The zarich was a disconcerting creature to behold at first. It resembled an upright goat but was the size of a small barn. The five horns growing around its head glistened from the snow, and its face was overrun by a mass of eyes that never closed all at once. Despite its mammalian appearance and its cloven hooves, the zarich was overtly reptilian, with scaled skin and a long snout protruding from its crowd of eyes, reminding me of illustrations I’d seen of long-snouted swamp creatures that inhabited parts of northern Yadosha.

The creature let out a soft, slithering hiss as we approached, but it did not attack. It was not like any daeva behavior I had encountered before.

“What’s it doing?” Likh asked nervously.

“I’m not sure.” I drew the Raising rune and, carefully, entered the creature’s mind. What I found was not so much thoughts as impulses, strange yet familiar, repulsive and enticing. As I probed deeper, the zarich put up little resistance.

Somewhere in another corner of my mind, I could feel Fox’s thoughts drift toward me, tensed like he could ride into battle in an instant to aid me.

The azi responded too. It uttered a soft, plaintive sound. The azi was not angry, nor was it combative. I could feel its presence slide through my mind, reaching out to the zarich.

The zarich blinked its eyes at us and then turned. It padded deeper into the forest. The beasts’ emotions tumbled into and against each other until one stood out.

Follow.

“Are you serious?” Kalen asked as I adopted its suggestion, moving deeper into the woods after it.

“It doesn’t want to fight. The least I can do is see what it wants to show me.”

“And you find nothing wrong with that?” he muttered, but he and Likh followed me anyway.

At a small clearing, at the foot of a magnificent pine tree, the zarich began to dig. Its massive hooves kicked up ice and frozen dirt with little effort. For five minutes, it pawed at the ground until it dug a considerable hole. Then it turned to look at me and bleated.

I sensed it. There was another presence within the zarich’s mind. I could feel it gathering as if to take control. I remembered my time in Daanoris—of the Faceless, Usij, and his past attempts to entrap me in this manner with the savul. I recoiled at the memory and reacted on instinct, putting everything I had into one word.

“Die!”