Page 30 of Earthbound

‘Thank you, Farhan,’ she said breathlessly. The fae nodded, his own breathing laboured.

It was then that she noticed he was lying crookedly, his leg twisted unnaturally in front of him.

‘Farhan, are you all right?’

He pursed his lips. ‘I will admit to a sharp pain in my ankle.’

Mortah muttered something about being an idiot before demanding he take off his boot for her to inspect.

The whole group recoiled as Farhan brandished his broken ankle, the bone pressing unnaturally against the skin as though it might break through with the slightest breeze.

‘We need to go back,’ Dart said. ‘He can’t walk on that.’

‘I’ll ride Shera, I’ll be fine,’ he said.

‘No, that needs setting, or you might never walk again,’ Mortah said.

‘Go back to Caperly, Farhan, we’ll find you afterwards,’ Lettle said.

Farhan shook his head. ‘I can’t leave you, I promised the king to protect you.’

Lettle felt her lips begin to lift with the beginnings of a laugh, but she held it back. The idea of Farhan protecting anyone was enough to make her chuckle. The royals had only sent him because he was so clearly a hindrance to the faeguard.

‘We’ll be all right, don’t worry,’ Lettle said as gently as she could.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, go back to Caperly.’

It took all of them to help him onto Shera’s back, and it was only after he had gone that Lettle recalled the feeling she’d had when she’d fallen.

It was as if someone helped me, she thought.

Lettle peered over the edge. But there was nothing except Shera’s footprints in the snow and the muddy track marks Lettle had left where she had been dragged.

‘What is it?’ Alder asked, joining her.

‘I’m not sure. I thought I felt something, but I must have imagined it.’

‘Maybe you should take a few steps back,’ Mia said behind them. ‘Don’t want you to undo all our efforts of getting you up here.’

Lettle and Alder returned to the trail.

‘The mountain is precarious but this is definitely the Fates at work,’ Mortah said.

‘It will be worth it if we learn about Alder’s past,’ Lettle said, half to remind herself.

Mortah reached for her walking stick. ‘We’re not far now.’

‘Do you need to rest more?’ Alder asked Lettle.

In answer, Lettle stood and set off down the trail. Mortah laughed somewhere behind her and the group continued on.

The trail grew overgrown the further they walked. They had to pick their way through brambles until the plants thinned out, revealing Raven’s Valley.

Pine trees lined an expansive dip in the landscape. The sky had cleared of all clouds and its colour was reflected on the frozen blue lake that shimmered ahead of them. It sparkled like a sapphire set into the centre of the valley. Due to the mountain’s height, the valley almost felt like it floated, the edges of it blurred by the sky and the mountain’s edge. Lettle would not have been able to dream up something this ethereal.

‘Bosome above, this is beautiful,’ she said as the others joined her.