An eerie feeling settles in my stomach as earth transitions to cobblestones. The trees don't get much of a chance to thicken before they dwindle into mere shrubs. We stand at the edge of the bush line, eyeing the still village ahead of us.

Nestled in the crevice of the valley, the village rests peacefully. Nothing but a gentle breeze disturbs the buildings. It's small, that much I can tell from where we stand. A seaside village, not at all like Portson. The buildings are made from a darker stone than those in Veymaw, with more pointed roofs. There's nothing familiar about this village. Uneven cobblestones remain unstained, a fountain in the centre stands surrounded on all sides by stone. No water ripples through its surface.

After weeks of being on the run, hiding in the corners of the building as we crept through villages, it feels almost strange to take a step into the village without a thought for who might be watching. But the silence is anything but calming. The tension hanging in the air is a harsh reminder--we may not have to worry about who is watching, but we do have to worry about what.

Casimir nudges me with his elbow. He nods towards the building to our left. Lei gestures to herself and then points to the next building. Cas nods as Lei creeps around the back and he presses himself to the wall outside. I slide next to him, feeling the rough stone press against my shoulder blades.

I raise my eyes to the sky, heart pounding. The sun is all but a cascading ray through the v where the hills meet. It's a race to beat the setting sun, and we're losing.

Casimir raises a dagger, putting his hand to the door handle. I hold my breath as it creaks open. Ducking a head inside, Casimir waits a few seconds before shifting his body, gesturing at me to follow.

Inside, the darkness robs me of my sight. Casimir's hand finds mine. I don't move until he does, my other senses tuning in. I can feel the ice in the floor, the absence of any life rising through its stones. How long has it been since anybody lived here, lit the fire, drew the curtains?

My breath shakes as Casimir clears the room. Empty.

The longer we stay still the more my vision adjusts. Dark shapes fill the space, transitioning into more solid objects--a wooden table, two chairs, one flipped onto its back. I release Casimir's hand as he moves towards the doorway into the next room, moving to the kitchen bench.

Running my finger along the front of the bench, I stop when I reach a lump, pulling it gently. The wood scuffs against the drawers. Reaching inside, my fingers scuff against only wooden utensils.

I try the next, stomach settling when I feel the smooth edge of a blade. Trailing my finger down its generous length, I wrap my hand around the hilt, pulling it from the drawer and wrapping it in cloth from my bag to tuck into the front pocket.

Casimir taps on my shoulder. I half-turn. He's so close his breath ruffles the top of my hair.

"Nothing useful here," he whispers. "Let's try the next."

I follow him outside, only one weapon richer. The last few rays of the sun pierce my eyes as we move to the building across the road at the same time Lei emerges from the one beside, a bundled up bunch of material in her arms. She nods, a satisfied grin on her face.

Casimir gestures at me to wait by the wall as he budges open the door of the next cabin. He clears the room before ushering me inside. Like before, it takes several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the light, my other senses guiding me through the space as it does so.

This building doesn't seem as much like somebody's house. The room is wider, told by the echo of our steps, and several tables centre in the room. I maneuver around the tables using my hands to feel them out as Casimir gestures as he's going into the next room. I nod, scoping out this one. Dark lumps come to realisation.

I walk around, looking at them, but they're mostly pieces of furniture. It doesn't look like there's been any destruction, any sort of fight as a wartorn country would suggest, as Ereon would suggest. It looks like the residents of this village got up one day and just decided to never come back.

Somehow, that makes it more terrifying.

My heart sings when I notice a lump of material in the corner. Letting go of my sense, I bundle over to it, ripping it from the floor.

Bile rises in my throat as a clump of bones fall out from beneath the material, clattering to the floor. In fright, I stumble backwards, knocking over one of the cheers. My heart skips a beat. I shove my fist into my mouth to stop the scream working its way into my throat, bile taking its place instead.

Milky white bones stack on the floor beneath the blanket. I've never seen a skeleton before. Not one that looks like it's still rotting.

A hand slaps over my mouth. Warm. Large. Casimir.

He turns me slowly till we're face to face, raising his fingers to his lips, eyes wide with urgency. I gaze over his shoulder, my stomach tightening.

Something moves in the shadows of the darkness. Low, guttural sounds fill the space. Casimir slowly removes his hand from my mouth, taking my hand instead. We both turn to face the shape. It hasn't noticed us yet, bending over something in the corner. Taking small, quiet steps back towards the front door, we escape into the street.

It doesn't follow as we exchange gazes. Casimir nods towards the treeline, never once dropping my hand as we duck through the streets, meeting Lei by the shrubs.

"What happened?" she asks.

"There's an infected." I point towards the cabin. "Inside there."

She follows my gaze, hers darkening as she looks up to the sky. "We should go. If there are any more of them, they'll start coming out soon after the suns gone."

"Did you get--"

She raises her hands, full of fabric. "It'll do," she says, "let's go."

***

The success of Juem and Killian's mission awaits us outside the seaside shed. Three horses stand tied to the wooden pole, mewing at the edge of the grass. They lift their heads as we approach, seemingly unconcerned by our presence.

When Killian had suggested catching wild horses, I'd imagined untameable animals. I never considered the fact that these horses weren't always wild. I reach out to the horse closest to me, waiting as it nudges its snout into the palm of my hand, hair tickling.

"Come inside." Lei nudges me, glancing towards the sky, her arms weighed down by the sacks of material she gathered from the cabins. "We don't want to spend more time exposed than we have to."

Dropping my hand, I follow her and Casimir through the creaky wooden door of the shed. A single candle lights the room, cascading the shadows of Juem and Killian against the wall. They glance up as we enter, bent over the makeshift table in the centre, Lei's map spread out beside Myers. I meet Killian's gaze.

"Everything okay?" he asks, scanning my body.

"I found a couple of old tents." Lei drops her pile onto the ground. It lands with a thud. She nods at us. "They ran into an infected in one of the cabins. It didn't see us."

Killian's gaze darkens. "Anything else?"

The skeletal remains rise in my mind, sending a shudder down my spine. I shake my head.

"We got three horses," Juem says. "There were more, but we figured that we won't be stopping unless we have to. If we pair up on the horses, we can take turns resting."

"Freya, come here a second," Killian says, ushering me closer. "We have a few questions about the map."

I shuffle towards them, crouching before the maps. Lei settles opposite me, Casimir to her right. Killian places a finger in Lei's map, where I sketched the jagged cross in the spot in the Saulun mountains that I'd copied from Myers map.

"This spot you've identified sits right on the ridge of a mountain. It makes it difficult to tell which side we need to come from."

"Is there a faster side?" Casimir asks.

"Not necessarily faster, but definitely easier."

I shift from foot to foot. "Then does it matter? Why don't we just take that route?"

"I should've caught that before." Lei, catching onto their point, leans forward. "There's a huge drop off either side of this ridge where the hyacerite is. You can only access either side if you come from the right direction."

"Meaning coming from the right direction is absolutely crucial if we want to get to the hyacerite in time," Casimir murmurs in realisation.

Killian nods, shifting his gaze to me and handing me a piece of charcoal. "The path Myers mapped out, can you sketch it onto Lei's map?"

I take it from him, the residue leaving dark marks on his palms. Leaning over the two maps, I scan the dotted line from Myer's, biting the edge of my lip as I copy the line the best I can onto the other map. I feel the heat of their eyes as they follow my path, only silence responding when I connect my line to the 'x'.

I look up, catching the glance exchanged between Lei and Killian. "I take it that's not the easy way."

Their silence is all the confirmation I need. "What makes this path more difficult?" Casimir asks. "The terrain has less of an incline."

"It's not the terrain that's the problem." Lei traces the line, stopping at the foot of the mountain.

"The cloud is a threat to our entire journey, so are the infected. But the route all the way to here is farmland. Rolling hills and exposed fields. The infected are much less likely to gather in these areas, and if they do, they'll be easy to spot from a distance. But here," she taps the map, "the forest thickens. It isn't like the forests in Elel, it's more rugged, the trees a different kind, more densely packed."

"That's where the infected will be?" I ask.

"Most likely."

We settle into a thoughtful silence, the distance sounds of the waves on the shore of the cove filling the air.

"We can make it, we just need to be careful," Killian decides. "It's more difficult, sure, but not impossible."

After looking at Juem's expression, I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't fully believe him.

"And what about Ereon?" I ask.

Lei raises a brow. "What about him?"

"He saw us leaving. He knew we were going to Torinne."

"Ereon is the least of our worries while we're here. If he's stupid enough to follow us to Torinne, he doesn't have the map."

"He's not going to just let Freya go," Casimir points out.

"Which is why we can fully expect him to be waiting for us when we get back. No port in Elel will be unguarded," Killian says. "But that isn't our main concern right now. Right now, we just have to survive the next week. And trust me, Ereon is not the biggest threat to us in Torinne."

I wish I could shove him to the back of my mind like they do, but his voice, the way he looked at me on that pier, sits at the forefront as a haunting memory. I shift closer to the table, resting my chin on my knees.

"I'll ride the first shift," Lei announces, nodding at Juem. "Ride with me, you can rest."

"I'll ride too," Killian says, glancing at me.

"Freya, you're with me," Casimir says. "Killian, we'll load your horse with cargo."

I nod as we all rise to our feet, heading outside. There's a bite to the night air. I try not to think about the clouds hovering over the horizon line.

"Stick close to us." Killian instructs fiddling with the tents Lei wrangled and attaching them to the horse with ropes. "Lei will signal at any sign of the cloud. We stop immediately, secure the horses to anything we can, and set up shelter. No hesitation."

Casimir nods.

"Let's go."

He offers me a hand. I take it, settling atop the horse. His mouth finds my ear. "Rest," he says, "if you can."

It reminds me of something Lei said to me on the ship. Sleep. It might be your last chance for a while.

It's only when the horse bolts after Lei that I realise how true her statement had been.