But Hob couldn’t get her through the shield. Elric didn’t know how old the prints were. At the moment he didn’t care. “We’re going to find her! Hurry.”
“Elric, wait!” Osmund called as Elric tore ahead. The shadows thickened as he ran forward, leaving Osmund’s light behind. Yet with what little light there was, he could see the tracks. Hob’s strange rabbit-like tracks, Wynn’s muffled shoe print, her bare footprint, and Mildred’s angular prints trotting along beside.
He could almost picture the happy troop as they marched back home. Mildred would be bobbing her head, her bright comb jiggling and her tail held high. Wynn would be singing, happy to be with Hob as the darkling creature bounced out front with the twitchy energy that reminded Elric of a squirrel.
Wynn would be hungry and tired. He couldn’t wait to get her home and safe in the castle where nothing could hurt her again. Then he would sleep for a week. He was beginning to feel the effects of staying up worrying about her all night.
The path suddenly veered in another direction, farther away from the place where Zephyr was waiting to help them back through the shield. It didn’t matter. Once they found Wynn, they could follow the edge of the shield until Zephyr caught sight of them. Then they would be safe. He’d make sure Wynn never set foot outside of the palace again.
“Elric, wait!” Osmund called again. Elric paused his stride to make sure Osmund could follow down the sudden turn in the path. Osmund jogged up to him, sweat beading on his high forehead. “You can’t just go charging through the wood like that. This forest is dangerous.”
“All the more reason we should find Wynn, and quickly.” Elric turned to set out again.
Osmund blocked him with the flat side of the head of his ax. “We’re no good to Wynn dead. There are elves in these wood who will shoot you with one of their mechanized bows as soon as they look at you. They create elaborate traps, and you would never see them until you were caught in one. That’s not to mention the creatures here. There’s a reaper in the woods, and if it finds us, we’re worse than dead.”
Elric nodded, and tried to contain his restless energy. Osmund was right. They had to be careful. They came to a small clearing where the roots of a tree formed into a twisted cage where the dirt had washed out from underneath them. Leaves littered the ground everywhere. Osmund lifted his stone torch.
There on the ground was another one of Mildred’s dark feathers, nestled in the roots of the tree.
“It looks like the rabbit creature went this way, and Wynn ran that way,” Osmund said, pointing with his light.
“Why would they split apart?” Elric asked with a sinking feeling.
Osmund lowered the glowing rock to an enormous, deep print at their feet. The pit of the print was the size of Elric’s head, and there was no mistaking it. It looked half man and half beast.
The reaper had found Wynn.
CHAPTER FIFTEENWynn
WYNN SAT IN THE BACK of the elves’ terrible wagon. The pig-foot wheels bumped over the uneven trails and Wynn felt every hard jolt. The rope tied around her wrists hurt. She yanked and tugged on it, but it only got tighter. Her fingers felt tingly.
She was so angry. One of the elves sat next to her with his arrow shooter across his knees. She kicked him in the elbow.
He shouted as the arrow shooter fired, nearly hitting the driver of the wagon. The driver pulled on the reins and turned the wagon too quickly. The stumpy, pig-foot wheels tipped, and the whole wagon turned over. Wynn tumbled to the forest floor. She got up and ran away from the boars and the nasty elves. Her skirt twisted and tangled around her legs as the sharp rocks and roots of the forest floor cut into her bare feet. But she was free!
She had to get away. She had to find a place to hide. She had to find Mildred and go back to Shadow and Flame. Her skirt tangled around her legs again. She tried to hold it up, but it was hard with her hands tied together. The ropes dug into her wrists and made them ache. She pulled at them as she ran. She needed her hands to run right. It was hard to balance.
Run! It was all she could think about, her only hope. She had to get home.
Suddenly a net flew over the top of her, and she fell, hopelessly tangled.
“I got you!” an elf shouted behind her. Her heart flew into her throat. She rolled over and tried to kick at him.
The elf pulled at the net, when a furious black hen charged out of the shadows. She leaped off a high bank and flapped and scratched at the elf’s face. He let out a terrified cry, and Wynn struggled from under the net.
A boar wagon charged toward them, and a second net flew from a wooden arm that whipped out from the side of the wagon. It fell over Mildred.
“Mildred!” Wynn screeched. She struggled from under her net, and ran toward her trapped bird. An elf leaped from the wagon and balled up the net around Mildred. Her feathers stuck out in ruffled tufts between the ropes. One of her white legs
