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 The trees rose around him, dark, menacing, and shadowed among the mist that seemed to whisper down from the branches ahead.

If his need hadn’t been so desperate, Celeres would never have come to this wood. He knew the legends here, of the elf-witch who sometimes came to the aid of wounded warriors, and left no survivors of the ones who came seeking her without need.

He had left his horse behind. Silverskin could get herself out of her halter, she had often enough before. If he didn’t come back for her, she would get herself free.

His shoulder burned like acid. Ten days ago, he had taken a terrible blow to the shoulder that had crushed his armor and the bone beneath it. It infected mere hours after and the healers told him honestly that they had not the power to save him, only to hold of the infection a little longer while he made his farewells.

And then Maddy, his old nurse and still one of his most trusted, had come to him and told him of a woman she traded with sometimes in secret. How she knew a healer who had the old magic, true magic, that might be enough to save him if he was brave enough to seek her out.

Hope.

Slim, fragile hope that could all too easily mean his death. He left orders that if he did not send word or return within a month that they were to assume he was dead. His heir was young, but strong and his council could keep the peace while his young cousin learned to rule.

And then he had rode out- alone as Maddy had told him to. The healer was a shy creature. Any sign of others about him, and she would vanish without a trace. And never return. As he mounted, she told him the last of her secret healer. The part she had held off until he made the decision. Her healer-friend was an elf. One of the few who ever dealt with humans. Maddy met the elf in her younger days, but swore that the healer could help, if he could get to her in time.

His head spun and he staggered against a tree until the spell passed. He had been feverish for days now, and only held it at bay with the dark, bitter tea Maddy had sent with him. Still the waves of weakness came. He had taken to binding himself into the saddle while he rode and it was sheerest luck that he hadn’t encountered robbers on the road. He never could have defended himself, though he bore his weapons, just in case.

When he could stand steady again, he forged his way deeper into the hidden wood. It was a spooky place. Here and there, a streak of light shot through the thick leaves above, but more often it was half-lit gloom. There was only a game trail to follow. Maddy had warned him about that too- how the elf kept the path to her home well-hidden and stayed in the treetops when she herself left her home. Where that was, Maddy hadn’t known. She had never been farther in than a spring where the elf met her twice a year with her trade-goods for Maddy’s.

Celeres planned to wait for the elf at that spring. With any luck, it was where she took most of her water, and she would come in time. If no, Maddy would find his body- what was left of it- when she came in six months’ time..

One true comfort that kept him walking in the gloom was the sound of birds around him. There must have been thousands, and though they quieted at first as he passed, soon word must have traveled, and they sang out bright and clear, even so bold as to flutter down into the bushes to get a look at him. He whistled back to them a little when he had the breath for it. When he stopped, the binding on his shoulders soaked through and needing to be changed, he broke off some travel bread for the colorful little creatures. He had always liked animals, and it seemed right to do a little kindness to them.

Also, If he died here, that wasn’t bad, as far as last acts went. The bold little birds took to him after that, and in the haze, he fancied they were leading him through the wood. An honor-guard bright as his courtiers on feast-day, though certainly less annoying.

So distracted by the birds and his wounds he was, that he almost fell into the spring when he came to it, and earned a startled gasp form the woman who had just knelt to fill a bucket from the glittering water. Before he could do more that raise a hand- for who could this be but the elf-witch he had come to see- she turned and bolted into the trees as fast as her feet would carry her. He shrugged doff his pack and followed as best he could. If he scared her away now, she took his hope with her.

“Wait-“ he yelled as he ducked through the trees after her. She was faster than he was and she knew where she was going. He doubted he would have been able to catch her even if he had been sound. “Please wait- I need your help!”

Leaves whipped his face and she turned sharply, her golden braid flashing when the sunlight caught it. Her dress, roughspun and mottled like the leaves, made her hard to see and he knew she was going to get away.

“Please” he tried again even as the gap between them widened. “Please!”

She hurdled a fallen tree with a grace he couldn’t hope to match on his best day, and just as he tried to follow, a wave of weakness swept through him. Instead of leaping over as he had meant to, his legs gave out and he hit the ground hard, on his bad shoulder. Unable even to scream as the pain swept over him like a battering ram, he curled in on himself as his vision went black.

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Uncollected Fantasy:

Below the Fog

Glitter Bold

God-Touched Tide

Into the Darkness

Turn Me

Wolf Moon

Blood Moon

Hallowed Halls Memorial

A Kiss to Heal a Broken Heart

Cursebroken

Build a House of Paper

Unspoken Words

Imagine Reality (Patreon-Only)

Between Lives

Glass Shadow

Moon War

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