Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder Page A

My magic allows me to locate the snakes and hear their
    calls. And my drum is my way to talk to them. It doesn’t work on the other
    animals.” He shrugged. “But I keep the snakes away from our homestead.”
    “You were out on patrol when you heard my snake?” Funny how I had become
    possessive of the creature that had tried to squash and eat me.
    “Yes. Although, when I left this morning, I had hoped to find more than snakes.”
    He gave me an odd look. “I guess I just did. Why are you here, Yelena?”
    “I’m following a group of people who had been living in the plateau,” I said.
    “They came through here. Has anyone seen them?” But what I really wanted to ask
    was had they attacked the clan? Were my mother and father okay?
    “Seen? No. Strangers are in the jungle, but we can’t find them and…” He paused,
    probably considering what information he should divulge. “Perhaps it would be best
    for you to talk to our clan elders. Are you alone?”
    “No. My brother and some Sandseeds are traveling with me.”
    “In the trees?”
    “On the ground.” I told Chestnut about the attack and how I had been acting as a
    scout for our group.

    Chestnut accompanied me to the Zaltana homestead. It contained a vast network
    of living, sleeping and cooking areas connected by bridges and suspended above the
    ground. Hidden by the thick jungle vegetation, the homestead was hard to find, but
    once inside the complex, I continued to be amazed the tree canopy could
    camouflage such a collection of rooms.
    Built of wood, the floors of the buildings were anchored to wide branches. Ivy
    grew on the outside of all the walls to hide their shape. Almost all of the furniture
    was constructed of wood, and rope hammocks provided comfortable places to
    sleep. Handcrafts made of jungle items like seeds and sticks decorated the various
    rooms, including animal sculptures created by colored pebbles glued together.
    The main throughway of the homestead tended to be common areas of each of
    the families within the clan. The living and sleeping quarters branched off from the
    public rooms.
    Besides being extensive, the homestead was also well defended. The Zaltana
    magicians kept a vigilant watch for any strangers.
    After our arrival, Chestnut hurried to find the clan elders and I scanned the path
    back to Moon Man. Once I was certain that the way was clear, I made contact with
    the Story Weaver’s mind.
    Come, I told him. Come quickly.
    We are on the way, he replied.
    I raced to my parents’ suite. A few surprised glances and quizzical calls followed
    me as I dashed toward the Liana quarters, but I ignored them.
    My mother, Perl, paced the living room. The air smelled like ginger and
    cinnamon, but her perfume distillery set up on the long table against the back wall
    appeared to be empty.
    “Yelena!”
    She flew into my arms. A few inches shorter than me, the slender woman
    clutched me as if to keep from falling.
    “Mother. What’s the matter?” I asked.
    “Esau,” she said, and cried.
    I suppressed the urge to shake her as she sobbed in my arms. Instead, I waited
    for the flow of tears to subside before I pulled her away and looked into her light
    green eyes. “What about Father?”
    “He’s missing.”

8
    I RESISTED THE URGE to use magic to calm my mother. Many horrible
    scenarios played in my mind before she settled enough to tell me the details. My
    father had been expected back from an expedition yesterday and had failed to return.
    “There was a clan meeting,” Perl said between sobs. “A couple of scouts had
    gotten lost, and he went to find them.”
    “Lost scouts?”
    She gave me a watery smile. “Some of the newer ones will lose their way. Esau
    always finds them. No one knows the jungle as well as he does.”
    “Maybe one of the scouts was hurt,” I said, hoping to calm her and to stop
    myself from imagining Esau being a victim of the Kirakawa ritual. “Why was he
    expected yesterday?”
    “Another