Chapter 10 #2
“Trouble while I was gone?” Thain grunted, pressing his eyes closed a moment while Eberon rubbed his back.
“Not as much as you, apparently.” Schula eyed Thain up and down. “Is everything taken care of?”
“Yes, but we should keep moving.” Thain brushed some dirt from his clothes, shifting to take the lead again.
As much as I wanted to ask what he had found out there, I was too afraid of the answer. The unknown was going to drive me mad in this place, and not for the first time I found myself wondering if I’d made the right decision. But I kept my mouth shut as we all began walking a little faster.
Thain kept to the front, and I moved myself up until I was closer to him than the others. We had so few opportunities to talk, and he was always so guarded. I took a moment to look at him in a different light.
He did not look tired so much as weary. Weathered, perhaps.
With every step he took, he seemed to find himself just a little bit more.
What was it like to be so different when danger was near?
A blessing, sure, but there must be some downsides as well.
Eberon and Schula sometimes insisted on taking the lead, but for the most part he didn’t allow it, and something in that made me sad.
When did he rest? When did he allow this mantle of watchful protector that he wore to fall away?
In the end, I said nothing. This was not the place to distract him, and as someone he had only just met who wasn’t much help on this journey, I had no right to do so.
I fell a few steps back without having said anything, just being led along with the others.
We didn’t stop for lunch that day, and we walked right until sundown. A vibrant strip of grass shone like a beacon in the moonlight, and I could have cried from the joy of seeing it.
The second the Unclaimed Wyldes were out of sight, Thain stopped us, and we all dropped where we were.
Few supplies were pulled from bags; we barely passed around strips of some kind of salted meat and rounds of dried fruit for dinner.
I didn’t even unroll my blanket; I just laid my head on it like a pillow and passed out.
Warm sunshine roused me in the crisp air. The ground was wet with dew, and I noticed that at some point a fire had been built nearby. A pang of guilt hit me for not gathering the firewood last night; I thought we had all gone to sleep right away.
“Good morning.” Schula crouched next to me. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m well enough.” I sat up, accepting a slice of stale bread from her. “Are we in the Autumn Lands?”
“Yes.” She smiled and stood, stretching. “Finally.”
Stuffing the bread in my mouth (and regretting it when the dry crumbs had me coughing), I took a long swig from a waterskin and put away my already rolled blanket. Puko cawed happily as he glided in lazy circles overhead, as if urging us to hurry toward Thanantholl.
The entire day went like this, riding on an anticipation that seemed to be carried on the wind.
The foliage rustled in an endless breeze, glittering like jewels of orange overhead.
Eberon stopped us once when he spotted a patch of leaves I’d never seen before growing no higher than my calf.
When he pulled several fat lumps from the ground, I realized it must be food, and I was pleasantly delighted that night to bite into a sweet, starchy mouthful after they’d been roasted in the campfire.
Sweet potatoes, they called them, and it was yet another wonder I’d seen from this place that had so much abundance.
Even Sulls would be hard-pressed to compare.
The day passed, and then another. On the third day, we began to see signs of other fae.
My eyes stayed wide, staring at small movements on distant paths where patrols could be seen winding through the countryside amid the vibrant leaves.
We spotted a farm, and I saw someone wearing fine clothes I would reserve for a festival to tend her chickens.
Growing closer to the city, my stomach stirred with a mixture of curiosity and anxious anticipation.
There were very few other people traveling the roads we were on, but they were closer than any other strangers we’d come across so far.
They all stared, every time. Watching one wagon, hitched to a horse and laden with crates, I nearly jumped out of my own skin when a cool hand landed on my shoulder.
“Is everything all right?” Schula asked.
“Yes.” My voice cracked, and I cleared it. “Yes. They’re just staring, and I . . .” And I what? How do you explain to someone that a lifetime of eyes on you made your chest tight and your palms slick with sweat? That eyes meant trouble, possibly danger, and that it was time to leave?
Thain paused, eyes landing on me and then drifting to the wagon that came closer as it traveled in the opposite direction on the same path we now stood on.
He moved himself between the wagon’s path and me, all of us shifting to the side as it passed.
A solid hand pressed to my back over the leather coat, and a sense of grounding fell over me. Once the wagon moved on, so did we.
“We’re nearly in view of the city.” Thain pointed to the crest of a small hill, and our collective pace quickened. We thrust up the hill, and a breeze swept through us as we crested the top. Autumn rolled into view, and my world shifted.
Thanantholl was a garden, veined with blue rivers and cobblestone paths.
The buildings and the trees were so intertwined it was impossible to tell from the top of the hill where one began and the other ended.
What wasn’t in bloom was orange, red, or yellow.
Purple bushes speckled the ground between trees, and dusty blue vines with prickly-looking thorns crawled along the side of the roads that guided travelers to the city within a valley.
Where the Summer Lands had been hills and streams, the Autumn Lands were forests as far as the eye reached.
Trees, bigger than any I’d seen in the mountains, grew thick around us.
Some trunks were as wide as a horse was long.
We slowed as I took in a breath of autumn.
“Beautiful,” Eberon said.
“Home,” Thain added.
There were no words I could add to the sight, and I was happy to stay paused looking down at the landscape.
Eventually, they dragged me away, and we trickled down the slope to the large gates at the tip of the valley.
Thain nodded at the fae guarding the gate, and they nodded back.
I almost didn’t notice, I was so enchanted with the city as we stepped through a giant archway.
Maple leaves of every color littered the ground.
They floated in the pools of water and clung to the damp rooftops.
Every building was made from clay bricks, sculpted to shapes complementing the gnarled trees around them.
The wood on the doors and windows was painted with bright colors and detailed embellishments.
Wind whistled through the trees and lanterns swayed over doors and in shady pockets under the canopy.
So many people flowed through the streets, while smoke and the smell of roasting food drifted lazily over us.
The citizens were strange to see, but familiar in the ways I was familiar with the Mother’s creatures.
Some appeared with animal features but walked upright like the rest of us.
Others were more like my companions, with odd colorings and unfamiliar movements but appearing mostly fae-like.
Yet more were covered in every manner of skin from scales to bark.
“Here.” Eberon pulled me from the distraction of walking down the main path as he handed me a warm bag that smelled sweet.
Blinking down at it, I saw what I’d first thought was a bag was actually made from the largest maple leaf I had ever seen. I untucked a corner, and the steam hit my face.
“Careful, that’s still hot.” Eberon fanned it with his hand, and Schula reached over to pull out a nut I had never seen before.
“What is that?” I pulled one out for myself. It smelled like syrup and honey.
“Pecans, a tree nut.” Schula popped it in her mouth and smiled. “Good choice, Eb. Now to Thain’s place?”
Cupping the treasure deep in my palm, I studied the shape and smell.
While the mountains were abundant with walnuts, any other nuts came from foreign traders through Sulls.
There was no way Bryn could have afforded something like that.
And here, in this strange city of fae creatures, it was a common street food.
Thain led the way, and I put the pecan on my tongue. The texture was like a walnut, but the flavor was sweet and smoky. I could get addicted to these. I savored it as long as I could, but when the flavor had all melted off, I chewed and grabbed another.
The streets wound around the trees and pools of water.
Bridges of braided roots grew over the ponds, jumping playfully in no discernible pattern.
We took several of these bridges as well as a few paths through thickets of small white flowers.
I couldn’t tell how much time was passing, if I was eating up everything before me in an instant or if I was dwelling on each plant, each face, for so long that our destination was hours away.
I noticed when there were only two nuts left in the pouch, and I put it in my pocket. Those were to be savored later.
Thain slowed down at a blue fence and held the gate for us all to enter.
The front garden was small but crafted into a world of roses and blue vines.
The house behind it was large, with a blue door to match the fence.
The windows and balconies climbed three floors off the ground, and gnarled oak trees hugged it on either side.
Puko took off for the branches above, startling me when I had all but forgotten his presence.