I could be going home in as little as a fortnight.
“We should rest for a few hours,” Elden tied the horse’s reins to a log and made his way to a nice patch of grass. There he laid on his back, placing the hood of his jacket over his eyes.
I looked around the peaceful green grass, the sunflowers blowing in the small breeze. My eyelids were heavy after riding out all night and my back screamed at me to lay down. So, I laid in the grass, shielding my eyes from the rising sun with my jacket just as Elden had done.
But as I lay in the crisp breeze, my mind filled with visions of sugarplums. Holding my sister and mother again, laughing around a hot mug of cider as we play games late into the night. I fell asleep with the warm hope of finding a cure, and the chance of seeing my family rekindled in my heart.
16
BLUEBELLS
“Time to rise, Little Baker.” The king’s voice beckoned to me through my heavy dozing.
“What?” I sat up, my heart quickening. I pulled my hood back and blinked back the bright sunlight that beamed above me. Through my straining eyes, I could see that it was already midday. “We’ve slept half the day away.”
Elden’s mouth lifted in a small smile. “Yes, it seems we needed the sleep. Our first stop is a half day’s ride.”
“Oh, good.” My cheeks heated at the king’s smirk. “What? What’s so funny?”
Elden bit down on his lip. The look so casual, so attractive, I blinked back in surprise— almost forgetting why I’d been upset.
The king was happy to remind me. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?”
I grabbed a fistful of grass and tossed it at the king, “I do not.”
Elden laughed, the sound as light and delicate as a snowflake. “Oh yes. Something about a rogue rolling pin, if your mutterings are to be believed.”
“I’ll whackyouwith a rogue rolling pin.” I muttered under my breath as I stood, brushing the grass and fallen leaves from my backside. “Are we going or what?” I chirped, trying to hide the pink of my cheeks.
“I have already readied the horses.”
“Good.” I stomped over to Sapphire, pleading with her to bend a knee or something to allow me to climb into her saddle with ease.
“Allow me,” Elden said into my hair, ruffling the curls, then wordlessly placed his hands on my waist and lifted me into the saddle.
“Thank you,” I said through a heated face. Would I ever get used to this strange attention from the king?
As the yellow sunflowers of the fields gave way to lush green rolling hills, I studied the delicate world around me. The Undying Lands were so similar to the human lands. Small villages gave way to large rolling fields and farmlands. But the land shone strangely, as if I wore a pair of amethyst glasses over my eyes. The grass blades themselves seemed to be made of crystal. The leaves, the flowers, but when I would reach and touch them, they felt as any leaf of flower would in my lands. Here, the colors were a bit more saturated, as if the world itself were more concentrated here. Like a shortbread—thickly lined with butter and sugar—far from the fluffy yeast breads of the human lands.
The thought caused my stomach to growl.
As we rode along, part of the wood looked as if touched by fire. Large swaths of burnt trees of ash lined one side of the road. The smell of rot hung limply in the air.
“Was there a fire here?” I asked the king as we rode side by side.
Elden shook his head, concern written across his eyes. “What you see before you is the blight. It has spread farther than I realized.”
On one side of me was an ancient forest teeming with all manner of sounds, movement and life. To the left was a desolate landscape as foreign as the surface of the moon. Gone were the green twisting branches covered in leaves. The black sticks of a forest were as charred as scorched bread. Angry.Wrong.
I sped up to ride beside the king again, both of us staring at the dead forest, the silence pricking my ears. The edges between the live and dead forest smeared with the surrounding wood, almost pulling the live trees in.
Evoking them with hungry, dead fingers.
We continued at a slower pace than last night, passing untouched, wondrous enchanted lands, but still a pace that turned my legs to water by the time we reached a small village set in the hills. Curved doors and cheerful plants popped out from hillsides and tree trunks. Elden slowed so that I could pull up beside him.
“This is Spindlewood. Its people are very hearty, but flighty. They seem to find a reason to celebrate with one another almost every night.”
I smiled. “Sounds wonderful.”
