Heart of the Land by Sarah Prineas

Author:Sarah Prineas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

“I NEED MORE ARROWS,” ABEKE SAID. AT HER SIDE, URAZA stood and stretched, then resettled in a patch of sunlight. Her violet eyes dropped shut as she dozed off again.

“We need more everything.” Meilin lifted her sword and inspected the blade, newly sharpened. Light glinted off the polished metal. Sheathing the weapon, she got to her feet. “Rollan and Conor should have been back with the supplies by now.” And Worthy. The Redcloak had spoken briefly with Abeke, and then he’d disappeared. Following the boys into Concorba, she assumed. Helping, he probably thought of it.

And speaking of disappearing … Meilin glanced around the clearing they’d been waiting in.

There, a movement, and she caught a glimpse of Anka’s outline, blending into the rough brown bark of the tree she was leaning against.

So far, the Greencloak woman had been a valuable asset. But Meilin had long ago stopped thinking of people only as resources to be used. Maybe Anka could be a friend, too.

Meilin stretched, then ran through a few simple fighting forms, just to limber up. Then she paused. “Anka, would you like to spar with me?”

“No,” came the brusque answer. “I don’t fight. I hide.”

Nodding, Meilin stepped closer, then crouched near where she thought Anka was sitting. “Would you put your chameleon into passive state?” she asked. “I’d like to see what you really look like.”

There was a moment of silence. Meilin knew that Abeke was listening, too. “Nobody sees me as I am,” Anka finally said. The usual sharpness was missing from her voice.

“Sometimes,” Meilin said, “you don’t have to hide.”

“I would like to see you, too,” Abeke put in.

“All right,” the Greencloak woman said softly. There was a flash as the chameleon went into the dormant state.

Meilin saw Anka take shape before her. The woman sat very still—she must have trained herself to move as little as possible, in order to stay hidden. Revealed, Anka wore her green cloak. She sat cross-legged, her arms folded. The mark of her chameleon was wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. Her hair was black and bristly, cut very short. Her eyes were dark brown, her face plain and ordinary, and …

“You’re from Zhong!” Meilin exclaimed, delighted.

“You noticed,” Anka said dryly.

“I would have noticed before, if you’d let me,” Meilin said. And now she knew another reason why Anka didn’t know how to fight—in Zhong, girls weren’t supposed to study the martial arts. “Let me teach you a few forms, Anka,” she insisted, getting to her feet. “You never know when you might need to fight.” She took up a basic stance, standing very still; then she made a quick strike at the air and returned to her stance. “See? You could hit somebody out of nowhere. They’d never see you coming. Come and try it.”

“If you insist,” Anka said, standing up, but Meilin could see that she was interested.

They spent an hour this way: Meilin teaching, Anka awkward at first but learning quickly. Meilin was showing her where to strike

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