5
MEETING
Syrina hung around the grotto for five days after Mann, and what remained of his army, edged their way back into the foothills. She didn’t have anyone to pilfer from, so she resorted to small fish, eaten raw, plucked from the pool at the base of the waterfall.
It’s better than raw rat, the voice had pointed out to her.
She hadn’t bothered to respond.
Syrina sat at the edge of the pool, having one such meal, when she caught movement in the mouth of the grotto out of the corner of her eye. She skirted back into the edge of the brush.
A girl’s face appeared out of the shadows, and a second later, a man’s. Or boy’s. Syrina’s eyes were as sharp as they came, but it was hard to tell from their features how old they were, and it got harder the more she studied them. The boy’s scar
