Chapter 47

Aicha

I couldn’t believe I’d come too late, and Sara had already left. All the sacrifices and hardships had been in vain. But I couldn’t have followed my uncle any closer, or he would have seen me and sent me back home, or worse, given me to the Queen as a traitor. Anyway, how was I supposed to know that Sara was already ahead of us? Or, yeah, that I could probably have figured out if I hadn’t been so cold and hungry in the end. My uncle was lazy, so he probably hadn’t been in any big hurry, but I’d been cold and didn’t sleep well, so I hadn’t thought about it. Maybe ditching my tent and warm clothes had been a mistake, but I’d left at the end of the summer, when it was still warm. How was I supposed to know my journey would take longer than I’d thought?

I glanced at my newfound companions. Was this really Sara’s army? An elf and a girl. The elf didn’t look much older than me, and the girl… I don’t know what I had expected, but I guess not this. Shouldn’t Sara have a bigger army, with real soldiers? But then I remembered the girl’s knife and shivered. Had she really been serious about making me squeak? I remember my dad butchering a pig with a smaller knife. They really squealed. Good that the elf had stopped her. I really didn’t want to beg for a quick end…

Although I couldn’t really blame them for their reaction. Back home, with the others, we’d discussed countless times what we would do if we found a spy. You had to be careful with the Queen’s agents being everywhere, but still, had she really needed to press it against my belly like that?

I glanced around the dark forest. It was cold now when I sat still. The elf and the girl sat deep in discussion about something I couldn’t hear. After I had introduced myself and I’d told them what the Queen would do to Sara, they’d mostly ignored me. It was disappointing. I’d envisioned this meeting so many times, but it had never crossed my mind that my revelation about the Queen’s plans would be ignored.

They finally stopped discussing, and the girl turned to me.

“We will stay and wait. We might risk everything if we go after them.”

She put her hand on the elf. Was she really the one in charge?

“Aicha, are you hungry?”, the elf asked.

Her voice was soft, just as I had imagined elves’ voices to be. I nodded, and she passed me some bread and dried meat. I devoured it as quickly as I could. I’d run out of the food Uncle had left me two days ago, and hunting in this weather was complicated, so I hadn’t eaten much lately.

The girl turned to me suddenly.

“Can you fight?”

I stopped eating and stared at her. I knew they were an army, but I never thought I would actually have to kill someone. I didn’t know how to fight.

“I… I’m a hunter…”

“A hunter?”

She smiled and turned to the elf.

“If we need to leave for the North, we will not need to worry about food, Silvi. We’ll be fine.”

North? Did she really mean North…? A place of endless snow and cannibal tribes that would eat you for dinner if you dared to cross their borders? I shivered and peered into the dark forest. This was definitely not how I had expected it to be.

“Sit with us, you must be cold,” Silvi said and patted the ground next to her.

I was cold, so I accepted the invitation, and she wrapped a blanket around me. Their makeshift shelter was small, but at least it protected us from the rain. Maybe tomorrow I could build something better if we are staying here for a while.