Jorick grunted behind them. Evin looked over his shoulder to see his friend heft their food sack over his shoulder.

“Big deal,” Jorick said as he came to their side. “So you can make the ground glow. My dad took me hunting once and he can track just by looking at the way the grass is broken.” He turned away from Betilivatis and smirked at Evin. “No need for any magical mumbo jumbo like Bet’s.”

The girl stiffened. “My proper name,” she said as she pulled the strap of her satchel over her shoulder, “is Betilivatis Shandeleynar. And as your father isn’t here, my magic tracking will have to do.”

Jorick began to weave through the yellow grass, following the faint blue glow. “Yeah, whatever you say, Bet.”

The girl snorted, but made no further comment.

“Sorry about that,” Evin said. “He shortens everyone’s name. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He started calling me Evin instead of Evindol, and now everyone does. I actually kind of like it better.”

“Yes, well, I don’t.” Betilivatis motioned forward with her head. “Let’s go.”

Evin shrugged and jogged past her to walk at Jorick’s side.

“I know she’s kind of bossy,” he whispered in his friend’s ear, “but you should be nicer. She doesn’t have to help us, and she knows it. We need that book, and if you make her mad enough she’ll leave and take it with her.”

Jorick adjusted the food sack and glanced up at Evin. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “But she shouldn’t be coming with us anyway. If she’d just let you have the blasted book, we wouldn’t need someone like her following us around.”

Evin tilted his head. “Someone like what?”

Jorick hopped over a small boulder in his path. He landed on the glowing trail and sent little bits of the sand flowing around his feet. He took another step, then stumbled, catching himself before he fell.

“She’s an elf,” he said. “An elf girl. An elf girl wizard. Any one of those traits by themselves is bad enough, but put them all together?” Jorick shook his head, sending his shaggy brown hair waving. “What we’ve got is a snobby, know-it-all, purposefully mysterious, possibly dangerous person following us around who is probably going to make a mess of this whole thing. It’s bad enough we have to go into a den of monsters without having to worry about her sending fire flying around, or whatever it is she does.”

Evin looked back at Betilivatis. The girl’s face seemed calm if stern as she followed them. As they walked, the blue trail behind her flew up and disappeared inside her satchel, as though the vial inside were sucking back up the sand.