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built on a hillside that was topped with crumbling brick. The boundaries changed, but Avantia’s people remained.
    For now, Tanner thought.
    Gwen hunched low on Gulkien’s back, peering over his bony shoulders to gaze down at the passing fields. They approached what looked like a trade route — a beaten dirt path marked at the edges with black distance stones.
    Tanner tried to ignore the dread in his belly. Somewhere, out there, was Derthsin. And through Vendrake, he seemed to have a hold over Firepos.
    The Beasts ducked lower in the sky. The deserted trade route had led them to sprawling black rubble. Blocky ruins clustered inside scorched fields. The houses had been gutted to crumbled corners and empty doorframes, and a large building in the center of the village, which Tanner guessed might have been a great hall or a marketplace, had been burned to the ground, leaving only the jagged edges and a haunting brick chimney. He couldn’t see anything moving, and the roads were empty in every direction.
    â€œThis is what the whole kingdom will become if we don’t stop Derthsin,” Tanner called over the whistling wind to Gwen. She drew her cloak tighter around her body and nodded grimly, holding on to Gulkien’s fur with one hand.
    They swept on over the plains until in the distance they saw slate gray stone.
    â€œLook!” Gwen cried. “Those are the Northern Mountains!”
    Ahead, Tanner saw sharp peaks, topped with snow and ringed with low-hanging clouds. They flew in silence for a long time, following the steep hills up into the mountains.
    Firepos and Gulkien slowed as they neared the outskirts of a town, perched in a gap between the steep slopes. Even without the help of the Looking Crystal, Tanner could see people moving among the buildings.
    The wolf turned his head to Firepos and growled, a low rumble like distant thunder. Tanner’s Beast called back, and both creatures adjusted their paths and glided downward.
    â€œHey!” said Tanner to Gwen. “Did you ask them to do that?”
    She shook her head, frowning. Why had the Beasts decided it was time to land? Tanner clung on as Firepos descended to the hilltop town.

G ulkien has sensed it, too. This place is special.
    It draws us, like the moon pulling at the tides. Through a rush of air, I clamp my talons on to bare rock. Gulkien hits the ground at a run, his leathery wings folding into his back in a clatter of dry joints and sinew.
    He snarls with bared fangs, excitement ruffling his thick fur.
    Be calm, my brother. The one who waits here knows we are coming. She will be ready for us.
    â€œWhy are we landing here?” Gwen asked, slipping down from Gulkien’s back and taking out the map. “The piece of the mask is half a day’s walk away according to this.”
    â€œThe Beasts must know something we don’t,” Tanner said, climbing off Firepos’s wing. They had to get to the mask before Vendrake and Gor, but … Firepos can’t have brought us here without good reason, he thought.
    Gwen held the map in front of her, peering at the surface.
    â€œColton,” she said at last. “We’re near a town called Colton.”
    â€œWe should leave Gulkien and Firepos here,” said Tanner. “If people spot two Beasts they haven’t seen before, they’re sure to get jittery — and hostile.”
    Gwen stroked her Beast’s fur, and he gave a soft growl, pawing the dried earth. “He’s right,” she said. “You two have to hide. But don’t go too far — we don’t know what we’re going to find. Do you understand?”
    Gulkien’s wings sprang from his back once more, and he stretched them, then licked his sharp teeth, ran a few paces, and leaped into the air. The wolf curled his hind legs tightly under him and beat his wings powerfully.
    Firepos cocked her head and launched into the air, the swoop of her wings nearly knocking