Fiddler instantly grasped the Daru’s meaning. He turned to Icarium. ‘You said Servant’s trail led into the Whirlwind storm. Is there a particular place where Sha’ik is expected to be reborn?’

‘The High Priest says her body has not been moved from where it fell at the hands of the Red Blades.’

‘Within the storm?’

The Jhag nodded.

‘He’s telling her right now,’ Crokus growled, his hands balling into fists, the knuckles whitening.’ “Be reborn, and you shall be reunited with your father.’’’

‘ “A life given for a life taken,”‘ Mappo muttered. The Trell eyed the sapper. ‘Are you mended well enough for a pursuit?’

Fiddler nodded. ‘I can ride, walk ... or crawl if it comes to that.’

‘I shall prepare for our departure, then.’

In the small storage room where the gear and travel packs had been assembled, Mappo crouched down over his own sack. He rummaged amidst the bedrolls and canvas tent until his hands found the hard, hide-wrapped object he sought. The Trell pulled it forth and slipped the waxed elk hide away, revealing a solid long-bone half again the length of his forearm. The shaft was golden in lustre, polished by age. Leather cord was wrapped around the grip, enough for two hands. The distal end was ringed in similarly polished spike-shaped teeth – each the size of his thumb – set in an iron collar.

A hint of sage reached Mappo’s nostrils. The sorcery within the weapon was still potent. The efforts of seven Trell witches was not a thing to fade with time. The long-bone had been found in a mountain stream. The mineral-rich water had made it hard as iron, and just as heavy. Other parts of the strange, unknown beast’s skeleton had been recovered as well, though those had remained with the Clan as revered objects, each invested with power.

Only once had Mappo seen all the fragments laid out together, hinting at a beast twice the mass of a plains bear, the upper and lower jaws both sporting a row of fangs that roughly interlocked. The thigh bone – which he now held in his hands – had the shape of a bird’s, yet impossibly huge and twice as thick as the hollow shaft it surrounded. Ridges appeared here and there along the shaft, where what must have been massive muscles were attached.

His hands trembled beneath the burden of the weapon.

Icarium spoke behind him. ‘I do not recall you ever using that, friend.’

Unwilling as yet to turn to the Jhag, Mappo closed his eyes. ‘No.’ You do not.

‘I am continually astonished,’ Icarium went on, ‘at just how much you manage to fit into that tattered sack.’