Chapter 18
Elara
The moon was high in the night sky by the time I slid on my riding boots.
The fire in my room was slowly dying and bitter cold had enveloped me when I slipped out of my warm sheets. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to crawl back to bed. But this needed to be done.
I plaited my hair away from my face and put on my warmest winter cloak.
Pulling on my gloves, I headed for the doors to my chambers.
I’d almost reached them before realising I’d forgotten my map, and so I turned back to grab it.
This forced me to double-check my satchel again.
Knife? Check. I reached for the sword mounted on the wall above the fireplace.
It was too risky to go to the arsenal to retrieve any weapons, so I had to make do with what I could find in my rooms.
A small food supply and a flask of water, which I’d taken from the kitchens earlier? Check.
And now I had my map.
I carefully opened my doors, making sure there were no guards outside.
I’d conveniently given both night guards the evening off.
Even as queen, it was surprisingly difficult to escape your own palace.
I tiptoed down the corridors, avoiding all the main hallways, yet my boots continued to sound on the floors, and I could only hope no one would hear me.
I contemplated going through the servants’ quarters, but I worried some of them might be awake, so instead I opted for the route Cordelia had shown me the first time I left the palace.
When Lance had “hired” me to pretend to be Princess Eloisa and steal Cai’s family heirloom. That time seemed a world away now.
It didn’t take long for me to reach the door that would lead me to the stables.
The icy winter air hit me once more and I wished Aries could have picked a better time for all of this.
It was unlikely that he would march all of his soldiers in the middle of winter — the risk was too great.
But he was still in Norrandale, looking for the Myrgonite objects and the mine of stones, and my bet was that as soon as the snow melted, he would strike.
Maybe even before that. Either way, I wasn’t going to wait around to see it play out.
I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head and by the time I’d reached the stables, I could no longer feel my nose.
The horses rustled with unease at my disturbance in the middle of the night.
“Easy,” I said with a soft voice. “It’s just me.”
I made a quick trip to the tack room before picking the horse nearest to the stable doors. By early tomorrow morning, when the stable boy walked in, it would be a matter of minutes before everyone knew I was gone.
I saddled the horse as best I could in the dark and led it out of the stables.
“I know it’s cold.” With my left foot in the stirrup, I swung my right leg over the horse and moved on the saddle until I found a comfortable seat. “But we have to do this before snowfall or it’s only going to make it that much more difficult.”
With only a little bit of moonlight to guide us, I steered the horse away from the stables and towards the woods in the distance. Despite wearing gloves, my hands felt cold and stiff, and I had trouble properly gripping the reins.
I could see the horse’s breath and my own evaporating into the frigid air.
It wasn’t long before the palace grounds fell behind us and we reached the treeline.
With the dark night looming, some part of me wished I hadn’t done this alone.
I thought about how much better and safer I would feel to have Cai by my side.
But then I reminded myself that there was no way in hell he would have agreed to this.
I looked up at the inky shadows of the trees, breaking up the moonlight. Though I knew the forest could be a dangerous place to be alone in at night, I wanted to believe that the stories were true.
If the forest was really guarded by its natural elements and knew that I had no evil intent, maybe I would be lucky enough to receive protection instead of any kind of harm.
“You grew up in the forest,” I told myself.
It had raised me and fed me and looked after me my whole life. Dare I see it as an old friend?
“You’ve been calling.” My voice, a little shakier than I would have liked, slipped into the moonlit darkness.
“Well, here I am.” The trees and the wind had been urging me back to the only home I had had for a very long time. I was no longer the Evernean queen. I was, once again, a bandit in the night.
* * *
The horse’s hooves clopped over the forest floor and the tension in my shoulders told me we’d been riding for a few hours.
Everyone at the palace was probably looking for me by now.
I straightened my back, trying to better my posture and relieve some of the discomfort.
So far the journey had been quiet and uneventful.
I’d stopped a few times to get a little sleep and give the horse some rest, but I knew we didn’t have much time to lose, so I’d been travelling through the night.
Though I was unable to shake the feeling that I was being watched with every step that I took, I told myself that it was only the eyes of the forest looking after me. There was nothing to fear here now.
An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, and I gave my horse’s neck a little scratch.
“We’ll stop soon, I promise.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how far I had to go, but I knew it couldn’t be too much further away.
Whether or not it was true, it almost always felt as if you didn’t find the centre of the forest, but the centre of the forest had a way of finding you.
And for the first time in my life, it could actually be helpful.
Clouds hid the moon’s light, making it too dark to use the map, but I knew I had to find the creek, so I kept listening for any moving water.
When the darkness finally started to lift, I veered off the main forest path towards the middle of the forest. Here, the trees grew closer together, the branches and leaves crowding the way, and we had to walk slowly and carefully.
Morning dew coated the greenery surrounding me, the sunlight slowly creeping into the dark forest.
After what felt like a very long time, I began to doubt if I was even going the right way. Maybe I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere in the dark. But then, finally, in the distance, water. Not a wide, gushing river but a small, crooked creek.
I stopped to let the horse drink and emptied my own flask before filling it up again.
Even though I wasn’t very thirsty, once I left the creek behind, who knew how long it would be until I found water again.
I took an apple out of my satchel and bit into the crunchy fruit.
While examining my map, I let the horse graze a bit on the small patches of surrounding grass here and there.
If I continued to follow the creek, it wouldn’t be long before I reached the mist.
After our little break, I mounted my horse again and continued our journey along the creek. While I was more certain that I was on the right path, I felt my nerves grow with every step as we got closer to the centre of the forest.
The morning sun brought a little warmth, and I could finally take off my gloves and flex my fingers. I felt tired and hungry despite my snack, but I had to conserve my food. There was no telling how long this might take.
The creek continued on and on, longer than any creek I’d followed before, twisting and turning in some places.
And then, out of nowhere, the light got bleaker. I looked up and it felt like a heavy cloud had come to rest above the trees. It grew more difficult to see into the far distance. My horse became slightly uneasy as the mist crept up on us. A warning, if nothing else.
“Easy,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. But my heart was beginning to race, and I was no longer sure which one of us needed to be reassured more.
The white fog slithered like a snake between the trees, working its way over my horse’s flanks towards my shoulders. Resisting the urge to turn back, I had to keep telling myself that I’d got out of here once and I would do it again.
Finally, the mist was all-consuming and I could only see a few short feet ahead of me. I halted the horse and slid out of the saddle. The creek was still next to us and I would follow it for as long as possible.
Each step I took was careful, as if the floor would suddenly fall away beneath me.
But with the lack of vision, it wasn’t entirely out of the question that I could accidentally fall into a ditch or something.
I led the horse, staying close to the water and listening for anything that sounded out of the ordinary.
Every so often, I would look around, deluding myself into thinking I could see into the distance.
It might have only been a method of calming myself so that I could focus on the task at hand.
The creek came to an end through a crevice that allowed the water to flow underground. With no clear markers to lead the way, I might as well have been left in the dark. The only thing to do was to keep walking in as straight a line as possible.
Minutes passed. Hours passed. Days passed. It all blurred into one. Time had become a foreign concept in the mist that surrounded me.
Damn it, Lara, I thought. Why couldn’t you just have found a way to convince Cai to come with you?
Because this is stupid, that’s why. Because you might die in here. And then what good will that do?
I began to grow worried for everyone in the palace. At the very least, I was sure that Cai would find the note I’d left him. I didn’t want them to send anyone after me. But I knew Cai would be upset that I’d left so suddenly, without a warning.
I trudged on and on and on. And when I got hungry again, we stopped. I rested against a tree trunk and drank from my water flask, giving the horse my last apple while simultaneously hoping that this wouldn’t be the last meal either of us had.
At some point I must have fallen asleep, because I started to dream.
Except I was aware that I was dreaming. The forest was still there and so was the mist, but there was something different about it.
It didn’t have the ominous presence of the mist in the centre of the forest. This was just regular morning mist.
I was not alone. There were two other people in the mist with me.
One of them was a man, kneeling on the forest floor.
In his arms, he held a woman in a white dress, her skin so pale it was difficult to tell the difference between her skin and the material of her dress.
She wasn’t moving and the man had tears streaming down his face. The woman was dead.
They didn’t notice me. It was as if I didn’t exist at all.
I was merely here to watch. I thought about everything I knew regarding the forest. How, as a whole, it was like a living creature of its own.
Something that had protected and guided me my whole life.
And if the Evernean Forest was more than just trees and earth, was it possible that I was observing a memory of the forest, something that it wanted me to know or see?
The man held the woman to him and continued to cry. He began mumbling, but at first, I couldn’t hear what he was saying. It took me some time to recognise the words. “Why did you do it, Riona?”
Riona?
But that would mean . . .
Recognition set in. The two people in front of me suddenly became more than words on paper.
This was the first king and queen of Everness.
The people whose history we’d been chasing, hoping to find answers.
I marvelled at the forest again and what it was capable of.
Was it possible that I was seeing something that took place centuries earlier?
King Evrin let Riona’s body lie on the forest floor. Had she died here, or did he bring her here, and why? I’d always believed that Queen Riona was buried along with the other Evernean monarchs, but what if that was merely what King Evrin had everyone believe?
“It didn’t have to come to this,” Evrin said through his tears. “Why did you have to meddle with things beyond your power?”
I watched with surprise and confusion as he pulled a knife out of one of his pockets.
“Nothing in this place comes without a cost. You and I should have known better.”
He wrapped both his hands around the hilt of the dagger and lifted it into the air. There was a small gemstone attached to the hilt of the dagger, making it look awfully familiar.
“May your body give protection to all those to come who will share your blood. May this place become a vessel of guidance and safety for those who need it. My darling Riona, I hope you rest in peace here for all eternity.”
And then he plunged the Myrgonite dagger into her heart.