“Yeah, I’m here, and no, I won’t open the door!” barked the voice inside.
“Ok. I’m not going to ask you to open the door, but I want to talk to you, ok? Where are you?”
“On my bed, and I don’t want to tal…” Keither started but was stopped by the sound of splintering wood and his mother’s yelp.
Kovos walked through the devastated door and looked down imperiously at the boy on the bed. He had been pampering the little snot his whole life, and he was done. It was time to be a man.
He felt the muscles in his face contorting and he knew that he looked terrifying. “Do you remember what happened to Moleth?” he roared.
He thought he saw Keither nod but wasn’t sure. “Do you want your throat slit?” There was a definite shake this time. “Then get your stuff together. We’re leaving. Now! If you don’t have the will to live I can’t make you, but so help me I will spare our parents the displeasure of having one of their own kids slaughtered before their eyes, you get me?”
Keither was starting to resemble a puppet with its head bobbling around. He was in line now and that was all that mattered. As for the door, well, no one would be needing the room anytime soon, and better to break down a door and have Keither alive than have the royal guard break down the door and have him dead.
He tried to push emotion out as he walked downstairs in to the overly pink living room. He noticed a lace cloth in the middle of the table. There were birds stitched on it. He paused. He had never noticed that before. “Why do you notice odd things like that when you’re in a stressful situation?” he asked himself. “Because you never know when you may see it again,” said a voice in his head.
He walked out the back door. It was time to go. There were two horses in the alleyway that Brack was finishing up.
Emma. He needed to see her, needed to hold her.
“No!” he thought. Time was blurry now. He didn’t seem to notice the farewells and the tears, didn’t notice himself get on his horse. The only thing that floated though his mind was Emma and the knowledge that he would never see her again.
Arkin wondered why things took so long when he was in a hurry. He paused and repeated a calming script in his mind, controlled his breath, and felt emotion ebb away. He closed his eyes and repeated the script again. As he calmed, clarity began to restore itself in his battered consciousness. Not too much longer. Just the climb back down and then they could proceed on with the mission.
Legon was vaguely aware that he was freezing cold, but his body and mind didn’t seem to be talking with each other. Kovos and Keither were approaching. He could see them coming along the archery field. Phantom snorted and he patted his neck. Legon knew the horses could sense the panic in their riders, but he knew they would keep their cool. Well, at least Phantom would. He’d taken him hunting many times and nothing seemed to bother him. Murray, on the hand, wasn’t used to any extreme riding and might be a problem.
Kovos and Keither were near to them now. “Are you ready?” Legon asked.
Kovos patted the sword on his belt. “Yeah.”
Legon pointed to the trees. “Ok, we’ll travel along the edge of the woods until we’re out of sight and ear shot. Then we need to ride at least until tomorrow night to make sure we get as much space between us and those guards as possible.”
“How will we know which path to take? It’s dark as hell out here.”
Sasha spoke. “Horses have better eyes than people. They can see fine, don’t worry.” She turned Murray and began riding toward the forest. The other three followed close behind.
As hoped, the horses were able to make it through the dark woods without incident, but it was slow going. They had to curve out away from the where the soldiers were camped out. By the time they made it back to the road there were rays of sun coming over the distant mountains.
They kept the horses going at a pretty good speed after that without tiring them out. They needed to open a gap between them and the town. As the sun got brighter, Legon felt himself getting hungry, but he ignored the feeling. One day without food wouldn’t hurt him. They could only stop to let the horses drink, and even then it would have to be fast. There was a silence over them as they went. No one wanted to say anything. There was too much tension in the air and with every word came the chance of emotional upheaval from the previous day and night.
Legon’s face was starting to burn as the sun peaked around noon. Sweat rolled down his brow, causing the dust in the air to stick to him and cover his face in grit. As the sun started its descent it began to burn his neck. He lifted his shirt collar a bit.
The air was still and quiet except for the sound of hooves clopping on the ground. The rhythm was hypnotizing. His mind started to get fuzzy. His vision slipped in and out of focus. He started to become aware of all the sounds in the woods, sounds that he couldn’t normally hear on horseback-the sound of the breeze in the tree tops, the sound of a bug crawling on a log. All the sounds must have been from yards away. “This is the Elven side,” he thought. The soft whoosh of a bird taking flight, the creak of wood…Ah, he loved that sound, the creak only a bow could make as it was strung.
He snapped back to awareness in an instant, tightening his reins, bringing Phantom to an abrupt halt.
“Legon, what is it?” Sasha started, but was interrupted by a sound that all could hear-the sound of hooves that were very close. Sensing danger, everyone spurred their horses forward. Out of the trees about fifteen yards away came three men with bows drawn on horses wearing leather armor emblazoned with the queen’s crest-all unfamiliar faces, all with their bows pointed at Kovos and Legon. Legon was aware of two more horsemen with bows behind them. All had the satisfied smile of knowing they had surrounded their prey.
Chapter Nine
“What drives us to act? What is it that makes us capable of the great and the horrible? It is the events in our lives and how we choose to react to them. How we see the event, how we respond to it, these are the things that define us.”
The men wore a look of triumph tempered with wariness on their faces. It was clear that they weren’t sure exactly who or what they were dealing with. They looked the four fugitives over, sizing them up, figuring out who would be the greatest threat. Sasha would instantly be ruled out. She would be easy to overpower. Keither was fat and young and looked terrified, so no problem there. Kovos and Legon were the problem. Both men were more confident and didn’t back down from the glances they got. Both had been in so many fights that they could be beaten to a pulp and not be bothered. In truth, if the soldiers were to hurt someone to make a point it wouldn’t be Legon or Kovos. Breaking the strongest of a group to intimidate the rest usually worked, but doing that didn’t make a lick of difference to the next strongest guy. However, hurt one of the weak ones and the strong would comply just to spare the others pain.
“Why don’t you join us in our camp?” one of the men said, pointing with his bow up the road just a bit.
They went without a word, Sasha and Keither intently staring at their hands. This was a good strategy for Sasha. If a woman appeared submissive and scared the men would be less likely to harass her. After all, that’s how people like this thought women should be. But Keither needed to at least look like he had a backbone or the men would teach him a thing or two.
They entered a small clearing off to the right of the road. There were three tents set up and a smoldering fire in a pit. They maneuvered the horses to the left side of the camp, leaving plenty of room for more tents when the other guards arrived. Legon figured it would take about a day for a messenger to reach the town, so if they played their cards right they could escape before the other five showed up. Two on four didn’t suit Legon, but it was better than two on ten.