Redtail Rise We are close to war.

It was good they could talk, because Riley would have never understood some of the Rise’s customs without verbal explanation. The ranks Masque ticked off sounded foreign to him, but eventually their concepts made sense.

He came from a family of largely silent wolves too — the irony was lost upon him that both he and the Rise originated from the same wellspring of blood, just at diverging junctions.

Riley hadn’t even noticed Masque had been lost in her thoughts, for he’d shared that moment with her, fighting his own turbulent mind.

For all of the knowledge Masque imparted, Riley absorbed with with a grunt. For a time, he was silent — raking over the morsels of information she’d shared before he finally spoke again.

Why isn’t Avicus leader anymore? And why hasn’t anyone taken her place?