White Snow had suffered all night...
That phoenix cry swirled through the seams of her bones like a red-hot needle, stabbing until her whole body burned. Before dawn, while her master's wives were dozing, she slipped soundlessly away from the edge of the campfire.
Silver Light Sand flowed through the forest. White Snow trudged forward over fallen leaves that crackled like metal, her steps uneven. Her bloodline guided her. She needed no compass, no star chart. That resonance grew stronger and stronger, as though an invisible hand were beckoning to her from far away.
After walking roughly three miles, she stopped in a clearing.
Star marrow crystals covered the ground. Deep purple crystals as thick as an arm jutted from the soil, refracting shimmering halos beneath the Silver Light Sand. But what stopped White Snow was their arrangement—it was too orderly. Seven of the tallest crystal pillars formed a ring, with forty-nine shorter pillars spaced at precise intervals inside it. This was no natural formation. These were formation nodes.
"The same as the markings beneath the docks..." White Snow crouched before a crystal pillar and tapped its surface with her claws, producing crisp chimes. She closed her eyes and sent spatial power probing down along the pillar, sensing dark red runes flowing underground.
The runes here were thicker than those beneath the docks, like the difference between major blood vessels and capillaries.
She continued forward. The farther she went, the denser the star marrow crystals became, and the stronger the ancient aura in the air grew. Her wings tingled-not from exhaustion, but from the ticklish resonance of her bloodline, like countless tiny insects crawling at the roots of her feathers.
Then she smelled wolves.
Not one.
A pack. Rank animal breath closed in from every direction, the stench of rot