Book 2 Chapter 44

The carriage rumbled as they drove hard through the countryside towards the border. Tirr woke with a start, rubbing his eyes as he noticed streaks of the early morning twilight peeking through the curtains over the window.

He yawned, stretching his body as he sat up. He heard a soft moan and turned to see Maria adjusting herself, regretting the loss of warmth Tirr provided as she settled again and fell back asleep. A line of drool dripped down onto the fresh clothes that had been provided by Nerida’s followers. He frowned in disgust and thought of waking her, but after thinking about the night before decided to let her sleep, wiping the drool away himself.

As he stretched again, Nerida stirred on his other side. Her eyes opened slowly and she yawned until she spotted the young God. Her face lit with a brilliant smile as she greeted him, “Good morning my Lord,”

There was a snort, and Nerida turned with an icy gaze towards one of the carriage's other occupants. Torvus sat on the other side of the Carriage, next to the sleeping young princeling, with a small smirk. He stared out the window, His eyes searching the countryside for some unknown sight.

Nerida turned back to Tirr, not bothering to acknowledge the former assassins as her smile quickly returned. “We have some bread and dried meats if you're hungry. Not as good as I would like, but it’ll do under current circumstances…”

“I’m fine for now…” Tirr answered craning his neck to look past Maria and through the window. “How much longer?”

‘We should reach the front line by noon at the pace we’re going.” Nerida answered cheerfully, “The energy you gave the horses has sped us up considerably…”

“It’s still too slow…” Tirr complained, “If the pup didn’t get himself hurt, we’d be there already.”

“The army should have only just arrived themselves” Nerida replied, taking the chance to reach into a nearby cupboard for the food, preparing some for Tirr despite his refusal. “We should have plenty of time to get to Agir and call this whole thing to a stop.”

Tirr didn't refuse again as Nerida passed him the plate. He held it easily despite the jostling of the carriage. Biting greedily into the bread and strips of dried meat, he looked over at the pensive Torvus. “So who was that guy? And what was he talking about?”

“I don’t really want to get into it. Suffice it to say it was an old senior of mine. I told you the confederation trains up kids, right? Well as part of the process they pair up younger kids with an older one to help them learn. Also works as a good way to dispose of those who end up not being able to cut it.”

“So he trained you?” Tirr asked curiously

“Kinda, yeah… Things changed when we found the shard of course. Those that could use it well advanced quickly. We both ended up in the Council’s Guard. The top ten Assassin’s from the guild, assigned directly to one of the council members. That’s how I got the nickname Reaper, from the work I did there initially…”

“And the children he was talking about?”

“They were some recruits that I was supposed to train, ended up feeling sorry for them, and got them out with some help of someone up top. Pissed off a lot of people though…”

Tirr frowned, “Does that they’re going to be in trouble because you helped us here?

“Despite what Odee was saying it's not that easy to get to them. I am eager to get back though. Want you to get this shard out of them as quickly as possible. They don’t deserve it…”

Tirr went quiet as Toruvs look back out the window. The carriage rolled along, flying across at a quick pace. Nerida chatted happily with Tirr, as well as Maria when she woke up. Eventually, Tirr felt the carriage start to slow and he leaned over Maria as he stared outside. He pulled the curtains apart to reveal hundreds of tents set up across the plains around them.

He tsked at the sight, not seeing the soldiers the tents surely belonged to.

“We’ve reached the main camp at least…” Nerida said looking out her own window. “It looks like the troops are already in the field….”

"Then why are we stopping?” Tirr asked, irritated.

“Security check… Don’t worry I can get us through no problem. We’ll have to go on foot the rest of the way though, there won’t be any more roads…”

The carriage came to a slow stop and Tirr could hear the sentries questioning the driver outside. Nerida rose quickly opening the door and stepping out

“Priestess!” The guards exclaimed, saluting at the sight of her. She raised a hand, motioning for them to rise. “We need to reach the King as quickly as possible.”

“Yes Priestess, he’s at the front. But it would be best if you let us pass on any messages you have though. The fighting could break out at any moment.”

“What do you mean?” Nerida asked confused.

Those damn Rasorians tried to assassinate the king again last night. We fought them off but they’ve been raiding more villages as well and the King has had enough... They’re denying it as always, but the fighting could start before the day ends.

“Then we need to hurry…” Tirr said as he climbed down, frowning over the large camp around them. “Let’s hurry…”

Maria came down as well holding the princeling in her arms. The awakened child had awoken in a panic the night before while they traveled and had only been calmed by Nerida’s promises of meeting his father soon.

The guards seemed to blanch at the sight of him and didn’t question further as their group started to run past.

They ran through the camp, spotting more and more signs of preparation for war. A sudden yip caught Tirr by surprise and felt himself slide as he tried to stop mid-step as a small grey blur tackled into him.

He rolled over the ground growling as he lifted the excited pup off of himself. “Garm!” The wolf cub yipped in reply sniffing over his master eagerly after their time apart.

“You guys are finally back!” A voice called from where the pup had appeared from. There, running towards them, was Claire. With a set of guards in water priest robes following behind her…