Having the son of the strigoi leader escorting us across the land was more helpful than even I had first imagined.

He didn't say much, simply motioned with his hand every once in a while when we met a place like a riverbank or a network of caves that made us choose which way to go. Once, while carrying a very grumpy Jazera down the mountain, he mumbled ho'la vohara multiple times, which translated directly into shiny lame dog, and roughly into something like pretty, useless bitch.

I chose not to inform Jazera of the translation when she gave me a questioning look.

However, silent (and rude) as he was, he was most certainly useful. 

I'd spent many trips in these lands while training with Jovian, and so I knew quite well how dangerous they were. Nahdiera seemed deadly for those whom spent their lives there, but I knew more than most anyone else how Nahdiera was truly a safe haven. The mountains surrounding its' borders truly did keep the dangers out. Without the mountains, the kingdom would have morphed into a massive hunting valley for the true horrors of the world.

Yet, other than the occasion bloodbat, we were left alone.

Oh, we felt the eyes on us, yes, most certainly. There were some nights where the group of us stayed awake, sitting back to back in a misshapen circle around the fire with our weapons in hand, eyes turned to the darkness. Other nights, we were startled awake to the sound of the strigoi hissing menacingly into the trees as a warning. For several days we had something following us as we roamed the land, something that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise each time those unseen eyes passed my way.

But with the Shadows and the strigoi, nothing dared approach us, leaving us feeling unsafe but unharmed just the same.

The only time we were in any real danger was when the strigoi suddenly up and left one night.

"Where are you going?" I'd called out.

"Hungry." He stated – the only word as of yet that he seemed to be able to speak in the common tongue.

I grimaced but let him go, ordering everyone on watch until his return.

Shortly afterwards, the goblins came.

We heard them before we saw them. It was not yet dark, but the sun was low enough in the sky that no sunlight was visibly shining anywhere in the our sight, which left several shadows in the trees and made one want to squint their eyes more so than if it were fully dark.

But their sound was more frightening anyway.

They called out in their voices, their language even closer to elven than the last hoard I'd heard. No longer did I hear only Meat! Meat to eat! But also extremely detailed descriptions of how they were going to rip the flesh from our bones, and was able to understand nearly word-for-word a particularly heated argument about which of us would taste the best.

As they came into sight, surrounding us completely up in the trees as well as on land, naked and grey as they handled their bows and poison-tipped arrows, I felt a greater fear than I had felt in a long time. Not because they were debating on killing us or not when this itself was unusual – goblins liked elven flesh far more than man or Shadow, but the elves were difficult to find as of late and they were hungrier than usual – but because of the memories of the kings maze.

Too well did I remember laying on the ground, seeing my escape only feet in front of me but unable to reach it. As I stood there with my sword in hand under the sound of arguing and nearly aroused sounds of descriptions, I could almost taste Arion's blood as it dripped onto my lips, and feel an echo of the painful poison flowing beneath my skin.

Arion - either sensing where my mind was going, or remembering himself - slipped his hand into mine and gripped tightly. I gripped him back and waited, listening carefully.

They didn't want to eat us. We were not very tasty and were used to better meat than what we could give, but they were hungry and needed skin for some repairs. They liked 'the big one' which I assumed was Roriq, especially. Perhaps, they were saying, it would be worth the icky flesh if they could have his skin.

"Should I start shooting?" Jazera asked. She sat on the ground in the center of our circle, looking weak and tired, but I knew that she would do the most damage out of this group with her quick and deadly draw.

"Not yet." I whispered.

"They're taunting us."

"They're debating on whether or not to kill us. If you shoot, it will tip the scales into the favor of eating us down to the bones." I hissed my words now. "Do nothing."

But even as I said it, they were leaning more towards taking us down. I let go of Arion's hand, steadying my grip on my sword and bracing myself.

Then, quite suddenly, they began screeching without words. I feared for a moment that they were about to attack and that would likely be the end of us all unless I used an excessive amount of my magic. However, the moment I thought these words, I realized it was with fear in which they screamed.

They became chaotic in an instant. Everywhere I turned, the creatures were leaping or running in different directions, scattering in both panic and anger. Either they were all stupid, or they didn't know what they were screaming about in the first place and only following the sounds and actions of those surrounding, because they all seemed to be running away from something... but in different directions.

"Remain vigilant." Arion warned us, as if we weren't already.

A movement stood out to me in my peripheral vision and I turned in time to see the strigoi land from his leap into the air.

Now that there was only one of them, and at quite a distance away, even with his camouflage I was able to tell that he moved like a cat stuck in the middle of a panicked flock of birds. He leaped high, snatching his hands up into the air, and then landed gracefully. He only paused when he caught one, stopping to crack its neck and drop it to his feet, then leaping again.

By the time the goblins had vanished with only their fading screams remaining, the strigoi - now losing his camouflage - had half a dozen of the dead creatures around him and not a scratch on himself. 

He picked them up one at a time and stuck an ankle into the belt around his waist. All but one of them, which he tossed over his shoulder instead. He walked toward us looking quite satisfied.

Noticing everyone staring at him, he looked to me and held up the goblin. "Hungry." He stated.

I blinked at him a few times, then narrowed my eyes. "You left us here as bait." I accused.

He looked at me a moment, then shrugged and – to my absolute disgust – lifted the goblin to his mouth by holding it by its calves and neck, then took a frighteningly large bite out of its side. The grey flesh was almost pink beneath the skin, I realized. The bone of its rib cage as white as my own.

Baion gagged and turned away. I fought the urge to do the same. Instead, I met the strigoi's eyes and worked up a way to scold him for what he did, putting us in danger like that.

In the end though, I left it alone. Not because I understood or agreed, but because so far, we'd traveled extremely well and if I said something to offend him enough, and if he left because of it, we still had a long way to go. His kind may be more intelligent that I was lead to believe by Jovian, but they were still more animal than man, and creating peace with your enemies was not an animals natural way of things.

I did shoot him a very hard glare before I turned away, though, which he chose to ignore.

When the final sounds of the goblins faded away to nothing, everyone looked to me for the next step. To stay or go?

I would have said to move on from this place, except Jazera had been foolish enough to get up on her knees for better aim and control. I could tell just by the way her lips were pursed tightly together that it had cost her.

"We'll stay here for the night." I finally answered them.

Arion and Cronin went off to fetch wood while Baion and Roriq circled the field around us for any sign of danger, as it was their turn. I knelt next to Jazera as I had each night since her fall and held out my hands.

She sighed irritably but put her hands in mine. It had taken some practice, but I found there was no more need to hold her legs or place my hand on her back. Now, I only needed to be touching her, but gripping her fingers was easier.

I concentrated on following that string of the White Stone, but was interrupted. "Will you have to be doing this much longer?"

I met Jazera's eyes briefly. "I don't know." I shrugged. "If you would stop trying to move around so much and just let us carry you, it would be far faster."

She crinkled her nose, her eyes flicking to Roriq, whom was usually the one stuck with carrying the irritable Shadow. Feeling her eyes on him, he looked over at her and narrowed his eyes. Anyone normal would have looked away with a blush at being caught staring, but Jaz only turned her crinkled expression into one of something akin to rage.

He looked away with a sigh I could see with the rise and fall of his chest.

"If only you hadn't lost the Ruberous Faun." She said with irritation.

I was getting angry at her again. "You can't possibly be angry with me for losing the Ruberous. If you remember, it was taken from me when I died."

Her eyes met mine, and the pain in them that had nothing to do with her broken bones very nearly crushed my heart, even before she spoke. Her tone was quiet and sad instead of only angry. "Rian died for that gem. Losing it in your first encounter with Marqis was like spitting on him."

I felt something yanking at my heartstrings with those words. Somehow, I had never thought of it that way before. But though Jaz was usually wrongly spoken, this one had the ring of truth; Rian had died because I went for the gem, and though it had saved our lives multiple times before the first fight with Marqis on the rooftop, I felt terrible that it was in Marqis' hands now. 

That the gem he had unknowingly died for was the very thing that prevented Marqis from dying.

Because I couldn't protect it.

Jazera sighed and lay back on the ground, gripping my hands with more force. "Are you going to push my healing along any or not?"

It took me a moment, but I did.

***

For three more weeks, we only walked.

It was a long, dull walk. It came to the point that the hisses the strigoi made in the middle of the night to warn dangers away no longer woke me from my light sleep, and the feelings of eyes on my back from predators became more irritating than frightening. The worst thing that happened during the long walk was when we ran out of food and had to take the time to hunt, which was difficult seeing as no rabbits or dear roamed these woods, not even bears dared to survive here, so it was birds and mice we lived off of.

Well, except the strigoi, whom ate his rotting goblin corpses slowly over the course of those weeks, carrying the most disgusting stink with him at all times. 

Seeing him occasionally rip a bite out of the bloated flesh was probably one of the most horrible things I had ever seen in all my life, and I'd seen quite a bit of all things horrid.

Most of the walk was spent in silence, interrupted only by the occasional argument spreading up between Jazera and Roriq, and the mumbled complaint from Baion about his fine clothing literally falling apart with the travel. I spent most of my time inward, listening to the Grey Stone and concentrating on home. I wished more than anything that I could reach Jovian's mind specifically, but the vial with the mixture of my mothers' blood and the powder of the Grey Stone must still be around his neck, blocking me entirely.

I took this as a good sign, but for some reason couldn't help but have a terrible feeling about it.

The rest of my time was spent of me trying to get something out of the strigoi.

"Are you aware of the dangers that come within the walls of the elven kingdom?" I asked in the elven tongue.

I received a nod.

"You hardly sleep, I've noticed. Is that normal for one of your kind?"

A grunt and a nod.

"Do you have an actual name I may call you as?"

Here, he'd looked at me and nodded, then opened his mouth to speak. I perked up, expecting progress. 

"Strigoi." He'd informed me and ripped a finger from the goblin corpse, then shoved it in his mouth and chomped down with a satisfied crunch.

I gave up shortly after that.

When I passed by the tree, I was so completely bored that I barely noticed the etchings in it. Seeing it only registered when I was a few twigs past it, in fact, and I needed to back up.

"What is it?" Arion asked, his eyes wary.

But I grinned. "It's a warning. We're approaching elven territory." I told them and lead the group after that. Quickly, I began to recognize my surroundings, and soon, we had finally arrived.

I heard the others – except for a tense strigoi – suck in a breath at the sight.

A massive tree, far taller than any tree in the surrounding forests, and the only one of two of its kind, plunged out of the pile of stones ahead, towering hundreds and hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of twigs high. Thick vines of green and purple, spotted occasionally by purple and yellow flowers, weaved down from its leafless branches, intertwining until it made a strong, sturdy bridge that hung over a chasm. In the far distance, partially hidden by mists, we could see its twin standing just as tall in the Marshlands, joining vines like joining hands.

"What... is it?" I heard Cronin whisper with awe.

"The Bridge of Vines." I told him, my voice mimicking his awe. "It's the entrance into the Elven Kingdom."

Arion sighed in relief, looking at his sister. "We made it." He told her, smiling slightly. "You can get some rest there."

"Onbã he vantoli ņa." The strigoi hissed before dropping the remaining carcasses as well as his blade to the ground before heading towards the rooted staircase.

"What is it he said?" Baion asked curiously.

I grimaced. "That we haven't made it yet." I translated, then followed after him, leaving the rest to follow us both.