Chapter 4
The Evernean Forest
Cai
The morning had become afternoon and I rolled my shoulders to release an ache in the muscles of my back.
“We will soon have to find a place to stop for the night,” Jack suggested. After our earlier conversation had ended, we spent most of the journey in silence. And for some reason, I was rather thankful for it. Though the quiet did allow my mind to wander to unpleasant places, which wasn’t much better.
I heard a bird screech in the trees above and looked up. In that moment I felt a hand on my leg, and I drew my hunting knife before my eyes even landed on the person belonging to the hand. At my action, my guards followed by drawing their own weapons. I was surprised to find myself looking down at an old woman with grey tassels of hair hanging over her shoulders and a large coat wrapped around her small body. She appeared to have come out of thin air. I forced my heartbeat to calm down with a breathing technique we’d learned during the war. Why was she dressed for winter in the middle of a hot day?
“Do you have water for an old woman, please? I need water.”
I sighed in relief and gestured to Brutus, who carried our food and drink. He took out a flask of water and handed it to her.
“Thank you, sir.”
Brutus nodded in response. I often wondered if he wished he could speak. And if so what would he have to say? I couldn’t imagine being in that position.
The woman drank thirstily. What was she doing so deep into the forest? There wasn’t a village for miles.
“Do you need help?” I asked, concerned.
“No, thank you, Your Highness,” she replied, and I sat back in my saddle in surprise.
“How do you know who I am?” She wiped the sweat from her brow, suddenly appearing much better.
“I know a great many things,” she said, and Jack’s gaze met mine.
She opened her coat and the insides appeared to be lined with lots of little things, from jewellery to trinkets to small weapons. “Would you like to buy something?” A strand of grey hair fell down her wrinkled forehead but she didn’t brush it away.
“No, thank you,” Jack replied for me.
“Very well.” She shrugged, unfazed, and closed her coat.
Then she looked at me, the gaze in her crystal-like eyes intensifying. “You want to go that way.” She pointed to the path that went right at the fork ahead.
“But we are travelling to the coast,” Jack said. “We must be heading west, I’m afraid.”
The woman shook her head. “You must go east.” Her gaze didn’t waver from mine. “Soon you will find a pool where you and your men can rest. You must swim in the water, Your Highness, for if one of royal blood enters the water, it will show you images of your future and what you must do in order to preserve it.”
Jack chuckled. “Your Highness, surely you don’t believe this.”
The rest of my men remained quiet and Conner’s face had gone slightly pale.
“Do I look like I’m talking to you, young man?” This shut Jack up. Turning back to me, she continued, “Go to the pool as I tell you. From there proceed to your destination. You must have courage, Your Highness. The journey will not be full of ease. But perhaps you will find what you didn’t know you were looking for.”
She pulled a dagger from one of her coat pockets, the hilt crested with patterns of gold. “You’re going to need this.” She held it out to me. “And thank you for the water.”
Not wanting to seem rude, I took the dagger and thanked her politely.
“Remember my words, Highness,” she said in a serious tone. “Be careful please, these woods aren’t safe.” She smiled and patted my horse’s neck before walking off as if nothing had happened at all.
The lot of us looked at each other in confusion.
“Which road are we to take?” Conner asked. His eyes were on the woman, who was quite a distance behind us now.
I took a deep breath, looking at and contemplating the two pathways. “We go right.” I couldn’t explain the feeling even if I’d tried, but the path that led east seemed to pull me in, like a moth drawn to a flame. There was a sense of warning that came with the feeling, a sense of danger. But I was a soldier, a prince... there was always danger.
“But, Your Highness,” Jack protested. “We have to reach the royal summer chateau in less than five days. And as she just stated, these woods aren’t safe.”
“Come now, Jack.” I grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid.”
“Not afraid, merely concerned for your safety.”
I kicked my horse forwards. “That’s exactly why you’re here, to protect me if harm should befall us.”
“I think you misunderstand—”
“It will be an adventure.” I urged, looking back. But the old woman was gone, like she had never been there at all.
We veered right and it was only a few seconds later that Conner’s voice piped up from behind. “Am I the only one who thinks that was a little peculiar?”
“She was a delusional old woman who’d been walking in the woods for too long, there’s nothing peculiar about that.”
I watched Jack’s expression as he replied to Conner, but he looked like he didn’t believe himself. Something about the air around us had changed — we were all on edge, unnerved. I had never given the myths of Everness’s magical forest much thought. Their folklore had been around for centuries. People believed that the two kingdoms used to be full of magic. That the old kings and queens used to rule with great power. But the magic seemed to have died, leaving only the stories to tell.
“Well, something wasn’t right with her.”
I couldn’t help but want to agree with Conner. Something was off about the whole encounter. I pulled out the dagger as we continued on our new path. The weapon was small but sharp, easily concealable. It looked a bit old and worn with some marks on the blade. The hilt was decorated with a small jewel. It was quite rare and beautiful. I’d seen the same kind of gemstone in a few of the jewellery pieces in my family’s collection. Where did the old woman get something like that?
My horse suddenly twitched beneath me, as if sensing danger.
I glanced up at the sky. Jack, noticing my change in manner, asked “What?”
“Shhh.” I held up a finger.
We stopped the horses and they stood nervously, throwing their heads. We were all listening intently, and despite the quiet, something deep inside my gut told me that it wasn’t my imagination. I’d heard something.
Jack and Alastor slowly drew their swords, readying themselves.
We waited in tense silence for what felt like forever but could only have been a few seconds when out of nowhere, a loud screech erupted from deeper within the forest.
We all turned to face where the noise was coming from.
“Your Highness” was the only thing Jack managed to get out when the largest flock of birds I’d ever seen broke through the leaves and branches.
It happened so abruptly that my horse got a fright and reared, throwing me to the ground. The birds could have been mistaken for crows, but they were so dark in colour, they looked like shadows as they flew over our riding party. I quickly stood up but my horse had run off.
“Your Highness,” Jack said again but I could barely hear him as they continued to screech, horrifyingly loud. Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be more of them, the shadowlike birds dived down to fly between us. They clawed and pecked, and I worried they would scratch my eyes out. We swatted at them, and I pulled out the dagger, randomly slicing through the air. The sheer volume of them cast a darkness over us but I got a few of the birds with my knife. After a few more agonising minutes, the birds flew upwards, disappearing above the canopy.
I huffed out a breath, my heart pumping so loud I could feel it in my ears.
“Are you all right, Your Highness?”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
“What was that?” Conner had the bravery to ask. His skin was as pale as a sheet.
“Just some angry birds.” Jack tried to brush it off but I could tell he was shaken. He jumped off his horse and held out the reins. “Here, Your Highness.”
I waved him off. “Let’s just go find the horse.”
* * *
I turned the dagger in my hand, eyeing it suspiciously as we rode. We’d finally found my horse grazing nearby, his previous fright forgotten. I was strangely unsurprised when we came to the pool the woman had spoken of.
The pond lay nestled in a small clearing. We stopped, letting the horses rest and drink water. I was busy taking off my boots when Alastor spoke up. “You’re going swimming?”
“It’s hot. Cooling down would be nice.”
“As long as that is the reason and not because you believe a word out of that woman’s mouth.”
I pulled off my shirt. “Don’t be ridiculous. She had been travelling in the heat all morning. She was just telling stories,” I lied, not wanting to admit that her words still rang inside my head. I placed the dagger she had given me inside my satchel.
“Mmhhh,” Jack responded, not quite believing me. “So why did we go right instead of left?”
“Well, we’re not in a rush, are we? It would be nice to see some of the countryside before we meet the wicked siblings.”
Jack let out a chuckle. “Is that what you’re calling them now?”
“Well, I suppose we hope at least one of them isn’t wicked.” I glanced at him. “I hardly know anything about Princess Eloisa. Surely your spies must have some information?”
“As far as I know, she keeps to the castle grounds. Visits the harbour town at their summer home often, though. She keeps the company of her ladies’ maids mostly, which I suppose could be a little odd. Other than that she doesn’t engage with other aristocratic women or society.”
“So you presume she’s the quiet, shy sort?” Shy was better than scandalously wild.
Jack grinned. “Could be. Maybe she’s just mean and nobody wants to be friends with her.”
I shoved his shoulder as we walked to the pond’s edge.
“I haven’t heard anything scandalous,” he said. “Then again, I don’t hear everything.” He spotted my bleeding arm. “You’re hurt?”
“It’s just a scratch,” I said. “It will heal quickly.”
The pool was the perfect place to stop for the night and the water felt refreshing after a whole day of travelling through the woods. I didn’t know whether or not to believe what the old woman had said, but I was curious. I emerged through the surface and wiped the hair out of my face, taking a deep breath. Brutus had started a fire in order to prepare our next meal while Conner was setting up camp. Jack plopped down on the grass with an apple in his mouth, with Alastor next to him, sharpening his sword.
I noticed the movement of a fish in the water below and looked down only to see it wasn’t a fish at all. It was like a painting, flowing with the ripples of the water. I blinked in confusion at the silhouette of the unfamiliar young woman. Maybe the old woman wasn’t a liar, or I was hallucinating from a whole day of riding through the woods.
The image faded into that of a bow and arrow, and I rubbed my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was real, but as quickly as it appeared, the rippling image was gone. I looked around to the others but none of them had noticed anything.
My eyes scanned the rippling water. I am starting to imagine things. All our joking about the magical forest had gone to my head. I dipped my head beneath the water once more before making my way out of the pond. Jack tossed me an apple as I walked past him.
“Thanks,” I muttered, on my way to get my clothes. When I was dressed, I took a seat next to them on the grass, not saying a word about the fact that the scar on my arm had mysteriously healed.
* * *
I was in a field. The sky was grey and I shivered from a cold breeze that owned the surrounding air. The field was long and wide and I was surrounded by soldiers in battle uniform. All at once, the silence around me shattered like glass and all I heard was the combination of screams and the wind. I tried to step forwards, but my feet were stuck in the sucking mud that pulled me down the more I tried to move.
Air escaped my lungs quicker than it would return.
I was on the battlefield and I needed to fight or I would die. I grabbed for my sword, but it slipped out of my grasp and I found my hands soaked in blood. They were shaking and I couldn’t stop them. Was it my blood?
I heard metal clashing and looked behind me to an Argonian guard driving his sword through the torso of one of my youngest soldiers. I screamed in protest, but no sound came out. I turned and ran for the soldier, fighting the burning in my legs, fighting against the mud. But before I could reach him, I lost my balance and toppled to the ground. I fell over a dead body, his lifeless eyes staring into my own.
I awoke with a start, my breathing ragged and my body covered in sweat.
I tried to shake away the familiar image in my head, but like all the times before, it was no use. A peaceful night’s sleep was something I rarely experienced. But it would do me no good to run the images through my mind over and over again. I had to think about something else, anything else.
Perhaps about the fact that in a few weeks I was going to marry a woman I’d never met before. It wasn’t that the idea scared me. Forming alliances for the good of my kingdom was my duty as heir to the throne. It was only my intuition that kept telling me that something about the whole arrangement didn’t seem right. Perhaps I was simply paranoid. Either way, I was going to find out sooner or later.