Chapter Ten 🗡

"It is both a blessing and a curse to feel everything so very deeply."

THOUGHTS OF TRYING to escape as they were led into a clearing was not even an idea in Esara's mind. Although it probably should have been. She was simply so mesmerized by the greenery, and the way with which the people walked around her, that she could scarcely focus on anything other than not being in Endovier.

Everyone walked with such...joy. Or..perhaps not joy, but just life. They walked like they didn't dread waking up another day. Although none of them smiled, and their posture was rigid, they still seemed so....fulfilled. Hopeful.

It was so, so strange.

Captain Westfall remained close to Celaena and Esara as a fire was kindled a few steps away from them. Food was beginning to be prepared, meats and other forms of nourishment pulled from a wooden box one of the guards held on their horse. The soldiers rolled logs to make small circles, where they sat while their companions.

The Crown Prince's dogs, who had dutifully trotted alongside their master, approached Esara with wagging tails and laid at her feet with panting mouths. She couldn't help the small upturn of her lips at the action.

A glimmer of a forgotten memory tickled the edge of her mind. Perhaps she had had a dog once. But she doubted it, she and her brother had bounced around for so long she couldn't imagine that I would be a suitable living condition for a pet.

Esara remembered some things from her past, but others were still a haze. As if they were tucked behind veiled mist.

She reached out a hand, petting the creature in front of her gently while she watched the soldiers work and talk with a hawk's eye.

Still, she could not find it in herself to have an appetite as a plate was laid in her lap. Esara thought it would be a long while yet before it would return. Or before she would get used to eating so much food, let alone things so rich with flavor and spice.

The Captain did not immediately remove their irons—and Esara could tell that Celaeana was irritated at the fact even if she herself was not. But finally after giving the assassin a long, warning look, the Captain unlocked the chains and latched them on Celaena's ankles.

When Chaol turned to her, Esara merely shook her head. "No need. I'd rather not have them on my ankles." I'd rather not have the shackles off at all. Not yet at least.

So much all at once. So much all at once.

He peaked an unamused brow. "How will you eat?" There was something in his voice that told her he was not asking out of any inkling of concern. Perhaps he was worried that she might keel over and be dead weight for the rest of the journey if she didn't.

Esara narrowed her eyes. "I managed well enough for the past five years."

She could see the Captain resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he turned away and went to sit on the log beside the girls.

When Esara turned back to Celaena, the girl was looking at her intensely. Almost concernedly. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Esara mustered up the most beaming smile she could. "Of course." She lied. "It's just...a lot to adjust to all at once." Now that was not a lie. She was overwhelmed. She was scared. Celaena had lived in this outerworld as she grew and aged. Esara had no idea what awaited her. Even if she had been taken later in life...this was a foreign land. She didn't know its customs, or what it even looked like.

Esara was lost.

Completely and utterly lost.

Celaena studied her for a long moment, and then slowly nodded. Albeit hesitantly. "I know what you mean." she said. "It's very strange."

Esara knew she did. Knew that if anyone could understand what she was thinking or feeling, it would be her best friend. But...and Esara hated to think it...but Celaena could not understand it to the extent Esara felt it.

She did not voice this particular shame of thought.

Instead she agreed "It is. It will just take a bit more getting used to is all." She hoped that was true."

The blonde nodded, and they both went back to gingerly picking at their food. Neither of the girls were used to such large portions, let alone eating more than once in 24 hours. And that was if the overseers at Endovier were feeling generous.

While the soldiers talked amongst themselves, Esara took in their surroundings. She, Chaol, and Celaena sat with five soldiers. The Crown Prince, of course, sat with Perrington on their own two logs, far from Celaena and she. While The Prince had been all arrogance and amusement the previous night, his features were grave as he spoke to the duke. His entire body seemed tense, and she didn't fail to notice the way he clenched his jaw when Perrington spoke. Whatever their relationship was, it surely wasn't cordial.

Midbite, Esara tore her focus from the prince to study the trees. From her peripheral she watched the long blonde haired woman do the same.

The forest had gone silent. The ebony hounds' ears were perked, though they didn't seem to be bothered by the stillness. Even the soldiers quieted. Her heart skipped a beat. The forest was different here.

The leaves dangled like jewels—tiny droplets of ruby, pearl, topaz, amethyst, emerald, and garnet; and a carpet of such riches coated the forest floor around them.

"Damned forest," said an olive-skinned soldier in their circle. A soldier beside him chuckled. "The sooner it's burned, the better, I say." The other soldiers nodded, and Esara felty the woman beside her stiffen. "It's full of hate," said another.

"Did you expect anything else?" The blonde interrupted, and Esara turned her head. Chaol's hand darted to his sword as the soldiers turned to her, some of them sneering. "This isn't just any forest." She beckoned with her fork to the woods. "It's Brannon's forest."

Brannon.

The name rung a distant bell in Esaras mind. A flash of a memory echoing along with it. A memory of being tucked into bed, her mother grinning at her and telling her not to tell her father that she'd let Esara stay up late to hear another story. Esara remembered her brother sneaking into her room to hear it too.

The story of Brannon.

The whisper of her mothers voice tickled her neck, and Esara's hair stood on end. It was such a vivid feeling that she found herself turning slightly to look behind her.The empty woods stared back at her, branches shadowing the ground, flowers and brush adorning it. Esara could have sworn the brush rustled, yet no wind swept past.

"My father used to tell me stories about it being full of faeries," a soldier said, and she turned back. "They're all gone now." One took a bite from an apple, and said: "Along with those damned wretched Fae." Another said: "We got rid of them, didn't we?"

At this, it was Esara who stiffened. Memories of pointed ears and ethereal otherworldly magic that danced between their fingers.

Esara could not tell if she wished for this conversation to continue. If only so she could go on exploring the memories it prompted, or if she wished the earth would swallow her whole so she did not have to bear witness to it.

"I'd watch your tongues," Celaena snapped. "King Brannon was Fae, and Oakwald is still his. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the trees remember him."

The soldiers laughed. "They'd have to be two thousand years old, them trees!" said one.

"Fae are immortal," she said.

"Trees ain't."

Ignorant. Ignorant indeed.

"What do you know about this forest?" Chaol quietly asked Celaeana, and Esara turned back to picking at her food to pretend she wasn't eavesdropping.

The blonde was quiet for a moment, and then— "Before Adarlan began its conquest, this forest was cloaked in magic," She said softly, but not meekly.

The captain seemed to wait for her to elaborate, but Celaena did not. "And?" he prodded.

"And that's all I know," she said.

Somehow Esara knew she was lying.

Esara hoped Celaena would tell her sometime soon. But that sometime would not be today, esara knew.

So instead, she looked at the sunlight filtering through the canopy of trees, how they swayed in the wind with their long, bony arms around each other. For some reason, though the trees were as unfamiliar as everything else, Esara found it comforting. Even as she suppressed a shiver.

Lunch, was over quickly, and the horses had been fed and watered before everyone began to mount again. Esara could already feel the stiffening of her limbs beginning. SHe wondered how stoney her limbs would feel when they reached their destination.

It was painful to ride, and her nose also suffered a blow as the continual stench of horse sweat and excrement floated to the back of the entourage.

They traveled for the remainder of the day, and they sat in silence as Esara watched the forest pass, the tightness in her chest not easing as she'd hoped. If anything her heart clenched more and more with each trot of her horse's footstep.

Her body ached by the time they stopped for the night. She didn't bother to speak at dinner, nor did Celaena.

But Esara was elated when she found that she and Celaena would be sharing a tent. That she would not have to suffer alone and in silence again. Perhaps she might actually get a wink of sleep. Guards posted outside, and she and Celaena huddled close together for warmth in the cold night. It felt as though they were back in the mines of Endovier, reaching for each others warmth as the cold rock cut into their bones.

Esara actually slept. Not a good sleep, but sleep nonetheless.

She didn't dream, but when she awoke, she couldn't believe her eyes.

Small white flowers lay at the foot of both her's and Celaena's her cots, and many infant-sized footprints led in and out of the tent. Esara might have memory issues, but she knew what left it. And she could not help the slight smile that tilted her lips. But before someone could enter and notice, Celaena swept a foot over the tracks, destroying any trace, and stuffed her flowers, along with Esara's flowers into a nearby satchel.

The black haired woman frowned at the action, but understood nonetheless. Esara did not know why the Little Folk left gifts for Celaena as well, but even so it would look suspicious that they left gifts at all.

Perhaps Celaena had some inkling deep down about Esara and her past. Some instinct or other.

And although it saddened her to see the gifts stuffed meaninglessly in a satchel, Esara was grateful that her friend had done it.

Though no one mentioned another word about faeries, as they traveled onward, Esara continually scanned the soldiers' faces for any indication that they'd seen something strange. She spent a good portion of the following day hoping and dreading that she might see a skeletal hand on the bark of a tree or the nestle of brush in the distance, and kept one eye fixed on the passing woods.

⚔️

A/N: ha...been awhile...haha...hey