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CHAPTER 16
Icould feel Draven’seyes on me as I sipped from my mug, the hot liquid of the medicine swirling down my throat.
Liquid pain was what I might as well call it, I thought bleakly.
Just as one dose began to finally wear off and the pain subsided, I would have to take the next. There was no longer a break between like I had been used to.
I swished my mug, putting off the inevitable moment when I would have to finish the contents.
As we traveled deeper into Cerunnos, I couldn’t stop thinking about the exmoor we had seen. I knew the land was not entirely unpopulated, but as we rode day after day without seeing another living soul it was easy to feel we were passing through a place no human eyes had ever seen.
The landscape was wild and untamed. Rugged wilderness stretching out before us for miles and miles in every direction. Each day we rode deeper into ancient forests, where the trees were thick and towering, their trunks covered in thick vines and mosses. They seemed to have stood there for millennia, pristine and untouched. The air was always fresh and silent, except for the chirping of birds and buzzing of insects.
It was easy to imagine Cerunnos as a place where a creature like the exmoor might live unbothered and undiscovered.
At least, until we arrived.
I wondered if there were more exmoors. Part of me wished to see another. Part of me thought it was not worth the risk. Not when the trigger-happy Whitehorn was along for the ride.
Besides the exmoors, what other mysterious creatures might be lurking in these forests or in the high mountains we could sometimes glimpse far off in the distance?
“Why not skip it for a night if it bothers you so much?”
I looked up to see Draven standing above me. His arms were crossed over chest.
I glanced at Whitehorn. He was sitting on the other side of the fire, watching us closely.
“She can’t do that,” he called out loudly, not bothering to hide the fact that he was listening to every word we said. “Do you hear me, Princess? Drink up.”
“I swear if I hear those words cross his lips one more time I’m going to slap the man,” I muttered.
“Shall I punch him for you?” Draven offered, his eyes gleaming.
I glared. “Tempting. You’ve been looking for an excuse to do that, haven’t you?”
He gave an elegant shrug. “I don’t need an excuse.” He looked down at my mug again. “This... medicine. I don’t understand. If it harms you, why do you drink it?”
