Even for fae, we had walked for a long time.

No breaks, no food. It was more important to put distance between us and the sieging city. If... if for some reason the city were to fall, the army would very likely turn to our heels instead.

It had grown dark, then light, then dark again as we walked. We crossed out of the Autumn lands not long after nightfall. Not an ideal time to be walking through the unclaimed Wyldes, but if anything were to attack us it would be taking on hundreds of us at once. Our best hope was that our numbers alone would scare off most things that lived out here.

Spaulder said he was fine, though I could tell his movements grew stiff. He walked now, landing after we had gained some distance from the walls we left behind and he had walked with us since. For every step he took, we took several to match him. He seemed hardy enough, if not tired. Even so, how often did a dragon need to feed? Spaulder ate regular meals when we did while he was transformed, but now that he was so much bigger I had no idea what he needed to keep his body healthy.

Schula was dead on her feet. The anxiety seeped into her every thought, wearing her down faster than if she were keeping her spirits up. I tried my best to distract her, but even that grew difficult as my own worries kept surfacing.

The moon, when we could glimpse it through the treetops, was thin and cruel. Scattering little light, even for the eyes of fae creatures to see by. I was nearly numb from the fear of the unclaimed Wyldes by now, we had been walking in them for so long. The feeling of being hunted creeping around every bend.

More than once I could swear there were eyes on me, but of course if I looked into the dark tree line I found nothing was there.

I stopped a yawn on my lips, not waning to let the ones we led know that I was tiring. My eyes shifted up to Spaulder, wondering how he was holding up. Then my thoughts drifted far behind us to a city lit with passionate war.

'What will happen to Thanantholl?'

My question prodded after our long stretch of silent travel. Schula and I walked on either side of Spaulder with Puko on his back, and Aithne followed a distance behind Schula. The rest of the Autumn court a little further back.

The Summer fae, with the red patterned skin and the blazing golden hair, was proud as ever as she led her people to accompany us to their borders. Somewhere she had reconnected with the two fae I had seen her with at the outpost. The feisty green water sprite and the smaller ginger haired fae, though the smirk he once wore was now gone. Both happy to follow their proud leader.

But I knew. She wasn't fooling me. I could see in the way she looked at Spaulder, the way her eyes bounced between Schula, Spaulder, and I. She was nervous, a likely unfamiliar feeling. 

I would be too, in her place. She had made no friends between us, her pride and arrogance building a solid wall there. But now she had an unpredictable dragon of legend, the frightening and forbidden witches as well as the enemy elves walking side by side in me, and Schula, who was now widely acknowledged as DuVarick's flesh and blood. 

Yes, in her place I would be nervous too. But I was not in her place, I was in my own, and my nerves were not for what sort of enemy Aithne and her people would make, but with the uncertainty of what we left behind. 

'The time to fret for the city behind us is later, little one,' Spaulder answered. I jumped in my tracks a little. His answer was so delayed from when I had asked it that I had forgotten I brought it up at all. 

'Thain and Eb will keep it safe,' Schula added, but her thoughts seemed strained. 'They have to.'

Spaulder hummed, but not in our minds. The rumble of it sounded in his chest, loud and abrupt, causing more than a few of the fae around us to jump.

I smiled to note that Aithne was one of them.

'I am more interested in what lays ahead,' Spaulder said, after thinking for a moment as he hummed. 'The Autumn court needs shelter for now, but what of the two of you? I will fight this queen Peyorla if she gives you any trouble.'

Peyorla. I hadn't even met her yet and I liked her as little as I liked any of the other fae royalty I'd met, Baeleon aside. I frowned, my pulse speeding up just thinking about her. 

'I've been considering that. I have a thought about it, but it may not be what you want to hear,' Schula said carefully.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I shivered. 'What does that mean?' I asked with no light amount of hesitation.

Schula sighed out loud. I couldn't see her from the other side of Spaulder, but I could just about picture the expression on her face. 

'I've been thinking... if we want to make peace with staying in the Wyldes after all this is settled, we don't want an enemy of an entire court.' 

I stopped for a moment, allowing Spaulder to continue walking and I waited until Schula was in my sight again. 

She had stopped too, looking over her shoulder at me. I walked toward her and we began to walk side by side on Spaulder's left. If Aithne or the others thought anything of the strange behavior, they didn't mention it. Wise of them, as I was just about ready to combust with magic and stress.

'What do you mean by that, Schula?' I asked.

'Hmm, I will admit my curiosity as well,' Spaulder added.

'Look, we don't know what will happen in Thanantholl. The Autumn court is in trouble, and without our king it won't be an easy fight ahead. As much as I hate to admit it, we need Queen Peyorla and her court. And that might mean cooperating with her eccentrics.'

Schula met my eyes, searching for a reaction.

'I don't like it,' I said, and Schula stiffened. 'But... you're not wrong.'

I looked back to the long line of Autumn court fleeing their homes. A few blessed young, several old, more that were simply gentle creatures of no fighting skills. There were so many of them, and Varthas had placed the burden of leading them to safety squarely on our shoulders.

'I will do as you wish,' Spaulder said. 'But if this queen's antics grow tiresome I will eat her and be done with it.'

Schula and I both whipped our heads to Spaulder. 

'You would... eat her?' Schula asked.

Spaulder made that rumbling, purring sound from his chest, and it was the only answer we were given.

'Well then,' Schula sighed. 'When we finally make camp we should have a talk with Aithne.'

'Agreed,' I added.

'So be it,' Spaulder said. 

'When do we camp?' I asked, looking up through the thick treetops to the flitting windows of stars.

'Not until we're out of the unclaimed Wyldes,' Schula answered with a sigh. 'We can't afford to stop here, I think.'

'Yes, we will reach theses Summer lands and make a camp within their borders,' Spaulder added.

'It's settled then,' I said.

And yet, my eyes continued to drift back to Aithne. Would she truly be able to promise us anything without her queen present? I hoped so, because the alternative was that we lead the Autumn refugees not to safety, but to yet more danger.

And we continued our solemn march away from Thanantholl. My heart split between our task at hand and the ones we left behind.

Once again, fleeing my home.