Page 63 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

MUD SOLDIERS LED BY TERTIUS MET US WITH SPEARS raised. They shouted to something behind us. I turned to see a line of willowy, white-haired people on Papyrus land watching our escape. Tertius would keep them back.

“The mist will come soon,” he called to my retreating back. “The witch says to find the cabin. There you’ll be safe.”

“The cabin?” I asked Steele asked breathily.

“I have no idea,” he answered and leaned down to position his mouth close to the Slippy’s ear. “Don’t know if you can understand me friend, but we need to move faster.”

Even if the Slippy didn’t understand his words, he must have understood the intent, putting hooves to dirt with greater force, picking up the pace with our Slippy following close behind.

Korrigan sat sidesaddle in front of me due to the chains, even though we weren’t using saddles. She kept quiet the whole time. It worried me. Whether it was from the shock of her near-execution or something worse, we had to get her to safety.

“Do you know of this cabin?” I asked the Slippy.

“I may know.” He veered from the path he’d been on, continuing to barrel through the forest on a new path opened up by the trees. Not too long after, we came upon a clearing and slowed. This cabin couldn’t be the one Baba Yaga expected to keep us safe from the Akylis mist inside. The cabin was old and rickety; pieces of plank siding had broken away from age and part of the roof had collapsed in.

“This?” Steele voiced my question.

The Slippy he rode nodded and whinnied.

I trusted the Slippies, so I slid down, pulling Kori with me. She still refused to speak.

“Steele, use your sword to cut the chains,” I said.

He slid down from his Slippy and unsheathed his sword. I pulled first Korrigan’s arms apart to pull the chain taut. He raised his arm and brought the sword down, clanking it against the links, freeing her hands. Then I bent down to pull her feet apart and he repeated the strike.

“I can’t say thank you enough,” I told the black steeds.

“It is not over,” my Slippy spoke to me.

“No, it’s not. But you need to go before the mist comes. Please check on us first light, once the mist has burned off. If we survive the night here, then we’ll have to regroup and make our move while the Forfex are vulnerable.”

“We will be here, Millicent Merchant.”

The pair rode off in the direction I assumed to be their home. Korrigan stared warily at the cabin, her eyes sunken and sullen. What had they done to my once-vivacious friend? Steele approached us. He grabbed my hand to give it a reassuring squeeze, then put his arm around Kori’s waist. We kept her between us. The grass grew long and woody in places like bamboo. Burrs snagged my dress down by the hem.

About fifteen feet from the cabin, I stepped and fell through some sort of shield surrounding the cabin. The light dimmed darker on this side. Steele shouted for me. I needed to go back through to let him know I was okay, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the castle standing proud before me.

Made of vines and roots and branches filled with green and purple leaves, the “cabin,” as Baba Yaga put it, was alive. And magnificent.

“Mils,” Steele called to me again.

I should have let him know I was all right. But I had to get a closer look. My feet ate up the steps between me and the outermost vines. When I placed my finger to trace the line closest to me, flowers bloomed under my touch. Each new place my fingers landed sprouted glorious blooms.

“Mils...” Right. It’d be cruel to let Steele continue to worry. With our connection so strong, it caused my heart to clench. I turned to jog back to the shield, pushing my hand and head through.

“I’m here,” I said. “Give me Kori’s hand.”

His brushed aluminum eyes showed relief so great that it could’ve served as a fourth person within our little group. I felt like an ass for worrying him.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said by way of apology.

He released a long, thankful sigh and walked his sister over to me, placing her hand in mine. I tugged her as he pushed, stepping in from behind to join me. His mouth dropped open for a moment before he collected himself.

No one could deny the beauty of the castle. We walked the dirt lane up to the place that should’ve stood as the entrance. The door was made of tightly-woven vines, thick and brown—they reminded me of grapevines. The problem was the door showed no handle to let us in.

“What do we do?” I asked Steele. These were solid vines. It wasn’t like we could break them and I couldn’t get myself to allow him to hack them apart with his sword.

In a very un-Steele move, he shrugged. “I don’t know, Mils. You’re the flesh. Maybe try touching it?”

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