The next morning, I left the tent behind. Aeryn had already dressed and left earlier. There was food waiting for me, but it was just a sb of bread. Whether it was a slight on me from one of the dies, or perhaps all of them, I didn’t know. However, I also didn’t care. I grabbed the dry bread and swallowed it down while pulling on my pants. I was still buttoning up my shirt as I left the tent, only to nearly collide with Lucil.

  She blinked, stumbling back and raising her hands defensively, almost like she thought I’d suddenly grab her. I raised an eyebrow.

  “Did you need something?”

  Her face turned red, and her eyes dropped to my bare chest. Her face grew redder, and she spun around.

  “Everyone else is already packed to leave. You’re the slowest.” She huffed. “Your… women said if you didn’t get up when you were supposed to, it was your fault if you got left behind.”

  “How could I be left behind?” I asked, finishing buttoning my shirt. “Everyone is here for me.”

  “Don’t act conceited.” She responded, but didn’t gnce back as she trudged away.

  I gnced around the camp to see that it was mostly the case that everyone was packed and ready to go. The queen’s guard leader was staring at me with an impatient look. As soon as I left the tent, two men scrambled to pull it down. It was probably originally their tent, and they didn’t want to risk it being left behind. The girls all gave me huffy looks, but I ignored them. Walking over to a nearby packhorse, I removed a water skin and took a sip to rinse out the dry bread.

  The leader gave a signal, and the group started moving forward again. The two men only just managed to get the tent picked up before the st line of troops forced them to abandon it. Even then, they had to fold and pack it while on the move. That was one nice thing about being the prince. I didn’t need to worry about such things. The girls were a little unhappy that I didn’t face any consequences, but I wondered what they were expecting.

  At the end of the day, whether it was my choice, Lucil, or the Queen’s guard, they all moved with me. If I didn’t move, neither would they. If they wanted to force me to move, they’d need to tie me up and drag me. I didn’t feel things had gotten to that state just yet, so I didn’t worry so much. I lifted my hood to protect myself from the rising sun and then trudged on toward the potentially lethal Hedgemon’s Pass.

  “We’re approaching it now.” Ba raised her finger.

  Of the girls, she was the only one I didn’t seem to upset the previous night. She hadn’t grown competitive with her sister over me as Mother had. Quite the opposite, she seemed to have recognized things and taken a step back, allowing Saria to have more time with me. I squinted in the direction she was pointing, and I could see on the horizon was a noticeably rise. That must be the pteau. Were there things flying above the pteau? If I could see them from where we were, they were rger than a bird.

  As Ba went to move back, I grabbed her wrist and then wrapped my arm around her. “Travel with me for a moment.”

  Ba didn’t resist, but her expression fshed with worry for a moment before turning cold. “What do you want from me.”

  She felt rather good in my arms. She had a slim waist and long legs. Ba had spent years dressing as a boy, but she had stopped that since returning to the elf realm and her female features had started to become more prominent. She had let her hair grow out to minimum length. Her blonde hair was straighter than her sister's and had a less golden appearance. Her body was more tone and muscur, and while she didn’t have the plumpness I enjoyed with her sister, her long, smooth body also had many charms.

  I made sure to hold her tightly and increase our intimacy, while she wore the face of a woman enduring it. Perhaps it was a bit childish, but I was mostly looking to irritate Saria and Mother. That’s why I pulled her so close. Her retionship with her sister had improved recently. Ba had leveraged her sexual experience over Saria, who had previously bullied her. Now that Saria was my wife and had performed her wifely duties, I wondered if such a retionship was going to change further. For example, would Saria punish Ba ter for this physical contact, and would Ba become the submissive little sister she had once been? I was a bit curious about their changing dynamic.

  However, toying with their familial bonds and reminding them properly of their pces weren’t the only reason that I grabbed onto Ba. I also wanted to speak to Ba about something.

  “What are your thoughts on fighting drakes and wyverns?” I moved nearly to her ear and whispered it in a light voice.

  Her lips tightened for a moment, but she answered concisely as she always did. “It would be best if we avoided direct contact.”

  “I won’t put my life on the line in the name of the best-case scenario,” I responded dryly. “What if we encounter them?”

  “Typically, archers would be ideal when attacking a flying foe,” Ba responded. “However, I don’t see anyone present with bows. I think we’ll have to assume that no one here would have the skill or precision to fight them in the air.”

  “You’re not proficient in archery?” I asked, immediately realizing that the elvish archer might just be a stereotype.

  “I am not. As for the faery, they may have some short-range bows, but those won’t be effective against flying monsters.” She didn’t seem to notice my slight, so I moved on immediately.

  “Then, what do you suggest?”

  “Bring them down with magic, destroy their wings. At that point, 10% of their effectiveness will be removed.”

  “Just 10%?”

  “Even without wings, they are massive, with razor-sharp cws and teeth. Fighting them with swords would be a struggle. They’re a save beast, and they still can climb the walls and attack from above. There is a reason the survival rate of Hedgeman’s pass is so low.”

  I was starting to get a better idea of things, and I wasn’t liking it.

  “Even if proper bowman were brought, it wouldn’t increase our chances.” Lucil’s voice caused me to look up from my conversation with Ba. “Within the narrow pass, getting an arrow up and hitting a wyvern as it flies across the visible area is a fool’s errand. It’s better to maintain maneuverability. This is why mother didn’t send bowmen.”

  I nodded slowly. She was right. Ba was thinking of it as an open sky, but in reality, they’d only have a few meters of shooting space, and the wyvern would need to be falling right on top of them for it to be effective. At that point, there would be better uses of time than to pelt them with arrows.

  “What about pikes?”

  “What about them?”

  “If each of us carried a pike, we’d turn Hedgeman’s Pass into a spike-trap. Any wyvern that even thought of attacking would get skewered. They’d have to nd ahead of us rather than on top of us. It’d keep us retively protected.” I surmised.

  Lucil narrowed her eyes. “If such an option worked, then the queen’s guard would use it! Don’t think that just because you came up with a thing it somehow makes you cleverer. Those that came before us had done this far longer than we have.”

  “And yet, I keep finding myself right,” I muttered, not intending her to hear, but her hearing was surprisingly sharp.

  “It’s one thing marrying an elf woman. I could even forgive canoodling with a maid. However, to diddle her sister in front of her? You truly are a despicable man!”

  “Man?” I raised an eyebrow. “Not a devil?”

  “Hmph!” She kicked her horse, and it took the quick steps back to the front of the line.

  Her provocation had succeeded in getting to Ba, who no longer looked as comfortable in my arms. With a sigh, I let go of her and let her fall back in line with the other girls, leaving me to walk alone with my thoughts. It was midday with the sun overhead by the time they reached the pteau. There was a massive wall towering up two hundred meters into the sky. It was brown and seemed filled with death. A massive crack ran down the middle of the earth, slightly wider at the top than at the bottom, almost like someone had taken a massive sword and smmed it down on the pteau.

  Given some of the things I had seen in this world, perhaps this pass was indeed created by some horrifying battle between two powerful beings. Upon reached the edge of the pteau, just as we fell under the shadow of the massive rocky outcroppings, the man in charge signaled for everyone to stop. As the group reorganized, my group, and by extension, Lucil’s group ended up in rows of three. I took the front, with Lucil on one side and the other my mother.

  Behind me were Aeryn, Saria, and Ba. Behind them were Baba, Moar, and the other soldiers. Three wide was the most we could walk side by side given the width of the entrance. They started to pull out long pikes, giving them to each of the soldiers to carry in one hand. Lucil adjusted uncomfortably, but she didn’t say anything. I didn’t foresee in gain in rubbing it in. I had already released my childish inclinations earlier by pying with Ba. It was now time to be serious.

  “Listen here.” The leader rose his fist, causing everyone to quiet down. “One we start marching, everyone stays quiet. There will be no talking of any kind. If someone wishes to expose our presence, you will be tied up and gagged, and feel lucky if we don’t leave you to die. We will move quickly and swiftly. The journey through Hedgeman’s pass will take thirty-six hours. That means we’ll be staying one night in the middle of dangerous territory. There is a cave we’ll reach before night. That is the only safe pce to camp through the entire journey.

  “If we are attacked, form up only long enough that you can deflect the enemy. Then, begin moving immediately. The wyvern will give up eventually once they’ve had their fill. That is all.”

  That didn’t sound very promising. His answer was to try to defend yourself, but ultimately our only chance was to tire the wyverns out and make it not worth their time to chase us. I gnced back at Baba, who hopefully was preparing something that could help us out. She gave a simple nod in my direction. That was the only reassurance I was going to get.

  “Stay close,” I ordered behind me.

  That was the best I could say. My position was very deliberate. I kept the most vulnerable and most at risk closest to me. That would be my mother and my sister. I didn’t know my sister's combat ability but based on her need to survive, I needed all of my sisters. I’m sure the girls behind me would grow upset if I said as much, but their lives were expendable in the grand scheme of things. I had to bring back and ensve my sisters. A maid and a pair of elvish princesses didn’t factor into it. They were still directly behind me, so it wasn’t like I didn’t hold them high on my list. Also, if we were split up, Ba could keep Aeryn and her sister safe. At least, that’s what I thought.

  The only one who wasn’t close was Baba. I felt like she was the one who could hold her own. Even if she did die, she’d probably be able to reincarnate or something like that. Either way, I didn’t feel like I needed to worry about her, so I kept her the farthest away with Captain Moar.

  The men disassembled their armor. They meant it when they spoke of being quiet. They even went so far as to put padding onto the hooves of the horses. The entire process ended up taking a few hours. Finally, he gave the wave and the established formation started to move forward. Where the horses were, they could move only one man at all, stretching this party out much wider than it should be. If I was them, I would have abandoned the horses. It would have been far quieter and easier to move without the horses present. Furthermore, if a horse spooked and went out of control, not only would it notify our position, but it might even crush a few soldiers as it fled.

  However, as I considered this rather obvious fw in the captain’s pn, I began to note the wording of his speech and realize the true secret to his high survival rate. The horses weren’t just there to carry along additional supplies. They were there as an offering to the wyverns. They wouldn’t care whether they ate humans or horses. Horses would be easier to snatch and probably give more meat. No one was riding and everyone was escorting a horse. When the wyvern came, they’d each snatch a horse, and would hopefully be satiated with the easy meal. They wouldn’t even bother with the humans, especially after getting stabbed a few times with those pikes, and thus quickly give up the attack.

  This also stretched out the line of men a rather long length. A wyvern could nd on top of nine men in the same space like a horse and one man. By stretching it out, it made humans less of a big target. Instead, it forced them to pick us up one at a time. You might bend down to snatch a bushel of grapes if they were easy to grab… but if you space them out so only one grape could be grasped at a time, you won’t grab nearly as many grapes. It wouldn’t be worth the effort.

  I didn’t know how long it’d be before we reached the outskirts of the wyvern territory, but the moment we entered the canyon, it became immediate silence. Everyone moved as quietly as possible, even watching their breath. Thankfully, the ground was rather dry and solid, and it wasn’t too hard to move without making a noise. The horses made the most noise by far, but there was no helping that. A group of nearly a hundred just couldn’t move through this pce soundlessly.

  Would moving in a group of three be better? If you were caught, death was nearly certain. You’d imagine the survival rate being either 0% or 100% depending on if they were able to successfully sneak by or not. It made sense that with odds like that, people would rather take their chances in a group of fifty. It was less terrifying than flicking a coin.

  As I walked, I continually looked up. I couldn’t help it. There was very little else to look at by canyon walls. I was mostly looking at the sky to see if anything rge passed by. I wasn’t the only one. Most of the men were looking around just as uneasily, wondering when the first attack would begin. Surprisingly, even the horses kept their quiet. They seemed to know that this area was dangerous, and only silence would save them, so I didn’t hear much in the way of whinnying.

  Click. Cck.

  I saw a bit of rock falling from the edge of the cliff, raining down onto the path in front. The long line of soldiers had put our group somewhere in the middle, with a few dozen horses in front of us and another few dozen behind. Thus, I couldn’t see very far ahead and wasn’t sure where the rocks had fallen. Given the formation suddenly slowing, another setback of the single-file marge, I could tell those in front of us were on guard.

  “Scree!” A screech let out overhead.

  Although I was remaining at pace with the people in front of us, Saria, Aeryn, and Baba began to push forward against us.

  “They’re not giving us room!” Saria hissed.

  I looked back to see that the horse of the man at the end of our line was shoving forward, trying to force everyone in line to move faster. Whether the man was intentionally egging the horse on or the horse was working out of his control, I didn’t know. I just felt a building pressure pushing against me. The line was already breaking down.

  “Screeeee!”

  This one came from directly overhead. I didn’t see the form in time, but I did see the shadow pass by. Only a moment ter there was a loud boom as a creature hit the side of the canyon, dislodging a rock. It fell, crushing a man underneath. The wyvern let out another screech and then began climbing down the side of the rock, its eyes locked on a horse. The horse reared, and the handler fell back. It began to charge forward.

  With a curse, I grabbed the girls and pulled them to the side. I just managed to open up enough space that the horse was able to move past us without trampling anyone. The guards in front of us were more focused on something in front, and so they didn’t realize the horse was coming until it smmed into their backs. Two men cried out as they fell underneath its hooves.

  Before it could sm into the next group, two cws fell and snatched it. Right in front of us, a wyvern appeared, letting us a horrifying screech. It wasn’t much bigger than the horse, so as it pulled up it was barely able to drag the horse with it. It climbed up the rock wall with two taloned arms while the other two dug into the horse’s flesh. It let out screams and whinnies as he was dragged up onto the pteau, thrashing wildly and kicking the wall, causing dirt and dust to rain down on us.

  “Go!” I hissed.

  This was only the beginning.

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