⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅ ◈ ⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

They moved swiftly through the dark, their cloaks sweeping behind them and their faces set with determination. The winter was brutal, biting with invisible teeth sharp as a dagger, but they carried on, undeterred. Around them, the only sound to be heard was the crunching of their feet over the snow blanketing the forest floor, and the occasional hoot of an owl. One after another, they slipped through the glittering moonlight, three of the five men carrying swords while the other two carried bows.

"She's gone." There was one woman among them and she carried a throwing axe. She was short and her voice was soft, but they all heard and listened.

"I'm not being beaten by some petty girl fleeing the king," an archer replied. He was the only one of the company that had an accent, having come from the East. His skin was black as the night sky and he walked alongside a swordsman, his dark eyes on alert. "We will find her. She can't have gone far."

"Then where is she?" the woman demanded. Her silver hair—prematurely so as she was only in her thirties—shimmered in the moonlight as she whipped her head around, eyes narrowed. "I see her nowhere and we have searched up and down for hours with no luck."

"I'm hungry," one of the swordsmen added unhelpfully.

"Where would a girl hide?" the Eastern archer pondered. He looked up at the trees above, considering. The woman followed his gaze and smiled lightly.

"Trees," the woman said, half-whispering. Her gloved hands clutched her axe tighter. "Of course, trees."

"Trees?" The hungry swordsman who had spoken earlier seemed confused as he followed their eyes up. "What's wrong with 'em?"

"You're thick as a slab of wood," another swordsman chastised. "The girl might be up in a tree." He paused. "If she ain't, we could lose a lot of time. We risk missing her, and time can't be wasted lest she gets away."

The woman shook her head. "I believe that she is. We should have found her by now, but after a while her tracks just receded to nothing. Let's go back and search around there again, but this time, we look up instead of down." Then, under her breath: "thank the gods the damned snow has stopped."

Everyone seemed to like her plan. They nodded and followed her as she led the way back towards the border of the forest.

Somewhere in the canopy of snow-covered branches, a sixteen-year-old girl perched in a tree with an arrow nocked in her bow. At the sound of footsteps, she pressed herself against the trunk and pointed her bow down. They hadn't noticed her yet but it wouldn't be long.

"There!" a woman's voice suddenly called.

At that moment, the girl released an arrow. As weak as the light was, she sent the arrow straight into the head of a swordsman. There was an infinitesimal moment where she froze, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling she always felt after a kill. Then she took a deep breath, nocked another arrow and aimed, but was too slow—they had already scrambled to take cover behind trees or rocks.

"Come down, come down!" the Eastern archer sung.

Blindly, she shot in the direction of his voice and missed. Another arrow came back in response, missing her head by inches. She wondered if he missed on purpose.

"Ah, no manners. Did they not teach you etiquette, princess?" the archer called, making her grit her teeth.

"If you don't come down willingly, I'll have to cut you down." The woman was speaking. The girl could see the glint of her axe in the moonlight, the light winking wickedly. "We won't hurt you if you come nicely, I promise."

"I can't make the same promise, I'm afraid." The girl thought of Will, of his steady hand and deadly precision, and pointed her bow at the easiest target: a burly swordsman hiding behind a rock, too large to fit behind it without his head poking up. She steadied her shaking hands and shot at him, hitting her target. No cry escaped his lips as he collapsed to the floor, hitting the pinecones and frozen ground with a thud.

"Bring His Majesty here to face me himself and then I'll come down," Audrey offered, looking for an escape as she spoke. She knew she wouldn't be going to Ulysses again after he had betrayed her, offering her to Landon in return for his sister. Because of him, Malena was dead and Will had disappeared. She couldn't help wondering what would have happened if she had stayed with Clovis in the castle... maybe she would have been safe.

But, then again, probably not. They would have dragged her out anyway to make the deal, regardless of whether she was willing or not.

She could still see the fox pouncing on Will in her mind and her eyes fluttered shut briefly, trying to rid herself of the pain. She had been a craven to run, leaving him behind to fend for himself; as far as she knew, her cowardice had killed him. Guilt gnawed at her insides, ripping them apart and making her head pound: with every throb of her heart, coward, coward, coward, swarmed her thoughts.

She thought of Grace's subtle gesture for her to run. Why had Landon's cousin helped her? Was she secretly against him? Or had she just felt pity for the fallen princess?

Too many thoughts. Too much: everything was too much.

"How about you come down now?" The Eastern archer asked.

"I'm not moving, but you're free to come up and get me yourself," Audrey dared. She knew she would not let Landon get hold of her again. He had killed his own father and threatened and manipulated her, and she didn't want to live in fear of him anymore. She had purposely climbed the tree to a height where she could jump down and break every bone in her body. That was only a last resort, however. She had decided to fight back. She would wreak revenge on those who had wronged her—those who had wronged her family and tried to go against an Everwood and come out unscathed. She wanted to stop running, even if she had to finally face the people chasing her. The only way to stop running was to get rid of her pursuers.

"Saerus is an accomplished archer," the woman replied. "He won't miss. If we need to incapacitate you before we drag you back, so it shall be."

Anger boiled under her skin, bubbling and threatening to spill, but she forced herself to focus on her current situation. There had been six people as far as she had seen. She had shot down two. That left four unless there were more lurking around.

"Shoot me," Audrey challenged. "I'll die right here and then you'll have to carry a dead body back to your boy king."

She was taking a wild guess that he wanted her alive. If he didn't, then she was screwed.

An arrow embedded in the wood above her head, barely missing. She returned the shot, but the archer's head disappeared behind the tree again and the arrow breezed straight past.

Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it straining at her chest, almost as if it wanted to split the skin and break out. In front of her, her breath steamed the air, and little clouds floated into the misty haze of the forest. Her whole body was alert, primal instinct activated at the threat of death.

"Come on down," the Eastern archer, Saerus, called. "Save yourself, dear. You have already irritated us by shooting down two of our men—which, by the way, was not very nice—but that can be forgiven. We have food and supplies. We can wait here as long as we need."

Audrey took a deep breath before climbing lower and snapping two twigs off a branch hanging over her head.

"What are you doing?" There was fear in the male's voice. It was another man speaking now.

She didn't reply as she began rubbing them against each other, creating friction.

"What are you doing?" The same male repeated.

"I'll set the forest on fire with all of us in it," Audrey warned.

Saerus made a choking sound that sounded like a laugh. "You... you what?"

Mentally, she set out a chessboard. Placed their white pieces and the pieces of her black opposition.

White moves first.

She was relying on them to act impulsively. Although it seemed like a petty move, burning the forest down would not be ideal. After a few seconds, she heard the rustle of branches as someone climbed the tree, rather stealthily but not silently enough to evade her. She pretended not to notice, feigning more interest in the sticks.

When the swordsman poked his head around the side of the tree, she had an arrow out already, dropping the sticks.

"Hared!" The woman cried out a warning, but it was too late; the arrow had already hit him and he tumbled out of the tree, hitting the branches, his body bouncing down like a ragdoll.

That's all he is. A dummy, target practice, Audrey thought. My life means more than theirs, and they know it.

Putting a hand to her quiver, Audrey realised she only had six shots left. She unsheathed her dirk with the hand not holding the bow, gripping the leather hilt tightly and managing not to wince as there was a sickening thud below. The snapping of branches; then the sound of snapping bones. The swordsman had reached the ground in a mess of blood and contorted limbs, his body sprawled unnaturally. The snow was not deep enough to prevent his fall.

Several opening moves.

"We have food and water," the woman noted. "Soon, you will be forced to come down or starve. Survival instinct will not let you starve yourself to death."

White sends forward a bishop, pinning the knight.

She sat against the trunk of the tree and took a deep breath. She had killed him and she couldn't make herself care.

Black's move.

"You have no reason to serve that usurper! You're all assholes!" she called down angrily, aware that she sounded childish. She felt helpless, and that was something she loathed.

"You were the one who shot poor Hared out of the tree," the Eastern archer called back. "Don't be a hypocrite."

Which was a good point.

She imagined Lucian sitting in the tree in front of her, his shoulder-long blonde hair tied up and a sword on his lap. She imagined him shaking his head at her, a shimmering phantom.

An Everwood is a wolf that is woken when prodded. When you anger an Everwood, you don't get away with it, his voice whispered even as his lips didn't move.

She clenched her hands into fists. She wouldn't be able to win through fighting. Their archers were more experienced and they wouldn't make the mistake of trying to take her on. They would wait for her to surrender or starve herself in the tree. She would have to win another way.

Black moves an innocuous knight.

She slowly climbed down, careful not to slip on the icy branches.

She lost her footing close to the bottom and slipped, hitting the ground painfully on her back. A soft groan escaped her lips and she turned onto her side, cradling her left hand as she landed on it. The snow was melting through her cloak, making her skin prick up and her pale cheeks flush bright red.

She waited.

White moves the rook to an open file.

She heard soft footsteps then was dragged to her feet by the Eastern archer, Saerus. She struggled, trying to break free, only for him to pick her up and sling her over his shoulders. The woman emerged from behind a tree, her throwing axe in hand and her silver hair glowing in the moonlight where tendrils escaped from a high bun. Audrey found a hysterical laugh bubbling inside of her at the sight: the woman looked like an inhuman entity, the snow glistening in the light around her and her high cheekbones protruding from her pale skin.

Black castles.

The woman took a cloak from a dead swordsman and laid it on the snowy ground. If she felt any sense of loss for him, it didn't show on her face.

"Put her here. We'll leave shortly." At the woman's request, Saerus set Audrey on the cloak. The woman turned to an archer still hidden by the trees.

"Come, Jerry." The archer stepped out and Audrey started to see that Jerry was even younger than her, his curly blonde hair falling into his brown eyes and his uniform too big for him at the sleeves. While the woman was in her thirties and Saerus in his forties, Jerry was young enough to be their son.

Landon did it on purpose, Audrey realised. He was testing her without even being there.

White fianchettos.

"Tie her," the woman commanded Jerry.

"Yes, miss." He obeyed and knelt to tie her arms and legs together with rope before tugging her bow and quiver from her back and unsheathing the dirk, passing both to Saerus. The boy wouldn't meet her eyes.

"My hand?" Audrey asked.

Saerus frowned at her. "What about it?"

"I landed on it. I think I broke a bone."

"You are a liar," Saerus snorted, but the woman lay down her axe to come and kneel by Audrey.

"Jerry, get firewood. It's freezing," she said without looking at him.

"Yes, miss." He disappeared into the forest and Audrey gave a secret sigh of relief. She didn't know if her conscience could cope with the weight of a boy's death lying on it, but she had to do what was necessary for her own survival.

"What does Landon want with me?" Audrey asked the woman. Saerus was examining her bow from where he was sitting on a log.

"I don't know. His Majesty's business is none of mine, unless it regards me." The woman took Audrey's hand and realised she couldn't separate Audrey's palms without freeing both hands. She reluctantly did so, and Audrey was aware of an arrow being nocked as Saerus pointed an arrow at her.

"Don't try anything," he warned as the woman freed her hands.

Audrey didn't reply as the woman frowned, looking over old scars. She seemed momentarily distracted before she pressed Audrey's hand, checking for protruding bones.

Audrey closed her eyes as black dots danced before her eyes and she could sense her consciousness slipping away in her exhaustion. Weakly, she caught and clung onto it even as it tried to evade her. If she fainted, she would inevitably end up in Landon's clutches. She couldn't have that.

Everwoods are soldiers. We never stop fighting until the battle is won or our bodies are nothing more than flesh, sweat, and blood.

"Your wrist is fine. Just a bit bruised." The woman frowned, her face softening. For a moment, it looked as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. "It's okay, you know. His Majesty is not as bad as you may think."

"How could you say that?"

She sighed. "Let's just say I was in a bad position with Kael. His son looked past those differences and gave me another chance. It means I can carry an axe despite my sex. He knows I'm capable and gave me an opportunity I am grateful for."

"You don't know him." Audrey turned to see that Saerus was distracted checking the pulse of a dead swordsman.

Stupid mistake. I am still a threat.

Audrey judged the distance between her and the woman as she turned to get the rope for Audrey's wrists again.

Audrey jumped at her, knocking her head forwards violently and making her cry out.

Black moves queen.

In the background, Saerus swore and fumbled to nock an arrow. Audrey grabbed the axe from the floor beside the woman and, making her mind go blank, swung it at the woman's neck. It embedded there, striking her bone and causing blood to spray into Audrey's face, staining the white snow. The woman shuddered, her hand twitching, before she fell on her side, making choking noises.

Saerus loaded an arrow. Quickly, Audrey picked up the woman's body and pulled it in front of her as a human shield just in time for Saerus' arrow to lodge in the woman's chest.

White moves queen in retaliation.

She held the woman before her and began crawling to Saerus, dragging the axe with her. The blood from the woman's neck was pulsing more slowly out of her body, subsiding as the life drained from her with every pulse, the warm substance coating Audrey in a blanket of red. Luckily the woman didn't have much weight, but Audrey still struggled to drag the cadaver.

Saerus discarded the bow and, with a roar of anger, ran at her, unsheathing a sword at his waist. At that moment, all else disappeared as Audrey dropped the woman's body and stood to face him, feeling her legs shaking beneath her as she raised the axe with both hands and planted her feet on the ground.

Black checks with a knight.

When he moved his sword, she threw her axe up to block and gritted her teeth at the jolt that ran through her body at the impact, causing her bones to shake.

Unlike her brother, she had never acquired the upper body strength for sword fighting.

White retreats king.

"Fucking Northerner!" he hissed, swinging his sword at her again.

She dodged, the axe lame in her hand. It was too heavy. She couldn't lift it.

In that moment, she saw through Thomas' eyes. Her brother in his last moments, raising his sword only to—

No. That would not be her.

With an angry cry, Audrey charged one last time. She hefted the axe above her head and swung at him, an attack he barely blocked in his surprise.

"I am a Northerner," she hissed back, pushing back against his parry even as he was winning. "And I'm proud."

She kicked at him under his guard, sending him stumbling back. She gave chase as he tripped over the woman's dead body, and raised the axe again. His eyes widened in fear.

Black takes white queen. Checkmate.

She threw the axe down on the soft skin of his neck mercilessly, feeling the thud as it caught. Ignoring it, she shoved her boot onto the metal blade of the axe and pushed it deeper until she felt it catch on the bone, his mangled neck spilling onto the ground, and his eyes went blank.

She stared at his body and forced out a shaky breath before dropping the axe and walking back to the log where he had sat alive just moments ago. Then she knelt and retrieved her dirk before slinging her bow and quiver across her back once again. There were no tears in her eyes. Only hollowness, the weight of death pushing down on her and threatening to make her collapse.

She would deal with it later. Emotions were a liability.

After exhaling a shaky breath, she took the arrows from the archer's back and put them in her own quiver, her movements seeming to come from a body other than hers. She could no longer think of him as Saerus. That would label him as a person who had once had a life. It was easier to stick with 'the archer'.

She took the woman's pack and threw it on, ignoring the blood coating her hands.

There was the sound of twigs snapping. She loaded an arrow and wheeled around.

Jerry, the young archer, dropped his firewood and stared at her, his eyes wide. She wanted to go to him and weep, to convince him somehow that the deaths weren't her doing. His hands shook as he took an arrow out of his own quiver.

"Don't!" Audrey's voice wavered as she tried to hide the fact her hands were shaking. No. No more, please no. "Please. Run. Get away from here."

Her voice was pleading as Jerry's dark eyes met her light ones. He seemed dazed, his expression lost.

"I remember you." His voice was empty, like an echo. "I used to work for Lucian as a servant. I was a friend of Clovis. He always said such nice things about you"

Her eyes filled with water from an ocean of memories. She didn't want a reminder of those times. That had been another life.

"Don't load it," she said hoarsely, a plead.

She couldn't help seeing what Lucian and Landon had done: implanted a foolish stubbornness into their soldiers so they would fight no matter what.

"Don't fight." She lowered her bow. "I am not that person, I swear."

"You killed them!"

The accusation in his voice was so vehement that Audrey instantly ducked, foreseeing the arrow. It sailed over her head and she pointed her bow at him with tears in her eyes.

"I... I had to. But I don't have to kill you. Run. Go now."

"No. You don't understand." He shut his eyes for a moment, gathering courage to himself and hugging it close.

When he opened his eyes again, a fire burned in them. Instead of wasting time loading another arrow, he ran at her, and she was too numb to do anything as he smashed into her, knocking them to the ground. For a moment, they wrestled in the snow, ferocious animals, but Jerry ended out on top even as Audrey squirmed and tried to push him off.

He pulled out his knife and swiped across her head. She shoved his arm in time for the knife to scrape her skin, making her cry out as red, fresh blood dribbled into her eyes, blocking her vision.

He had forgotten about Audrey's dirk. With her right hand, she pulled it out and quickly plunged it up into his stomach, just under his ribcage. The fire died in his eyes as he collapsed on top of her and Audrey found herself crying, her tears blurring her vision as she tried to push him off, but was too weak as he bled onto her. She rolled to the right, and he fell off, landing on the forest floor. His head lolled to the side until she gently lifted it onto her lap. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly. A gurgling word escaped his lips as he tried to form a word, but he was choking on his own blood.

She could read his lips: 'now'. Then: 'please'.

She pulled out her dirk and drew a line across his throat until he stilled. Staring at his youthful face, she leaned down and closed his eyes before standing on unstable legs. There was no shovel or equipment for her to make graves.

Her breaths left her in shaky clouds of mist, uneven and ragged. The snow was bleeding crimson and she could finally feel the cold digging its icy claws into her skin as her adrenaline pulsed away, leaving a shell of herself behind.

After sending a quick prayer to the gods, she wiped the blood from her forehead, ignoring the stinging pain. There were other things to worry about.

Landon would find out what she had done soon enough. She hoped he did.

She sheathed her bloody weapon and resumed her journey.

Rest in peace Jerry

I won't go into Part I yet since I haven't really had much time to edit/write this recently, but I'll definitely get around to writing again once my exams are done <33

My search history is now full of 'what do you do when you get shot by an arrow' lmao,, I was going to get Audrey shot in the hand and then realised how many complications that would lead to and decided to change it

This still needs some editing so please point out any errors if you see them !

Love you all,

Shelly M x