“A bear, then?” Sheldon asked. “A bear won’t approach a fire, right?”

“I’ve heard bears before,” Farilane said, slowly taking her knife out of her pack. “That sounded bigger.”

“Bigger than a bear?” Sheldon asked, his voice coated in concern. “What’s bigger than a bear? A tabor? Are those afraid of fire, too?”

“I don’t even know what a tabor is!”

Farilane spotted Kile taking a strong, two-handed hold of his walking stick. She wasn’t certain what he might do with a stick against a giant bear or a tabor but thought it noble that he believed he could do something.

Crack! Thump! The sound was louder, closer.

Everyone got to their feet.

“That sounded like a log breaking,” Kile said.

Rolling out as low thunder, another growl rumbled, the sound so powerful it shook leaves.

“Torches,” Farilane muttered and grabbed up one of the larger sticks they had gathered and set aside for the fire. Stripping the Maranonian cheese of its covering, she wrapped the cloth around one end of the stick and doused it in oil from her lamp bottle, then—

Breathing.

Farilane heard the sound but guessed no one else did. Too faint, too soft for them, and so much more disturbing than the cracks.

“Eyes!” Kile announced, pointing out, but also up.

Certain he was mistaken—How can anyone see eyes in the dark?—she looked, then stared, baffled to spot a pair of illuminated red eyes peering back at her from the black. Reflecting the fire? She hoped so. The thought of eyes bright with their own light was terrifying. These were frightening nonetheless, signaling that either the creature was ridiculously tall or crouching up in the trees. No matter how she tried to solve the riddle, all answers were disturbing.

The forest . . . I’ve heard things . . . all manner of monsters . . . Maybe it is a tabor!

With just a touch to the flame, Farilane’s torch caught fire.

The eyes vanished.

“I’ll light the way,” she told him. “If it threatens, you kill it.”

Kile looked at her, shocked.

“Or hit it, at least—try to scare it off.”

“Are you insane?” Sheldon asked. “You’re not going out there, are you?”

“Never show fear,” Farilane said. “It only encourages your enemies.”

“What should I do?” Sheldon asked.

“Watch the fire. Don’t let it go out.”

Together, Farilane and Kile moved away from the firelight and into the wall of trees. She stayed close to him both for her safety and his. Teshlors were capable of fighting blind, but she didn’t feel scribes were so well trained.

“There may be more than one,” Kile whispered.