Huge gray stone sbs had long ago been dragged to the hilltop and assembled in a triangle, the tip of which pointed somewhere southeast. The way upwards to it was half trail, half stone, and on the other side of the hill huge sections of earth had been leveled. They almost looked like big steps too rge for anything human to walk on, and in those steps the Nagra set up tents to live through the winter. Whoever had built Korok’Kan seemed to have the same use for it that the Nagra now had, since the side of the hill where the steps had been leveled was sheltered from the worst of the wind by other surrounding hills.

  Kaye was panting by the time she reached the stone sbs, sweating despite the cold. Each was five or six times her height, sbs that were now weathered by the wind, sharp teeth projecting from the earth. She wondered how deep into the soil they were buried for something that size to stay upright and if there was something else below. Chambers, maybe crypts.

  She leaned her back against the closest sb and stared below, beyond the makeshift Nagra city and the winding road, where she could see the city of Kakinse, its walls and the maze of its alleys, its harbor and the sea beyond it. The sun was as high as it would be, and from the height Kaye was at, she could see the light reflected back in an orange glow around the city.

  In her past years in Korok’Kan she hadn’t been allowed to go into Kakinse despite it being that close. However, now she was a full-blooded hunter of the Nagra and she had an entire winter to explore it, even if it meant going back and forth between the site and the city. Thankfully the winter there wasn’t nearly cold enough for the sea around it to freeze, that would mean little to no ships setting sail.

  The icy cold of the stone seeped through her clothes and Kaye pulled away from it. Though it had been in her past life and the city she lived in wasn’t the biggest, she had still seen skyscrapers and apartment complexes bursting with people. None of those made her feel the way she did in Korok’Kan. Like an adventurer, even though she wasn’t one yet. There was something about the way it hinted at unknown history that gave her pause.

  After catching her breath she’d have to go back down, which made the effort seem unnecessary for a moment. There was no need to climb to the hilltop, since the Nanur were among the st to arrive and would set up camp in the lower steps, but there was also that part — a big part — of her that couldn’t wait to see other sights like this.

  A while ter, Kaye turned to make her way down the hill.

  It was a hot summer day when her mother had been called in to school to pick Jane up after a fight. They walked through the city without sharing a word. Jane looked down to avoid meeting her eyes, and so she didn’t notice when they had reached the bridge. She felt too ashamed to clutch her mother’s hand tighter. Jane would never cross that bridge when going to or back from school alone. She always went for the one with a crosswalk in the middle that put her away from the river and the weak grid that Jane was sure wouldn’t support her weight if she happened to fall.

  She stared ahead after a while but they weren’t even halfway through yet. She looked down, walked, then looked ahead again. It was so far away. Mother was compining. The river was rising.

  Kaye jolted awake at someone shaking her leg.

  “Sorry, sorry.” It was Hogog, squatted down beside her bedding, hands raised in apology despite the smirk on his lips. “You asked me to wake you up, remember?”

  Kaye pushed herself to a sitting position. “Thank you.”

  “Bad dream?”

  A childhood fear. “I think so. Don’t remember what it was about.”

  Standing, Kaye reached for her furrowed overshirt. Judging by the faint breeze coming from the tent’s entrance, she could tell it was colder than when she went to sleep.

  “Better that way, from the looks of it. Must be sad not remembering though. I like my dreams.”

  “Nothing to be sad about if I can’t remember it.”

  “At least you don’t mumble anymore,” Hogog said as Kaye finished pulling on her boots.

  “I used to mumble?”

  “All the time, when you were little. Don’t you remember? You told Taya about your dreams and she took you to see the shamans.”

  “I remember that, but not the mumbling. What did I say?”

  He smiled, pushed the tent fp aside. It was dark out.

  “What did I say?”

  Her uncle shook the fp.

  Sighing, Kaye walked outside, her breath turning to white mist. She was about to compin when Hogog spoke.

  “I’m just teasing you. It was a bunch of nonsense, not even words. If you ever said something that made some sense, you’ll have to ask Taya about that.”

  Saying nothing more they walked up the hill, following the light from the fires that led to where the Nagra gathered in the higher steps, but Kaye’s eyes went further to the starry sky. Aside from the hill there was nothing to obstruct her view from horizon to horizon, and in that deep bck expanse the stars seemed to shine brighter than they ever had. She whirled around, walking backwards to look at the stars above the treetops to the south and beyond the sea to the east.

  The star of her life had fallen from somewhere up there, almost sixteen years ago now. There was a fsh of green in the sky as it seemed to explode in all directions, cutting across the vast expanse above to fall somewhere beyond the White Death, never to be seen again. Kaye knew it hadn’t been a star, but a meteorite, and likely a small one, yet that did little to stop her from wondering about the other ones. For the Nagra, every sparkling spot in the night sky belonged to many people who shared it at their birth, but the falling stars were meant for someone special.

  Kaye didn’t like the idea of being special. It brought with it too many assumptions she’d have to spend her entire life untangling from and maybe never would. It was odd, she knew, that stars fell in the sea behind them, but many did throughout the generations and there had never been a story about another child being born with different colored hair because of that. There was also the other one, the white star that fell the same day as hers but angled slightly north, yet no white-haired Nagra had been born back or since then.

  She couldn’t be special for the Nagra. It was best they thought about her and her star as a coincidence, until she faded into just another story so old that no one living could attest its veracity. They had no need for a leader, after all. There was no Nagra myth of the coming of a legend to be made, no war, no need for salvation.

  Pulling her coat tighter against the wind, she turned.

  They reached the gathering where Nagra from all tribes walked around fires. All the steps from there to the hilltop were brimming with people dancing and singing, talking and ughing. She could smell different kinds of meats being roasted, herbs, spices hot and cold, honey and alcohol.

  Faster than Kaye thought possible Hogog had two horns filled with berry wine and was handing one over to her.

  He was such a fun man, her uncle. She’d miss him.

  “Now, my dear niece, we have to reach an agreement.”

  She perked her eyebrows. “I’m listening.”

  “My brother is starting to catch on to how I keep you away from others, so we have to pretend it’s just a coincidence. Is there something you want to do?”

  Was there anything she wanted to do? Kaye couldn’t think of anything in particur. Not here. Parties were never more than walking around for a while then spending the rest of it in one spot. Her rite of passing had been an exception.

  She inclined her head to show she was thinking as an idea struck her.

  Though none of them knew, it suddenly felt as if this gathering was her farewell. The Nanur often had small ceremonies, that there had been a rge one before leaving the vilge was just a coincidence, and although she wouldn’t be leaving immediately, this was going to be her st time seeing most of these people. She didn’t know much of them and spoke little to the ones she did, but they knew her. At least, they thought they did.

  “You know what, uncle? Can you see father?”

  Hogog was about to drink his wine but stopped, the horn raised to his mouth. “Should be close by. Taya wouldn’t let him go higher up the hill, but are you sure?”

  Kaye nodded. “You shall be free to roam around tonight.”

  “Does this mean I’ll owe you something?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  With his usual smirk, Hogog started looking around for her parents.

  They found them soon enough and with a timid wave of goodbye as to not be seen, Hogog disappeared into the crowd.

  Taya and Gairin were standing, speaking with someone who her father shook hands with. Kaye arrived just te enough to not hear the parting words, but from the basket to their side that her mother was covering with a piece of cloth, she knew they were receiving gifts.

  They turned to her just fast enough to show that Hogog was right. They weren’t expecting to see her that early into the day. Kaye approached, hiding her smile by sipping on her wine.

  She couldn’t be special for the Nanur or the Nagra, but for some people, just this once, that she could do.

  Kaye stuck to her parents, giving them at least one day where they could feel pride for their daughter without having to worry about what she was going to do next. They drank together, though Taya and Gairin barely drank these days and Kaye kept herself in check despite enjoying it — her body was still fifteen and it didn’t take much to knock her out. When Nagra from the other tribes came to grant her gifts, she accepted them with smiles and kind, grateful words.

  The sun rose and the Nagra began dispersing. Some would still be there by midday, she was sure, Hogog likely among them, but her parents were too old for that. Kaye followed their slow pace down the hill and to their tent where they rested briefly before moving out again, being among the first setting up for the trip to Kakinse, though Taya reminded them she would only help with the cart but would stay behind.

  “The city has two gates,” Gairin expined. “We go in two groups to avoid trouble. The first day is always like this, a huge crowd, but we don’t want them to compin. Some do anyway, but for the most part the people of the city treat us well.”

  “I imagine we’re good for business.”

  To that, her father shrugged.

  They continued packing up, filling their cart with supplies, baskets, potsherds, pelts, mittens, leather, unstrung bows and arrows. All things they could trade or sell in the city. Maybe it hadn’t been a great idea to ask her uncle to wake her up after all. She could already feel it was going to be an exhausting day.

  When the first group moved and their oxen could start pulling the cart with some sembnce of speed, Kaye sat with her back against the wooden frame of the cart, staring ahead at the city that kept getting closer.