Despite our desire for haste, the going was slow. The horses were unwilling due to the darkness of the road, and many of the men travelled with sword in hand for fear of an ambush. Daegwin was as pale as many of the travellers we’d passed the previous morning, and I wondered if they’d also encountered the faeries.

Dawn's early rays soon replaced our pathetic torchlight and our pace quickened. Hours passed after the attack on our campsite, and I began to cultivate hope that our exit from the Dreadwood Forest would occur without incident. Wargwa seemed confident that we would emerge from the other side well before dusk due to our early start, though my vitality had paid the price.

I slouched on Lilac's saddle, my eyes half awake. I trusted my pony to stay beside Timoth, letting her choose her own steps for the most part. We ate as we rode, and nourishment was thus confined to bread. I longed even for simple butter to sweeten the taste, but the better food was locked in the carriage and we dared not stop.

We discussed that maybe the faeries had fallen behind, surprised by our willingness to travel through the night and delayed by their retreat. I remembered their nimble limbs, their dancing movements, their powerful wings. I knew that if they wanted to pursue us, we could never outpace them.

It was late in the morning when they reappeared.

Wargwa caught sight of their beady black eyes in the forest and called us to arms. The men readied their swords, but did not dismount. We still hoped to pass by them unmolested.

I had Timoth's knife, and also its scabbard. He’d given it to me and showed me how to strap it inside my boot while we rode.

I was thankful for the gift. It made me feel a little bit safer, and I could use all the security that was available. I wouuld have been concerned about wearing a sword as that would have been grossly indelicate for a noblewoman, but the knife was short enough that I could conceal it within my riding boots.

Three faeries stood before us on the road, all brandishing bone spears. We were unable to progress without confronting them. I couldn’t tell if they were the same faeries from the night attack. We instinctively knew that there would be more faerie waiting behind the treeline.

I knew what must be done, but it was an awful task.

'Is there no way through? I asked, breaking the solemn silence that had accompanied our halting on the road.

'Only with my surrender,' Wargwa said.

His face was white with fear, but no tears nor tremors blemished his decision. He was courageous, and it made me feel truly awful. He was going to sacrifice himself for us, because of a decision that I'd made.

I’d thought about this long and hard during our morning ride, and despite my distracting fatigue, I knew that the faeries would have been willing to leave us alone had we left the woodcutting soldier to die. Instead, I’d ordered Wargwa to burn the forest, and now he faced the vengeance that their culture demanded.

I wondered why no one had taken an army through this forest and culled its more dangerous inhabitants. Wargwa would probably know, but it was too late for such a question.

He petted his horse's head briefly, sadly. He turned to Timoth. 'See that Bonny makes it back to Haelling Cove.'

'Wargwa…' Timoth started, but he didn't finish the thought. Wargwa raised his hand, and dismounted. Timoth took a deep breath, and exhaled. 'I’ll take care of her.'

Wargwa retrieved several items from his pockets and belt pouches and stowed them in Bonny's saddlebags. Finally, he removed his sword sheath from his belt and placed it in a saddlebag, with its handle protruding due to its length.

'Keep your sword,' I advised him. 'Take some of them with you.'

He only shook his head. 'Better that it goes with you.'

Tears filled my eyes. 'Wargwa, I'm so sorry. So so sorry.' He held up a hand to silence me as he had Timoth, but I was distraught. 'It's all my fault! I shouldn't have told you to burn the bushes. I'm so sorry.'

'My lady,' he said. His eyes were grave, but there was a powerful resolve in there. I knew that he had accepted his fate, which only intensified my self-loathing. 'Yours was only a suggestion, I judged the plan to be sound myself.'

I went to protest, but Timoth reached out from the back of his horse and put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

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'Good luck, Gentleman Wargwa,' he said.

I think he wanted to say farewell, but couldn’t bring himself to speak the truth out loud. That he was sending Wargwa to his certain death. It was easier to pretend that there was some hope of survival.

'And to you, Count Tfaeller,' Wargwa replied. His eyes met both mine and Timoth's, then he turned his back to us.

He marched steadily towards the waiting faeries, armed with nothing but his own mental fortitude. I was weeping heavily, and Daegwin rode her gelding beside Lilac to put her arm around me in comfort. She mistook my anger for sadness, and in frustration I threw her arm off me, nearly unbalancing her from her saddle.

It was all my fault!

Whatever happened to Wargwa was my own doing. He’d been under my command, and now he would die because of my order. A member of my own family, of what passed for nobility in Ebonreach. I wished that I could send one of the soldiers instead. It was their job to die for people like Wargwa and myself. But the faeries would accept no substitute.

In the end, I didn’t see what became of Wargwa. The faeries led him off the road, and he acquiesced quietly. He disappeared into the treeline, and Timoth bade us start moving again.

'We must grieve as we ride if we wish to leave this accursed forest before nightfall.'

I listened carefully for the sounds of fighting but heard nothing more from the faeries, or any of the folk of the forest. Timoth and Wargwa had been right: they bore ill will only for those who had desecrated living trees and plants.

I became paranoid to steer Lilac down the middle of the path, lest she tread on some overgrown flower or vine. Fatigue and grief weighed me down almost as much as self-directed fury.

Daegwin was scared of me that day, and made no further attempt to comfort me. I wished that Gwaeda had accompanied me, she always took the risks that needed to be taken with my care. Even Timoth had no kind words to say to me.

I sought them not, I knew that he was dealing with the grief in his own way. After all, Wargwa had been a regular instalment in our lives since our early childhood years. We’d not always had much to do with him but he worked behind the scenes, securing tutors for our education, rooms for our privacy, and attendants for our service.

My fatigue and hunger bore my spirits down to the depths of depression. At one low stage, I wished that I had offered myself in his place.

As the sky turned red for the sunset, the trees began to clear. The edge of the forest. We had made it, just. I looked behind us as if afraid that the faeries would attack one last time, but there were only hills and trees. We were free to travel onwards, and soon after dusk we found ourselves in a small village inn.

I wanted to grieve, I wanted to punish myself, but my body would have none of it. I was asleep before my chests were even brought into the room.

One would consider that the loss of two of our companions would have led Timoth to be compassionate. Yet he roused us at dawn just the same as any other day, and had us set out with all haste.

I’d barely caught up on the sleep I'd missed out on during the faerie attack, but I spoke no words of complaint. Timoth had made it clear that he was in charge.

He didn't need to say anything to make it clear that when I gave orders, people died.

We departed before most of the townsfolk were even awake. I never even learned the name of the village that hosted us during the night.

We carried the burden of the horses of the felled men, and when I suggested that we sell them, Timoth shook his head.

'These are not our horses to sell. They belong to Father,' he said.

Truthfully, I think he took his oath to see Bonny back to Haelling Cove very seriously. It mustn't have been easy for him to have lost two men under his command. Yet all I could think was that at least he hadn't been personally responsible, as I was.

I let myself fall back in the marching order, not wanting to occupy my usual place at the head of the party. Why not let Timoth give the orders?

After all, he hadn't killed anyone yet.

Daegwin had been strangely quiet since our encounter with the nymphs. Not that she was normally particularly verbose, but she'd uttered few words of comfort or complaint through the Dreadwood Forest, even as the faeries had attacked. Typically, as a mere servant, I would not deign to befriend her, but with Wargwa dead and Timoth strained by command I had nowhere else to turn. I spoke to her in as casual a tone as I could muster.

'Is everything alright?' I asked her.

'Your cases were packed up the way you like them, my lady. And I buttered your bread this morning, so that if we have to eat on the road again you'll have something with a bit more substance,' she replied, but I hadn't been asking about my luggage.

'No, I mean… Is everything alright with you? You've been very quiet.'

'Oh, I'm sorry, my lady. You don't often ask about such things, I wasn't sure what you meant is all. Not that you're unkind or anything. I just mean that-'

'Never mind,' I cut her rambling short irritatedly. It served me right to have acted thusly to a servant. Daegwin opened her mouth, but nothing came out of it and she closed it again a few seconds later.

Timoth estimated that we had another week before we’d reach the capital. I sighed upon hearing this news, as it meant that we were less than halfway through our journey. He swore not to take us off the main road again, at least.

As in the Reach, we passed through much farmland. The road we travelled by was not close enough to the Haelling for us to keep it in our sight, but the benefits of its bounty were evident in the heavily-tilled lands that surrounded us. We travelled from dawn to dusk, and continued in the moonlight until we came to a village that would have us. Sometimes we stopped before dusk if we considered it unlikely that we would pass another village in the next few hours of walking. I let Timoth make all the decisions, and he did not lead us astray.