Page 28 of Earthbound

Lettle groaned again. Going down meant going back up, and she’d just spent two weeks climbing the mountain.

‘Raven’s Valley was made by glacier erosion,’ Alder said, his eyes lit up with excitement. ‘It’s not often that you have such a deep valley on a mountain. It’s fascinating—’

‘Is it?’ Lettle gave him a flat stare and he laughed.

‘I’ll tell you later when your toe stops hurting.’

‘I think it’ll be hurting for a few years yet.’

He gave her a wry smile and continued on.

The ice on the trail was treacherous and it was Mia who slipped next, her feet skidding forwards. Dart caught her before she fell. ‘I wish you had stayed in Caperly,’ he muttered.

Mia had refused to be left behind. The friction between the two of them hadn’t eased since they’d argued about it.

‘I do not grant wishes, Dart,’ Mia said with tight lips.

Lettle enjoyed listening to the two of them bicker. It was a strange sort of comfort to her.

If she hadn’t been eavesdropping maybe she would not have slipped on the exact same patch of ice as Mia. But there was no one to catch her.

She fell face first, scraping her chin. The pain was sharp and stinging.

Alder offered her a hand. ‘You’re getting clumsier.’

She could feel her blood dripping into her scarf.

‘Twice in an hour,’ she scolded herself.

Twice… Her blood ran cold.

‘What is it?’ Alder said. ‘You look like someone’s walking along your spine.’

Lettle removed her prophecy journal and read her last foretelling: ‘You will fall once, twice, thrice. Then fall again. Each will be greater than before. The last will reap rewards.’

‘You’re a diviner?’ Mortah said, retracing her steps until she was beside Lettle.

Lettle nodded, wary. Few elves put much trust in the Fates. ‘I am.’

Mortah sighed. ‘I’m afraid it sounds like you’ve got to fall two more times before we find anything that will benefit your quest.’

‘It does sound like that, doesn’t it?’ Lettle said, relieved she wasn’t going to have to prove her power.

‘Are we really putting trust in the Fates?’ Dart said.

There it is. There’s always one.

Lettle girded herself for the confrontation, but Mortah stepped in before she could respond.

‘Yes, we are. The Fates cannot lie and if this elf has communed with them, then absolutely we will be trusting her.’

Dart raised his eyebrows but said nothing further–which was probably due to the look Mia was giving him over anything Mortah had said.

Mortah rummaged in her pack. ‘Here, take this. If each fall will be worse than the one before, then we should be prepared.’

The rope was well worn but the weave was still tight and strong.

‘Thank you,’ Lettle said, and she meant it.