Suddenly a deep groan rumbled behind me, followed by a fresh wave of screams. I looked back just in time to see darkness spilling from one of the gigantic trees nearest the house. Roots sprang free from the earth, spitting mud and stone, and as I watched in horror, long black tendrils latched onto the corner of Briarcourt and began climbing up its walls.
Whatever had held back the Knotwood was gone, and now this wild, gods-crafted forest was waking up.
I turned away and bolted down the road. My stomach turned at the sounds I heard. Each one painted a vivid picture of crumbling stone, collapsing towers, shrieking people, and a hungry forest knitting itself closed around the Briarcourt grounds.
I knew what happened when the Middlemist broke past its boundaries, as it had done a little more every day over the past few months. The land it consumed became Mistland—gray and sunless, unpredictable, and vulnerable to Olden invasion. Those who didn’t make it out of Briarcourt in time could end up facing unimaginable horrors in the depths of those woods.
Neave peered past my arm. “They’re helping,” she murmured. Hereyes were cloudy, her lips white. “Your friends are helping. How do I know that?”
“You’re dreaming,” I told her. “Go back to sleep.”
But her words made my throat tighten.They’re helping.My sisters, my friends.
My Gareth.
Neave could have been delirious, but I knew in my heart that she was right. Ofcoursethey were trying to help as many people escape as they could. I might have done the same if I were them. The Warden would have scolded me for it.Unnecessary heroicswas what she called that sort of thing. Our lives, she always told us, were too precious for us to take needless risks.Keep to the mission. You cannot save everyone.
And she was right. Nevertheless, it was torment to run away from the others. Part of me wanted to toss this girl I neither knew nor loved into the bracken and tear back up the road to make sure all five of them survived. I would carry them on my back if I had to. I would blaze a new fiery road through the trees and stun the Knotwood in its tracks.
But instead I gritted my teeth and kept running. The trees on either side of me shrank from monstrous to simply tall. Soon they were gone, and it was just Neave and me alone on the road, with Briarcourt behind us and open country ahead. The horizon was white, the sky thick and gray. It had begun to snow.
***
Neave was light, but she didn’t weigh nothing, and as far as I could tell, no one was following us.
So, forty miles into my run, I stopped beside a small creek to stretch my legs and dunk my head into the icy water. Even though the air was cold and the snow came thickly, my muscles were warm, limber, and happy, and the exercise had cleared my mind.
I considered Neave while I wrung out my hair and twisted it into atight knot. She was a pitiful sight, hardly more than a bundle of knobby elbows and scarred legs. I wished I’d thought to snatch someone’s coat before fleeing Briarcourt. My body was hot enough to warm her as we ran, but she deserved to wear something more dignified than the nightgown of her imprisonment.
I squatted beside her and brushed the dark hair off her face. It was chin length and jaggedly cut, most likely hacked to pieces by Eldric Lemaire’s knife. She reminded me of Alastrina Bask. After her time in Mhorghast, Alastrina had looked like this—as if all the good, strong pieces of who she’d been had been cut away. According to Ryder, her time recuperating at the estate of Gemma’s friend Illaria Farrow was the only thing that had brought some life back into her eyes.
“Lily?” I said. “I need you to listen to me.” When she didn’t respond, I lightly pushed her. “Wake up, Lily. This is important.”
Her eyelids fluttered open. “That’s not my name.”
“What is your name, then?”
I waited, but all she could do was frown at me.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “It’s far away.”
“Excellent. I’m Mara. Nice to meet you, Faraway.”
A flutter of irritation crossed her face. “That’s not my name.”
“It will have to do. Listen carefully. We’re going to start running again, and we won’t stop for a long time. Do you remember when you told me that my friends were helping?”
She stared at me, but it was obvious she wasn’t really seeing me. Her pale hazel eyes swam with specks of bright gold.
“I do,” she replied, her voice quiet but steady. “Your sisters and their lovers.Yourlover.” She touched my cheek. Realization dawned in her eyes. “Kerezen.”
I grabbed on to her wrist, as if that would somehow keep her with me. “Neave? Can you hear me?”
The shadow of another face flickered across her features. “You are my sister’s daughter.”
Her solemn proclamation chilled me. “I am, and I need you to stay with me, all right? I need you to keep watch as I run. I’m going to run faster now, and I’ll need to put all my energy into that. It’s possible someone might come after us on the road. If you sense anyone coming toward us with ill intent, tell me at once. Do you understand?”
“Ill intent?”
