Dawn broke through the forest with a flurry of birdsong long before its light filtered through the trees. Little more had occurred during the night, with Eli falling asleep against him as much out of boredom, Fia thought, as to conserve whatever he could of himself for the coming days. He could feel the thief’s connection to the shadows grow threadbare as he slept, though something lingered out in the forest, keeping pace with their group but never threatening the wolf pack that still ran their perimeter around them. Fia didn’t probe too deeply after it. It was enough for him to maintain the wolves along with the mare beneath him. 

Still, that Eli could even think to sleep in such a situation astounded him.

Fia had wrapped his arm around the man’s waist to keep him upright as they traveled, but at some point during the night, Eli had nestled his head in the crook of Fia’s neck, blowing warm, even breaths against his skin. He smelled of the forest, Fia realized. Fresh earth, cedar, pine, the newness of spring growth, and beneath that, the faint but characteristic cinder of the shadows. 

Life and death. 

That was what Eli’s scent reminded Fia of, and in such a different way than he was used to. Nothing of the battlefield. None of its bleakness, its violence, the endings torn from men before their time, the bitter-burning sweetness of those who survived. 

When Eli finally awoke, they were drawing near to a small village. 

“We’ll stop here,” Mikko said with a glance over his shoulder. “Isak and Simo, get what sleep you can first. Toivo, you’ll stay with me.” His gaze finally came to rest on Fia. “Watch him while we're here. Lose him, and see if it won't be your head for his.”

Eli gave a throaty chuckle at that. His head still rested against Fia’s shoulder, though he no longer had it turned in toward his neck. Instead, he now stared out at the road ahead of them through eyes half-lidded. 

“Is that the payment for your loyalty, knight? A beheading?” Eli said, loud enough for all to hear. Sleep made rough work of his voice, however, and its slight rasp had Fia tensing through his core. “What fine company you keep.”

“It’ll be your head soon enough, thief,” Isak called out with a raucous laugh. “But it sounds like we might get lucky, eh? Two for the price of one!"

“And the empire all the better,” Simo said. He nudged his horse closer and flashed his grimace-grin at Eli. “Hope you enjoyed that nap, thief.”

“Oh, I’ve slept in far worse places, believe it or not,” Eli responded. He licked his lips, then smiled over at the guardsman. “Didn’t know blood knights and death-mares could be so comfortable, honestly. You should try it sometime…”

Simo’s mouth curled, more grimace than grin now. “I keep my soul clean, thief. Pray the gods take mercy on yours.”

“Ah, a believer! Don’t see those much these days. Especially in Edvin’s court,” Eli said. “What’s your emperor to say of that?”

“Enough!” Mikko had pulled his horse to a hard stop.

Fia’s mare tossed her head at the suddenness of it, dancing off to the side to avoid the war mount, whose ears had gone flat at her approach. As she skirted closer to Simo's mount, the horse threw himself back onto his rear legs and rose up. Simo tugged at the reins, snarling as he brought the horse back down onto all four limbs. Around him, the rest of the group had ground to a halt. None of it so much as drew a glance from Mikko, who kept his gaze trained on Eli.

“Simo, Isak, stop baiting him into his endless fucking chatter. Gods or not, so help me if someone sets the bastard off again, and I take his head before the emperor commands it.” Lifting a hand, Mikko then pointed directly at Fia. “Keep him quiet. Keep him secure. We leave again at sundown.”

“Sounds like a fun challenge for you, Fia,” Eli said, blissfully ignoring the threat made against him. “I’d rather like to see you manage—”

Before another word could escape the thief’s mouth, Fia clamped a hand over it and forced Eli's head back against his shoulder. His throat lay exposed. His hair tickled Fia's cheek. The thief’s chest rose and fell, one breath after another in quick succession. It would seem Fia had taken him by surprise.

Mikko snorted. The smile unmissable. “Now that is a beautiful fucking sound...”

Turning back around, Mikko kicked a heel into his horse's side and led the group on in silence. Isak refused to look behind him. Simo scowled in his saddle, tossing hate-steeped glances in Fia’s direction, which Fia pointedly ignored. He didn’t remove his hand from Eli’s mouth but kept it pressed there, index finger resting just beneath his nose and growing warm with every exhalation. 

Eventually, the thief’s body relaxed. He sunk back against Fia as much as his bound arms would allow him. As they passed beneath a wooden gateway cutting an entrance into the outer wall of the village, its wide arch wreathed in forest flowers and stalks of wheat in welcome for the coming harvest festival, Eli began scratching at Fia’s cuirass. When that earned him no response, he parted his lips, tipped his head the mere fraction of an inch he could steal from Fia's grasp, and scraped a tooth against his palm. 

“Insufferable,” Fia hissed into the thief’s ear, unamused. 

He could feel the smile blossom against his hand. 

Before they could proceed any further into the village, Mikko brought the group to another halt. He turned his mount, blocking off the roadway, and motioned toward Fia.

“Dismount and do away with that damned thing,” he said. “I won’t have the villagers spilling into a fright on your account.”

Fia blinked. Beneath him, Bháridnac lowered her head and nibbled at her right forelimb, entirely unaware of the stir her presence might cause. The thief turned his head to look up at Fia, eyebrows raised.

“Not a word,” Fia murmured against Eli’s cheek. 

A shrug answered him. Fia sighed as he pulled his hand from Eli’s mouth, the arm from around his waist, and slid off the mare. He landed with a soft thud, dust rising up around his boots. 

It wasn’t an unreasonable request. Bháridnac’s appearance could be disguised no more than he could drain the color from the sky. She was what she was, a creature from the shadows. That much was unavoidable. As terrifying as she would likely be for the average citizen, the sight of her ran the very real prospect of getting them kicked out of the village before they could even reach the inn, much less ask to spend the day in it. Even with their imperial guard. They were too few to put up a fight for so little gain. 

Not without dire consequences for those who lived here, at least. 

Fia patted the mare’s neck, rubbed her coat until his fingers hit on the swirl of hair hidden beneath her mane. “You did well,” he told her. “Now, return home.”

Still seated on the mare, Eli looked down at him with a smirk half-hitched on his lips, his gaze full of questions. Fia smiled up at him. 

“You didn’t just…”

Bháridnac shook herself, her body dissolving into mist, bit by bit beneath the morning sun. Eli gave a strained laugh as he noticed the change. Then, a yelp hit the air as he plummeted to the ground, only for the sound to strangle itself with surprise when he was left staring up at Fia instead of the cloud-flooded sky. 

“So, you did,” Eli said, breathless. “At least one of us was prepared.”

“Couldn’t let you hurt Athairólthain.”

“Ah, so it was the snake you were concerned about.”

“Am I to be concerned about you?”

“Well, it would be a nice change from your companions.”

“Fiarac.”

Mikko.

Fia set Eli on the ground and carefully positioned himself behind the man, keeping the snake well out of sight. Satisfied, Mikko nodded his head toward the inner wall of the village, where another large gateway stood open in welcome, and reined his horse back toward it. 

“Oh, wonderful. We get to walk. When there’s a perfectly good, well-rested horse right there behind Toivo. That one is Toivo, isn’t it?”

“Walk,” Fia commanded with a push of his hand between Eli’s shoulder blades. 

A moment passed. Distance grew between Fia and the horses, now kicking up dust in their wake. Another moment waddled by them. Two. Three.

“Move, or I’ll drag you the entire way to the inn.”

Eli glanced behind him. “And here I was hoping you’d carry me the whole way.”

“You do realize you slept through most of the night.”

“Yes, and it was surprisingly delightful.”

“Walk.”

“Oh, if you insist,” Eli said as he took the first step. “But only because I like you.”

Their procession earned them the curious stares to be expected by so unexpected an entourage. They hadn’t stopped at this village on their way out to Syehnäki but at another one still half a day’s ride toward the capital. While not one Fia was familiar with, it bore all the same characteristics that marked most villages in the Aurinon empire. At least those parts of it that had long been absorbed into its borders. High, sloping roofs, painted in a variety of bright colors ranging from sky blue and fire-spawned orange to sun-soaked yellow and scalding red; thick wooden walls with intricately carved doors over which hung a variety of metal charms cut thin as a butterfly's wing and fluttered in the wind with a pleasant tinkling sound.

Fia knew the sound was welcomed as one to ward off evil, and before entering any house, whether guest or inhabitant, it was considered proper to reach up and set the charms singing amongst themselves.

From what Fia had noticed, the village wasn't heavily populated, though the houses clustered close together and gave the appearance of density. Shadows lingered under the eaves and in the tightly-knit alleys that formed between each house. A single main road, all packed dirt and well-maintained, marched deeper in, where several larger buildings oversaw the village center.

Unbeknownst to the villagers, Fia still kept his wolves bounding through the shadows. They darted between the houses and down through the dark alleyways. Playful and light-hearted, reminding Fia more of wolf pups as they romped and roamed about the village, muddling any potential rescue attempts with their mere presence. Throughout it all, they remained submerged in the darkness, lingering just beneath its surface, giving no hint of their presence that anyone unfamiliar with the shadows would notice. 

“We’re here,” Mikko said.

Off to his left was a tall building painted a deep red, a handsomely carved wooden stag prancing across the top of its covered porch. The inn overlooked the village center, which had been built around a well now outfitted with the same summer flowers and dried wheat bundles that had adorned the gateway. Several shops lined the area, each losing their current customers to the sight the Winter Guard made outside. 

“Fia, bring him with you and follow close. Isak, Simo, inside with me. Toivo, get the horses watered and fed.”

Eli waited for the guardsmen to pass, their boots thudding loudly against the two steps that led up to the inn’s porch. He then spun on his heel, nearly turning himself full around before Fia caught him by the elbow and reeled him back in before he could expose the state of his wrists to any observant villager. 

“Inside,” Fia said.

“As you wish,” Eli replied with a grin. “Happy?”

“With what?” Fia asked as he followed Eli up the steps. 

“I’m being cooperative.”

“And that does so well for me.”

“Better than you might like to think, Fia.”