Chapter 1935: Racing For The Finish (Part One)

On the hillside where the commoners watched, a cheer erupted from more than a thousand people when Erling staggered out of the Frozen Forest.

"He made it!"

"Lord Erling is in the lead!"

"We’ll win this one for sure!"

That enthusiasm ran headlong into a wall as hard and cold as ice when people watched Erling limp his way over to the emerald green scarf, pulling it down not as a trophy or a prize, but to use as a bandage for his badly wounded leg.

"Mama," a young boy said, tugging on his mother’s sleeve as he watched Lord Erling struggle with freezing fingers and a bloody wound. The north end of the Frozen Forest was the closest the contest would come to where the common folk sat, and Erling was less than fifty paces away, giving the child and everyone around him a very clear view of how badly battered the Lord Governor of Fayle truly was.

"Mama, is he gonna be all right? He, he looks like he’s hurt bad..." the boy said.

"He made it this far, didn’t he?" Sainy said in the same carefully practiced voice she used to reassure her son when her body was the one covered with bruises and his father had fallen drunk on the floor.

"Lord Erling is fighting to save Lord Tybal and Lord Reynold," Sainy added. "He’s a true knight and a hero. He won’t fall here," she said, fervently wishing it was true. "Just watch, he won’t fall..."

The whole crowd seemed to hold their breath, waiting for Erling to dash back into the forest and bring the scarf back to the Empress so he could claim victory. Instead, their stomachs sank and several people looked away as the Eldritch archer reached the edge of the Frozen Forest.

"Wait!" Erling shouted. "Wait, and hear me out!"

Erling had no idea whether Khorijin would listen to him or not, but at the moment, he felt like he at least had a small advantage. She was still inside the Frozen Forest, if only barely, and well within range of its Ice Fruits. He was outside by the posts, and unless she was willing to break the rules by shooting at him directly, there was nothing she could do to harm him.

"I’m listening," Khorijin said, though her tone was very neutral.

"You’re injured," Erling said, relaxing his stance and releasing the tension on his bow. "I can help to bind your wounds," he offered. "I still want to be your friend."

"Now is not the time for friendship," Khorijin said, flicking her tail and stomping a hoof on the ground. "I will bind my wounds when the hunt ends," she said, choosing her words with care. "Not before."

"Stop the hunt," Erling said. "You’re hurt. I’m hurt. Isn’t that enough to satisfy honor?" Erling asked. "From here, we can just race back through the Frozen Forest. Accept the hurts you have. I accept my own. Now, we just run. It’s still a contest. You may still win. You’re faster. I may still win; I’m smaller. We don’t have to fight anymore."

"I’ll even bind your wounds to make it fair," Erling offered, pointing at the spot on his thigh where he’d tied the emerald green scarf. "Then we just race. Neither of us has to die today."

"You are kind, Lord Erling," Khorijin said. "But I cannot stop halfway. You cannot stop halfway. Our hunt is not over," she said, raising her bow in one hand. "Friendship must wait until after. Now, I fight for the Herds. I fight for my lords. You do the same. We cannot betray our fight."

"Fine," Erling said, drawing the bow back to his cheek. He still had nine arrows in his quiver, plus the one in his fingers. They would have to be enough. "Then we fight till the end," he said, letting go of the arrow.

Khorijin moved at the same time he did, dashing forward toward the midnight blue sash.

Erling’s arrow reached its target half a heartbeat later, shattering the largest of the Ice Fruits within range and unleashing a wide flurry of fat, drifting snowflakes.

It did very little to hinder Khorijin, but that wasn’t the point. At this stage, Erling’s confidence in hitting anything smaller than the largest of fruits had fallen apart. His goal wasn’t to slow her down when she retrieved the scarf; it was to give him a way to break her line of sight when he entered the forest.

Two heartbeats later, Erling plunged into the flurry of snow, and as he did, he let go of the sorcery he’d clung to for the first half of the competition. The pressure in his chest was too great, and he couldn’t hold off the wind any longer.

Behind him, the cerulean flame on the arrow sticking out of the ground snuffed out, and the frigid winds that normally flowed through the hollow returned, made even more chaotic by Hauke’s ice sails that redirected the wind away from the common folk.

The snow around Erling immediately shifted, dancing energetically on the sudden breeze, but Erling paid it no mind.

Instead, he held tight onto the only piece of sorcery he dared maintain... A light, tenuous grasp on the arrow he’d fired into the ground at his feet when the contest began. It couldn’t do much to restrain the wind... Not with just one pin.

But he clung to it like the beacon from a lighthouse in a storm, and he raced toward it with all his might.

Behind him, Khorijin imitated Erling, wrapping the midnight scarf around her upper arm and tying it in a knot over the first wound she’d suffered in this match. The injuries to her flank were worse, but without her fellows from the herd, it was too difficult to bind them herself. The people of the Swift Hooves weren’t like humans. They were never meant to fight alone or to be solitary hunters the way men like Erling or Rastlan of the Golden Mained were.

Safety lay with the herd. Without them, she would have to do her best and hope that her body could endure the pain and the damage of her wounds long enough to reach a healer.

"It would have been nice," she whispered to herself. "If I could have accepted your help," she said, pulling an arrow to her cheek. Erling had reminded her in the very beginning that her arrows were better at chasing the one in the lead than her feet, and she returned the lesson to him now.

"Starlight, constellations, paths through the Heavens," she intoned as her eyes began to glitter with a silvery starlight that matched the color of her coat. "Reveal the path my arrow must take to strike him down..."