Three days north.
I had never walked three days anywhere in my life.
---
We moved until the light was completely gone and then Riven called a stop.
No fires. Too visible. People huddled in groups for warmth under whatever they had brought with them.
I sat with my back against a tree and listened to the forest and tried to remember the last time I had slept properly.
Yesterday morning. Before the soldiers came.
That felt like a month ago.
---
The two teenagers I had found at the riverbank sat nearby. The girl had fallen asleep almost immediately. The boy was still awake. Watching the darkness between the trees with eyes that did not rest easily.
I understood that.
"You should sleep," I said quietly.
"You are not sleeping," he said.
"I am thinking," I said.
"So am I," he said.
---
We sat in silence for a moment.
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Cas," he said. "She is my sister. Elle."
"How long have you two been out here alone?" I asked.
He was quiet for a second.
"Twelve days," he said.
---
Twelve days. Two teenagers alone in unclaimed territory for twelve days.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Millhaven," he said. "Eastern territory."
I knew Millhaven. Small village. Mostly wolf hybrids. One of the first places the soldiers would have moved through.
"Did you get out before the soldiers came?" I asked.
"No," he said.
---
He did not say anything else about it.
I did not push.
Some things a person tells you when they are ready and not before.
"You are safe now," I said instead.
He looked at me sideways.
"Are we?" he said. Not challenging. Just honest.
I thought about the hunters. The tracks around the building. The pendant in my pocket.
"Safer than you were," I said.
He considered that.
"Alright," he said. And closed his eyes.
---
I stayed awake another hour after that.
Riven came and sat beside me somewhere in the middle of it. Not saying anything. Just there.
After a while I said quietly. "Tell me about the place we are going."
---
"It is called the Hollow," he said. "Old structure. Pre-war. Built into the side of a rock face so it has natural walls on three sides."
"Who built it?" I asked.
"Nobody knows exactly," he said. "The old texts say it was used by the first Hybrid Queen's people as a gathering place."
---
I looked at him.
"You are taking me to a place connected to the first Hybrid Queen," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"Was that always the plan?" I asked.
He was quiet for a moment.
"Soren and I found it eight months ago," he said. "We have been waiting for the right time to use it."
"Waiting for someone to show up with the pendant," I said.
"Yes," he said.
---
I turned that over in my mind.
Riven and Soren had been out here in unclaimed territory for months. Finding old structures. Reading old texts. Waiting.
"How long have you known about the bloodline?" I asked.
"Long enough," he said.
"That is not an answer," I said.
---
He looked at me.
"My mother was a hybrid," he said. "She was killed when I was twelve. Pack law at the time said hybrids found in pure blood territory could be dealt with at the Alpha's discretion."
He said it very evenly. Like he had made peace with it long ago.
But I heard what was underneath it.
---
"I am sorry," I said.
"I spent a long time being angry," he said. "Then I decided angry was not useful unless I pointed it at something worth hitting."
"So you started researching the bloodline," I said.
"So I started researching the bloodline," he said.
---
We sat quietly for a moment.
The forest breathed around us. Cold and dark and indifferent.
"Your father," I said. "Is he—"
"Pure blood wolf," Riven said. "He did not know about my mother when they met. When he found out he had a choice to make."
"What did he choose?" I asked.
"He chose the pack," Riven said simply.
---
I did not say anything to that.
There was nothing useful to say.
Some things just were what they were.
---
"Get some sleep Kaia," he said after a while.
"I am not tired," I said.
"You are exhausted," he said. "There is a difference between not tired and not allowing yourself to stop."
I opened my mouth.
"Sleep," he said. "I will watch."
---
I wanted to argue.
Instead I pulled my coat tighter and closed my eyes.
The pendant pressed against my leg.
That feeling again. Patient. Steady.
Like it was keeping watch along with him.
I was asleep faster than I expected.
---
Morning came cold and sharp.
Maren had people moving before full light. Quiet and efficient. Small portions of food shared out. Children woken gently.
I watched her work and thought that whoever ended up running things when this was all over Maren needed to be part of it.
---
Dane's arm had been cleaned and wrapped overnight. He was testing the range of movement carefully when I found him.
"How bad?" I asked.
"Inconvenient," he said.
"That is not a medical assessment," I said.
"No," he agreed. And went back to testing his range.
---
Soren appeared at my elbow.
"We have a problem," he said quietly.
Of course we did.
"What kind?" I asked.
"The injured man from last night," he said. "The one who could not walk without help."
"What about him?" I asked.
"He cannot keep the pace we need to keep," Soren said. "Three days north at the speed we moved yesterday will take him five. Maybe six."
---
I thought about that.
Leaving him was not an option. I did not need to say that out loud. It was just not.
"Options?" I asked.
"We build a carry," Soren said. "Two poles and a length of cloth. Four people rotating. It slows the whole group but not as much as his pace does."
"Can we spare four people for rotation?" I asked.
"If we reorganize the groups yes," he said.
"Then do it," I said.
---
Soren nodded and moved off.
Riven appeared where Soren had been standing. They seemed to do that. Trade places without coordinating it visibly.
"You handled that well," he said.
"It was an obvious answer," I said.
"Obvious answers are not always the ones people give," he said.
---
We moved out twenty minutes later.
The carry worked. Slow but workable. The man on it looked uncomfortable about needing it. Maren said three words to him quietly and whatever they were they settled him.
I made a note to ask her what she said sometime.
---
The morning passed in the rhythm of walking.
My legs found the pace after the first hour and stopped complaining about it.
Soren ranged ahead. Dane covered the rear. Riven moved alongside the group.
I walked near the middle where I could see both ends.
---
Pip fell into step beside me around midmorning.
"How are you doing?" they asked.
"Walking," I said.
"That is not what I asked," Pip said.
---
I glanced at them.
Sixteen years old and they had been out here alone for three weeks looking for me. That took a kind of determination most adults did not have.
"I am managing," I said honestly. "It is a lot to carry."
"The pendant?" Pip asked.
"Everything," I said.
---
Pip was quiet for a moment.
"The people back in the building," they said. "When you spoke to them yesterday. About people with nothing left to lose looking for something worth fighting for."
"Yes?" I said.
"Did you mean it?" Pip asked. "Or were you just saying what they needed to hear?"
---
I thought about that seriously.
It would have been easy to say I meant every word. But Pip was asking a real question and they deserved a real answer.
"Both," I said. "I meant it and I knew it was what they needed to hear. Sometimes those two things line up and when they do you use it."
Pip considered that.
"That is a very honest answer," they said.
"You asked an honest question," I said.
---
We walked in comfortable silence after that.
Cas and Elle moved nearby. Elle was awake and walking on her own today. Small and quiet. She had not said a word to anyone yet. But her eyes were taking everything in.
Watching. Processing.
She was the quiet kind of person who watched everything and said nothing. I had a feeling she understood more than she was letting on.
---
Early afternoon Soren came back from ranging ahead at a slightly faster pace than usual.
Not running. But faster.
Riven saw it too. He moved toward Soren immediately.
I followed.
---
"What?" Riven asked quietly.
"Structure ahead," Soren said. "Half a day's walk. Occupied."
"How many?" Riven asked.
"Hard to say," Soren said. "At least twenty. Maybe more inside."
"Soldiers?" Dane asked. He had come up from the rear.
"No," Soren said. "But armed."
---
"Rogues?" Riven asked.
"Possibly," Soren said. "But they have a flag."
"What flag?" I asked.
Soren looked at me.
"Black background," he said. "With a broken crown."
---
The four of them looked at each other.
I looked between them.
"Someone tell me what that means," I said.
---
Riven was the one who answered.
"The broken crown is an old symbol," he said. "It means they do not recognize any current ruler's claim to the territories."
"Rogues use it sometimes," Dane said. "But a flag means they are organized. A group that size flying a flag has a leader."
"And a leader with twenty armed people is either an ally or a problem," Soren said.
---
I looked at the direction Soren had come from.
"Can we go around them?" I asked.
"Not with this group," Soren said. "The terrain to the east is too rough for the carry. West brings us too close to the pack border."
"So we go through," I said.
"Or we send someone ahead to talk first," Riven said.
---
He looked at me when he said it.
I looked back at him.
"You want me to go talk to them," I said.
"You are the one with the pendant," he said. "If they know what it means—"
"It could go either way," Dane said bluntly. "They help us or they try to take it."
"Thank you Dane," I said. "Very reassuring."
"I do not do reassuring," he said.
---
I looked at the group behind me.
Twenty two people. Children. Injured. Tired.
One path north.
"Alright," I said. "I will go."
"Not alone," Riven said immediately.
"Obviously not alone," I said.
---
I looked at Pip.
Pip straightened up.
"Me?" they said.
"You know this terrain and you are good on your feet," I said. "If things go wrong I need someone who can move fast."
"And if things go very wrong?" Pip asked.
"Then we run and figure out plan two," I said.
Pip took a breath.
"Alright," they said. "Let us go talk to strangers with a broken crown flag."
---
Riven grabbed my arm lightly before I moved.
"Kaia," he said.
I looked at him.
"Do not show the pendant unless you are certain," he said. "Certain. Not fairly certain. Certain."
"Understood," I said.
---
Pip and I moved ahead through the trees.
The structure Soren had found appeared twenty minutes later.
Solid walls. Lookouts on the roof. A flag moving slowly in the cold wind above it.
Black background. Broken crown.
And standing at the entrance with his arms crossed and his eyes already on us like he had known we were coming—
A man.
---
Tall. Broad. Armor that had seen real use. A scar across his chin. Eyes the color of winter ice.
He looked at me the way people look at things they have been waiting a long time to see.
Not with surprise.
With recognition.
---
"I wondered when you would show up," he said.
I stopped walking.
"You know who I am?" I said.
"I know what you are carrying," he said. "The question is whether you know what to do with it."
---
He stepped aside from the entrance.
"Come in," he said. "Both of you."
I looked at Pip.
Pip looked at me.
We walked forward.