Page 34 of Winter's Fate

“How long will that take?”

“It depends on where we landed. From the southern tip of the forest, I would guess five days walking. And I see no end of the trees in either direction, so the journey ought to be shorter.”

“If the sky will cooperate tonight,” Laena said, “we might chart our position that way.”

She might not know much of the mainland, but he’d be a fool to ignore her knowledge of the sea and stars. He nodded.

They made their way to the creek she’d found. By then his thirst was nearly unbearable, but he forced himself to drink slowly. They washed as best they could—Laena went so far as to dip her head into the water so she could tie her curls back into aplait—and then they began walking, keeping the creek on their left. They should stay with fresh water as long as it ran in the general direction of Inasvale.

As long as the ocean waves sparked occasional glints through the trees to their right, he would know they were headed in the right direction.

What would Hawk say, when he learned their ship had been lost? Callum hoped he’d send soldiers—though that was likely a certainty, given that Callum had stolen his delegation in the first place. Was it too much to hope that he’d have kept General Moore back in Vunmore, so as not to risk outing Callum’s insolence to the Etran delegation?

“How long have you served as captain of the King’s Guard?” Laena asked, startling him out of his thoughts.

“Since I turned eighteen,” he said. “Though for a few years, it was more of a ceremonial title.”

He’d been raised with Hawk, Thaddeus, and Emilia, King Magnus treating him like another son. Part of the family. Callum would have stepped aside in favor of Thaddeus, but the prince had never wished to be a soldier.

“And how long ago was that?” Laena asked.

“Ten years ago.” Give or take a few weeks of disgrace.

“And how do you like it?”

As they traipsed along through the woods, she stepped easily over logs and rocks, skirting around large sections of ferns. The shimmerling had perched itself on top of her head, its neck extended, tongue darting out every few seconds as if to smell the adventure. It ought to look funny, but somehow it looked right.

It was still quite a thing, to look over and see a creature of legend. He wondered when Aglye had last seen a shimmerling on its shores. Hundreds of years ago, perhaps.

He glanced at Laena, her head quirked to the side. Still waiting on a response.

How did he like being captain? It was not a question he was ready to answer.

“Are you an inquisitor?” he asked, deflecting. “Investigating my past?”

“No,” she replied, drawing the word out into one long syllable. “I just figured we ought to have some conversation. Otherwise, you might well die of boredom.”

“And you won’t?”

She stepped over a tree root. “Not I. Look at these trees. How the light shines through them. I could live here forever.”

Callum followed her gaze to the canopy, where the sun did indeed shine through the leaves, making them look like stained glass. They rustled gently in a breeze he couldn’t feel through the depth of the forest. But it didn’t follow that the place was stuffy; in fact, the shade made it cool and pleasant. Birds skimmed from branch to branch, chasing each other through the foliage.

The place evensmelledgreen, each breath filling him with the scents of damp earth and growing things. Alive. It smelledalive.

“You underestimate me, I think,” he said. “I would not mind living here forever.”

When she smiled, the expression lit her entire face. It dimpled her cheeks most enticingly and set her green eyes to dancing, like they wished to join the leaves overhead. “Where would you build, then?” she asked.

He was not well practiced at games or make-believe, but at this moment, he thought he might do anything to keep that smile on her lips. “I think I should build right here,” he said. “Near the creek for water. Near the ocean for fishing.”

“A cottage?” she asked. “Something modest? With animals to care for and such?”

He wondered if that resembled the life she’d built for herself. A farm, tucked away in the grasslands of Etra. They didn’t have forests, not like this one, but rural countryside madeup most of the island. She said she’d found the crystal in her garden; he found himself wondering if it had been a large garden. Did she feed herself upon its contents? Keep chickens for eggs, goats for milk? How different from the life she’d been raised in.

Perhaps it suited her. Perhaps she loved it well. But perhaps… perhaps she could have a bit ofbothworlds.

That, he suspected, was not the game.

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