much, much darker.

  The thing moved. His body was long, sinewy, but his paws were as thick as trunks. The movement made the fur sway and flutter, an outline of thick, stalking muscles caught by the light of Ishvaat’s moon. Against the dark fur, his eyes were moon-white. So were his teeth.

  The sacred beast of Ishvaat was smiling at her.

  (His teeth looked really, really human.)

  Iris gritted her teeth and felt the cool metal of her staff. Things never happened when she wanted them to, huh?

  “I’ve got you.”

  The long thick neck wound directly towards her. His breath fogged the bubble.

  “Got you.”

  The hair around his long neck trembled. Iris felt her sweaty hands go slack around the staff. Did he say that? Or did… did she?

  Because that sounded just like her voice.

  Iris felt the tendons in her legs tighten as she took a step back. Her foot slipped on the soapy floor, and she felt the back of her staff poke at the other wall of the bubble. She was frozen in space, bubble suspended in the alley just beyond the edge of the building.

  But Enkidu was big. If he wanted to reach out and bite, she wouldn’t be fast enough.

  Iris swallowed. Just get the string over his horns. The rope dangled in its position as a messy net on her staff. She just needed to lunge. But there was gravel trapped at the top of her lungs feeling like it was weighing her down, and the sliding of her teeth-on-teeth as she grit them that wound her tight to the spot.

  Just jump. Just jump.

  Enkidu’s neck slithered around the circumference of the bubble.

  “Stop it!”

  Enkidu opened his mouth. “Stop it, stop it, stop it,” Iris cried from it. Her voice squeaked in pitch. It squealed, turned, shattered, sobbed. It was begging. “Stop it, stop it, stop it!”

  Iris tripped over her foot. But there was nowhere to go — he was all around.

  “I’m not scared of you,” she said, as loud as she could.

  “Scared of you! Scared of you!”

  “I don’t sound like that — that’s — that’s not me—“

  “Sound like that! Sound like me!” Enkidu stared her deep down, and then its voice changed.

  “Oh, Mama’s going to be so mad,” said, said, said Arke. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Where are you going?”

  Iris’s lungs flattened.

  In her mind there was still some ugly animal in front of her, but in her heart there was a voice she hadn’t heard in years but still listened for. That part of her heart was dragging her mind far and away from where they were, sinking to the ocean floor. Superimposing the face of a ghost over the sacred beast.

  Arke — Enkidu — shook their head. “We’re going to the river with Mama today. You’re the one who wanted to go. Right?”

  Iris screamed.

  She tried to jump, but it was too late — the bubble bounced and battered against the body of Enkidu, crawling and scattering along the rooftop, a flick of his thick tail sending the bubble shattering into the side of the alley.

  Iris could hear the villagers shouting. They were coming this way, weren’t they? A loud clanging sound as her staff hit the stone. The claws and hoofbeats of Enkidu running along the rooftops, completely away from them. But also You’re the one who wanted to go? Right? Right? Right?

  Iris’s heart was clawing its way straight out of her chest and up her throat, sliding against her windpipe, pressing her tongue flat down on her teeth. There wasn’t any bargaining she could manage here. (This was stupid. This was stupid. She knew everything around her that was happening to her as it happened.)

  Iris couldn’t recognize the walls around her. (But Iris had studied this city. And her feet still worked. She could step out of the blue into the red firelight. She still knew how to do that.)

  Iris couldn’t breathe.

  Thoughts were all broken up in her head. Iris could grasp onto one or two, and they’d just crumple away in her hands, leaving her to think about nothing except how awful her body felt. Bad, bad, bad, sick, dying…

  Arms smothered her close, squeezed Iris so tight she felt like she was being been swaddled. Iris felt hot, wet fabric press up against her eyelids and the snot dribbling onto someone’s shoulder.

  “Shh, shh,” the voice rumbled from the chest of the person holding her. “You’re alright, bug, you’re alright.”

  “…Eos?” Iris croaked.

  “That’s my name,” Eos murmured. The shape of the world started with her body. Iris felt rough hands stroke her hair. Iris could blearily make out the alley. “You ran off so quick. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to keep up.”

  Iris sniffled. The adrenaline high was leaving her crushed. “… Did you know the beast could do that?”

  “…Yes,” Eos said. “It’s a real fright, isn’t it.”

  “I hated that.”

  “I know. So did I.”

  Iris reached up and pushed Eos back, drawing the back of her hand across her nose. “He has illusion magic? I — I knew he was a sacred beast, but…”

  “More than that,” Eos murmured, holding her by the shoulders. Her eyes checked Iris over. Whatever. It wasn’t like Iris was hurt. Iris hugged herself. “Ishvaat believes in knowing the struggle of tradition verses progress… elders versus the youth… and the old versus the new.”

  Eos’s eyes weren’t smiling as they looked at Iris. They held a lot of sympathy, a lot of pity — it made Iris want to turn around, because there was no way anyone was looking at her like that.

  “He said something awful, didn’t he?” Eos murmured. Iris hunched her shoulders. “It’s alright, bug. You don’t have to tell me. I… know how you feel.”

  Iris peeled her hand away from her face. Eos had sat down in the alley, turned her face to look at the other end with the glowing lights. “He used to talk to me in a lot of voices,” she said. “My old enemies. My past lovers. My little sister.”

  Iris sat down next to her. Eos wrapped an arm around her.

  “Little sister…?” Iris asked.

  “Yes,” Eos murmured. “She’s back home. On Naguya Tan, somewhere. It’s… been a very long time since I’ve seen her. I couldn’t even remember the last words we said to each other, before… Enkidu reminded me.”

  Iris stared down at her shoes. Maybe Eos did know how she felt.

  “They say it’s the young that should chase after Enkidu,” Eos murmured. “Because — they haven’t a long enough past for him to dig through. To press them down with. But that’s not always true, is it?”

  Iris leaned against Eos. Eos squeezed her.

  “I’m sorry,” Eos offered. “Your heartbreak is unfair.”

  “Is that why you’ve never won?” Iris muttered.

  “…In part,” Eos admitted. “Or maybe the universe was waiting for me to meet you.” She offered Iris a hand. “A challenge we conquer together. Yeah?”

  Iris stared at Eos’s hand. Iris couldn’t make out the shade of her skin or the callouses on her hands. It was just a dim shape in the dark. If Arke had been here, would they still offer Iris a hand, too? Iris could imagine it.

  “You’re so corny,” Iris said, and grabbed Eos’s hand.

  They stood up together. (Though Iris definitely pulled Eos up part of the way. And Eos was definitely super heavy, but Iris was stronger than that.)

  Eos glanced down the alleyway and seemed to spot someone. She waved.

  “We’re taking a break, friend,” Eos called out. Iris peeked out from behind Eos to add her own two thoughts — and then caught sight of the silhouette.

  Iris thought it might have been the beast. It was a bulky figure, their shadow eating up the expanse of the hallway, with the curling antlers of a real animal.

  Then Iris’s eyes adjusted. Short cropped hair. Shining metal armor. No fur, just pale skin and cold grey eyes. No antlers, either — just a massive magical tree stump, encasing her arm in a bear-like claw and growing branches in a way that looked like horns made for butting heads.

  Mielikki. Mielikki Kynago, too, Mielikki the Huntress.

  Oh damn. The jig was up.

  Iris had to duck back down behind Eos, but it was definitely way too late.

  “That’s Iris Nixie,” Mielikki said. It wasn’t really a question.

  “Ah,” Eos said, holding her arm out in front of Iris. Iris took that as a great sign to grab onto Eos and start tugging her back. “You’re frightening her.”

  “You are Eos Rhododactylos,” Mielikki continued. “We’re bringing you in.”

  “We?”

  Mielikki pointed up.

  Iris shot her gaze up. A skinny man — teen? — was leaning over the edge of the roof. Thin white hair obscured his upper face, and a muzzle-like mask carved like a snarling dog covered the lower half. More importantly — he held a silvery bow at half-draw. It was aimed at Eos.

  “Don’t think about using that bubble of yours,” Mielikki said. “The arrows are tipped with magic. They’ll drop you from the sky.”

  When Iris looked back, Eos hadn’t moved her gaze from Mielikki. “Bug,” she said pleasantly. “Tell me what you’re seeing?”

  “Guy,” Iris said. “Has a bow and arrows. Got a mask on, but um, not like an Ishvaati one. You could probably take him.”

  “I think I’m inclined to agree,” Eos said.

  Mielikki’s eyes narrowed.

  “But I’d rather not fight,” Eos said. “Which is what it will come to, if you try to take or harm my friend. I am her guardian here.”

  Mielikki’s eyes flicked to Iris. Yikes. Clocked. Damn! Iris hoped to at least make it to the Outer Rim this time.

  “Harm would only be coming to you. Surrender the girl. She’s wanted home.”

  Iris braced herself — but Eos laughed. “A shameless lie, if I’ve ever heard one,” Eos said. “I’ve gotten the express permission of her mother—“

  Iris caught the subtle turn of Mielikki’s head that Eos didn’t. Oh no. An eye roll.

  “Eo—!”

  Mielikki lifted her arm faster than humanly possible and her tree-bracer shot out a wreath of tendrils and roots, all shooting into an arm, a leg, a wall. One caught Iris right in the stomach.

  Iris felt her ribs push into each other and the next thing she knew, she was on the sandy floor. Across the alley, Eos was pinned to the wall. The massive tree-bracer Mielikki held slowly retracted the wood as she walked closer and closer. Mielikki sounded the furthest thing from entertained. “I’ll let Lady Nixie tell you herself, then.”

  “Friend!” Eos’s voice was strained. “How about we put away the — hostility!”

  She wasn’t going to talk down Mielikki. Mielikki was like if one of Mama’s cannons grew legs and a face. The cannons didn’t shut down with words from anyone other than Mama. Mielikki closed her fist.

  Eos crumpled.

  Iris screamed.

  Mielikki turned around.

  “You’re wanted home,” Mielikki said. Iris shuddered. She never raised her voice. Mama wouldn’t have allowed it. But she still sounded like she was going to do something to Iris, and Iris didn’t like to think on what that could be.

  “I’m — busy!” Iris said. Her eyes darted to Eos’s body, held up against the wall by a tangle of sick roots. The dogs around her sat statue-still. There was no way they were trained normally. “What the heck are you doing with Eos? Let her go!”

  “Your attempts to get away were too creative this time,” Mielikki said. She pulled her arm back, massive trunk growing thick and wild around Eos’s body, wrapping her in a coffin-like cocoon of wood. “Your mother wants a word with her.”

  “She didn’t do anything!”

  “Not anymore. If you feel any sort of guilt, you’ll keep up.”

  Mielikki didn’t seem to think it worth to answer, or speak to Iris any more than that.

  “Actaeon, let’s go,” she said.

  Silence.

  “Actaeon—“

  Iris looked up. A man was now on the edge. Like, a fully grown-up man, not a teen, with a different mask entirely. This one’s snarled too, but in the shape of some other monster entirely, thick tusks and furrowed brow, whiskers spiraling off into the wooden cheeks. It was a slew of Ishvaati-like colors — purple, blue, and an electric set of pink and blue that glowed in the light. He was dressed like an outsider. Purple sleeveless coat, dirtiest white tunic tucked under some sort of chest armor. Iris didn’t want to know what the state of his pants were.

  Iris was pretty sure this was a different guy, because his shoulders were twice the size of the other guy. And because he was using those square shoulders to very easily dump the dog-masked man right over the edge of the building.

  “Holy moly!”

  The man was yelping, but not for long — his body hit a stack of crates and went still. That was certainly one way to put the dog down—

  Mielikki swung her arm around and launched her roots right at the man on the roof, who dodged. He was damn faster than he looked.

  Iris wasn’t looking for long.

  “Eos!” Iris dove beside Eos. She was on her hands and knees, coughing and bleeding from where the roots had — oh gross — punched right through her arm and leg. “Holy cow, are you okay? Eos —“

  “Move,” Eos rasped.

  Iris just threw herself to the side. Eos threw her arm up from the ground, where violet sand met Mielikki’s eyes. Iris would laugh, but she knew better than to open her mouth for sand herself. Iris ducked and swung her staff around. Maybe they could get out of here —

  A thousand small bubbles split from her staff. Oh, dammit! The string was still there. Change of plans. Iris whistled and flicked her wrist, the bubbles dogpiling onto Mielikki, one by one by one. She couldn’t do everything with that stupid ugly tree stump!

  Iris could hear a thousand of her bubbles popping against thorns and thistles, but she would just have to ignore it. Come on, come on…

  Iris couldn’t cast them faster than Mielikki was growing brambles. It wasn’t going to work.

  “Eos?” Iris called. She couldn’t see her from behind her. Was Eos okay? “Hey, Eos, Eos! I need some help…!”

  A keening sound. Iris felt her eyes shake in her head. For some reason, she was remembering Mama’s cannons.

  Pinpoints of light struck against the wood, blazing through the dark in a yellow-green — like sunlight through leaves, or maybe just dying grass. Splinters of wood flew off of the brambles, exploding into a thousand pieces.

  Iris reached for the top of her staff, ripped off the last of the string, and swung.

  The sound of metal cutting across the air sang, and Iris shouted as loud as her lungs let her. Louder, louder, louder, until a a bubble that could swallow Mielikki whole scooped her and sent her flying into the night sky.

  “Yes!” Iris said. “Eos — oh, dammit —“

  And you know what, for good measure — Iris swung against, and caught the unconscious body of the dog-man, sending him off who-knew-where. Iris didn’t know. She wasn’t looking.

  “Eos, oh man,” Iris said, kneeling. “You got totally trashed.”

  “Feel… like… it…” Eos said. She was clutching at her leg with her good arm, the other cradled against her stomach. “…Bug?”

  “What?” Iris said. Eos was looking past her. Oh, dammit. Not again.

  Two men stood at the end of the alleyway. One, the purple-masked man from the roof. He seemed to be keeping his distance. His eyes were masked in white, but Iris could tell he was looking at them.

  “Dragon,” Eos mumbled.

  He stood behind a second man.

  A wide-brimmed hat. Curly brown hair and tan skin that Iris could only see because of the unnerving smile on his face. Every other inch of him was covered — leather boots, gloves, a long green poncho fluttering in the wind with stick-like designs Iris had never seen before. Even a bandana lay tied around his throat, keeping most of his neck from view.

  And a mask seated on his face, half-black and half-white. Some sort of mesh covered even the span of his eyes. He was thin, too. It was like he was more costume than person. But when he moved, Iris felt the hairs of her neck stand on end. This someone had training.

  Smoke rose from something small and brass, fading out of view in the moon. He blew it out like a candle. Iris glanced up to the sky. No more bubble to be seen.

  The man stopped in front of them.

  “At last,” he said. “Found.”