Land of Stars

by anaashryver

Rowan Whitethorn is on the hunt for his wife, Aelin Galathynius, while the rest of the Terrasen Court is defending their home continent from Erawan and his armies. Everyone still has their own battles to overcome, but can they manage to win one for the greater good of the world? Post-EoS, as promised, with multiple points of view, and major EoS spoilers, and almost all ships :)

It had been four weeks of walking through the hot sand dunes in the middle of the desert, and Consort Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius was, quite frankly, sick of it.

Sand was in every possible crevice it could be in, and he could barely blink without his eyes tearing up, but he kept silent and refrained from yelling or screaming at the gods who'd cursed him, cursed Aelin, cursed their marriage.

Normally, Rowan wouldn't have felt any need to complain at all, because he'd be in the air in his hawk form to travel over long distances, but halfway into his journey into the desert, he'd spotted something…off.

An owl with night-black feathers flew past his hawk form a bit too slowly as they crossed paths in the air, and Rowan had immediately shifted and bolted into a dead sprint for as long as he could without losing too much energy.

Maeve's owls were the equivalent to the King of Adarlan's paid-off orphan-spies Aelin had warned him about back when they were in Rifthold. Sometimes they were sent with a magical tracking device that monitored every time the target used magic besides normal, everyday things that every Fae exerts energy in, and other times, they were seen as a sign of a quick, painful death in the near future. Rowan did not know which one of the two the owl was, did not need to know, as he stayed cautious nevertheless.

Although this had shaken him up a little bit, Rowan continued trying to focus on his goal: getting to the Gulf of Oro.

Originally, his plan had been to leave on one of the ships going out of Skull's Bay, maybe even possibly one of Enda's ships, but he realized it may not be the best decision, and moved to his second option—going to Eyllwe and taking a ship out of the Narrow Sea and sailing around to Wendlyn—not the most convenient, but still not terribly out of his way.

Of course, that plan was failed, as well. While lounging in an inn in Banjali and waiting the few days for his boat to arrive, he'd received a letter from Aedion saying that a few of Manon's cronies were waiting in the gulf for Rowan to sail out.

So, he'd changed course again, deciding to ride out on one of the ships bringing goods from the Gulf of Oro to the Southern Continent.

Finally, he stopped trudging through the sands and spied the port, watching the ships being loaded. If the position of the sun was any indicator, the ships would be leaving in around a half hour. Taking a deep breath and glancing down to his torn trousers, he shifted quickly and began to soar into the air.