We fell silent, and I took the moment to mull over that information as I devoured my savory hand pie.It was spiced to perfection and filled with a meat and three types of vegetable that I couldn’t place, but liked.
“How long until we reach Coleti?” I asked once I was done with the delicious pastry.
Hatter twisted his lips to the side. “It’ll be almost a two-day journey. That’s with stops along the way to eat and sleep and continue your training. I’m hoping we might even run into a wild herd of bandersnatch, so that you can study them up close. That would be helpful for when you go after the queen’s herd around the city.”
“Seeing a wild one would be cool.”
Hatter gave me a soft smile. “You’ll likely hear it before you see it. Until then, why don’t we get some cardio in?”
I groaned, but didn’t have time to argue, because Henri set off at a run.
“I’m timing you!” he called back over his shoulder. “Loser owes the winner an ale when we return.”
Oh no, he didn’t,I thought and sprinted after him.
Chapter 11
The sun had almost dipped below the horizon when we finally stopped to make camp. Well, Hatter called it making camp. In my opinion, throwing our bags on the ground and sitting next to them hardly qualified as makinganything.
“You didn’t bring a tent?” I asked.
Hatter pulled something that resembled a bar of food out of his bag. “Nope. If any of the queen’s men realize you’re here, you’ll become the top fugitive in Wonderland Court. It’s best not to have things like a tent attracting attention or hindering us from running away.”
“Right.” I glanced up at the sky. At least if I had to sleep without cover, it didn’t look like it was about to rain.
I started to shrug off my cloak, but Hatter shook his head.
“Leave your hood up. If the wrong person catches sight of your hair—”
“Look around, Henri.” I gestured to the wider woods. “We haven’t seen anyone all day.”
“Just because you haven’t seen anybody, doesn’t mean they’re not around.” Hatter arched his brows. “Have you seen Dee and Dum since we started on our journey?”
He knew I hadn’t. I’d commented on it many times because the pixies were supposed to be traveling with us.
“No,” I admitted.
“That’s because we don’t want you to see us!” Dee’s high-pitched voice sang out.
I twisted my neck from side to side, trying to spot the pixies.
Dum let out a tinkle of a laugh. “You’ll never find us if we don’t want you to.”
As if to drive the point home, both pixies flew toward me out of nowhere and erupted into a fit of giggles as they landed on my shoulders.
Although I should’ve been annoyed because people were making fun of me, I snorted. Staying mad at the twins was difficult. “Where have you been all day?”
Dee wiped her forehead dramatically. “Flying our wings off to keep up.”
“And staying out of sight in case you needed any help,” Dum added.
“Help? What are you two going to do if the woods are full of dangerous creatures?”
“Remember the venom?” Dee tapped her tooth.
“How could I forget? But you said that you would need a swarm of pixies to take someone down. There are only two of you.”
“Wild hordes of pixies live everywhere. All we’d have to do is send out the call, and they’d come flying.”
