Fennrick Vex's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Fennrick Vex hunts for the Guild by day and hides his own kin by night. The Guild thinks he is a sharp tracker with a scar across one eye. They do not know his true shape is small and soft, with big ears and a tail he keeps tucked. Tonight that tail was loose, because no one was watching. He crouched at the base of the cliffs, where the last of his people slept in hollows behind the stone. Then he saw the wisp-fairy. She hung in the air near the hidden network, glowing faint pink. She should have been invisible. She was not. Fennrick's stomach dropped. A visible fairy meant a trail. A trail meant hounds. Hounds meant the Guild would find the hollows and cage his kin as trophies. A voice spoke behind him. "She is broken." He turned. A small girl with cat ears stood on a rock, tail flicking. Nyx. He had heard of her, the shapeshifter who pulled threads from the world without looking. She wore a chibi shape now, but her eyes were older than her face. "You did this," Fennrick said. "Borrowed her shape. Used it as bait." Nyx shrugged. "Now she shows up. Not my plan." "A Guild scout already saw her." Fennrick pointed down the slope. Far off, a lantern bobbed. "He is coming back with hounds. That light leads straight to my people." Nyx looked at the fairy, then at him. "You are one of them. The hidden kind." It was not a question. Fennrick did not answer. He did not let his true shape feel like anything. A cloaked figure climbed toward them, leaning on a staff topped with a small clock. Red hair glowed under the hood. Saraphillia. He knew her by the bounty the Guild had placed on that hair. "You need a false trail," Saraphillia said. She stopped beside the fairy. "A fox and a fairy can make one. Fool the hounds." She looked at Nyx. "You broke her shape. You can hide it." Nyx frowned. "Costs me." "So does the cage," Fennrick said. Nyx stared at him a long moment. Then she reached out and pressed a hand to the fairy. Light bled from the fairy's skin. The glow spread outward, laying a bright scent-trail that ran away from the cliffs, toward the far gully. The fairy dimmed. She turned invisible again and dropped into Fennrick's cupped hands, small and shaking. Below, the lantern swung toward the false trail. The hounds bayed and followed it away. "They are chasing nothing now," Saraphillia said. Fennrick held the trembling fairy against his tucked tail. His kin were safe tonight. But Nyx swayed, pale, and Saraphillia's glowing hair had just been seen on this slope. He had traded one hunt for two.