chapter ten

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-10-


The sun hadn't peeked over Eryan's buildings as the team saddled their horses in the stables only a street away from the warehouse. Elle stroked her beast's soft nose, its coat silky and black. She didn't speak to the other assassins as she swung into the saddle, holding the reins loosely. With a single nod to Jax and a click of her tongue the horse stubbornly began to trod.

Its hooves clopped through muddied streets coated in god knows what. Elle caught Tristan's eye, his mouth twisted into a grimace at the mud splattering onto their bags. They squelched past inns and apartments stacked precariously on top of one another, every so often spying a lone figure in the window or smoking a pipe out of their front door. 

The assassin didn't let herself relax until the slums began to thin out into barren fields and streets evolved into trails.

Jax led the small party, on his white beast, closely followed by Kath, then Tristan. Only Leo dawdled behind her, partly because his beast stopped to sniff every flower it could reach with its neck. The city had drifted into smoke on the horizon by the time the sun had risen, casting a cold light over the surrounding area.

If Elle remembered correctly, there had been a war outside the city's gates many millennia ago. The fields had never recovered, the villages burned, so now it lay as a wasteland, sprawling overgrowth and solely ripe with weeds. 

After a good few hours of riding they entered a small village, greeted by merchants hollering their wares and girls chasing each other around the central well. Townspeople pulled back their small children from their great beasts. Elle caught the eye of a hardened woman, kneading dough in the frame of her front door. 

She glared at the newcomers, eyes narrowing. The assassin dipped her head towards her, warily glancing at the other hostile locals.

"We shouldn't stop here," she murmured to Tristan just ahead of her. He didn't give an audible reply, merely nodding, but she could see his own eyes flitting between everyone in the main square. Poorer districts had been forgotten by the Enforcers, so they held much contempt at Eryan's wealthy residents.

Jax directed them through the town and down a less-formed trail that had barely been used. Overrun with shrubbery and teeming with undisturbed life. The locals didn't bother travelling directly through Orioch, so it would seem. Branches snapped as the horses trampled them underfoot, their sharp ears pricking when an animal call echoed through the trees. Elle gripped the reins tighter, scrutinising the trees for...something.

Tales of ancient beasts and magic residing in this forest had circulated for years. In the name of speed, the team favoured the shorter journey to Lorel; instead of a winding country road circumventing the forest, they delved into the heart of it. The time itched past, Elle finding nothing better to do than begin to count the amount of birds she would spy perching upon their boughs, gazing curiously down.

The light filtering through the leaves grew dim as the sun finished its passage across the sky. They had ridden for the whole day, yet their journey into Orioch hadn't even started. It would take about two weeks of travelling along the infinite stretch of trees and paths to emerge out the other side.

"I have heard stories about travellers getting lost in these woods and never returning. Some say they were eaten by the ferocious beasts, or hunted down by the magical sorceresses and trapped." Leo supplied, fascination lacing his tone. Jax and Tristan shared a withering look.

"Those are bedtime stories spun to stop children from running into these woods." Jax huffed. But even he couldn't deny the unnerving nature of the gangly trees, branches like hooks and coarse bark twisted into snarls. "Do you believe in that wishy-washy stuff?"

Leo shrugged, "magic is real. It's just...not around anymore." Elle was surprised he had spoken the word aloud, although it wasn't as if someone would be able to hear him in Orioch.

Jax shook his head, "Such things cannot be kept a secret. It has been absent for thousands of years in Myndor." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Outside of Myndor, I don't know what to think."

Elle refrained from commenting in the discussion as Kath chimed in with her wise words. Even Tristan grumbled his views, before turning to Elle. "You normally delight in sharing your opinion, what do you think?"

Her smile tugged distantly, her mind flicking back a few years to Seren and her adventures. "It is real. It is dangerous. That is what I think."

He nodded thoughtfully, she settled down into silence once more, not bothering to listen to the rest of the discussion. Her hand tightened around Ravaryn, strapped to her thigh subconsciously, finding comfort in the cool hilt.

Jax pulled his beast to a halt, eyeing the lowering sun. "It is growing dark in these winter nights, we should stop here for the evening. Gods, how I hate the colder months."

Elle slid off her horse, legs tired and stiff. She wiggled her toes in her boots, then led her beast to a tree beside a small pool of water. The water hadn't frozen over, but the frost-dipped blades of grass suggested it wouldn't be long. Tying the reins to the nearest tree.

Tristan had begun his construction of a fire, glancing up at her then promptly resuming his work. Leo and Jax unpacked the supplies, handing the bedrolls to Kath who unrolled them around the fire. Thin mattresses and the single blanket wouldn't protect them from the dropping temperatures of Myndor's night. Thank the gods they had packed thick clothes.

"There we go." With a satisfied look, Tristan had successfully started a licking flame. Soon after they hunkered down in their bedrolls, nibbling on the bread that they had packed at the top of the satchels, not bothering to delve deeper. Jax yawned, lifting his hands above his head. As he did so his shirt rode up, revealing his sculpted torso and the puckered scar down the right side of his torso.

"Shit, how did that happen?" Leo nosied once more. Elle expected Jax to tell him to shove off and bother someone else, but instead he looked deeply into the flames and said, "my parents aren't the greatest." A snort. "I was raised by the staff of our house."

"Oh, so a rich boy then?" Leo laughed, tucking his hands behind his head. Elle kicked him quietly with her foot to shut him up.

"Our carriage was attacked when I had only seen thirteen winters, bandits and thieves preying on travelling folk. I was lucky to escape with my life, but one of their falchions nicked me."

"I'd say it was more than a nick," Tristan commented softly. "Oryn—my father not by blood but he had raised me better than my pathetic excuse of a real father had, didn't make it." He whispered, then chuckled bitterly. "Not the heroic story you all were expecting I'm sure."

Kath placed a hand on his knee, murmuring "I'm sorry for your loss."

Tristan's eyes flicked across the fire to Elle, "how did you get that wicked one?" He gestured to her face. Her hand traced her marked skin. "Got this baby on a trip to the White Mountains of Arichor. Sliced with a run." Leo sucked in a sharp breath, "that must have hurt like a bitch. Rhuns are designed to inflict so much pain and damage that the victim wouldn't have a chance to recover, let alone fight back."

"Oh, it did." Lightning pain flashed across her memory.

The sun had truly set now and Leo had offered to take the first watch. Elle would take over in a few hours. Like an icy whip, the wind lashed at their blankets. Elle lay awake, cold and miserable. When she did manage to sleep a nightmare yanked her out of her slumber.

Behind her, Leo stared out into the gloominess of the forest, his knife clutched in his right hand. For hours she meticulously planned her next moves, then finally stood from her mat and tapped Leo on the shoulder. "I'll take over, go to sleep." She was very much awake.

"No, it's not your time yet." His weak protests fell on deaf ears, she jerked her head to the rest of the group. "Go to sleep."

Thanking her quietly, he groaned as he made his way over to his roll, eyes drooping and heavy feet stumbling. Elle settled into a hunched position, listening acutely to the noises of the night greeting her like an old friend.

There was music in the darkness: the steady winds; the chirping animals and wise moon. Someone had once told her the story of the lonely moon, forever stranded in the midst of the star's dance. Such a celebration of life and beauty missed by so many who don't stay up to see it.

Memories of her mother, barefoot, dancing in the darkest nights with a soft smile and a pealing laugh, "dance with me and the moon, darling." She would teach her where to put her clumsy feet, walking her through the motions of a simple waltz until Elle had perfected it.

Feeling silly but standing anyway, Elle kept her eyes on the shadowed trees but began to sway from one foot to the other, twirling with a partner thousands of miles away. She waltzed with the stars under the moon's watchful gaze, under her mother's warmer guidance.

A girl dancing to music that graced no others' ears, twirling until her feet grew numb and she sank down on her haunches once more.

Elle fiddled with her dagger, tracing the old design. Made with a hilt of coiled unbreakable iron, it was the mysterious engraved emblem that earned the weapon its uniqueness. An arrow doused in flames had been carved into the blade, the tip of the arrow pointing to the top of the blade. Intricate handiwork from many years ago, it truly was her blade of embers.

She began to yawn profusely as dawn broke and the others began to stir. Just her luck to be yearning for sleep at the most inconvenient of times. Her nocturnal activities had taken their toll. Shuffling into the woods, the assassin checked her traps from the night before, finding a small rabbit-like creature. It looked edible enough so she brought it back to camp. There, they snacked on the rabbit and some fruits, refilling their flasks with water.

Jax led the charge again once the camp had been dismantled, folded and stuffed into their saddlebags. Elle gritted her teeth, they had to keep going if there were ever going to make it to Lorel.

Over a week passed of being sodden in damp clothes, teeth chattering and numbness. They trudged through Orioch, sticking to the old path but seeing no clues to how far longer they would have to travel. Every night Elle had tried to get some shut-eye before a nightmare ripped her from her dreamless sleep, she would wake slick with sweat, breathing heavily.

This deep in Orioch the small creatures she had successfully trapped had grown scarce, so the team relied upon their rations. To ignore hunger pains, Elle resorted to making her own entertainment—bothering Jax.

"How much longer until we reach Lorel?"

Jax grunted, turning the ripped map he held and squinting at it. "Are you ignoring me?" She pressed, a mischievous grin appearing.

He gritted his teeth, meeting her eyes. "No." Elle sighed loudly at his rubbish answer, then chimed once more, "how did you become team leader?"

"Is that jealousy I sense?" He said, cocking his head to one side. She shrugged, eyeing him up and down. "It must be something fairly scandalous if you aren't telling me. And I'll tell you now, I'm very good at finding out peoples' secrets." She studied him for a second.

"Did you sleep with someone on the Council?" Kath smothered her giggle as Jax's eyes widened.

"No."

Elle opened her mouth to pry again but was interrupted by Jax's tight voice, "shut your mouth. I need to lead." He squinted at the skyline. "Or should I gag you?"

The team fell back into silence. Elle peered over his shoulder, ignoring his scowl when she spoke, "you're reading the map wrong."

"I'm not."

"You should let Kath do it, she has the official navigational training—"

"I'm not."

Sinking back into her saddle, tiredness crashed over her. No, she had to stay awake, stay alert. She forced her heavy eyelids open. Leo's observant gaze didn't skip past her, instead he sidled up his horse with hers. "Sleep now, we will survive a few hours without your gossiping, Ellie."

A breathy chuckle, she didn't correct him on the damned nickname. Letting her head drop, the horse's gait rocked her unnaturally but it would do. She only allowed herself to sleep because her body cried for it, only because she was bone-tired. Not because Leo had noticed her sleeping schedules. Not because she felt safe enough with their protection to do so. 


(edited)

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