Half Wylde | Book 1

Fifty One: One Last Push

With Mina hiding my true nature, the trio that Eberon had brought with him pulled supplies from their packs and made harnesses for the three of us. The cloth and strings were wrapped in a way that allowed one strong fae to carry an injured one.

Thain fought the harness, but Eberon was like a mother hen as he fussed over Thain until he agreed to the help. His harness had to be carried between two fae, Thain was so big.

Puko, on the other hand, was content to sit by my ear and tug at pieces of my hair like he would do when he wanted breakfast and I wanted to sleep.

"You dratted thing," I growled. "I'll feed you when I can."

Our injuries were tended to as well as they could be on a cave floor. My leg, which I'm told had been broken in two places, was set and tightly wrapped. I passed out the moment they pushed my bones together. A small blessing that I wasn't conscious for the remainder of my treatments, because I'm told there were a lot of them.

I finally came to when we were being situated in the harnesses. I glanced over at Schula, who's brow was slick with sweat and her face scrunched in discomfort, despite the fact that we had been given a thick sweet syrup to numb the pain.

Mina carried me, Eberon carried Thain, and another fae I hadn't interacted with yet carried Schula. We were taken from the caverns and moved south and east under Eberon's direction.

We quickly met up with another group of about ten more fae who Eberon had waiting in the woods away from Icehold. Our groups converged, and we progressed slowly on our way to the Autumn borders.

It was terrifying as we ran into the occasional flesh hound that needed to be dealt with. We ran into two within an hour of departing the cavern.

We also had to avoid detection of DuVarick's soldiers, and they had started to spread their search out past Icehold's reaches.

Over the next couple hours I fell in and out of sleep. The others probably did too, but I was dead tired after everything I had gone through the last couple weeks. Puko didn't leave my side.

When I was awake, I heard the whispers of Eberon and the fae he had brought with him. The plan seemed to be to take us back to Thanantholl and let the king make the decisions for our next move.

All well and fine, but I'm not going back to another king who helped exile the elves, I thought.

But I also heard the reports of the scouting fae, saying some of the Winter fae had picked up our trail. Most of the warriors bristled at this. Stood straighter, kept a sharper eye out.

I suppose that was bound to happen, the group was far too big to hide all of us.

"How do you want to proceed?" A lanky fae asked Eberon.

I may have been a bit delirious from everything, but a stray thought trailed into my mind.

"Are we passing by the crater?" I asked.

Eberon looked at me softly. "We'll be not too far from it, it's the straightest route."

"Keep the course straight," Thain suggested. "Send sets of three to weave footprints around, away, and through our path. It won't fool them, but it might slow them down."

Eberon gave a curt nod to the scouts who were listening. "Do it."

The fae sprang into action.

I, on the other hand, meditated.

I did what I could to bring myself to my safe place, to my little cabin.

I let myself idol there. Recover. Grow strong. If I was counting our distance correctly, I had only a few hours to build up strength for one last push of magic.