Sweat beaded on the back of my neck as I looked through the crack of the door.

The Summer lands was truly hot, and I could see why Schula had such a disposition about it, being an ice fae. But now, the thought that we could be gone from here within a day was promising.

'How many are still out there?' Schula asked.

'It will not matter when I fly away,' Spaulder said. 'They can chase if they wish, but from what I hear they have far more pressing matters at their gates.'

'Strong words befitting a dragon,' I agreed. 'However, we face a real possibility of two armies after our throats, instead of just one.'

'Let them come,' Spaulder huffed. 'I feel much better now than I did in the  battle in the valley.'

I nodded, closing the cracked door and facing my trquetram with a grim expression. 'There are only a couple left that I can see from here. My bigger concern is the battleground below.'

Schula sighed, rubbing the back of her neck with a trickle of her icy magic. 'Let's get going then. It sounds like our people won't be safe no matter what we do. Stay and play Peyorla's games, and they're essentially used to pressure us into her stupid games. Leave and they're at her mercy, though right now anyone here could be in danger from the Winter army, not just the refugees.'

I secured my bag over my shoulder, looking up to Puko who was preening his feathers on top of Spaulder's horns.

'Do you think we should find Teyber first?' I asked. 'Surely Puko could lead the way.'

'And lead our charge into him, exposing their presence in the Wyldes? No, we have to do this one on our own,' Schula said. 'I want them dead.'

'I do too, but if Teyber knows the first wave is a lie somehow, what else does he know?' I wondered aloud. 'For that matter, we don't even know DuVarick or Bara Khalja are even here, we're just assuming.'

'The first wave is a lie,' Spaulder said. 'The sounds of battle are already fading. Whatever this first wave was, it has posed no challenge for the Summer court.'

'Which means, something else is going to happen,' Schula said.

I bit my lower lip, picking at the strap of my bag as I thought out loud. 'But something still doesn't sit right with me. Why did Teyber want me to meet him in the hawthorn grove? He left so little in the message, and it was a risk to tell us where he was in case Puko lost the note or was intercepted.'

Schula frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. 'Well... you're right. But what can we do about it? I don't want to put him in danger.'

'Then we distract them,' Spaulder added.

'How?' I asked. 'There's a battle wrapping up down there, alert eyes and ears are everywhere.'

'Precisely so,' Spaulder mused. 'Even if they were not initially looking, do you not think a large black dragon in the midday sky would draw their attention? Naturally they would assume all of us to be making an escape in the confusion.'

Schula gasped. 'But we could sneak off to the hawthorn grove and you could lead them on a chase!'

'I don't know, do we really want to split up?' I asked. 'But, I don't exactly have a better plan.'

Spaulder craned down his great neck, bringing his eye to me and nudging me with his nose. 'Little one, I will not be gone long. Teyber has information, and he has risked himself and likely others to get it to you. If your instincts tell you to seek him out, then we must do so.'

I nodded. 'You're right, I think we should find him. But, I'm worried about you, Spaulder.'

A horn sounded from far below the city. Schula walked over to the door, cracking it open again.

'What was that?' I asked.

'Hm. The wave was a lie, then the real plan of the Winter army must be starting,' Spaulder said. 'The time to act is now. I will fly you near enough to the treetops below when I have a sufficient distraction.'

'And we can slip into the forest and find Teyber!' Schula clapped her palms together. 'Brilliant.'

The sounding of horns again pulled all of us out of our excitement. Screaming now reached even our ears at the top of the city, and I paled as I raced for the door.

'What in the Wyldes is happening down there?' Schula asked.

'Time to go,' Spaulder grunted, standing and making his way around the cramped space to push through the door. 'Up you get, little ones.'

Even with his warning I barely managed to scramble up his side and to his back before he had pushed his great head through the door. The first thing I saw was two startled guards, but Spaulder didn't give them any time to react. He lifted his head up and roared, announcing his presence to all.

'Well, if they didn't notice before they will now,' Schula added.

'Don't we want to stay inconspicuous as long as possible?'  I held on for dear life as Spaulder bound out of the old barracks house and spread his wings wide.

'Normally I would say yes,' he answered. 'But today, we add an air of chaos to the field, for both sides that have wronged us.'

He cackled wickedly as he beat his wings, lifting us into the air as he took off. I looked down to where our guards were now staring upward, baffled, but unable to give chase in the skies above.

'Look!' Schula called out. 'There really is a battle going on down there.'

I moved my gaze from the guards around the fish pond below us to the greater picture around. Thank the Stars for my elvish eyes, because I wouldn't have been able to see what was happening in such sharp detail otherwise.

The field outside the city was littered with the fallen. The haggard and dirty uniforms of the Winter army were apparent against the shining gold of the Summer court. The battle had been so little effort for the Summer court that it did the one thing I had found the fae to be quite susceptible to. It riled up their egos.

Easy as it was to sway a fae to heightened emotions, the Summer creatures fell into it. Revelry, confidence, mockery for their enemies. Even with the grim task of shuffling the dead bodies to a pile for burning, the Summer court was merry at their work.

My eyes darted around, seeking out Peyorla and her trusted few that she let into her audience room with us before. Those worthy of witnessing her so called trial would likely be trusted enough to be part of her city's protection.

I knew I was right when my eyes fell on a male I somewhat recognized from the room. He was clearly giving orders, and it allowed me to see who else was around him. The outer walls of the city were dotted with stations that you wouldn't notice on a day to day basis, but this male made me see them in a new light, and sure enough, every section of wall held a space for the leadership to stand. It didn't take long to spot Peyorla.

Standing, leaning on the edge of a wall with a white-knuckled grasp as she stared down the battlefield. Her golden hair waving behind her in the hot summer breeze. Aithne and her companions were on the ground below the queen's part of the wall, speaking up to her.

'Let's keep them on their toes for anything that comes next, shall we?' Spaulder asked.

Spaulder, just to make sure everyone here realized that the roar from earlier was our defiant exit of our captivity, roared again.

Eyes raced up to meet us, Spaulder's sprawling shadow was massive as it slid across the battlefield below. Peyorla's eyes could have caught fire with the rage in them as she hissed out order after order, never letting her gaze fall off the great black dragon in her skies.

'Now that we have their attention, what do we do with it?' Schula asked.

'Hold on tight,' Spaulder said, then twisted himself in the air, spinning in a full circle before plummeting over the city walls.

Tears streamed as my eyes cried out against the rush of wind in my face. I clung to Spaulder's neck and back with everything I had, Schula doing the same. I didn't know where Puko went off to after the flying became more hazardous, but he had always found his own way in and out of conflict before so I trusted him to do it again.

Spaulder flew over the wall, letting the beating of his great wings rustle every loose bit of cloth and plant life it passed. Tabards billowed, hair whipped around heads and shoulders, branches and vines danced in the wake of his wingbeats.

'There are the refugees!' Schula called out. Even using our minds to speak, I could only just make out what she said over the other sounds rushing in my ears.

I spotted them. A camp of tents were still in the process of being set up. Communal areas of floor mats and very basic cooking space. Not nearly enough shade for the fae creatures of crisp autumn to be comfortable here in the Summer lands, but at least things were sort of being prepared.

And I would love to say it was far better than fearing for your life in your home back in Thanantholl, but now the enemy was at the Summer court's doorstep, and the Autumn refugees were outside the wall. Either due to lack of space within, or due to self preservation on Peyorla's part.

The faces that looked up at us were familiar, and once again scared. Fae, dryads, satyrs, pixies, sprites. So many kinds of Wyldes born creature, but all of them weathering the same storm for a second time in such short time.

'Flee!' Spaulder commanded as we swooped over the camp of refugees. 'Make haste into the mountain until the battlefield has cleared. Thanantholl will rise again!'

He must have been using my dream from the Mother to instill hope in them, but at the same time, his warning was dire. I was glad he could send them some kind of guidance, and with luck and cooperation, they should be okay. The Summer court on the other hand...

Spaulder wasted no more time than he had to for his message to our people before turning sharply and going back toward the front gates. We had sufficiently riled the Summer court, and Peyorla was already in action. The queen herself had leaped down onto the green fields before her city, her body radiating a sharp, hot light.

And it was then that disaster struck.

"Witch! Elf! Land and face me, cowards! Your war instigations will not go un-punished, your flight from my city an admission of your guilt!" Peyorla's screams could be heard, even up in the air as we were.

'Even with the Winter army on her doorstep, the twisted queen thirsts to punish anything in her clutches,' Spaulder mused.

'Looks like it's about time to go,' Schula said. 'You sufficiently have their attention.'

'Mm. Very well.' Spaulder swooped low, taunting Peyorla one more time before rising away.

The Summer queen took the few steps to stand directly under Spaulder's path. Every movement she made promised anger and pain, until she faced us from the ground as close as she could get to us.

"Does your father live?" She demanded. "Admit their meddling, bastard child!"

Spaulder laughed again, shaking the air around us, but there was no mirth in the sound. His change in tone sent a chill down my back, and he wasn't my enemy. Peyorla's underlings definitely picked up on the dragon's rising temper, but Peyorla herself stood her ground. 

'So, the mask comes off. It is the elves you seek!' Spaulder called down to her, pausing his speedy flight and swirling through the air over her.

'Spaulder, we were going to go,' Schula reminded him.

Peyorla glared at Spaulder. "They should all be dead! Dead for what they did! Their war tore the Wyldes asunder once, and now their bastard offspring is here to do it again!"

"Oh, Stars," Schula breathed, then called down to the Summer queen. "Wren was not even born when your triquetram fell in the war! How can you blame a child for the actions of our ancestors?"

Peyorla's eyes snapped to Schula now, taking a threatening step in her direction, though it did her little good from the ground far below.

"Don't you dare speak of them!" She snapped.

Spaulder roared in response, sending a huge wave of wind from his wings to push against Peyorla and everything else on the field below.

"Tell me, witch!" Peyorla spat. "Where do they live? How do they survive?"

"I have no answers for you!" I looked at the queen coldly, yelling my reply. "Are you as mad as DuVarick? What are my crimes in your eyes, Peyorla? Being abandoned as a baby? Falsely believing I was a half fae? Not knowing my mother or father as I grew up? Take your pick!"

Peyorla's eyes blazed, but what tipped the fury of the whole situation was when Spaulder swooped down.

He was mad. Oh, he was fury ignited.

Spaulder landed on the field before Peyorla, teeth glinting in the summer sun as he took a threatening step forward.

'You feckless child. Your perverse pursuit of quiet in these Wyldes of yours has lead to nothing but willful blindness! Your wish to ignore what was boiling in the west for so long is what will undo you. If not here, then the next time, and your still clutching to the memory of a war long ended? Foolish! End your pursuit of the past now, and watch over your people!'

Spaulder stopped and lifted his head, roaring and sending a hot stream of fire high into the air. As high as the walls, as high as the city, and nearly as high as it could have reached Peyorla's precious throne, if it were weidled in the right direction.

Peyorla in turn, surged forward. She lunged at Spaulder, lashing out with powerful magic from that hot light she wore as an aura. It blinded and scalded, but Spaulder didn't let it touch us as he lifted off the ground again.

'Your court will fall if you do not turn your blade on your real enemies,' Spaulder warned, then took us up high.

'We will go now, little ones,' he said. 'I let my temper show instead of carrying you two away, and for that I'm sorry.'

I buried my face in his neck, holding on tight. 'Thank you, for defending me.'

'Of course, my loves. My little ones. I...' Spaulder turned sharply in the air, and I nearly lost my grip.

'What is that?' Schula asked, and I followed her gaze to the ground.

The battlefield was alive once more with action, but this time, it was the dead rising.

No. Oh, no.

'Oh, hells,' I whispered.

Our argument proved only as a distraction to Peyorla and her forces. The instant I saw the fallen Winter court now standing again, intermingled with the Summer court who was now caught off-guard, I knew we did nothing but aid in buying time for the necromancer.

'He must be close!' I called. 'We have to find him! We have to...'

'No, little ones,' Spaulder answered curtly. 'A battle rushed into when the enemy is prepared is a lost battle before it begins. Stay the course of our plan, and find Teyber. He has information, and if he is wise, more elves to aid in our fight.'

I swallowed my distress. 'I... fine.'

We watched in horror as Spaulder took us around the now-active battlefield. The dead rising, and using their element of surprise to slay all around them. Summer fae that were no warriors, who were simply cleaning up a battle before their city, were slain instantly. Warriors who were already haggard from fighting one battle were now thrust into another one, with no direction or preparation to be had.

It was chaos. It was a slaughter.

Some, like Peyorla and Aithne, took control where they could and lay waste to the Winter army around them, but their influence wasn't enough in the battle as more and more risen dead were now coming from the forests and fields to bolster their numbers to a frightening height.

'The enemy comes from that forest,' Spaulder gestured his head. 'I will take you well to the side before letting you into the trees.'

'Alright,' Schula agreed. 'We'll see you soon.'

'Hm. I may stay and add a little fire to the field,' Spaulder said. 'I will be behind you shortly.'

'Be careful!' I pleaded.

'I will, little one.' His tone was soft. 'I will not come close to danger, just add a fire to the cause and I will then leave.'

Spaulder, as promised, flew far to the side while brushing against a tall oak tree. He made a show of using it to stop himself, then turning to fly over the battlefield once more. It was the prefect dropoff, and once he had turned around again he flew too high to see if Schula and I were still on it.

'Good luck, Spaulder,' Schula sent one last fleeting thought to our dragon before we climbed our way down the tree.

The footing was perilous, and the sounds of battle were hair raising. But finally, we had our feet on solid ground again, then we faced into the deep Summer forest.

"Let's go," Schula said. "To the hawthorn grove."

To the hawthorn grove.

And we ran.