AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Don’t think about that, either.
Shaking, and suddenly cold, she pulled herself to her feet. It was still early morning. If she wanted to return to Acanthia as soon as possible, she needed to make the most of the day.
Never mind that she’d hardly slept. She could push through it. She had to.
She brushed the leaves off her clothes and returned to the ruined carriage. The remains of one of the horses was not far off, the others nowhere to be seen. Juliana hissed in annoyance; she’d have been able to cover lot more ground with one. Maytree had mentioned something about supplies, so she dug through the bags. There were some dried meats and fruits, flasks of wine and water, waxy cheeses, a bit of bread and crackers. Not enough to last more than a few days, and too much for her to easily carry.
She drank some of the wine, forced herself to eat a few mouthfuls the bread and cheese, and sorted through the rest of her supplies. Weapons, clearly, were a must have—as many as she could comfortably carry. A change of clothes, alas, didn’t count as a necessity. Rags and bandages, though? Those never went amiss. The healing supplies she found lacked any needle and thread, but there was some elixir—powerful Faerie healing magic mortals needed to be mindful about using.
Finally, she sat down and opened the pouch that Hawthorn had given her.
It wouldn’t hurt to have a few coins to trade with in case she came across any merchants or travellers… even some creatures in the woods would be attracted to gold. But it was far too weighty to take the whole thing with her. Aside from the coins there were beautiful gems and bits of jewellery dripping with precious stones, including one gold, green and purple necklace that she couldn’t help but think would really suit her.
At the bottom of the bag was a black, obsidian ring, carved with thorns.
Juliana paused. The blackthorn ring was one of Hawthorn’s favourites. He wore it most days. Why had he given it to her? Or… maybe he’d had a copy made? She couldn’t remember if he’d been wearing it in the carriage, or the dream…
Each option was baffling.
So was her decision to slide it onto her pendant.
I can ask him about it later,she told herself, and then quickly shook it away.Or never. Yes, never is better.
She was remiss to give up the gold she worked so hard for, but it would be foolish to take it with her. Instead, she buried it beneath a nearby tree and marked the trunk with a series of scratches that loosely looked like thorns. The damage would hopefully look unintentional to any passerby.
She drank a little more of the wine, discarded the bottle, and set off.
Despite Juliana’s best intentions, after a couple of hours, she found herself lagging, burning with exhaustion and struggling to keep her eyes open. She rested beside a stream, initially hoping that the water would prove restorative enough, but still found she couldn’t concentrate. She was using the sun to guide her, but it was hard to see through the trees and she was half-convinced she was going in circles.
If she could find a spot where Autumn seemed to be edging into Summer, or even Winter, she could try to follow that.
But not on so little rest.
Checking her surroundings, she found a quiet spot on the bank and curled up for a quick nap, hand on her hilt.
She slept, but she didn’t dream. She couldn’t quite go deep enough, too anxious that she might be set upon at any moment. Ladrien had promised an army.
It was likely they would march on the capital first, and they wouldn’t come from this direction unless he’d been raising them in the mortal realm. Almost certainly he had some stronghold in Winter they’d been unable to discover.
And now it was coming for them.
At some point just after midday, she roused enough to continue on her journey. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been alone for so long. A few hours was lovely, but this had an endlessness to it—like she was trapped in some kind of void. The rustling of the trees, the whisper of wind and the faint tweeting of birds only served to highlight the piercing silence.
She missed sound, and voices.
One voice.
She bit the inside of her cheek. Less than a day by herself and she was already losing it.
She managed to catch herself a rabbit mid-afternoon and then had to search for somewhere to make camp for the night. She always hated this part of the day, being on the lookout for a decent spot, trying to gauge the safety of the shelter, the provision of water, the direction of the wind, the camouflage from predators—and guess whether or not she could find a better space before light gave out.
Finally exhausted and with little daylight left, Juliana found a spot not far from the river she’d been following that offered decent concealment, and made herself a fire. It took far longer than she would have liked.
Hawthorn could make flames with a click of his fingers,she thought, remembering their journey back through Autumn all that time ago. Considering how out of his element he was, he really hadn’t been the worst travelling companion.
While her rabbit was cooking over the fire, she took out Hawthorn’s notebook. The first page was a list of insults entirely familiar to her.
Have I told you how awful/rubbish/vile/hideous you look tonight?
