Wylde Magic | Book 3

Five: What Was Left

Breathing was hard, but it was one thing I practiced regularly.

One... Two... Three...

I closed my eyes, letting the motion of Thain carry me through the trees and over the mountain to where he was taking us for the night. My ribs still hurt, but I did what I could to ignore it and focus on breathing.

In... and out.

Once we got somewhere safer, I could go through my book and see what of Purda's notes could help me.

"It's not far," Thain said. "But you should know there are others there."

"This far outside the Wyldes?" Schula asked. "What others?"

"Humans."

That caused me to open my eyes.

"We saw one of the humans from here down in Sulls," I said. "She said the village was attacked. Many of them were killed."

Thain rumbled, I could feel the vibrations from when he spoke as I lay against his back. "They were attacked, that's true. More of the same raiders that had come through when I first found you, Wren."

My heart skipped a beat. The memory wasn't a pleasant one, even if it did lead me to Thain and the fae.

"The day Bryn died," I murmured.

"So why are you taking us to where humans are?" Spaulder asked. "They do not trust the likes of us."

Thain moved his head. My guess was that he looked at Spaulder when he spoke.

"A very small number of the survivors decided to stay and try to rebuild. Most that lived did leave. I've reached something of an understanding with the ones that remain. I stay nearby and roam as I please, catching things that don't belong here. The people do not bother me, and I do not bother them."

"Things that... roam," Nassir said. "Thain, how is the state of the barrier between the Wyldes and these lands?"

Thain hummed darkly. "Not good. Things are slipping through each day, and the outpost has been all but abandoned."

Schula gasped. "Are none of the courts sending guards out?"

"None. They are all preoccupied within their own borders, now that conflict is upon us," Thain answered. "I've been here for weeks now, but I haven't seen another fae in a while."

"What of Eberon?" Nassir asked. "What of your triquetram?"

"I didn't say it has been an easy few weeks. I feel the stretch between us, but Eberon is at his family's estate, doing what he does best. Diplomacy. Something he is better off doing without me there," Thain said. "But here, we're nearly to a safe place. We can all speak more when Wren is seen to and we have walls at our backs."

That seemed to stall the conversation. I almost missed having the added distraction to my pain, but it didn't take long before I was carried around a bend I knew would lead straight for the village.

And it was a very different village now.

The last time I saw it, the buildings were smoldering, smoking, crumbling. There was little smoke this time as I laid my eyes upon it, just two thin trails lifting up from chimneys. Houses were boarded up, broken doors and windows were collected in piles between buildings. The rebuilt houses weren't all in the same places they had been in before the fires of the last raid, and yet here they were again in shambles.

Thain's steps were soft, giving me the smoothest ride possible as he carried me through the buildings toward a barn closer to the water. The lapping of the lake was slow and cold, matching the aching beat of my heart.