I swore to myself when we left Yeusellia that we would find and kill one of our enemies. I did not expect to be hunting one down like the last deer of winter.

Teyber sent Liana to personally scout the way ahead. While her personality irked me sometimes, it was clear that Teyber did trust her to do important tasks, so I would as well. The other scouts Teyber brought with him took to the trees for the most part, keeping a wide circle around us and reporting to Teyber frequently.

Spaulder and I briefly discussed renewing his transformation again since our mission was one of subtlety, but in the end we agreed his quick reflexes were more important that disguising his large form. As long as he didn't take flight, he would be reasonably hidden in the trees until we reached our destination.

Once all was settled, the treetop platforms were disassembled and the branches used to make them scattered. No one would suspect it had housed a group of partial elves at all.

Puko sat on my shoulder, picking at a twig that had worked its way into my hair as I slept. It was annoying and at times a bit painful, but I left him to it. It was almost like he was preening me, and in a strange way it was a comfort. Puko was like family to me, and the only connection I had to Mila.

I paused my steps, and Schula stopped with me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The witches..." I turned to face her as Teyber and Spaulder paused as well. "They could help us."

Schula nodded. "Mila did say to contact her when you needed her to come. Do you think that time is now?"

I bit my lower lip, continuing to walk again and the rest of the group followed my lead. "I don't know. I was going to find out how the barrier was built so we could repair it, but something about that has been bothering me lately."

'And what is that, little one?' Spaulder asked.

"I don't know." I sighed. I'd been saying that a lot lately.

"Maybe we can still find something in the books that we missed," Schula suggested.

I shook my head. "We've been over them so many times, at this point I don't know if the barrier can be repaired."

A silence fell among us as we walked. What did that mean for the whole reason we left the Wyldes? I wanted answers to where I came from and how to save my home. Was it possible that the journey was in vain? No, I met my father. I got to know my mother through so many people, and I had her book of witchcraft with so many brilliant ideas in it. I learned medicine from Purda, and brewing from Girdy. But, even through all that, I still couldn't fix the barrier that broke.

'Little one,' Spaulder started, catching my attention. 'Why rebuild such a barrier at all?'

I glanced up at the great dragon with a small smile. "Dark things from the Wyldes are getting out, and the dark side of men is seeping in. If we can build the barrier again and expel Bara Khalja's evil we can set things as they were before."

'Hmm,' Spaulder mused. 'But we can right those wrongs without repairing the barrier. So, I ask again, little one, why rebuild the barrier? Why set things as they were before?'

I frowned, stepping under a low branch and startling Puko off my shoulder. He flapped upward, and I watched him go.

Why set things as they were before? Because they were broken, and you repair broken things, right?

Repair broken things...

My lips parted, I looked sharply at Teyber as he walked ahead of us. His ears tipped, not human but not quite elf. Not at all unlike my own ears, and I reached up to touch mine. The feeling was still strange sometimes, considering I had gone so much of my life with them missing, but they were a sign that I was half elf.

And...half witch.

Two things that once existed peacefully in the Wyldes. And the Mother, she has no reverence here, yet she wanted me to know where the ruins of the elven kingdom was. The Mother and the Stars. What I know of them all boils down to caring for the earth's bounty of life. All of it.

I did want to repair things to how they were before, but how far before? Before the barrier was broken? Or...before even that?

Spaulder leaned his head down near me, and I knew his next words were mine and mine alone. 'I have seen many things in a very long life, young one. You are a seed before one of these great trees we walk beneath. With time comes change, certainly. But as things are changed, the ways of old always find themselves coming back around. Just as your elven city has surely overgrown and crumbled by now, it can be built again. Many things, can be built again.'

Spaulder moved his head, lifting it far above my own as he took his steps forward and left me behind to my thoughts.

Rebuild. Rebuild what, the city of elves? Or, something more?

A bird call from ahead caused Teyber, the front of our line, to stop and raise a hand in warning.

We were all still as he listened to the call repeat, then he cave a whistling call in return. Teyber turned to face us with a stern expression.

"Leana found something, let's go take a look," he said.

We followed his lead, stopping once to whistle again and hear Leana's reply. For the most part the trees of the Wyldes were huge and spaced out enough that Spaulder could move around, but we had to go down a slope that required him to stay in the back and squeeze his way through after us. Schula and I stayed side-by-side, and Puko chose to keep to the skies rather than come down with us.

Down a small dip in the terrain, Leana jumped down from her hiding spot in a tree. She whispered her report to Teyber, and he nodded once she was done.

"Good," the scout captain said. "Round up the others and move on to the rendezvous point."

Leana nodded and dashed away, and the rest of us followed Teyber.

The scene was gruesome. The smell hit me before my eyes landed on the sight. Blood, piss, worse. And an entanglement of herbs that were burned with flesh.

"Stars," Schula hissed, covering her nose.

The clearing was the sight of a sacrifice. Something dark happened to four corpses, and I'm not sure most of it was done after they died. Three humans and a boar, their carcasses chopped up and mangled. Organs were missing or rearranged, markings were drawn in the dirt, and the evidence of a fire where magic had been done sat between them all.

"The warlock," Teyber said, kneeling by some of the remains. 

"This is dark magic," I said, my stomach turning even as I took a few steps forward. "Necromancy. It's part of his powers. I wonder if he has to do this regularly."

I closed my eyes and turned away at the thought.

"Do we leave it or clean it up?" Schula asked. "Whoever these people were, they still deserve a funeral."

"No," I reached out and touched her arm. "We can't disturb it. I don't know much about dark magic, but I know you can't trust it to be safe, even now."

"He came this way, but it could have been some hours ago, or even a day," Teyber said. "We should keep moving, we may yet reach our destination before he does."

I bit my lower lip. I just hoped my instincts were right and that was where he was heading. But even if it wasn't, it would be the perfect place to build a base safe for the elves to stay in. And... the witches. I was more sure now than ever that we needed their wisdom and knowledge.

"Do you know where it is?" I asked. "I know roughly, but..."

"I do," Teyber said. "Eidelhein still has maps from the Wyldes. They may not be up to date, but some landmarks such as mountains and lakes do not move so easily, even in the volatile magic found here."

'Let us go then,' Spaulder said. 'To swiftly find a den is to swiftly secure your position.'

Teyber looked up to Spaulder. "You aren't wrong, dragon. Let's go."

Leaving the clearing and its stench behind, we made our way with Teyber's lead.

The paths were difficult, and there were many times we had to stop when we were unsure of other bodies traveling the shadows of the unclaimed Wyldes. We were silent for the most part, and the words Spaulder left me with earlier ate at my mind. I mulled over them again and again, trying to piece together what it was the Mother expected me to do with her dream, and what I could do with what opportunity we were given.

I missed Thain, my heart ached for him. Aside from my triquetram, Thain and Eberon were the only real comfort I could get in the Wyldes. I missed Mila and Gilly too, and Kaylor. Mother, what I wouldn't give to be in his gentle presence.

Teyber walked us for the rest of the day and even faster at night. He would not let us stop until we were in a secured position, and as the moon dipped below the trees and the first rays of morning light scattered through the canopy above, we finally saw what we had been searching for.

I took in a sharp breath when I saw it before me. It was just as the Mother showed me in my dream. The same landscape, the same hidden rocks, just peeking out from the grass if you knew where to look.

I could even picture it in its glory again. The elegant architecture, the way the buildings were laid out. Where I would eventually plant the seed from Lark's tree.

We had reached it. The ghost of the elven kingdom.

And here, we could make our stand.