Adrick knelt by the old man's worn chair near the cold forge. The blacksmith's cottage smelled like ash and sickness. The old man coughed, thin and dry. Adrick had spent years filling a leather journal with sketches and rumors about his blue hair and yellow eyes, and still he had nothing. Time was running out. A village healer came at dusk. She said only one thing could help — a pale herb that grew deep in the caves past the ridge. The caves were dangerous. Most who went in did not come back. Adrick closed the journal and stood. He took down the slim white harp-staff from the wall, the only thing the old man said had been wrapped beside him as a child. He ran his thumb along its carved strings. If he survived the caves, he might meet travelers on the road who knew its make. Two answers from one trip. He kissed the old man's forehead and stepped out the door. The village shrank behind him. For the first time in his life, Adrick was leaving it.

The ridge trail climbed higher than Adrick expected. By midday, the path split in two, and he had no map to tell him which fork led to the caves. The sun was already sliding west. Pick wrong, and he'd be lost when night came. A leaning hovel sat in the crook of the split, vines swallowing its walls. Beside it stood a tall stack of smooth stones, balanced in impossible order. Adrick studied the cairn. Past travelers had scratched marks into the lower rocks — arrows, initials, a few crude warnings. Most arrows pointed left. One careful hand had carved a small skull pointing right. He almost took the left fork. Then a low cough stopped him. A shaggy green troll sat just off the right path, huge hands folded, watching him with worried eyes. It lifted one thick finger and pointed firmly down the right trail, then tapped its chest where a heart would be. Dangerous, the gesture said. But correct. Adrick swallowed hard. He trusted the skull and the troll over the crowd. He took the right fork, the harp-staff tight in his grip, and walked into the deeper shadow of the ridge before the light could fail him.