stood at the border between Heprin and Tenovia with not a clue which way to go. The road out of Heprin split, taking two equally twisting paths. Forest loomed over either road, blocking out the sun almost completely.
The two countries couldn’t have been more different from one another. While the landscape of Heprin had become clustered with towering trees and little sun, it wasn’t until we stood at the border between our idyllic kingdom of Heprin and the Blood Woods of Tenovia that the light seemed to wholly disappear. The road was no longer bordered by wildflowers and tall grasses dancing in the wind. The quaint cottages lining the road were no longer well maintained with flower boxes in open windows and vegetable gardens blanketing the small properties. The spacious hillsides boasting shrines to the Light gave way to gnarled patches of towering trees until finally they weren’t patches, but thick, untamed walls of deadly forest.
Tenovia was not a land filled with light and sunshine and flowers. Tenovia was nothing but black trees as thick as castle keeps, knotted roots that clawed their way from sticky dirt, and shadows that seemed to shift and crouch in the darkness.
“Father Garius told us to stay north whenever possible,” Oliver reminded me. “That road heads south, which would eventually take us to the Burning Desert and slavers waiting to sell us to the highest bidder.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “But that road also seems more traveled. Safer.”
“How is that?” he asked with genuine curiosity.
“There’s light.” And there was, even if it was minimal.
“Where?”
I shifted on my feet. “Well, maybe not light exactly. But I can see flowers. And if there are flowers, there has to be light. At least some of the time.”
“We are not picking our road based on… on… weeds. We need to take the north road. Less chance of running into Vorestran hordes.”
“More chance of running into rebel armies.” I pushed down a fresh wave of fear.
He murmured, “Father Garius said to stick north. We need to stick north. Either way is dangerous.”
He was not wrong.
I jerked my chin toward the northern road and moved forward. “You’re right. We can take care of ourselves. You said it, remember?”
I heard him swallow but didn’t spare him another glance. I would lose my nerve if he gave me any reason to.
We had a rough map that Father Garius had given us to navigate the journey, but it didn’t include every road we’d encountered so far, and nothing we’d run into lately seemed right. We were either on a totally different path than we’d started out on or this map needed to be rewritten.
Which was completely possible.
Father Garius had only ever left the Temple of Eternal Light once and he’d ended up with me as a parting gift.
It was no wonder he’d never wandered from the Temple’s gates again.
Goosebumps pebbled my skin as the temperature dropped. The tree trunks stretched over the ground as thickly as the Heprin cottages we’d left behind and rose to where I could have sworn they touched the sun. Their heavy branches wound around each other, tangling to make an impenetrable canopy.
“This feels ominous,” Oliver mused with a chuckle. “It was a pleasure knowing you, Princess.”
I ignored him.
We walked for another twenty minutes in silence before Oliver couldn’t stand it anymore. “What is it about the Vorestran hordes that make them better than rebel armies? I never quite grasped the different degrees of ways-to-die from all of our potential threats.”
“If the Vorestran hordes were to catch us, they would cut off our heads, mount them on spikes outside of the walls of their city, and eat our hearts raw.”
“Dragon’s blood!” Oliver cursed. “Simply for trespassing?”
“For survival,” I told him. “The heads are to keep away the night dragons and slavers. The hearts are delicacies.”
“Dragons,” Oliver gasped. “And you prefer Vorestra over Tenovia? Are you out of your mind?”
“We would have stayed along the border, reducing our risk of being caught. But you’re right. It probably wouldn’t have worked. I heard that the hordes watch their borders closely these days.”
“Every kingdom is watching their borders closely these days.”
An emptiness filled me. I ached for this realm, this realm that used to be united and prosperous. This realm whose people trusted each other. My need to change it now bloomed into an intense sense of purpose. It started in my toes and bubbled through me, rushing through my veins, filling my blood with intention and my bones with determination.
Oliver