Heron Lake Plateau that was before they took away my hair net.

She’d never had a very good poker face, and her inability to hide her grief was immediately noticed by Rannoch and Liffey both. She started to muster up the will to tell them the sad news, but thankfully, Quixote stepped in and spoke for her. She glanced at him gratefully. The words were still so acidic and bitter on her tongue she could hardly bear to bring herself to say them. Wildfire is dead.

”If you’re looking for your parents,” she said, a weak, thready note in her voice, ”They’re in Wildfire’s pack a few miles east of here.” She figured that was what the duo were here seeking anyway, and she didn’t have the heart to sit here and waste time. It wasn’t that she was not happy to see them — for she was — but might as well get to the real reason why they were here. If they were seeking someone else, she figured it best to send them in the right direction.