[ii] sel san

val had first gone to the sound, certain he might find the tiny sapphiqian as he did the last time she went missing; held safely in the palm of that evil grotto’s heart.

no sobeille in those gloomy halls, and no sobeille out in the ancient forest or the thick tangle or even — he shuddered to think of it — visible along the coast.

he roved inland as mireille did, following her resolute shouts into the sorried camp of their long gone neighbors. people had a way of disappearing into the wilderness; val clumsily examined this thought with a frown.

it was unlike the daughter to simply go missing. he lent his own voice to mireille’s searching calls, picking his way down a rocky slope that lead in the ember wolf’s direction.