The words caught Anji off guard. A memory flitted through her mind like a bird, of her and her mother nestled together in the rocking chair on their front stoop, her mother’s nail gliding under a line of text while she read out loud, as Anji had nodded off to sleep in her embrace.

“That’s Gale Summering,” said Anji, “from the Fireheart Chronicles. Book three, right?”

For an instant, their eyes met, deep brown and ancient green. Then the Hawk snatched up the blue satchel and, to Anji’s surprise, opened it like any ordinary sack. She fished out a paper-wrapped bundle, tied the sack up with a deft motion, and set it back down.

“What happens if they catch up to us?”

The Hawk slipped a knife from her belt and sliced the package open, held it up to her nose, frowning. “Who?”

“The Menagerie,” said Anji, laying a hand on Molli’s neck as she shied away.

Something rustled behind Anji and she whipped around, eyes wide, but it was only a snow-white raven lifting off from a boulder and away toward the mountain peaks. She felt a hollow ache in her stomach as she watched it disappear into the lightening sky.

The Hawk folded the package back together and stowed it once more in the blue satchel, sealing it tight with a flick of her wrist. “We fight over you, I expect.”

“And you’ll kill them all? People you’ve known and worked with for years? Your own friends?”

“Three against one is foolish.”

“You took on three of the king’s own yesterday,” said Anji, still not quite believing the words as she said them.

The Hawk lifted a bony shoulder. “They weren’t the Menagerie.”

“So you are afraid,” said Anji. “You don’t think you can win.”

“I didn’t say that either.”

“I hope they kill you.”

The Hawk cleared her throat and pulled out a hand-sized hunk of brown bread. She broke off a piece and shoved it in her mouth.

Anji watched the Hawk eat, ignoring the empty rumble in her gut. “Why aren’t you with them anymore? The Menagerie?”

“Not your concern.”

“Sounds like my concern,” said Anji. “For all I know they’re coming to save me from you.”

The Hawk leveled a look at her, chewing in a quick rhythm. “Think you’d be better off with them?” she said, tearing off another piece. “They’d start torturing you long before Linura.”

Anji shook her head. “The Menagerie aren’t torturers. They’re warriors, bound by a strict code of honor.”