There were no emerald hills or valleys, nor lively villages with laughter and music spilling from beneath worn tavern doors.
Instead, the world was quiet. As if it were only inhabited by ghosts.
‘We’re not moving,’ another prisoner said.
Muffled voices came from outside, and then the back door of the transport wagon was thrown open. Light filtered in as it hit the ground with a boomingthunk,sending up a swell of snow.
When it settled, the Sacred Prince Arawn of Lordach stood in itsplace.
‘Blockage in the road,’ Arawn said by way of greeting. His brows furrowed as if he were already annoyed they hadn’t moved. ‘Daylight is fading.Get out.’
They had yet to trust the prisoners, even if they were soldiers now.
The Redguard had chained them all up, knowing they might take the chance to run before they made it to the warfront and received their stations.
Each was fastened at the waist by chains, and set in two lines, so closely packed together they could shuffle only mere steps at a time as they shakily made their way into the falling snow.
As if they were one body.
Ezer, to her relief, was not chained among them.
Perhaps because she was recruited from a tower instead of a cell.
Trees surrounded the group, mostly thick evergreens as tall as the sky with white weighing heavy upon their lower branches and piled up in drifts at the forest floor. She couldn’t see their tops, for how tall they towered. White aspens were mixed in, with ghostly bark and black knots that looked all too much like watching eyes.
She felt dizzy as she followed their ascent. They were far larger than the trees had ever been beyond Rendegard. Like they could stretch to the clouds.
Out in the open, the sheer force of the wind hit her.
Thiswas true winter.
A feeling like knives nipping at Ezer’s skin, like she was made of glass and might shatter.
She still wore her shredded remnants of a cloak from Rendegard. It was clothing meant for a life by the sea, lightweight so she could move about taking care of her birds.
Dragging the chains that she did not miss. Her ankles still ached from the ghost of her shackles.
But the sight of the prisoners wearing them …
She had to look away.
She peered around the wagon and onto the narrow road, herbreath a cloud before her. It was no wonder the wagon wouldn’t be able to make it through.
Several enormous trees had been upturned at their roots, their branches already covered up by fresh snow. As if the sheer weight of winter had felled them, though some part of Ezer whispered a warning.
Monsters.
She’d read too many raven scrolls, seen too many names hurriedly scribbled in ink.
‘Well?’ Ezer asked. ‘What happens next?’
Arawn didn’t so much as mutter a grumpy hello as he approached.
His enormous shoulders were now covered in a white cloak lined with fur that was thick enough to keep him warm. There were runes stitched into the lining, like he’d somehow magicked the cloak to ward away the cold.
Now that she knew who he really was, it made sense.
He trulywashandsome. Even through his cloak she could see his muscles were so large, she couldn’t help but admire them. Couldn’t help but wonder what he would look like in the heat of battle, his body a deliciously honed weapon.
