After a moment, she clutched her chest and smiled broadly. “What a
wonderful surprise. I haven’t had visitors for so long, and to hear that my
grimoire is actually being read is delightful.”
“Will you help us?” I growled.
“So impatient, Jaxson. So keen for the hunt. You’re asking a great favor.”
Every muscle in my body warned me that this woman was perilous. A
monster. I flexed my claws. “How do you know my name?”
“You knew my name, so it’s only fair that I should know yours. Now,
come with me and we’ll discuss the favor you ask.” Cavra shifted her body
sideways and motioned with her clawed index finger—a talon unmistakably
suited for ripping flesh.
We were stepping into the jaws of a dragon. But what choice did we
have? We were committed to this path.
I stayed close to Savannah as we followed Cavra through the sinister
forest. Birds with brightly colored plumage and curved beaks flitted through
the branches overhead, feasting on the carcass of a small rodent. The stench
of blood and raw flesh permeated the air, and Savannah gagged, covering her
mouth.
Clearing her throat, Savannah asked, “Are you a sorcerer or a witch,
Cavra?”
The woman chuckled heartily and glanced back at Savannah with an
exaggerated sway of her hips. “Oh, gods, no, honey. I was a maenad once,
though I outgrew it a long time ago.”
This isn’t good.
“What is a maenad?” Savannah asked.
Cavra lifted her arms above her head and twirled her fingers. Roots and
vines uprooted from the dirt and twisted up her body like serpents. “Well,
suffice it to say I was a celebrant of life in all its various forms.”
Our lore spoke of the maenads as the raving ones. They were twisted
beings of myth driven to frenzied rituals of excess and depravity. But that