Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
SOFIA
Sofia’s eyes burned and her head ached as she stared down at the map she’d been studying for two days straight, as if an answer to her burning questions might magically appear.
She’d pulled her hair back into two braids that morning, but now curls were springing out in every direction, and she could practically feel the dark circles throbbing under her eyes.
“You need to get outside,” Javi said for the fourth time in as many hours. He’d been helping peruse the various tomes, but even he’d given up. They’d made their way through every book she’d stolen from the chief commander two times over, and they were no closer to finding what they needed.
“Granmadria Springs,” she said. “They have to be somewhere.”
It was the only thing they’d found in all their readings.
A single line about a haven for the dragons—the Granmadria Springs nestled beneath Quelia’s Wings.
Sofia had practically brought the entire cenote to her when she’d found it, screaming her head off, only to find that the springs didn’t exist on a single map and, less to her surprise, neither did Quelia’s Wings.
Javi had suggested studying the star maps that Clarita had, assuming that Quelia’s Wings referred to a star formation of the great dragon mother, but Clarita noted any constellation would move across the sky by the day and season, making tracking the springs nestled beneath it impossible.
Now Sofia had taken to marking every hot spring labeled on the four different maps she possessed, which may have felt more helpful if there weren’t over fifty already.
And that was assuming any of the maps drawn by the king’s men were truly accurate.
There hadn’t been a single map drawn by the Dragonborn among the chief commander’s stash, and even Clarita owned nothing beyond a handful of small-scale charts of the area directly around them—though they were so useless they didn’t even have their current cenote marked.
“Are you trying to divine where the springs might be?” Lumi’s voice broke the silence.
They were leaning over Sofia’s shoulder, peering at the map. Their hair was pinned back, and they were wearing their hunting greens. “I was summoned to pull you from the depths and remind you what the sun looks like.”
“I’m fine,” Sofia said, brushing them off and trying to focus back on the map. She was, in fact, divining quite hard, and it wouldn’t work with someone staring over her shoulder.
“You’re not,” they said. “You missed morning and midday meals, and I don’t even know if you’ve relieved yourself today. Are you even drinking water?”
Sofia waved a hand at the cup sitting next to her. Only to realize there wasn’t a cup there. She could have sworn she’d had a cup of water. Or was that yesterday? She tried to remember the last time she’d eaten, but her mind was fuzzy, and her stomach gave a loud growl.
Lumi slid their hands under her armpits, tugging her up. “Can you take over the divining for a bit, Javi, while I steal her away?”
Javi gave a sheepish nod. Sofia knew he was blaming himself for not reminding her to eat or drink. He’d gotten just as caught up as she had this morning.
“We’re going to get you some jerky, and then you’re coming with me to hunt.”
“Chalia’s going to want to come with us.”
“I’m not competing with a dragon for food.”
Sofia didn’t disagree with the sentiment.
She’d gone hunting with Chalia a couple of times, which usually ended up with the dragon flying after anything that moved, eating them on the spot, and scaring away the animals that Sofia had a chance of catching.
The dragon didn’t need to eat daily. Chalia had implied that a dragon could go a week or more without food, but so far she seemed to enjoy the feast that the rainforest provided her.
It was another clue to where the dragons might be hiding. Somewhere with less sun and fewer prey. Which given they were in the middle of the sunbaked rainforest…was most anywhere else.
Lumi had apparently already packed a satchel of food and supplies for Sofia, and they handed them to her along with a large canteen of water. Sofia drank the entire thing before they’d even made it to the staircase, and she quickly refilled it in the lake.
“You didn’t need to grab me,” Sofia said, plodding after her, feeling guilty. Her head was spinning, and she knew she was just going to be a burden to the shapeshifter who could hunt in their hawk form much easier without her. “You don’t need to pretend to like me.”
“Well, I was about to kill your friend Flor if she bugged me about it one more time. So, you’re welcome. I’m saving your friend from an agonizing death.”
Sofia grimaced, Lumi not looking back to see her expression.
Flor was working with Clarita in learning some of the healing skills the other woman knew.
She wasn’t nearly as skilled as Tia Muela, the previous healer for the shapeshifters, but there were things that the Dragonborn in the city didn’t have access to.
In turn, Flor had shared some of her own tips and recipes with Clarita.
They still hadn’t formally called a truce between their people, and Clarita made it clear every day that they weren’t on their side, but they’d fallen into a comfortable routine with their two groups moving around each other in the cenote.
“I don’t hate you,” Lumi said after a moment. Sofia didn’t answer. “I know it wasn’t your fault—what happened. Not truly.”
“I am sorry—”
“Don’t,” Lumi said. “We don’t need to talk about it. I’m not just here for you. If any of my people still live—if the soldiers took them back to Suvi—I want to find them.”
Sofia nodded. She couldn’t blame Lumi for holding out hope.
“Where are you going?” Chalia’s voice chimed in the back of Sofia’s mind the moment she broke the lip of the cenote.
They left the smell of stone and damp behind, replaced with the vibrant perfume of the rainforest. Since Chalia had been making it rain almost every day, each fragrance was amplified, the scent of the flowers and soil thick in Sofia’s nose in a way she wasn’t used to. She loved it.
“We’re going for a walk,” she said, hedging slightly. “We need to stay stealthy, so you’ll have to stay behind.”
“I can be stealthy,” she said, and Sofia could feel the offense in her tone.
She sounded like a petulant child, and Sofia had to wonder just how old the dragon was and if there was an equivalence to humans.
If something could live for a thousand sun cycles, when did they become an adult? “I’m not a child.”
Chalia’s assertion did little to prove her case, but Sofia didn’t press the point.
“We aren’t going far,” she said. “You’ll be able to talk to me still, I think.”
“If you go too far, I’m coming to get you,” Chalia said, full of apprehension. The dragon was protective of her. It was nice.
“Has Chalia agreed to stay away while we—”
“Walk,” Sofia quickly finished, suspecting Chalia would hear Lumi through her mind. “Yes. As long as we don’t walk too far.”
Lumi raised their eyebrows and gave a crooked smile, but didn’t correct Sofia.
They led the way, pushing through the underbrush with Sofia following behind.
The leaves were cold against her skin, still wet with the morning dew even long into the afternoon, though perhaps she should have been grateful the dew hadn’t turned to frost. In a few weeks, she doubted they’d be as lucky.
The cold season was in full bloom, and the air held the chill, pressing it into her bones.
She wondered if Chalia’s rain would freeze or turn to snow.
It had snowed once in the city when she was a child—during a particularly brutal cold season. She’d thought it was magic.
Sofia focused on the sound of the forest as they moved, their footsteps silent.
It was clear when the rustle of the wind turned into the rustle of animals ahead.
Lumi signaled as Sofia came to a stop, crouching down in the undergrowth carefully.
The shapeshifter twisted into their hawk form and shot off through the trees.
They returned a minute later, landing on their human feet without a sound.
“A herd of elk just ahead,” Lumi said. “I think we can bring down at least one, but my hawk form won’t do us any good.”
“Can you hunt the normal way?”
Lumi’s face scrunched. “I don’t know what you mean by the normal way, but I can handle a bow, yes.”
Sofia realized what she had said too late and gave a sheepish apology.
They crept forward together, Sofia back in her element out here in the quiet. It had been a while since she’d hunted. Perhaps Lumi had a point. She needed this.
She saw the elk before she heard them, their towering antlers rising above the tall grass of the clearing.
It stretched out wide, yellowed grass blowing in the breeze beneath the sun.
She wondered if the field hid other cenotes or underground rivers.
It was an added obstacle to the hunt that only made her blood sing.
Beside her, Lumi pulled their bow, the hum of the string just a whisper, no louder than the wind through the trees. Yet, in the same moment, the elk herd lifted their heads in unison, ears twitching.
Sofia held her breath, the wind seeming to pause as they waited. The herd stood frozen for just long enough that Sofia thought there wouldn’t be a problem.
She took a breath. The metallic scent of blood overwhelmed her senses as chaos erupted. Birds shot into the sky, the elk bucked and ran, and seven enormous wolves bolted into the clearing, taking down two of the elk before they could escape.
“Shit!” Lumi said, stumbling back and looping their bow over their head. “Run.”
Sofia didn’t need to be told. She was already turning, her own bow tucked away. She pulled her dagger, hoping she wouldn’t need to use it. But she’d never been that lucky.
The wolfshifter was already standing behind them, his teeth glistening with blood and gore as he smiled.