Death.

    Of course my first thoughts went to Aldyth. Whether I liked it or not, she was too close to the realm of eternal sleep to be safe from whatever demon was coming. I was about to run off to her when my logic caught up with me. I couldn’t even waltz around the camp without sitting down for a rest and whatever magic had accompanied me moments before was gone now. And something told me that I wasn’t desperate enough to pull a miracle out of my pocket.

    My gaze moved around the camp to where the other Northerners were carrying off their wounded to the tents. Across the clearing, Laora was walking with a tall, gangly man a little older than her. His eyes had gone lode, and blood made the neck of his black cloak even darker. He wasn’t going to make it either if she didn’t move fast.

    There had to be way.

    I grabbed ahold of Briar’s sleeve before he could move off. “Move the wounded. How?”

    He stared at me for what felt like an eternity before nodding swiftly and dragging me off toward the tent that I had come to recognize as his personal quarters. It was dark inside and surprisingly warm, but I didn’t have time to question it as Briar hurried to his mat and pulled out a small box the size of a pinecone.

    He came back and shoved the box into my hands. “Twist the lid to the right and will her in here.”

    “What?”

    “Just will it. No time to explain.” He gestured at the box and I followed his motion. It was worn, with intricate carvings that looked to be burned into the wood.

    “Twist the lid to the left to release her.” Briar placed an arm on my shoulder and forced me to look into his eyes. “This is only a mode of transportation. Understand. In this condition she still needs careful attention. Try not to shake the box too much, and don’t keep her in there for more than a half hour. In her state, I don’t think she could take it, and Encore will get her for sure.

    If you can’t find me, then follow the others to Scendo,” he continued. “You’ll safe there. We all will.”

    I gave him a stern nod and hobbled out with the haste of a duck on fire. My head spun with the flurry that raged outside. In every direction, tents were collapsing, people were running and certain odd ones were calling for the former to move faster. No one paid me any attention as I pulled back the flap of my tent and ducked inside.

    It was dark so I grabbed one of the hanging lanterns before moving to kneel by Aldyth’s side. The low light cast a sickly glow to her pale countenance. My breath caught in my throat as I set down the light and brushed her hair away from her face. Her skin was like fire beneath my fingers. It was so hot that I almost drew my hand back.

    Her brow was creased, like she was plagued with nightmares, but I didn’t have the time to think it over. Outside, the shouts were growing louder and more frantic as this Encore creature approached the camp. The box Briar had given me was looked to be some sort of solid wooden cube. The burned carvings pressed into my skin as I twisted the lid in toward my body and squeezed my eyes shut.

    I wished for our safety, to just get through the next half hour alive and in one piece. My hand tightened painfully around the box, but I didn’t notice or care. I couldn’t lose anyone else, not like this. We were so close, so close to safety, to rest. To peace, even if only temporary peace.

    In that moment, I felt the overwhelming urge to lay down at sleep for the better part of eternity, but I resisted, forcing my eyes open to a brightness that seemed to fill my entire skull. My jaw fell slightly; Aldyth was glowing. Brighter than fire, lighter than the sun. As I watched her body seemed to dissolve into the brightness.

    I glanced down into my hands, and dropped the box to the ground in surprise. It was absorbing the light somehow, and as it did, it appeared that Aldyth’s body was fading. It took only a minute, but it felt like the longest minute of my entire lifetime. Then the light was gone, Aldyth was too and the lid of the box clicked back into place.

    It took another dozen seconds to blink the light spots out of my eyes. My heart hung heavy in my chest, but there was no time to dwell on it. I scooped the case up from the ground, grabbed our packs, and hurried outside.

    People were already fleeing for the woods. My eyes scanned the area hurriedly as I pulled my hood up over my head. The barrier that held the storm out was breaking and the cold drove straight to my bones. My teeth ground together dangerously as I took Aldyth’s scarf and wrapped it around my nose, mouth, and neck in an effort to keep the hood in place. Only my eyes peered out from under the bundle of fabric as I hiked it through the camp in search for Briar.

    I heard him before I saw him. He stood outside his tent with Aria. Just like myself, they appeared to be getting ready for the snow storm with scarves and hoods, but there was something else there. His shoulders were tense as they exchanged words in a foreign language.

   His icy blue eyes shone like elf irises from under his hood. Aria tensed, her hand tangling into her scarf like she was wondering if she should use it to strangle him. She spoke back bitterly and turned away from him, but he grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around the face him.

    Another flurry of words was exchanged and finally Aria seemed to sigh in defeat. “I’ll send a message to the Majors,” she replied at last. The accent of the other language sticking thickly to her voice. “This isn’t going to be a very popular idea.”

    “It needs to be done.” Briar seemed to realize that his hand was still on her shoulder and dropped it awkwardly to his side.

    Back in the camp, someone yelled that they were leading a first movement through the storm. I turned to find that the camp had disappeared off the face of the earth. The tents were down, the fire was gone, and even the footprints were beginning to fade as snow blanketed the place where man one was. Nature was reclaiming its territory.

    The winds of Sivena howled menacingly through the trees.

    Nature was reclaiming its territory violently.

    I turned to glance back at Briar and Aria, only to find them standing closely with their heads barely inches apart.

    “Okay.” I suddenly decided that I didn’t need anyone to guide me to Scendo. Follow the crowd through the killer snow storm, and try not to be taken by death. Easy enough, right?

    “That was unexpected,” I muttered and shook my head as I hurried back into the empty clearing.

    Suddenly someone nudged me from behind. I turned around to find a grey stallion staring down at me. “Hey, Bethor,” I breathed and reached up to pet his snout. He snapped his teeth at my fingers and I jumped back. “Yeah, glad to see you too. How did you get here?” My eyes travelled to the frayed ends of his lead rope.

   “Never mind.”

    Bethor whinnied and tossed his head. I took a couple steps to the side to find Ashless trailing behind him, looking more or less annoyed with the world.

    “So where’s your tack?”

    They didn’t answer.

    I blew out in frustration before untying Bethor’s lead rope. I was somewhere in the process of messing the horses together when suddenly a shadow rushed in from behind and leaped onto Ashless’s back.

    “Hey!” I yelled as the rider took off after the group. My teeth clicked together in irritation as I dragged myself up onto Bethor. “Come on, after them!”

    He took off in a spree, even so, it became obvious why Aldyth preferred Ashless. With the right rider, she was faster than the wind and with Sivena around, the wind was being pretty fast. It took a handful of minutes to catch up, but even then it was impossible to figure out who it was under all the layers of cloth.

    But apparently the wind was curious too. The rider let out a yelp as the scarf pulled away from their face. I urged Bethor forward, and whatever his reasons, he complied. For the first time the horse thief seemed to realize that they were being followed, and they shot a frenzied look over their shoulder.

    I caught the briefest flash of long hair and dark eyes before they were gone out of my line of sight. The rider slowed a bit at a fallen tree, but much to my dismay, Bethor leaped right over it without any second thoughts. Despite my regrettable yelling, it was the advantage we needed to gain some ground and head them off.

    “What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded as the rider was forced to a stop before us. She tried in a frenzy to hide her face, but it was too late; I had seen. “Laora.”

    “Is now really the time to be having this conversation?” She demanded, trying to move Ashless around us.

    “Then give me the fast answer and we can leave.”

    Her lips parted as if she was going to speak, but before she could, the trees behind us started swaying violently. The wind howled like wolves, yet was still as the death. The crowd in front of us started moving faster.
“Move,” Laora yelled. “Move!”

    Once again, Bethor reacted before I could, spurring to life and galloping wildly down the path. The winter branches hung low to the ground with snow and I had to hug the horse’s neck to avoid being impaled. The pound of his hooves echoed in my ears and sent showers of snow flying out from behind us. Someone screamed.

    Suddenly a shadow, black as night, crashed through the trees before us. I tangled my hands into Bethor’s mane and clung on for dear life as he reared onto his back legs. In that span of a second, I saw it all. A hooded monster with no face, just a pair of gold eyes that glowed like fire. The creature screamed like a thousand cicadas. Its cloak were rags, hovering off the ground and encompassing the fleshless bones of its arms.

    Encore reached out for me, but Bethor reared again, aiming his flailing front feet straight at its face.

    “Come on! This way!” Laora screamed urgently. Her voice was slightly muffled. She had replaced the scarf around her face.

“Follow her, Bethor.” The command came out shaky and breathless, but he seemed to understand it all the same. With one final kick toward the monster, he hooked it in the opposite direction and shot off like an arrow.

    The woods became dense as we fled, and I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of dejá vu. Encore let out a bloodcurdling screech before giving chase. She vapprized straight through the trees like a ghost, the rags of her cloak catching and tearing against the rough bark. For the second time in about two weeks, I found myself fleeing through the woods avoiding some sort of flying monster.

    “Why can they always fly?” I muttered.

    Bethor huffed in agreement.

    I squinted my eyes to try and pierce through the density. The snow was really coming down now, and even though I had covered every possible skin source; my entire body was beginning to grow numb. I could barely move my fingers. My eyes froze against the cold.

    Encore had cut us off from the rest of the Northerners. We were alone, running from death straight into the heart of the killer snow storm.

    The creature swiped at Bethor’s tale. “Faster, boy,” I growled through my teeth. “Faster.”

A/N

Nothing like a good old horse back chase scene to get the blood flowing. I apologize now for the horrible and repetitive sentence structuring. I tried to work it out in the editing, but ehhhhh.

So I did a bit of a sentence outline (no it wasn't in MLA format) and figured out that this book will be ending in about five full chapters (not accounting the split chapters). I might flesh it out just a little.

So who's excited for the sequel? *raises hand* crickets...

Eli hasn't done much character development wise....he's just sort of there. Must fix this.

So I'm starting to build a small Cardinal Army of readers. Including myself.

2 Easterners
1 Westerner
2 Southerners

There might be more but I can't remember.

Anyway. Drop me your thoughts below. Love hearing from you. You're my main motivation for writing. Peace and Party Parrots 💕💕🐑