“Easy,” I said with a soft voice. “It’s just me.”
I made a quick trip to the tack room before picking the horse nearest to the stable doors. By early tomorrow morning, when the stable boy walked in, it would be a matter of minutes before everyone knew I was gone.
I saddled the horse as best I could in the dark and led it out of the stables.
“I know it’s cold.” With my left foot in the stirrup, I swung my right leg over the horse and moved on the saddle until I found a comfortable seat. “But we have to do this before snowfall or it’s only going to make it that much more difficult.”
With only a little bit of moonlight to guide us, I steered the horse away from the stables and towards the woods in the distance. Despite wearing gloves, my hands felt cold and stiff, and I had trouble properly gripping the reins.
I could see the horse’s breath and my own evaporating into the frigid air. It wasn’t long before the palace grounds fell behind us and we reached the treeline. With the dark night looming, some part of me wished I hadn’t done this alone. I thought about how much better and safer I would feel to have Cai by my side.But then I reminded myself that there was no way in hell he would have agreed to this.
I looked up at the inky shadows of the trees, breaking up the moonlight. Though I knew the forest could be a dangerous place to be alone in at night, I wanted to believe that the stories were true.
If the forest was really guarded by its natural elements and knew that I had no evil intent, maybe I would be lucky enough to receive protection instead of any kind of harm.
“You grew up in the forest,” I told myself.
It had raised me and fed me and looked after me my whole life. Dare I see it as an old friend?
“You’ve been calling.” My voice, a little shakier than I would have liked, slipped into the moonlit darkness.
“Well, here I am.” The trees and the wind had been urging me back to the only home I had had for a very long time. I was no longer the Evernean queen. I was, once again, a bandit in the night.
* * *
The horse’s hooves clopped over the forest floor and the tension in my shoulders told me we’d been riding for a few hours. Everyone at the palace was probably looking for me by now. I straightened my back, trying to better my posture and relieve some of the discomfort. So far the journey had been quiet and uneventful.
I’d stopped a few times to get a little sleep and give the horse some rest, but I knew we didn’t have much time to lose, so I’d been travelling through the night. Though I was unable to shake the feeling that I was being watched with every step that I took, I told myself that it was only the eyes of the forest looking after me. There was nothing to fear here now.
An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, and I gave my horse’s neck a little scratch.
“We’ll stop soon, I promise.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how far I had to go, but I knew it couldn’t be too much further away. Whether or not it was true, it almost always felt as if you didn’t find the centre of the forest, but the centre of the forest had a way of finding you. And for the first time in my life, it could actually be helpful.
Clouds hid the moon’s light, making it too dark to use the map, but I knew I had to find the creek, so I kept listening for any moving water.
When the darkness finally started to lift, I veered off the main forest path towards the middle of the forest. Here, the trees grew closer together, the branches and leaves crowding the way, and we had to walk slowly and carefully. Morning dew coated the greenery surrounding me, the sunlight slowly creeping into the dark forest.
After what felt like a very long time, I began to doubt if I was even going the right way. Maybe I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere in the dark. But then, finally, in the distance, water. Not a wide, gushing river but a small, crooked creek.
I stopped to let the horse drink and emptied my own flask before filling it up again. Even though I wasn’t very thirsty, once I left the creek behind, who knew how long it would be until I found water again. I took an apple out of my satchel and bit into the crunchy fruit. While examining my map, I let the horse graze a bit on the small patches of surrounding grass here and there. If I continued to follow the creek, it wouldn’t be long before I reached the mist.
After our little break, I mounted my horse again and continued our journey along the creek. While I was more certain that I was on the right path, I felt my nerves grow with every step as we got closer to the centre of the forest.
The morning sun brought a little warmth, and I could finally take off my gloves and flex my fingers. I felt tired and hungry despite my snack, but I had to conserve my food. There was no telling how long this might take.
The creek continued on and on, longer than any creek I’d followed before, twisting and turning in some places.
And then, out of nowhere, the light got bleaker. I looked up and it felt like a heavy cloud had come to rest above the trees. It grew more difficult to see into the far distance. My horse became slightly uneasy as the mist crept up on us. A warning, if nothing else.
“Easy,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. But my heart was beginning to race, and I was no longer sure which one of us needed to be reassured more.
The white fog slithered like a snake between the trees, working its way over my horse’s flanks towards my shoulders. Resisting the urge to turn back, I had to keep telling myself that I’d got out of here once and I would do it again.
Finally, the mist was all-consuming and I could only see a few short feet ahead of me. I halted the horse and slid out of the saddle. The creek was still next to us and I would follow it for as long as possible.
Each step I took was careful, as if the floor would suddenly fall away beneath me. But with the lack of vision, it wasn’t entirely out of the question that I could accidentally fall into a ditch or something. I led the horse, staying close to the water and listening for anything that sounded out of the ordinary. Every so often, I would look around, deluding myself into thinking I could see into the distance. It might have only been a method of calming myself so that I could focus on the task at hand.
