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Soon, more baskets were filled with soft sea green leaves and their tangle of roots.
The path twisted and turned. I looked to the horse for any signal of danger. Any twitch of his ear or swish of his tail, I’d pause, bracing for more of those creatures to appear again.
“Sleip,” I said, as though the horse could understand. “We need to find something called blood vine.” A natural antiseptic and fever reducer. Anxiety quickened my pulse. Already, I felt like we’d been gone too long. Kage was weak, hardly lucid, and vulnerable.
I tugged on the reins, but stumbled backward. “Sleipnir. Come.”
The horse was unmoving, stiff, and focused on the shadows between two mammoth oaks. Silence, cold and cruel, wrapped around the trees, muffling out the slightest chirp of a cricket. Hair raised on the back of my neck when twigs snapped, leaves rustled.
From inside the basket nearest me, I removed a narrow knife I’d found near the washbasin in the cottage. A little dull, likely used for chopping food, but I could chop at necks just as well.
Buried in the darkness, a bit of gold like a floating sun drop swayed. Left, then right, again and again until the light revealed a face. Hooded and hunched, someone shuffled forward. Then broader figures with swords and cowls.
“There she is!”
I let my shoulders slump, a smile curved over my face. “Gwyn.”
Gwyn tossed back a dainty blue hood from her cloak, allowing her dark hair to spill down her neck, and raced toward me. Sheslammed into me, knocking the air from my lungs, and embraced me. As though we were the closest of friends.
In truth, I didn’t have many complaints, and took a bit of solace in the kindness. Even wrapped my arms around her waist.
“Adira.” Gwyn pulled back, inspecting me. “By the skies, you look horrid. Are you all right? Where is the prince?”
“Let her breathe, darling.” Cy stepped through—the broad form with all his blades. From the trees a shrill cry echoed, and Hakon flew into sight. Cy summoned his hawk to his forearm and tossed the bird a strip of dried meat. “Well found, Hakon.”
“I didn’t even see him.”
“Of course you didn’t, Cricket.” Cy grinned. “Hakon allows folk to see him when he pleases.”
Asger emerged, somber as expected, and a furrow of worry over his brow. “Kage?”
I sighed. “Injured. Badly. These . . . things attacked last night. He was bitten and?—”
“Immorti, Sweet Iron.”
I startled back. The old woman from the Greenwood, the first face I met in Magiaria, held a small lantern, and strapped to her front was a fur satchel that seemed to weigh her down.
“You’re Gaina, right? You sent me to the star tent.”
“Did I?” Gaina beamed. Her pale eyes sparkled, and she fiddled with the ends of her thick, silvery hair. “Well, I suspect you found what you were seeking then.”
“I found Kage . . .” The statement faded and my heart swelled.I found Kage.
Before I discovered all else, I’d found a thieving prince.
“Immorti, whatever they are, attacked,” I hurried on. “Like I said, Kage was injured. I’ve, well, I’ve found a few herbs and plants I hoped could help.”
“Good thinking to go foraging,” Gwyn said.
“There wasn’t much choice. He broke into a bad fever during the night, and I’m certain one of the wounds is infected, and”—my voice cracked— “I honestly don’t even know how to make the medicines to help him.”
For a pause there was silence. Then, Gwyn slid her arm around my waist, a reassuring side hug. “Good thing you don’t need to go about it alone now.”
“Step to it, my sweet ones.” Gaina lifted the lantern like a declaration to charge into battle.
I worried for the older woman, but she kept pace better than me at times, like the whole of the wood was memorized from all angles. Relief came, warm and swift, when the cottage came into view, undisturbed.
Hakon took up a perch in the eaves. Sleipnir, without waiting for us, trotted over to his post and feed box.
