Swords of Gilded Crimson

Chapter 42 | A Forest's Raid |

'Well. The maps show Torrine's located north west of mightmere. What direction have we been walking in?' Nikolai gazed down at the papers he had stretched taut from either end. His brows were furrowed in an attempt to find the means of our egress.

'We wouldn't know, because you decided not to pack a compass.' I groaned from watching him struggle for a good fifteen minutes now. In the meantime, I'd been trying to map out our location from the unabated gusts of wind, which seemed a lasting aspect of this forest. The only problem was how varied they were to the winds of Exolvuntir- where harsh gusts and even soft breezes, were all polar easterlies. But it appeared we were a lot further from Exolvuntir than I'd have thought, since all that flowed here, were westerlies. None of which I had any experience navigating. To make it worse, there weren't even any constellations I could recognise above us to perhaps at least know where north west, or even north, may be.

'You could've brought one.' He muttered without raising his eyes from the study of the map. How many more times could I tell him it was useless if we didn't have a damned compass?

'I was in the dungeons. As far as I remember, your dear High Lord wasn't hospitable enough to equip his prisoners with access to navigational instruments. You on the other hand-'

He brought the maps down with an indignant force and stashed them into the satchels again. 'Fine. I'll admit I wasn't as resourceful as I could've been... What do you propose we do?'

A smug grin of this time my own surfaced, and I shook my head with a low chuckle at his snapping. It seemed we couldn't go five minutes without one of us doing so, anyway.

'Alright, what do you remember of The Steel Wolf Tavern? What was around it?'

He raked a flustered hand through his hair. 'It was virtually empty; only a few hungover drunkards inside, but I guess that's owed to the time of day we visited. They had stables posted outside- a little like the ones behind the inn we stayed at on our first night here. And, in front of it... in front there was this long, winding path of which even I couldn't see its end. On the other side of the path there was mostly just more greenery; more trees, more foliage. Except- not quite like the ones of this forest. They were taller, and the trunks looked much sturdier. The leaves ran a zigzag pattern up to the top.' He looked back at me. 'I suppose we keep going till we see something that resembles those trees. Or hear horses, perhaps even drunkards. The last one shouldn't be too hard for you.'

I glowered at him as we took off again in search for his zigzag trees. 'I don't drink like idiots do in taverns.'

Nikolai scoffed. 'What's the difference then?'

I was about to return a sharp retaliation, listing all the differences there were, when I heard a sound much like the snapping of a twig under a boot. My face blanched at the thought of someone having been spying on us, or hearing any conversation we'd shared in the midst of the forest. I froze but managed to reach a hand out for Nikolai, and swiftly pull him back to be facing me. He was about to continue as if he hadn't heard a thing. Perhaps he hadn't. Perhaps it was only me being paranoid after the owl's earlier leer over us. But the mere possibility of someone being close by, unnerved me.

His brows knitted together, glancing quickly at my hand on his, then questioning my apprehensive stance. But I bade him to be silent by raising a finger to my lips. We stood there for a moment more, ears perked up for any more indication of a presence other than ours in this vicinity of the forest. Other than a few squirrels scurrying in between hollowed trees, and various beetles and insects running over the forest floor, there was nothing.

Until a command rung out, loud enough to not only be heard in our vicinity but in the blasted tavern that felt so impossibly far away. 'All the regiments save for ours has reported the assailant not to be in their regions. Search near and far; behind, within, and up every bloody tree until you bring the bastard in.'