“For such a young, uneducated child, you ask the smartest questions I’ve ever heard. Raising you is going to be interesting.”
Hannah didn’t hear his determination because she was already sleeping again, but he was wrong about her being uneducated. Her mother had taught her daily, and Hannah was learning to read and write when she took ill and died. Her eye fluttered open three times and saw Sir James remained awake until the fire died down, seemingly thinking about the future and probably Hannah. She knew he missed the Old Mage already, and also the three knights and driver who died. He had said a prayer for them and promised their deaths were to allow the young lady with her head on his lap to survive. He promised to raise her as the Mage would want. That was a lot to take on.
He mumbled some of his thoughts out loud, not knowing Hannah lay there listening to his innermost thoughts. He said he would do his duty with the girl, but, it wouldn’t be an easy road to travel. She would test him to the limit, but he looked forward to the tests.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Hannah woke to frost coating the grass in the meadow. The knight still slept, and she decided to water and ready the horses and wake him later. He needed the sleep. She had the saddles cinched tight, and her blanket rolled when she heard a whisper float from the forest, just the slightest sound of a hushed voice. She couldn’t make out the words, but it was human speech.
Hannah rushed to where he slept and placed her hand over the Knight’s mouth. His eyes instantly opened. She held up two fingers and pointed in the direction from where the voices emanated. He climbed to his feet like a cat spotting an errant bird. A few quick steps took him into the dim light under the canopy of evergreens, now spotted with more and more hardwoods.
She moved to the horses took them into the shadows and removed the hobbles, readying them to run. A faint blue mist seeped from between the trees and Sir James returned, motioning for her to mount. He followed suit and they crossed the stream and headed west, the sun warm on their backs.
“That blue mist?” she asked.
“One of the grapes your sorceress provided. It burst, and they inhaled the spell while I held my breath. One of them turned to the other and asked for his name. I mentioned they should travel home, but neither seemed to know where that might be. When I left them, they were sitting on the ground together near the path, their minds befuddled. In another time I might have laughed.”
“At them?” she asked.
“No, at how effective a weapon confusion can be. I’ll have to think long and hard about Evelyn’s method. Killing is not always the best solution.”
After encountering a total of six criminals, bounty hunters, or highwaymen, in a single night, Hannah realized there must be hundreds searching for her. The roads were not safe. The backways were little better. Any young girl traveling was suspect, and there were accurate descriptions of her provided by the Young Mage who had watched her cross the courtyard at the castle.
“They’re going to find us, you know,” she said.
“I’m working on it.”
“How many days until we reach the King’s Palace?”
“Two days. One more night, if we’re lucky.”
“We still have the ‘no see’ powder. Good for both of us for one day, and it will help only a little, the second, she said. What if we use half of it, but only on me? Then it will last for more than two days if we reapply it.”
He didn’t answer right away. Hannah turned and looked at him. His eyes were lost in thought as he considered what to do. Finally, he said, “Good idea, but if you’re in that saddle, they will wonder why I have two horses, which will draw attention and they will wonder iIf I am the one they seek. They maybe even see you through the spell because it does not make sense.”
“Then what good is it?”
“What if you ride in the back of a wagon? The magic dust would prevent them from looking at you, especially if we cover you with a little straw. The spell just needs a little help from us to be effective.”
“Well, we don’t have a wagon.”
He chuckled again, “How often does that sharp tongue of yours get you into trouble?”
“Who says it does?”
He laughed even more. Then he said, “We’re almost out of the mountains. Farms lay ahead in the valleys. Farms have wagons.”
“And they have farmers who don’t wish to sell their wagons for a promise of future gold.”
“I think I have that covered, too.” He touched his heels to the sides of his horse, forcing her to do the same since she was still in the lead.
The prediction that the hills would end soon turned out to be accurate. They reached the top of a rolling hill and ahead spread a wide, green valley. A small river flowed down the center, and along the right side of the river wound the road. Farms lined both sides of the road but crossing the river a necessity to reach the ones on the far side. Rail fences divided most farms, keeping animals in or out, as the case might be. Some farms grew crops; others grass for animals.
Sir James moved beside her and looked out over the valley. “We need to locate a small farm. Preferably one without children or even a wife.”
“Can I ask why?”
“I expect, and wish you always to question everything I do so you will understand. I’m looking for one that a single man farms because I don’t wish to use our ‘confusion’ spell for a whole family or several farm workers. Dealing with one person will be far easier.”
Hannah also looked at the patchwork of farms spreading out before them. “If I was one of the men hunting for me, I’d be watching that road. It’s the natural place for us to travel.”
“That’s why we’re going to keep to the tree line at the edge of the hills. When we find the right farm, we’ll move in.”
“You talk like the King’s army.”
He gave her a look that she was already learning to hate. It conveyed a message such as: Think about what you just said. She thought about it and understood. He was a Knight. His job put him in charge of armies, so her comment was silly. She wanted to tell him, “I get it,” but decided to turn her head and ignore him for the moment. But his turn to face her wrath would come. She knew a few looks of her own to use on him.
“How will we know which farm?” she asked.
“We’re going to eliminate the ones that we know about, or that have extra people. Large farms are out, of course, because they have many workers, if not large families. When we see two or three field hands working, we remove that one from our list. So, the closest two are not our target.”
“Not the third, either.”
He looked and shrugged, “Why not?”
“Look at the clothing hanging on the clothesline beside the house. Women’s clothing, and it looks like too much there for one man.”
“Good call. How about the next?” Sir James said, his voice sounding a little strained that she’d caught something he hadn’t.
“Maybe,” she mused. “Tools besides the back door, a path to the barn, but no clothesline, and nobody in sight. No smoke from the chimney, either, so nobody inside cooking.”
“Does that make a difference?” he asked, his tone softening.
“The first three farms and the two after it all have smoke coming from them. Someone inside cooking the noon meal, I’ll bet. Only that one farmhouse has no smoke. I can’t tell much else about the two in the distance, but the smoke is a dead giveaway.”
“Humph, I think you’re right.”
“Well, you don’t have to make that rude noise just because I was right,” she snapped.