The creature took a step back. Its strange, elongated legs bent, and it moved away from the light. Arm still lifted to cover its face, the beast unfurled leathery wings and burst into the air through the canopy of leaves. The fire sputtered, but remained glowing strong.
Amicia shuddered. Fear and relief made her entire body shake until she could hardly hold herself together. She felt as though she might shatter.
She’d survived. Her father had been right.
She curled her arms around her knees, drawing them tight against her chest and tried to stop shivering. She should sleep. The night was young and the fire would keep going for a little while longer, but she didn’t know when it would stop. What if the creatures were just waiting for the right moment?
A cold breeze blasted by her. The flames shuddered along with a cold chill that danced down her spine. She would not get any sleep, not when the bitter winds of autumn tried their best to take away her safety.
Curling into a tighter ball, she tried to ignore the mud drying on her face and sticking her clothes to her sides. She would survive this. She had to.
Amicia stared into the forest, watching the reflection of the fire bouncing upon eyes that saw better in the dark. She didn’t know if those were the eyes of the Dread watching its prey or some other animal in the forest that stalked her now.
Either way, she wouldn’t sleep this night.
Chapter 4
Something cold touched the tip of Amicia’s nose. Once, twice, three times. She wanted to continue sleeping on her side and go back into happy dreams. The tiniest of brushes made her snort, then open her eyes.
The fire was nothing more than a weak smolder. Her father must not be working on a project this morning. If he had remembered the fire, then maybe he had remembered breakfast as well. Her stomach growled.
She pushed herself up onto her elbows and stared down between her hands. The ground was crystalized with frost.
The ground?
All the memories rushed back through her, striking over and over like a sledgehammer breaking through precious stone. The Dread. They had attacked her home; she had been the one to destroy everything, and then…
“Father,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes once more. “Father, what have I done? What did you make me do?”
She pushed herself up, stumbling onto her feet and staring at the forest now flooded with light. A faint dusting of snow-covered everything but the circle of flame as far as her eye could see. The first snow had always been her favorite; the way it danced down from the sky made her laugh with glee.
Her father used to place her on his knee when she was little and it snowed. He’d point at every single snowflake and say each one was unique. Special.
Amicia lifted a hand and caught a few of them on her palm. They melted, but they were coming down thicker and thicker. This wasn’t just the first snow, but a storm that threatened to cover the entire forest in a blanket she wouldn’t be able to survive.
She had to find shelter. The trees wouldn’t keep her safe from the snow, but she also didn’t want to leave her circle of safety just yet.
This land was foreign. Amicia hadn’t even seen maps of this area before. There never had been a reason for her to leave the safety of Little Marsh. What had her father been thinking? Sending her out into the wilds on her own with no training on how to stay safe didn’t seem the smartest task he’d ever given her.
But that wasn’t fair. He’d wanted her to live. He’d had faith that if something like this were to happen, she would know how to take care of herself. That she would continue to survive because he and all the people of Little Marsh hadn’t.
“You can’t stay here forever,” she muttered. “Find a way.”
She decided the only way to find a shelter was to continue forward. She couldn’t go back to Little Marsh. The Dread were probably still swarming the place, looking for survivors.
Which meant she had to continue through the forest. The mere thought made her knees weak. The Dread were already here, she’d seen them last night, and somehow she was certain they would attack once her fire was out.
So, she would have to take the fire with her. Amicia bent down and grabbed a large branch. She tore a small strip of fabric off the bottom of her skirts and wrapped it around the end. That would burn for longer than just a plain stick. She’d have to keep ruining her apron, but the damned thing was already mud-splattered.
She trudged through the forest, brandishing her makeshift torch high above her head. Let the Dread come to her if they dared. She would fight them as she had before. The creatures were not as nimble as she.
The snow continued to fall, blanketing the earth in a thin layer of shimmering ice. Her books kept her feet warm, and she was grateful for the socks preventing frostbite from eating her toes.
She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She would have given anything for a shawl. Even just a scrap of fabric to wrap around her arms and shoulders.
The pine trees grew laden with snow, their branches bowing down and touching the ground. The snow deepened. Soon, Amicia was trudging through snow halfway up to her knees.
I will endure this, the words echoed in her mind, forcing her to move forward. She could survive. She would survive, for what other choice did she have?
The cold bit through her clothing. Her breath fogged in front of her face, and she couldn’t quite feel her fingers any longer. She tried very hard not to think about what that meant, but it wasn’t good. People died very fast in the cold.
She peered through the snow and the icy storm. A hut, that’s all she wanted to find. Something, anything, to give her a little shelter. She couldn’t even build a fire with all the twigs and branches, wet and cold. A thin layer of ice covered everything, warmth disappearing from the world.
As if by magic, the storm stilled for a heartbeat of time. Amicia stared forward at a chateau stretching as far as her eye could see. A great monolith of a building, stunning and splendorous in sudden clarity.
This place must have once been a sight to behold. She could hardly fathom the sheer size of it, as it seemed to go on for miles. A lake surrounded the chateau, though the waters were now frozen. Great pillars stretched up from the corners of the building, high up to the many stories. From the windows, she counted at least three levels where people might have lived.
Gold and silver gilded the entire building. Gardens stretched in a maze around the sides, and she wondered if they went all the way behind the chateau.
“What is this place?” She whispered the words, and the wind took them from her lips. Pulling them away and dashing them toward the chateau as though the castle might answer her question itself.
If someone so grand had lived near Little Marsh, wouldn’t she have heard of it? Surely, the villagers would have spoken of the great lord, or prince, who lived far away in the woods.
She didn’t have time to ponder what strange anomaly had brought her to this place. It was serendipity, and she was saved. The servants wouldn’t turn her away from a warm fire and perhaps a few bites of bread before they sent her on her way.
The storm picked up again, but she knew where to walk now. Putting one foot in front of the other, she forced her body to continue moving. Her knees shook, wanting to collapse with the weight of exhaustion and cold. Her shoulders ached from keeping her body straight, and her heart thundered in her chest.