"Tessia, are you absolutely sure?" I scanned the trees around us, but nothing looked out of place.

She spun to face me, gray eyes urgent, bordering on panic. Her mouth opened, like she wanted to speak. We have to warn them!

She hunted around the ground until she found a fallen tree branch and picked it up, wielding it like a weapon. Her lips pressed together, and her brow was drawn into a fierce expression. The girl was serious!

I gripped the branch to stop her from running off. "No. You hide by those rocks, okay?"

She stuck an insolent lower lip out at me and tried to shake her branch loose.

"Tessia," I used my stern, child-admonishing voice, "I'll go warn the others. I want you to stay safe. Okay?"

Her eyes sparked at me for a moment, before she finally relented. Please hurry.

I took off, feet digging into the dirt.

Growing up, I was known as the loud mouth. It was time I lived up to that reputation.

"INTRUDERS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "We have intruders! Get off your lazy butts and do something about them!"

I ran hard toward camp, thoughts focused on where the smaller children were. I may not have had any gifted skills, but I could still put up a fight to protect them.

"Intruders!" I continued shouting as I ran. I fought back the sense of how incredibly silly I would feel if this turned out to be a false alarm.

When I finally broke into the clearing, I was surprised to find half the inhabitants already armed and ready. The other half scrambled for weapons, eyes darting about for the supposed invaders.

I found Kam and Resh standing back-to-back with Fen, who wielded a large ax. Other younger children clustered near them. As I approached, out of breath, I noticed the two boys each held a knife.

"What are you kids doing with those?" I said in between gulps of air. "Knives are dangerous."

I was about to demand they hand the knives over, when I heard the sound of a spear being shattered. I whirled toward the sound, just in time to see Minocken swipe the broken spear out of a shocked Plainsman's hand. He lunged at the man with his claws.

Yes, those were definitely claws. No doubt about that.

Blood oozed from the rips in the man's shirt, followed shortly by even more blood from the slash to his jugular.

Minocken didn't linger. He pounced on the next man, sinking his teeth into the man's throat.

My jaw dropped in disbelief, even as I struggled to catch my breath. All around me, the sounds of battle grew louder, as more spear-wielding Plainsmen emerged from the trees. I turned back to Fen, whose muscles bulged beneath his banded skin, ready to explode into action. But the only time he moved was to get between the boys and a sighted attacker.

The sound of a crying child caught my attention, and I tracked its source to the little girl Niralessa had so recently brought here. Kibi. Her little antennae curled down as she huddled against a barrel, tears streaming down her frightened face.

I didn't think about it. I just ran.

She was clear across the other side of Camp, and no one seemed to notice her. Until one warrior did. He was big, with the shaggy brown beard favored by these Plainsman attackers. We were about the same distance from the little girl when his eyes fixed upon her. The smile on his face made my blood run cold, and I pumped my legs as fast as they would go.

He was equally fast, and my heart thudded at the thought of tangling with this guy. I grabbed a bucket along the way. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but it was the only thing I could grab without slowing down.

The man loomed even bigger as I got closer to him. I kept hoping he would get distracted by something else, but his eyes were fixed on Kibi.

Damn.

Maybe I could distract him. "Hey!"

It was like he didn't hear me.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" That someone was definitely not me, but at least this time he glanced at me.

But he didn't change his trajectory.

If I didn't do something fast, we were both going to reach the girl at the same time. I couldn't risk him hurting her, so I altered course to charge right at him instead. Because, apparently, I had a death wish.

I caught up to him moments before he reached Kibi. With the few seconds I had left, I swung the bucket at his face.

His head snapped to one side, and he finally stopped his advance to turn on me with a snarl.

Uh-oh. I lifted my bucket, readying myself for another swing.

His drawn brows eased up as he surveyed me, as if trying to discern who or what I was. "You're not with them, are you?" He tossed his head toward Camp. "Did they kidnap you too?"

I lowered my bucket. "Huh? Kidnap? What are you talking about?"

He glanced at Kibi, who now watched without crying. "We came to rescu—"

His words ended in a gurgle, as an arrow protruded out of his throat. Blood coursed out of the wound, and his hands flew to the arrow. His mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, and I strained to hear what he might be saying.

"Bolden! No!" Kibi launched herself toward the big man, arms outstretched.

She knew him? None of this was making sense.

I followed the flight path of the arrow and found Niralessa, a bow poised and triumph on her face. She nocked another arrow into place.

The big man fell to his knees, his throat working uselessly, unable to speak. He reached out to the girl.

She took his hand. "Bolden . . ." Her lower lip trembled. "Bolden, I'm sorry."

I stood there, dumbfounded. Wasn't this a sneak attack? Weren't they here to kill so-called Aberrations?

Niralessa continued picking off attackers with practiced precision, and the clamor around me soon receded as they dropped to the ground, one by one.

When I turned back to Bolden, I could see the life draining from his eyes. He kept them on Kibi, even as he listed to one side. Before he slumped over, he fixed those dying eyes on me, as if to broadcast one last message. Keep her safe, they pleaded.

He gasped his last breath, eyes rolling back, and collapsed to one side.

"Bolden!" Kibi never released the big man's hand. Shook it hard in both of hers. "Bolden, come back!" Tears fell from her eyes. "Bolden!"

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Fists formed at my sides. I pushed away any kinship I might have felt for these Camp people.

This was no random ambush for the sake of killing Aberrations. I could see that now. I could see it so clearly that I wanted to kick myself for not figuring it out sooner.

This had been a rescue mission to free a little girl who had been stolen from home.

Stolen by Niralessa herself.

Ooh it's not every day someone finds out their mama is a kidnapper. Nirrin might need some votes right about now.