Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Six Days From Frostfang
By mid-morning the first clashes began along the lower slopes. Small groups testing our strength. We repelled them easily, but each attack cost us arrows and energy.
I moved among the fighters between waves, offering quiet words and steady hands on shoulders. Their eyes followed me with something close to reverence now. Not for glory. For survival. For the promise that their queen would spend her own blood before she let the enemy take our future.
The kings fought like extensions of my will. Darius held the center with unyielding discipline. Kane struck from the shadows wherever the line thinned. Rylan became a storm on the flank, drawing enemy focus and shattering it.
By late afternoon the attacks slowed. Their main force had arrived but seemed hesitant to commit fully against our elevated position. I stood on the crest watching their banners shift below and felt the first real thread of hope since the bridge.
We had slowed them. Hurt them. Forced them to climb to reach us.
Thirteen days had become twelve.
I looked north once more, then turned toward the pack and the long road home that waited beyond this ridge. The carved wolf pressed warm against my heart.
Every mile we held was another mile my children stayed untouched.
We would keep taking those miles until nothing remained of the woman who wanted to steal them.
I gave the order to break position before the sun reached its peak. Holding the ridge had served its purpose. Now we moved again, pulling back in disciplined stages while scouts left false trails to confuse their trackers.
The pack flowed down the reverse slope with the quiet of men who had learned how precious every breath could be. I stayed at the rear for the first hour, watching our backs, before riding forward to lead once more.
The terrain shifted from sharp ridges to rolling hills thick with old growth. We used every fold in the land to mask our numbers. Small teams peeled off at intervals to strike supply wagons and scout parties, returning with captured provisions and fresher horses.
Each success added to the quiet confidence running through the column. We were no longer just surviving. We were hunting them from our own soil.
Darius rode close enough that our knees brushed occasionally. "Their pace is slowing. The wounded are dragging them down."
"They’ll leave the worst behind soon enough," I replied. "She only needs enough bodies to reach the keep."
Kane drifted alongside us, eyes never still. "Then we make sure those bodies cost her more than she can afford."
Rylan ranged ahead and returned with news of a narrow valley perfect for another strike. We adjusted course without slowing.
The afternoon passed in controlled violence. Our ambush caught a supply column in the throat of the valley. Arrows first, then the charge.
I took the lead again, sword swinging low from horseback, cutting through a driver who tried to flee. The kings carved through the guards with practiced savagery. We burned what we couldn’t carry and left the rest scattered across the grass.
By evening we had gained another full day on their main force. I called the halt in a sheltered hollow with good sightlines. Fires stayed low. The pack ate quickly and rotated watch.
I found a flat spot beneath a spreading oak and sat with my back against the trunk, letting the day’s toll settle into my bones. My side pulled tight where the stitches held. Exhaustion pressed behind my eyes.
The kings settled around me. Darius took my left, shoulder to shoulder. Kane claimed the right, his scarred hand resting on my knee. Rylan stretched out in front, head propped on one arm so he could watch the tree line. For a long stretch none of us spoke. The bond carried the weight instead, heavy with shared fatigue and sharper purpose.
"I dreamed of them last night," I said finally. "Lila trying to teach Thorne how to hold a stick like a sword. Elara laughing so hard she fell over. Simple things. The kind we almost lost."
Darius turned his head. "We won’t lose them."
Kane’s fingers tightened on my knee. "She needs living blood under specific stars. We control the ground between her and that moment."
Rylan’s voice came low. "And when the moment comes, we control her throat."
Their certainty wrapped around me. I leaned into Darius and let myself feel the solid warmth of all three. The bond pulsed deeper tonight, carrying not just strength but the raw need to protect what we had built. These men had once been my curse. Now they were my greatest weapon and my only peace.
Sleep took me eventually, brief and hard. I woke to Rylan’s hand on my shoulder and the sound of distant horns. Their scouts had found us again. We broke camp in minutes and melted into the pre-dawn dark, leaving another false trail that would cost them hours.
The pattern held through the next day and night. Strike. Withdraw. Harass. Rest only when the horses demanded it. My body grew leaner, my temper sharper, but the pack stayed with me.
Every captured wagon meant less food for her army. Every burned bridge meant longer detours. We turned their numbers into a burden.
On the sixth night since the bridge we reached the Whispering Pines, ancient woods that bordered our most defensible valleys.
I called a longer rest here. The trees would hide our fires and muffle sound. While the pack tended wounds and weapons, I gathered the kings away from the main camp.
"We’re six days from Frostfang now," I told them. "She’s seven or eight behind us if we keep this pace. I want to send a strong party ahead to reinforce the keep while we slow her even more."
Darius studied the map scratched in the dirt. "Split the force. You and I take the main column home. Kane and Rylan lead the harassment from here."
Kane and Rylan agreed without hesitation. The decision sat heavy but right. We needed the keep stronger before the final alignment.
I embraced each of them in turn, holding Kane a moment longer when his hand lingered on my back. Rylan kissed my forehead with unusual gentleness.
"Keep her safe," he told Darius. "We’ll give you the time you need."
They left before midnight with forty riders. I watched them disappear between the pines, chest tight. Then I turned back to the remaining force and pushed us forward again.
The miles felt different without all four of us together, but the bond still connected us, faint but unbroken.
We crossed into the final stretch of familiar valleys the next morning. Frostfang lay close enough now that I could almost taste the stone and smoke of home.
Scouts reported the northern force still coming, slower, meaner, but determined. Their leader drove them with visible fury now. Good. Let her rage make her sloppy.
That evening we crested the last hill before the long plain leading to the keep. I reined in and stared at the distant walls rising against the horizon. Torches already burned along the battlements. Garrick had prepared.
The pack gathered behind me in silence. They saw it too. Home. Safety for our families. The place where three small lives waited under heavy guard.
I lifted my hand and pointed forward. "We go home tonight. Tomorrow we prepare the final welcome."
The column moved down the slope with renewed energy. My own heart beat harder with every stride closer. The carved wolf in my pocket felt alive against my skin. Six days until the alignment. Six days to turn our keep into a trap she could never escape.
Darius rode beside me, quiet and steady. "They’ll be waiting at the gates."
I nodded, throat tight. "And we’ll be ready for whatever comes after."
The miles disappeared beneath us as night fell. Frostfang grew larger with every step, its walls solid and waiting. I rode toward it with blood on my blade and fire in my veins, the bond pulling me forward toward the three small hearts that made every sacrifice worth it.
The witch-blood heir still marched behind us with her broken army and ancient dreams.
She would find only death at the end of this road.
The walls of Frostfang rose ahead like a promise carved from the mountain itself. Torches blazed along the battlements, turning the stone golden against the night.
My horsed sensed home and picked up her pace without urging. The pack straightened in their saddles behind me, worn but upright. We had run far and hit hard. Now the keep waited to swallow us back in.
Garrick met us at the main gates with a full honor line. His eyes swept over the column, noting the empty saddles and bandaged limbs, before settling on me.
"You cut them deep, my queen. The northern fires are visible from the high towers, but they move slower than before."
I swung down from the saddle, legs stiff as iron. "Good. Keep the outer gates barred after we’re inside. No one leaves without my word."
