By the time Sara found the road, her legs were bleeding so much she wondered if she might pass out.

Sitting down on the hard dirt, she took a much-needed minute to catch her breath and examine her injuries. Though numerous, they were minor. She bit back a whine as her muscles and joints ached. She had lost count of how long she’d been running. She was pretty sure the Tachelm pursuers were gone, but she didn’t want to risk making any more sound than necessary.

A droplet landed on her head. She looked up at the black sky, heavy with pregnant clouds. Behind her, the bushes parted. She turned, expecting swords and snarling monsters.

It was Sapphire. The girl staggered out, weary and exhausted. “I’ve not run like this in a long time,” she said, coming to sit next to Sara. She was cute in a low-key sort of way, all freckles and straight hair, and her clothes were just as torn as Sara's, if not more.

“Was the last time during your grand escape?” Sara asked.

Sapphire pulled rogue strands of her straight hair from her face and nodded. “By the time I reached the border, I was so exhausted I was almost blind.”

Sara thought about staying here for a little longer, but the sky lit up with lightning. She stood, eliciting a tiny moan from Sapphire.

“We’re leaving already? I don’t mind being wet.”

Sara ignored the all-too-easy dig. “You’ll mind it once you get hypothermia.” She scanned the rolling horizon, looking for a road.

"I think there’s a village that way," Sapphire said. Sara held up a finger.

They both heard it; footsteps crashing through the underbrush. Dark wings fluttered into the sky, passing overhead.

Sara reached for Sapphire’s hand. “You better be right.”

They ran further down the hill, stopping for nothing. Sara heard Sapphire panting behind her. The girl was at her limit, swaying after every few steps. Sara held onto her hand tightly, wishing she could pass on what little energy she had left through their fingers.

I’m close, too.

The thought caused unhelpful images to flash before Sara’s eyes. A bed. Warm clothes. A lamp powered by, god forbid, electricity.

She was never one to complain, but right now, Sara thought she might be allowed a little negativity. Then, the sound of something hitting the ground startled her from her daze. She reflexively clenched her fingers but couldn’t feel Sapphire’s hand. She twisted around.

Thunder rumbled. The air grew thick with rain. Sapphire was a speck in the distance.

Sara staggered over. The girl looked impossibly far away and didn’t seem to get any closer. The ground turned hard. Sara fell. She bit her tongue. When she got up she thought for a split second that her teeth were falling out, but it turned out she had just eaten a mouthful of dirt.

Sapphire was facedown in the mud. Turning her over, Sara checked for signs of life.

She was breathing, even though it was labored.

“Come on.” Sara crouched down and pulled on Sapphire’s arms. “You’re not making me leave you here. Not after all this.”

Sapphire weighed a feather. It was surprising, until Sara remembered her own strength and just how many people she killed for it.

With the cool rain falling around them, Sara's mind was a little clearer. She realized she’d gone off the path ages ago. They were in a patch of old farmland, the mud so thick her slippers had trouble staying on her feet. After a few dozen more steps she finally got sick of it, and kicked them off to go barefoot.

A round silver moon shimmered behind dark clouds. Sara thought about Jamie. The prince had tried so hard to win his war, only to have everything backfire. She couldn’t blame him for going through desperate means, but that was the same as saying you shouldn’t blame parents for wanting the best for their children.

Sara’s vision started to blur. She felt her steps faltering, and tried to conjure up scary images to spur her body onward. She thought about the scorpion monsters, with their massive claws and stingers, and the armored riders charging her down.

It worked. She kept going. And like a mirage, shapes emerged from the rain.

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A puff of hot breath tickled her ear as Sapphire spoke.

“I’m sorry for holding you back.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sara assured her.

The moment her toes found solid ground, Sara never thought she could be so happy. She spotted a hut soon after. There were no lights. She couldn’t tell if people slept inside the straw-roofed building, or whose side they were on.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where we are?” she asked Sapphire, but the girl was snoring softly on her back.

Sara continued down the street, the rain covering her footsteps.

It was impossible to tell if the whole village was empty, but after peeking into a few houses and finding them dark and silent, Sara decided it was worth the risk. She found one of the houses near the center of the village and nudged open the door. She dismissed the possibility of any traps. She was too tired to care. Besides, sleeping out in this weather was a sure-fire way to freeze to death. She might as well take her chances indoors.

She went in.

The smell was rancid, a mixture of damp and mold. Loose floorboards shrieked with each step and the walls were so full of holes Sara didn’t need windows to see where she was going. But it was still a place of shelter. She found a dry spot furthest away from the door and set Sapphire down.

The girl flopped and her head smacked against the wall. “Ouch,” she muttered in her sleep.

"Sorry," Sara said. She closed the door first, sticking wooden logs behind it to keep it from opening too easily. She shut the windows that still had shutters, and stuck hay into the holes in the walls to keep out the rain. After all this was done, Sara stood in the drizzling darkness and converted to memory the layout of the entire floor, testing and noting especially where all the squeaky places were.

She felt like she was back home, sneaking downstairs for a midnight snack, stepping over all the parts in the house that creaked so she wouldn’t wake her parents.

Sara imagined she was there now, seeing the fridge and the kitchen counter, the sink, and the oven… and over there would be the stairs leading to her room.

Sara forced the memories away. She couldn’t let herself wish. It would be like opening a valve inside her chest; one slip up and she'd never be able to stop.

Sapphire was shivering. It had gotten cold and their clothes were still wet. Sara found some rags, took off her clothes, and wrapped herself up. Then, she did the same thing to Sapphire.

“This is payback,” she whispered, lying down and slipping her arms around the girl, combining the heat of their bodies. "Now you've been stripped."

Sara slept, dreaming of home.

She woke up the next morning alone. Sara didn't panic, though. Her barricades hadn’t been taken down and a long pole had been balanced from the low ceiling, with all her clothes strung on it. They were still damp. Rain made polka dots across the floor. Sara traced the swirling pathways in the wood with her feet, stopping on a skewed piece by the other side of the room.

The moment her toes touched it, the floorboard flew open. Sapphire’s smiling face popped up. “Look what I have found.” She pulled up two rucksacks in each hand. “There are more down here, but they were not good. I checked.”

“Must be where the smell is coming from,” Sara said, hand touching her fluttering chest. She reached down and helped Sapphire climb out of the underground storage.

They went through the loot. It was food, which was better than gold, honestly. There were packs of jerky, cheese, and stale crackers in one sack, while the other held opaque jars with sealed lids. They opened one and found pickled carrots inside.

“We should still cook these,” Sapphire said. “We do not know how long they have been kept here.”

“Leave that to me.” Sara pulled some planks loose from the windows and stacked them in a pile. With a whoosh of bright flame from her fingers, the pile started to burn.

Sapphire’s eyes went wide.

“I got another point while we were running,” Sara explained. “It… it must’ve been Jamie.”

Both girls were quiet for a moment. Sapphire picked up a slice of jerky and placed it on the burning wood to cook.

After they ate, Sara decided to take one rucksack and leave the other behind. They had no real use for pickles, not when there was enough protein in the other bag.

“It is good to take only what we need,” Sapphire agreed.

They walked through the rest of the village. The sky continued to drizzle. Sara didn’t say anything, but she was sure they’d come within an inch of getting caught yesterday. She had dreamt that a figure had passed by one of the broken windows during the night, but it could've easily been a real person.

They were lucky the rain had washed their tracks away. Sara didn’t believe in any god or goddesses, though she had to wonder if this was a part of some grand scheme, that she was here for a purpose she didn't know.

“Where is everyone?” Sapphire asked once they’d made it through to the other side of the village without seeing another soul.

“Not our problem,” said Sara.

They took shelter under an oak tree. Sara sat on a root and looked out across the cast empty road. It seemed to stretch on endlessly, made all the more ominous by sheets of misty rain.

As she stared into the distance, she saw something moving closer. It grew in size as it hobbled over, taking on the shape of a box.

Sapphire clapped her hands together. “By the grace of the White Witch," she gasped. "The carriages still run here.”

Sara squinted. The box grew taller, producing wheels and a horse, and a man sitting behind it.

The carriage pulled to a halting stop.

"Greetings." The lean man in the driver’s seat tipped his hat at the girls. "Fancy a ride?"

Everything about him was black, from his pants to his horse, which stood huffing in the rain.

“We do not have much in gold,” said Sapphire.

“We can pay with food,” Sara said.

The man’s nod was painfully slow, like his head was too heavy for his neck. “That would be just fine. Come aboard.” He reached behind him and knocked on the side of his carriage. The door swung open, revealing lush leather seats lined with velvety cushions.

Sara’s eyebrows shot up. She looked at Sapphire. “Is this normal?”

The driver dipped his head and laughed. “This is a carriage driven by the very best in the business,” he said. “You may call me Jack, a specialist in picking up lost souls in dire need of direction and assistance.”

“How do you know we’re lost?” Sara asked.

The man lifted his chin, allowing the girls a glimpse of glowing eyes and straight, white teeth. “I know what it is like to be thrown into a world that is not yours. After all, I too, am a traveler.”