Chapter 25
“ELLINORE! ELLINORE!”
I jolted awake, instantly reaching for my sword. “What’s happening?” I said, slurring. I sat up and shook my head, shaking off the clinging vestiges of sleep and dreams. “What’s wrong?”
Farrah dropped next to my bed, giddy with excitement, her whole body vibrating.
“I have a plan!” She unrolled the map, setting stones at the edges that she had pulled from the pocket of her trousers to hold it in place. Then she paused, bottom lip sucked between her teeth.
Oh, she was waiting for permission. “I’m listening.”
“Okay!” she shouted, then winced. “Sorry. I’m just excited.”
“I can tell.”
“So, Rylan, Zig, and I went over what we heard from Lord Ethan while we were prisoners in his camp. And all three of us remember the same things—a southern river and a waterfall. Before Lord Ethan stole the map from us, I did have a chance to look over it in the light of day. The key and the colored dots were faded, but there definitely was a dot in that direction.”
She dug her broken nail into the map on a spot at the southwesternmost point of the kingdom, where a thin river flowed from a cluster of mountain peaks down to the sea.
“This is where we need to go,” she reiterated. “This is where we are, approximately.” She tapped a point a few inches outside the port town we’d left the day prior.
“Okay. And?”
“The most direct route from one point to the other is right through this forest.” On the map were small symbols for trees that resembled triangles on sticks. The words The Climbing Wood were written in delicate cursive. “But Lord Ethan has a large retinue, and they won’t be able to traverse it.”
“They’ll have to go around,” I muttered, trailing my finger around the wood. To the south was a town and then a wide river; to the north was more forest. “But we could go through.”
“And if we did, we would then cross this river at the narrowest spot”—she pointed to a skinny blue line directly on the other side of the wood—“while the winged-horse lord would have to cross at the widest. Our route would be the most direct path.”
My heart lodged in my throat. “We’d beat them.” To the waterfall. To the invisible realm. To the Elder Beast. I swallowed. “We could do it.”
Farrah nodded. “I know a way.”
I closed my eyes. I had only glimpsed the map, and I didn’t remember much.
But if Farrah was correct, then it would save us time, time that was ticking down.
But I’d have to trust her expertise. I’d have to trust what Rylan and Zig supposedly heard and that it was correct.
I’d have to trust that she knew the way.
I’d already established that my judgment during this quest was off, skewed in some way.
Thinking and planning like Ellinore the Brave wasn’t working.
Maybe I should lean on the judgment of others?
“You knew about the outcropping over the Simmer.”
“I did.”
I opened my eyes. “Are you certain?”
“I am.”
“Will you bet my brother’s life on it?”
Farrah glanced over her shoulder to where Zig and Rylan were readying Carrot. She nodded sharply. “I will.”
“Okay,” I said, voice a whisper. “Okay.”
Farrah beamed. She rolled the map tightly. “I promise you won’t regret this.” Then she scurried off to tell the others.
Once everyone was busy, I reached into my bag and pulled out the magic countdown. The candle flickered, drips of wax running down the sides, pooling on the two-dimensional table where it sat. It had burned another mark away.
“Are you ready, Ellinore?” Aven asked.
I shoved the candle into my bag. “Almost.”
Aven raised an eyebrow and crossed their arms over their chest. They were wearing the long tunic today, the hem falling past their knees, with splits up the middle and back to allow for riding.
It was black with red stitching, the colors of the kingdom’s banners.
They had black trousers on beneath, and their shiny boots.
“Are we really trying to beat Lord Ethan?”
My mouth went dry, so I nodded, not trusting I wouldn’t squeak.
“Good. I think it’s a smart plan.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s good to see you… having faith in someone.” The edges of Aven’s lips twitched into a smile. “Also, I never liked Lord Ethan much. Pompous jerk. I want to defeat him almost as much as you do.”
“Is that any way for a royal to speak about their vassal? Tsk, tsk.”
Aven’s smile broke free. And how I’d missed it the past few days. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“Cross my heart, hope to…” I trailed off. “Hope to make it through the forest and to the Elder Beast.”
“Nice save.”
I laughed. “Thanks. Are you ready?”
Aven took a drink from their canteen. “Yeah. Let’s go piss off a lord.”