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Draven nodded. “As you wish. Nevertheless,shehas it and that’s irrefutable.” He gestured to me.
I swallowed, wanting to be as fierce as Lancelet and say I didn’t need Draven’s help either. But the truth was, I had already learned that sometimes I did. So I said nothing.
“She has mine as well,” Vesper said stoically. “All of you do. We’re traveling together. My loyalties are to you and your party.”
Draven made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort.
“We’ll watch out for harpies. But if they come, they come. We’ll meet them head on.” He strode away.
I was glad he was so confident.
Vesper approached me, his hands slipping around my waist. I glanced around but Lancelet had followed Draven over to the horses.
“If anything should happen to you,” he murmured against my ear. “I couldn’t bear it. Promise me you’ll be careful. If I tell you to run, swear to me that you’ll run.”
I nuzzled my face against his, feeling his warmth. “I swear.”
CHAPTER 30
We came across thecaravan the next day.
The landscape began to shift as we entered Valtain, jagged peaks and craggy rocks giving way to barren hills and dusty plains. The air around us grew dry and hot, and the sun beat down mercilessly on our heads as we followed the fae-made road.
I hadn’t seen the exmoor since the morning we had found it sleeping beside Draven. If it was still following, it must have been doing so at night.
I had imagined Valtain as a place that would be blooming with life, but Draven said we would have to pass through this desert-like terrain for a day or more until we reached the area where the remains of fae habitation began.
Signs of life grew fewer and fewer as we rode. Sparse patches of scrub brush and the occasional twisted tree were the only hints of greenery in the vast, sandy expanse.
Finally, late in the afternoon, we spotted the wreckage of a caravan. Not the one Vesper had accompanied, he was quick to point out. No, this one was far from any fae ruin or building of any kind.
A group of six large covered wagons lay overturned and broken in the sand, their contents spilled out every which way.
We drew nearer, riding quietly up to the ring of debris. The group of travelers must have been attacked at night, for there were no signs any fighting had taken place. Instead, the broken bodies of horses and humans lay scattered around the wagons, already half-buried beneath the sand.
“Fenrirs.” Draven’s face was grim. “It must have happened fairly recently or the sand would have covered everything over by now.”
