Lily yawned.

  They had cut a path through the murky woods, although it had mostly been Lily doing all the cutting. She hadn’t slept much last night, owing to an overactive imagination. Thorne walked behind her, occasionally tripping on unseen roots.

  ‘Who taught you so much about elves?’ Lily asked. She figured the time wasn’t going to pass itself. She shooed a pair of squirrels out of her way.

  ‘My mother,’ Thorne answered, ‘She was part elf.’

  ‘Which part?’ Lily poked at him with a bad pun.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nevermind. Keep going.’

  ‘Where?’ he joked, and Lily’s eyes lit up. He was catching onto her sense of humour.

  He laughed. She’d never heard him laugh. It was hearty and heavy, like he was letting go of something with it. Most of all it was loud. She smiled, loud laughs were an interesting kind of laugh. Especially from quiet people.

  ‘She was a poet of sorts,’ he said, ‘She taught me everything I know about the world.’

  ‘And your father?’ Lily grunted as she paused to pull her knife out of a tree she’d accidentally slammed it into.

  ‘My father was a knight in service. I only saw him as often as there wasn’t war.’

  ‘Was there war?’ Lily pulled out the knife and fell backwards.

  ‘Most times.’

  She heard a slight sadness against his voice again. No amount of steel can mask a heavy heart. Lily diverted the conversation away from Throne quickly.

  ‘My mom was a leader,’ she announced, ‘She led armies and made kingdoms crumble.’

  ‘Really?’ his voice lit up, he sounded excited.

  Lily felt just a little bit bad for the next words out of her mouth, even if it was a little funny.

  ‘Nope, I lied.’

  ‘Ah,’ he sounded a little disappointed.

  Truthfully, Lily didn’t know what her mom had done. Just that she’d rarely been around, always for one thing or another. She’d been told by her grandmother that it was matters involving humans. Whatever it really was, one day her mom had never come home again. And Lily never knew what happened to her.

  But she wasn’t just going to tell all of this to Thorne.

  ‘She was a magician though,’ she added, to balance out the less then funny joke she’d just made, ‘She knew all sorts of spells, I think.’

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  ‘Do you know any?’

  ‘A few,’ Lily said, ‘Nothing special though.’

  They found a clearing from the forest, the trees here were more spread out. The ground was better worn, they were nearing civilization at last. But civilization wasn’t always a good thing.

  Lily felt nervous; the hum of nature had come to an awkward stop. And only one thing made even the wildlife go quiet.

  Three thugs stepped out into the opening. They wore those crooked smiles you could only get doing unspeakable things, the kind Lily had learnt to run and hide from. She stepped back, digging into her pockets for anything to give them. But there was only a few coins, worth next to nothing.

  ‘Stand back, Lily,’ Thorne said, then hesitated, ‘Miss Lily.’

  He unsheathed his blade, it was a wretched looking thing. Grime and deep red corrison coated it. A thin vine had grown around it. The thugs looked up at him, vexed.

  ‘You don’t need to worry yourself knight,’ the words came out sticky and gross from the man’s mouth, ‘Just hand the elf over and we’ll let you off.’

  The other two held up their weapons, a crudely altered butcher’s cleaver and a spiked metal club.

  ‘If anything, we’d be doing you a favour,’ another scoffed.

  Thorne held up his sword with both hands, taking an ancient stance as he raised it above his shoulders and pointed it at the men.

  ‘You will leave me and my guide alone,’ he threatened, ‘And we can pretend this never happened.’

  Lily watched, wide-eyed. She held her breath back, she was scared. Was he strong enough? She’d never seen him fight. And it’s not like he had ever practiced in front of her. Her heart beat fast, her feet felt glued to the ground. She wanted to turn back and run.

  This is why she didn’t leave the grove.

  The first thug stepped forward, the one that had spoken. His teeth were yellowed, he snarled at Thorne. Thorne didn’t seem nervous; his rigid movements were reassuring. And then Lily blinked.

  She couldn’t understand what she’d seen, Thorne had moved so quickly. A patch of rust had cracked against his armour, bits of it fell gently to the floor. The thug staggered, Thorne’s sword striking through the thug’s heart. Thorne gave it a sickening twist; the man coughed up blood and fell to the floor. Thorne whipped his sword against the air, blood spraying against the trees. He looked up at the two other men.

  For all his cracks, his movements were so fluid. It was like watching one person dance and the other two trip over their own feet. He didn’t give them any longer to react, he stepped forward with one foot and swung his sword out. It didn’t cut through the men; it made them crumple to the floor clutching their sides. They gasped for air.

  Lily stood back in awe.

  Thorne beheaded the first after two swings, his sword had been far too blunt to finish it in one go. The last thug looked up in fear.

  ‘W-Wait,’ he spluttered, trying to stand back up, ‘I can, I can…’

  Thorne didn’t wait; he slashed through the air.

  He wiped his sword with a ripped cloth and stuck it back into its scabbard.

  ‘Come on let’s keep going,’ he looked back up at Lily, she cowered a little under his gaze. He looked so scary to her now.

  There was that emptiness in his voice back again.

  He moved far quicker then before, though she saw that his joints didn’t allow for it. She noticed him a lot more, all of him. The armour against him didn’t just fit him, it bent against him. Where it had rusted beyond allowing any mobility, it had cracked or broken entirely.

  ‘Are you going to stand there?’ he asked, though he tried to keep his voice light it came out all hollowing and wrong.

  Lily jumped; she’d been frozen in place, staring at the corpses of their attackers. She walked past them, turning back every couple steps. As though they might wake up again. Were those corpses just going to rot in place? Did they even deserve to be buried? Thoughts raced her mind. Most of all she just felt relieved; Thorne hadn’t lied when he said she was safe.

  They walked together in a different kind of quiet this time. Lily wanted to pick at his mind, break down his past. But she knew that now wasn’t the time for that. He didn’t seem to want to talk any more either, he stayed quiet as they trudged from the beaten path to the stone one.

  The roads were getting busier now. Lily pulled her hood back up; Thorne didn’t object. They were arriving at Lustern now, the gateway city.

  Lily clutched her coin purse.