“I’m getting close,” Eli said.
Tristan scoffed. “Of course you are. Remember, de Valois. I’m the one who dragged you from your grave. I can always put you back. It would be much better for you if you tried to please me.”
“I’m already doing what you asked.” Eli’s fingers tightened around the bow.
“And what a good job you’re doing.” Tristan’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. He shivered, and the light in the wolves’ eyes dimmed. They looked from Eli to Tristan, clearly startled to be so close to a creature so imposing, and scrambled back. They took off toward the woods, and Tristan’s form shuddered and shook, his fur shifting into the feathers of an owl. He still loomed over Eli in his owl shape, his beak nearly the size of Eli’s head. “I’ve waited long enough. My patience wears thin.”
Not for the first time, Eli wanted to say that he’d never asked for any of this. He gritted his teeth and nodded. “I understand.”
Tristan took off, sending a gust of wind over Eli from his sprawling wings, and disappeared into a patch of blackness between the stars. Eli waited a minute before spitting on the ground where he’d stood. He turned to look at the body of the wolf lying in the grass.
Rey probably wasn’t coming back. Eli had told him to run, and he’d obeyed. Why would he want to return when he’d seen how the King of the Wild Hunt liked to toy with Eli? At least Eli knew the general direction of the sword now. He sighed and went to the abandoned cart.
It took some time before he found what he needed—a spade wedged behind a crate of boxes. He pulled it out, found a patch of earth away from tree roots and thorny weeds, and started to dig.
He’d only just uprooted the grass when he heard hoofbeats behind him. Eli twisted round to find Rey dismounting Unicornby the cart, his brow furrowed. He looked slightly out of breath, and he stared at Eli anxiously, a hand on Unicorn’s side.
“If you came for the cart, I’ll give the spade back in a minute,” Eli said. He turned back to the hole.
“You told me to go.”
“I know that.” Eli pushed the spade down with his foot to dislodge a rock. “I don’t blame you.”
“What are you doing?” Rey walked over to the wolf and crouched on his ankles. “Are you burying it?”
“It doesn’t feel right to leave it.”
“Does he do this to you often?” Rey’s voice was softer than before. “Taunt you?”
“He likes me to remember he’s there, I guess. You can go if you want to, Rey.”
Rey fell silent, looking at the wolf. His hair fell over his face and shoulders, and in the dark, he looked less like a gangly young man and more like the ancient spirit he really was.
“I told you I’d show you where the sword was,” he said. “I can do that much.”
Eli drew back. “Why? I told you to go, before. You could have just left.”
“Well.” Rey stood, but he was still looking down at the dead wolf, his expression grim. “Unicorn likes you. Here, let me have a turn.” He took the shovel from Eli.
“You don’t have to.”
“Neither do you,” Rey said.
They took turns digging the grave. As Eli covered the wolf’s body, he wondered if Sabre knew where he and his mother had been buried. Would he visit them even if he did know? And what had happened after Eli and his mother died? How many people had seen their corpses as they were cut down and carted off for burial?
Maybe the king and Isiodore de Mortain had nightmares about it, like Eli did. They probably didn’t. Traitors didn’t deserve the dignity of a quiet death and a private burial, after all.
Rey touched Eli’s arm, and Eli jumped. “You should get some rest. We aren’t far from the sword now, and wolves don’t need someone to stand vigil.”
Eli rubbed his dirty hands on his trousers. “How long was I standing here?”
Rey’s smile was wan. “Long enough.”
Rey led Eli back toward the cart, but Eli didn’t sleep. He sat with his back to one of the wheels and watched the forest, thinking of the bones that lay under the earth in the potter’s field of Duciel, and the empty grave where his own body should have been.
Chapter
Five
