"both are good." this came from fenri, who walked faraway over to me. the horse leaned down and nuzzled me.

i felt a warm flicker of emotion touch me and then another thought.

in the words of the human, don't ever do that again!

the human must be joss. i painfully grinned at faraway.

i won't do that again. i promise.

we are bonded, we go together. okay?

alright.

"where's father?" i asked, looking around.

odin answered. "thalia, he was injured in the fire and we wouldn't let him come after you."

"then what are we waiting around here for? let's get home."

chapter 15

the trip home took longer than the trip up to the falls, mostly because we had two injured, a very tired horse and night had fallen. we chose to stay the night at a halfway point and make camp using supplies that survived the falls. joss was strong enough by then to heal me of the worst of my injuries, but i asked him to leave the bruises and my stitches alone.

"let mother nature take her course on that," i joked. "save your strength for my father. believe me; you'll need all the help you can get with that one, because i'm bound and determined to have you look at him when we are done. you are a much better healer than i am." joss chuckled and then headed to get some food.

odin came and sat near me and i asked him more details.

apparently bearen had rushed into the burning house to try and save aldo's child and the roof collapsed on him. the men were able to get him and the child out but he was burned quite badly. bearen had protected the child from the flames by shielding him with his own body.

"how did you know i was gone?" i asked him.

odin was chewing on a stick thoughtfully and pointed at kael with the chewed end of the stick.

"that one came running up to me, swearing to no end that you were gone. i tried to ask him how he knew, and he said he just did. i thought he must be crazy, but we searched for you and sure enough we couldn't find you. we did find a note from siobhan saying that her father and brother had taken you."

odin looked across the fire to where fenri was leaning down giving siobhan a bowl of soup. fenri was really a caring man, and he was hovering over siobhan protectively.

"she's had to live under their thumb for her whole life, and she found the strength to finally stand up to her brother. she could have died today, odin," i said.

"well, what she should have done was come get us instead of leaving a crummy note. or better yet, left us a map," he complained gruffly. "we had to follow that one." again odin pointed to kael. "back and forth around the village until he took off towards the mountains. i'm not sure what kind of compass he's following but i'm pretty sure it's broken."

i couldn't help it; i snorted and almost spit out the soup i was eating. kael, joss and the others looked at me in surprise. i muffled my laughter with my hand.

"so then," odin went on, "we are following the crazy wannabe clansmen. oh, by the way, we figured out he's not from the stahler clan. we take off towards the mountains, and he starts to head in the wrong direction again and that huge wolf from the pass shows up, and starts dancing and spinning and acting all wild." odin did a sign to ward off evil spirits. "so here i am, a crazy old warrior following a crazy young man and a crazy grey wolf into the middle of nowhere in the mountains, on a hunt for you." odin waved his hands dramatically and i could see kael leaning against a tree, listening in with a comical smile on his face.

i knew that odin was having a little too much fun in retelling the story, but i knew that he did it for me, to make his goddaughter laugh. i glanced around the camp looking for the grey wolf and saw glowing eyes in the woods.

wolf? i called him mind to mind.

ja?

thank you.

then i realized how lame a thank you it sounded; but before i could say anything else, i felt a growl of appreciation from him and felt him melt into the forest and take off running. i chuckled.

"what about joss?" i asked odin, settling down.

"lass, you will have to ask him yourself. that one came riding into town as if ghosts were chasing him looking for you. when he heard you were gone, he demanded to ride with us in search of you."

i nodded in understanding and then caught joss' eye over the fire. he stood and made his way over to me. odin politely stood up and gave him his seat.

he looked at the ground, then back up at me. "are you strong enough to walk?" to show him that i still could, i stood up without help and we walked slowly around the camp. joss led me into woods and pulled me into a close embrace, resting his chin on my head.

"i was so worried about you."

turning towards joss, i looked at him curiously.

"joss, why did you come here?"

"a messenger arrived from my family. my sister is missing, and we believe it has something to do with the septori. i selfishly implored the council to send me after you, in hopes that you would help me find her. you are the only one that has made it out from the prison and you may know more clues about how to find them."

shocked, i froze and felt my knees started to shake at the thought of hunting the septori on purpose.

"no...um, not the only one," i whispered nervously.

"what do you mean you're not the only one?" he clutched my shoulders desperately. "you mean there's someone else who can help us as well?"

"well, if you can get him to agree to."

"who?" he demanded urgently.

i pointed with my chin over in the direction of kael kneeling by the fire.

"how come you never said anything before?" he asked accusingly.

"it wasn't my place to tell his story," i explained quietly. "not everyone wants to the world to know what happened to them down there."

i saw joss' eyes fill with pity as he looked at kael.

"no," i snapped. "don't pity him. he would hate that. none of us want that. we are all stronger than that. we may be different now and changed, but please don't ever feel pity for us." i didn't realize it, but that look he gave kael cut me deeply.

"i'm sorry, thalia," he whispered as he cupped my cheek in his hand. "i won't feel sorry for either of you, even though i know what you went through." he leaned forward and kissed each of my closed eyelids. his lips pressed lightly against them before giving me a light and reassuring peck on my nose. i was too shocked with mixed emotions to do anything and i let him give me a soft, slow kiss on my lips.

it was warm and comforting; when he pulled back i saw a soft, caring look in joss' eyes. but not before looking over his shoulder and seeing the exact opposite emotions displayed in kael's eyes. i stiffened at the hard, uncaring glance he shot joss as he turned away and silently stepped into the darkness. the dark cloud followed him.

joss felt me stiffen and turned to see the back of kael. he let out a discouraged sigh. "well, there went my chances of convincing kael to help me. he's been very blunt in his feelings towards me."

"it's okay, joss. i will help you find your sister," i said good-naturedly. i hated what i was about to do, but we needed to find joss' sister and time was of the essence;. afterwards i would help break the curse on kael. who knew, maybe the answer lay in hunting the septori.