“You are a summer born, a child of this camp. And so we bestow this gift directly on you, the amulet that you will take to Oden’s Ford.” Elena shrugged her narrow shoulders. “Still, we hope you will remember where you came from. Perhaps you will be the one who brings wizard and clan together.”

The hatred on Reid’s face said that would never happen. “You should hold the amulet until the jinxflinger leaves Hanalea,” he said. “Else it isn’t safe.”

“The elders have spoken, Reid Nightwalker,” Averill said. “Fire Dancer has no sponsor. The amulet will be the connection between us. It is all we can offer him now.”

“You needn’t worry,” Dancer said. “I have no desire to use anything left to me by my father. And I’ll be gone before you know it.” With that, he ripped off the jacket Willo had made for him and flung it into the fire. Then he stalked off into the woods, leaving silence behind him.

C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y

WILLO AND BIRD

The backwash from the naming ceremony persisted for several days. Dancer disappeared again, and Han spent fruitless hours searching the woods surrounding Marisa Pines, visiting all their familiar haunts. When he did find him two days’ walk away in a hunter’s shelter on the shores of Ghost Lake, Dancer wasn’t fishing, or hunting, or reading. Just sitting, staring out at the lake.

Dancer had little to say to Han’s suggestions; he seemed to feel he’d exhausted all possibilities.

“We could go down to the temple in Fellsmarch,” Han said. “The speakers know all sorts of things. Maybe they could help.”

“We’ve been to see Jemson,” Dancer said. He picked up a rock and sent it skimming over the water. “He tried some things, but none worked.” Dancer glanced over at Han. “Besides, didn’t you say you’re a wanted man down in Fellsmarch?”

Well. Yes. There was that.

“What about one of the other camps? Maybe there’s a healer there who would have a new idea.”

“My mother’s the best. You know that. And Elena knows the other matriarchs; she’s always traveling. If there was something else to try, she would know about it.”

“If you don’t have an amulet, mightn’t it just…stay dormant?”

Dancer didn’t honor that with an answer.

Han felt compelled to offer increasingly desperate plans. “We could go to the Northern Isles. That’s where wizards come from, right?”

“You think that’s better than going to Oden’s Ford?” Dancer asked. “Sailing across the Indio to someplace I’ve never been to find the people that invaded us centuries ago?”

“You could…you could talk to the Wizard Council. You could try to find your father.”