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added, “Some of us only bite when provoked.” Kara and Etarek shared a hearty laugh, while Daria just scowled at them and turned away with a Hmmph!
    “Don’t mind her,” Etarek said to Sura with a smile that warmed the back of her neck. “She just doesn’t like to be outnastied.”
    Just then the trail curved up and to the left, rounding a boulder half the size of Sura’s house. About fifty paces ahead, the trees ended suddenly in front of a long, high structure.
    Sura gasped. “What’s that?”
    “Fire ring,” Etarek said. “Keeps out intruders and stops forest fires from destroying the village.”
    “It goes all the way around Kalindos?”
    “Wouldn’t be much point if it didn’t,” Daria said.
    The ring—which stretched as far as she could see in both directions—stood at least twice her height, made of interlocking wooden slats to form a thick wall.
    She looked for an opening. “How do we get through with the horse?”
    Daria sighed as she withdrew a pair of thick leather gloves from her back pocket. “We have to take it apart. The boards have to be pulled out in a certain order that only we guards know.”
    Etarek handed the reins to Sura. “Daria’s brother, Dravek, will put it back together. He’s our Snake, the fire expert.”
    Sura sighed with relief at the thought of a possible mentor. “I’ll help him.”
    “Please don’t.” Daria pulled a pair of boards from the wall and tossed them to Etarek. “I can’t bear the thought of anyone making his life easier.”
    “No, I mean, I’ll help him because I’m a Snake.”
    They all stared at her, especially Etarek, who fumbled the boards in his arms. They spilled onto the ground with a clatter. Kara covered her mouth and giggled.
    Daria turned to Etarek. “For your sake, I hope she’s nothing like Dravek.”
    “Hey,” Kara said, “watch what you say about him around me.”
    “No accounting for taste.” Daria tossed a slat to her.
    Sura noticed an intricate pattern forming as the wood was withdrawn from the wall. The boards and limbs were notched so that it required a unique sequence of moves to dismantle it.
    “How do you keep the ring from burning Kalindos?” she asked.
    “There’s a firebreak on the other side,” Kara said, “plus a stone trench.” She tossed the boards into a pile. “When the ring burns, it heats the stones, which’ll stay hot long after the wood has smoldered, and singe anyone who makes it through. Not enough to kill them, but to wound, at least, and maybe make their horses balk.”
    “Clever.”
    Etarek nodded to her. “It was an Asermon Snake who thought of it. Do you know Vara?”
    “I did, but she moved to Tiros before I knew I was a Snake, so I’ve never had a mentor.”
    “You’ve had your Bestowing, though, right?” Kara asked.
    “No. It’s forbidden.”
    “Then how do you know you’re a Snake?” Etarek said.
    Sura met his gaze. “I just know.”
    He raised his eyebrows and smiled as he turned back to the wall. Through the remaining slats, Sura saw a wide trench made of thousands of pale, fist-size stones. She wondered how her horse could maneuver over such an unstable surface.
    Etarek slipped through a gap in the wall, strode several paces to their left and bent down next to a brush pile. He withdrew a wide wooden panel, which he dragged toward them, then laid across the trench as a bridge.
    These Kalindons were smarter than their reputations.
    Sura led the horse across the makeshift wooden bridge, which was just wide enough for the animal. “Can anyone—I mean, does anyone in Kalindos read?” she asked them.
    “A few,” Kara said.
    “We’re not stupid,” Daria added. “We just have more important things to do than act like Descendants.”
    Sura turned to her, taking care not to twist her ankles on the rocks. “Knowing how to read and write isn’t acting like a Descendant. It helps us fight them.”
    Daria uttered a skeptical grunt.
    “You two keep patrolling,” Etarek