All's Fair in Revenge

Chapter 36: and The Haunted

I woke limp over my horse's rear end. My limbs were stringy, and my brain felt like some kind of residue coated it. From above, rays of light pierced my eyelids creating a burning red veil. I winced as I pulled myself into a sitting position on the saddle. With all the grief I gave the healing, I'd have died seven times over without it.

For too long the sun had sat high in the sky waiting for me to wake and now that I had, it decided to begin its descent into dusk. I needed to get back to the castle, to Liv. Surely, she was already in a tizzy wondering what became of me.

If the queen didn't kill me first as I was quite sure I'd missed the banquet I was supposed to host.

"Where's Thorne?" I asked the mare who huffed in response. "Right. Well, any idea where we are?" No response, of course. I was talking to a damn horse. "Wonderful."

I guided the mare out of the meadow and along the ridge of a crumbling riverbank where Sune's voice met me, his shape forming in ripples along the water's surface. With the gentlest twinkle in his eye he said, "Trust the water above all else. Northern rivers flow south. Southern rivers flow north."

"What of stagnant rivers who flow not at all?" His portrait shrugged. I washed my face with him.

We walked through a carpet of rusty pine needles from seasons past. We walked around a marsh. And we walked over a hornet's nest which managed to sting me three times through every layer of skirt. The mare took the brunt of the attack. She promptly whinnied, reared, and bolted as anyone in her position might.

I was glad to be rid of her. Her attitude made for sour company in an already bitter situation.

Soon after her leave the skies opened and I became one with the bog. The rain pittered and then pattered, and as it did, it became increasingly clear that I had pissed off the goddess Mimir. Why else had I such fortune? Why else was their muck in my braid and mud streaked up my arms? Why did every tree look the same as the three I'd just passed?

The knock to my head, the weather, the endless forest, all of it felt a little too personal. A little too targeted. Someone had it out for me, I was sure of it.

My boot snagged on a root, and I yanked it out with my foot, catching myself by my fingertips. "Show yourself, Mimir. Allow me to tell you exactly what I think about your stupid tricks." I ripped the tie keeping the skirt layers secured around my waist. As I stepped out of them, a rock teetered underfoot and leveled me, my face slapping into squelching puddle. When I rose, two hands opposite my torso, the mud slid off my face, plopping into the murk with a splash. I screamed from my throat and slapped the puddle until it emptied. Huffing, panting, and seething I pushed myself up onto my feet and continued my trek.

Around the third kilometer in the rain, I came across wide ruins constructed in limestone ashlar and oxidized copper. At its center, a domed structure with eleven niches for statues and low reliefs hugged fluted columns with ornate cornice. It sat perched on a hill overlooking the forest's canopy. Beneath its moss-covered dome, I found shelter, slid down its wall, and brought my muddy knees to my chest. Water-logged and defeated, I squeezed my legs hard against my chest and allowed a few tears to fall.

I was lost. In so many ways, I was lost. I know this now. I wasn't ready to admit it back then. Instead, I focused on how I hadn't found Wickham, hadn't killed Wickham, and how Liv was probably worried sick. I was no closer to vengeance than that first day I'd stepped on Castle Moer's soil. In reality, I was farther than ever.

Above me, the night sky cracked in two because what was worse than rain but a thunderstorm. A tree crashed in the distance, sending a nauseating shudder through me. The sound resembled a similar night with similar emotions running amok in my veins.