He must be a noble. Serena had already finished adding snow to the water skin. It's now cradled against her stomach with the cloak wrapped tightly around both her and it, so she inspects the gloves she's pulled back onto her hands instead. There are perfect miniscule stitches along not only the seams of the borrowed gloves but also in intricate patterns across the back of each hand. Even at home she hadn't a pair so finely crafted as these ones, and she traces one of tiny stitched leaves idly.
He's certainly not like the nobles in Corsecant, though, Serena decides, pulling her hands back inside the warm fur of the cloak. She tries to imagine the middle-aged Dukes of Corsecant— or even their children or grandchildren— tramping through the forest, but she can't quite picture it. Even her brother, as adventurous as he is, spends most of his time in weapons training or cloistered away with tutors. Hunters and soldiers would frequent the woods surrounding her palace home, but Mael and her father would only occasionally venture into the wilds— and then, only for hunts organized by the game wardens. No, court life in Corsecant clearly didn't produce the same types of people as the Narnian court.
Serena shifts her gaze to the trees. Having never spent time in the woods either— before the past few days— she can't quite pretend these trees don't feel more menacing by the hour. She'd always imagined the woods to be whimsical and mysterious, like it was often portrayed in fairy stories. Her own experiences in the forest, though, were anything but magical. If she hadn't happened upon the Narnians— or rather, if they hadn't guided her into their charge, she remembers— there is no possible way that she would have made it this far.
Serena's gaze flits over to Edmund next. Sitting opposite of her in the tight clearing, he continues to peer into the growing gloom while Serena tries to distract herself from becoming worried about the length of time they've been sitting there. At least the long stop isn't her fault, she thinks guiltily. She flexes her feet, but the stinging pain of the abrasions, the deep muscular ache, really any sign at all that she'd been hiking all morning is gone. She wonders again at the healing ointment Edmund had used, deciding that such a quality medicine also points to him being very well off.
The longer she watches him, the more she notices that Edmund is anything but still. From her peripheral vision, she takes in all the small, constant motions— rubbing the thumb of one hand across the pommel of his sword, scanning the trees with eyes, tapping the fingers of his other hand on his knee— that only serve to increase her own anxiety. Waiting doesn't seem to suit him, and the more he fidgets, the more guilty Serena feels.
And why shouldn't he be worried? As if Giants and mutinous guards weren't trouble enough, now there is some unknown party moving toward them. He hadn't outright said it, but would he and Adan be so concerned if these other humans weren't a danger to them? Edmund had answered a few of Serena's questions, but it feels like that information has only unleashed a flood of other questions in her mind. Who are these people? What do they want? And what does any of it have to do with me?
For more than a day now, Serena has been plagued with these questions she can't answer, and the last one especially has taunted her. She was hardly a figure of great intrigue in Corsecant— or she hadn't ever thought so. She no longer believes, though, that her father's timing in sending her to Narnia was coincidental to her guards' insurrection. Something more is going on. She feels like one of the snowflakes falling through the canopy above, tossed about in the gales of others' maneuverings.
Edmund's movement into a crouch startles Serena from her thoughts. He touches a finger to his lips— needlessly, she thinks, since she wouldn't dare utter a sound anyway— and shifts onto one knee. With his left leg by her shoulder, she can finally see that the pommel of his sword is carved in the likeness of a lion. She wonders, briefly, if that's significant to the Narnians or just to this particular nobleman, but then Edmund drops back onto the ground and Adan presses into the clearing through the brush beside them.
Edmund doesn't ask what took the Wolf so long to return, and Adan doesn't offer up any explanation. Serena finds it odd, though, that Adan returned from the opposite direction of the road. Before she can consider mentioning it, Edmund silently stands and hefts the heavy pack before once again holding his hand out to her. This sudden cordiality, she thinks, must be a result of him thinking she's slowing them down since he's only just started doing it, but she accepts the help anyway. Sitting still for so long has only made the rest of her muscles stiffer, and standing now only seems to make her more sore everywhere except for her feet.
When Edmund guides them out of the clearing, back toward the windswept path they'd been navigating, she forces herself to move as quickly as possible— and without any obvious signs of her exhaustion. The windswept area between the slope and the tree line is just as miserable as before, and it takes her muscles a while to work the way she wants them to. When she does finally settle into their grueling pace, she notices that Adan is right in front of her now, leading the way rather than disappearing into the blinding snow. She stumbles along the uneven path, keeping his dark fur always in sight.
True to Adan's earlier statement, they quickly find themselves staring across the Giant road. Serena stops when Adan does, and Edmund steps up beside her at the edge of the large swath of cleared land. The wind from the steep slope to their right, the one they've been following since their earlier descent into this valley, is nearly deafening here in the open. With one hand holding the water skin against her chest, Serena uses the other to grip the edges of the cloak together.
The road is really just a large path through the forest, she realizes. If it had been a human thoroughfare, the drop to the road, from the wearing away of the land, would likely have been only a few inches. But, perhaps because it's a Giant road, Serena sees instead a ledge more than a foot deep past her toes.
To her left, Adan looks past her at Edmund meaningfully. The Wolf then casts a look to where the road leads further into the forest before jumping down onto the road. Serena watches him, hoping she can get down with even a fraction of Adan's coordination. Edmund drops over the edge next, and she panics slightly at the unwelcome thought of falling behind. As soon as he's down, though, Edmund turns back and motions for her to sit. She hurries to do so and scoots forward, preparing to slip carefully off the edge. Before she can, Edmund steps in front of her, reaches for her waist, and pulls her off the ledge to the uneven road.
He lets go as soon as her feet touch the ground, nearly before she can even muster up any embarrassment about the sudden action, and Serena takes a half step backward to steady herself on the ledge behind her. When she does this, Edmund crouches down in front of her. She follows his movement with her eyes, thinking perhaps he's noticed something wrong with her boots again, but he reaches instead for the water skin beside her foot. She can now feel her neck burning as Edmund stands and passes the water skin to her. She takes it from him quickly. She hadn't meant to drop it of course, but she also hadn't expected him to pull her off the edge of the road.
Before she can open her mouth— though whether she intends to protest her ability, thank him, or apologize, she hasn't decided— she sees that Adan has already started to pick his way across the road. Serena's mouth snaps shut, and she flinches forward, still desperate to prove herself. Within a few steps, though, she finds that this road is nothing but deep furrows and large indentations left by oversized feet that make the surface incredibly uneven— as she discovers when she nearly trips into a snow-hidden divot. She wavers, squinting at the Wolf's progress to get an idea of the topography of the road.
While she's still trying to decide the best route, she feels an arm wrap around her back and a hand cup her right arm.
"We're too exposed," Edmund shouts next to Serena's ear to be heard over the wind. Serena is too startled to respond, but she stumbles quickly along when Edmund propels them forward. He kept a grip on her elbow for much of the day, but this is the first he's actually pulled her this close. Serena ducks her head, knowing that he is just trying to get them across faster. He's careful to steer around the worst spots, too, despite constantly glancing over his left shoulder down the road. What he hopes to see is a mystery to Serena, though, because the snow is now falling so thickly she can't see much of anything.
They reach the other side in minutes, and Serena starts to slow down as they approach the opposite side so she can figure out how to climb out up the embankment on her own. Edmund forces her to keep moving, though, and with barely a break in stride his other hand finds her left elbow and he boosts her up onto the ledge. She stumbles toward Adan, trying to avoid toppling over, but the Wolf steps around her as she approaches. When Serena turns, she sees Adan face to face with Edmund, who has yet to climb up off of the road.
Edmund stands still with his hands braced on the ledge in front of him, apparently listening to Adan. He nods, head bowed against the wind, and then glances down the road again before climbing up. He turns then to watch as Adan leaps back down to the road. The wolf heads away from them, following the road into the woods, and within a few yards his dark fur disappears into the thick, swirling snow.
Serena wonders at his leaving again so soon after he's returned. She peeks behind her. If Adan's not checking the path ahead of them, what exactly is he doing? Edmund doesn't leave her much time to consider this, though. As soon as he reaches her he hustles them onward without a word about Adan.
The space between the slope— which has steepened to more of a cliff on this side of the road— and the tree line is even more constricting than before. They squeeze through the wind-whipped space for what feels like an hour, at least to Serena. Her cheeks feel chapped from the wind and she switches the water skin back and forth in her hands constantly, trying to keep it near her but also needing her hands to help her through the narrow, uneven path. After passing through a particularly tight spot, with several trees pressing into the space on one side and the unyielding cliff on the other, Serena takes the opportunity to lean against a bare tree trunk while she waits for Edmund to get through.
After a moment, when he still hasn't appeared, she turns her head back to find he isn't moving closer at all. She squints into the snow to see him still sizing up the narrow space she'd had to turn sideways to squeeze through, and she realizes at the same time as he does that he wouldn't fit through even without the pack on his back. In fact, even the pack would probably be difficult to force through the narrow space. Edmund shakes his head slightly and meets her eyes across the gap before waving toward the trees to his left. She slowly nods back, pushing back onto her feet, and forces her way through the tightly woven branches, stumbling down away from the cliff.
It's much darker now than when they'd entered the forest earlier, and her feet sink into the mess of snow, undergrowth, and rotted vegetation. She shoves through, feeling dead plants tangle around her legs and then snap as she forces her way onward. The only consolation is that the wind is less biting between the trees, but it doesn't feel any warmer this time. She tries to veer toward Edmund, pushing through the branches that claw at her.
When she and Edmund finally converge, she nearly hits him with the water skin in her left hand as her foot catches on something under the snow. He grabs her forearm, stopping her from actually hitting him, but he's more focused on surveying the dim woods around them than on her.