Month of the Shepard, Second Tenday, 8th Day, 767 KD

I have stopped for the night and built a fire.

The effects of the wine have dissipated, but my head aches and I am very tired.

It is too dark to search. The river is to my right, wide and empty. Woods lie to my left, pitch black. I considered taking refuge in a tree, but it seems too much effort. All I want is sleep…

Month of the Shepard, Second Tenday, 9th Day, 767 KD

Morning.

No creatures disturbed me in the night.

I have nothing to eat. In my rush to leave, I failed to consider bringing provisions for my journey. The horse has plenty of food at least. It whickers, grazing on grass, content.

I look at the horse with no small amount of guilt. I took him from his rightful owner, even if it was an outlander. Never in my life did I think I would do such a thing. And if caught, I will hang for it. I do not want to hang.

I do not know how I am to find the girl in the first place, and if I do, then what?

Month of the Shepard, Second Tenday, 9th Day, 767 KD, (or possibly the morning of the 10th day)

The search party from River City found the girl before I did.

It was just past noon. I was lightheaded from hunger and riding along, lost in thought, following the Ann.

I heard the beating of galloping hooves approaching from the further down the river. Before I could react, I saw two horses coming. They had saddles but no riders. They galloped past me, as if running for their lives. Then another came. Then two more. All with saddles. None with riders.

I wondered if it might be wise to turn around and go back the way I came.

Then I saw her.

She emerged from the woods, not fifty yards away from me. She was limping and bloody.

The rumbling of horse hooves came again, from up ahead. I looked and saw it. This one had a rider. He was bleeding and brandishing a long spear. He veered toward the girl. She closed her eyes and stood still, waiting for him.

The ground seemed to tremble at the horse’s feet. The horse reared in terror, throwing the rider off. The horse bolted. My steed shook its head in great agitation, wanting to follow its brother. It took all I had to hold it still, and I was nearly thrown off myself.

The man got to his knees. He picked up his spear. The girl pointed a tree branch at him. A ball of fire shot out from the branch, striking the man. He screamed. His spear fell, and then he dropped to the ground, falling forward. He lied still. The flames died out quickly. He did not move again.

The girl fell to her knees. She turned her gaze from the man and looked at me.

“Help me.”

She was very weak. Her injuries were not as bad as I had expected. She had a gash in her chest but it was minor, as well as some cuts, scrapes and bruises. I had to pull her dress down to tend to them. I could feel my face reddening as I did so, but she bit her lip and told me to just do it. She did not want to tell me what had happened to the six other men that had pursued her.

She had to ride with me now, as she had lost her horse while dealing with the riders.

As I had feared, I had no idea what to do now that I had found her. Indeed, she seemed to assume command. One would think the reason for this might be that I had watched her kill a man with fire, but that was not quite it. She seemed to know what to do, and I did not.

“We need to change course now,” she said. “Head east, away from the river.”

She sat behind me on the horse, leaning into my back, her hands gripping my sides.

“Into the forest?” I asked.

“We have to chance it. If we stay on course, we should reach a town on the other side of it, perhaps by nightfall. If we ride at a steady pace.”

But it was much slower going in the thick woods. There were no paths to follow and the forest was dark and gloomy, the sun obscured by a canopy of foliage. The ground was not safe for the horse to run – too many roots, rocks and fallen limbs, branches, rotting logs.

“What’s his name?”

“Hmm?”

“The horse.”

“Oh. I do not know. I uh, borrowed him.”

“I guessed that. We’re both horse thieves now. But we should name him. Bad luck to ride a horse with no name.”

“It is?”

“I don’t know. Probably. How about ‘Paul?’”

“That is a man’s name,” I said.

“What difference does that make?”

“Should he not have a horse’s name?”

“What exactly is a horse’s name?” She asked. “Can you even think of one?’

“Well… ‘Thunder’ or ‘Red.’ I do not know.”

“Those names do not suit our friend here.” She patted our horse’s muscular haunch. “Isn’t that right, Paul?”

The sun sank lower and lower through the trees. In the depths of the forest, daylight faded fast.

We were forced to make camp.

We still had no real food – a few berries along the way, poorly suited for consumption. That was all.

I went to work building a fire. Ruby designed a few traps and set them out. She went off for a bit to hunt game with Rany’s crossbow she had stolen from our room, but it grew too dark for her to see. And she was still quite weak, limping.

We sat by the fire for a bit.

“This Alec, he was killed, correct?”

“I do not know. I was unconscious when it happened. I believe he was killed by the outlander who healed me. He should have resurrected, but I do not think he did. How I know that, I do not know.”

“The bond.”

“Beg pardon?”

“You are bonded when you swear the oath. That is how they can find you when you are separated, or you them.”

“Ah, yes. Also why I felt compelled to follow his commands.”

The price you pay for fortune and adventure, I suppose.”

“Well, I knew it was a mistake almost immediately.”

“So why not go home? The bond is gone now, is it not?”

“It is. I am free to go wherever I please now.”

“You have been free for days now. Why even bother chasing after me?”

“I do not know. I suppose I felt responsible. It was my fault you escaped.”

“Escaped,” she snorted. “What were you doing kidnapping me in the first place? Surely you are not going to defend that decision now.”

“No. It was one thing to rescue you from the dungeon. We assumed you would want to go to Meridea. Attempting to force you was wrong. I know that. I am not proud of my actions.”

“So you are not going to try to take me to Meridea now, are you?”

“No. If you do not want to go, you must have your reasons. I do not think I really cared that much about the mission, or the gold, to begin with.”

“I am bonded to an outlander, Handice.”

“You are?”

“Why are you so surprised? I was just like you – young, naïve, bored with my life. And then of course I had the Talent. For magic. I tried to ignore it. I found that I could not. I thought about what a waste it would be, to never use it. My outlander promised he could help me develop it. He said I was special.”

“Well, you are.”

“No. I am not. I’m nothing special, believe me. Lots of people can harness magic, many better than I ever will. I’m no more special than you are. Are you special, Handice?”

“No. Most certainly not.”

“We are just pawns, waiting our turn to be used.”

“Pawns?”

“Yes. It is from an outlander game, called chess. They are the lowest of the game pieces.”

“Oh.”

She laughed, then shivered. “Gods, it is cold.”

Howling wolves woke us in the night. Very close.

“They should not attack us,” Ruby whispered. “I cast a spell earlier, illusion. It should hide us from them…our scent anyway. I am not entirely sure how it works.”

She did not sound confident.

I whispered, “Maybe we should hide in that brush over there.”

“Good idea. Let’s go.”

As we were crawling over to the thicket, she said, “Hey. I’ll meet you there.”

I found a nice spot in the thicket that might hide us. It was better than nothing. Ruby found me a minute or so later. The space was just large enough for both of us. We had to huddle our bodies together, which warmed us a bit from the frigid night air.

“I untied Paul,” she whispered. “He probably won’t be here in the morning. But I couldn’t leave him tied up with those fucking wolves out there.”

The howled again, even closer.

Rany

Damn the fucking gods.

It seems that no matter what I do, I just may be fucked, and not in the sort of way I enjoy.

Handice has been gone a full day. No telling if he got the girl or not. Most likely, she is dead. The stable owner put a bounty on her of two hundred fucking gold, and double that if the stolen horse is brought back. In good condition of course. The horse, not the girl. I have seen higher bounties, but the real problem is, there is a never ending stream of outlanders coming through this city. Almost all looking for jobs to do. And their eyes light up whenever they hear of a bounty hunting job. Seems to be one of their favorites. I sat in the taverns all day watching one outlander after another get excited about the bounty. More than a few of them went right out the door, wasting no time beginning the pursuit.

At least I managed to muddy the waters a bit for anyone searching for Handice or his horse. Unlike a certain pretty but loud mouthed girl, I am not an amateur. A well placed bribe here and there, and everyone seemed certain that the “fastest horse in Friedor” was stolen by an outlander, who went north. Curiously enough, the outlander matched the description of a cocky asshole who had tried to cheat me at poker the day before.

I could not do this for the girl of course. Her description was out. So she is probably dead.

And I do not like Handice’s chances, if he did manage to find her. These bloodthirsty outlanders will take out the girl and anybody that is with her, with no second thoughts. They kill just for sport.

But I have my own problems.

After Handice left, I still could not find Sammyl anywhere, until it occurred to me to check the most obvious place – the stocks. Sure enough, he was locked up for taking a swing at a guard. Fortunately they had not yet learned who he was and that he was supposed to have hanged in Crille three days ago. It still cost twenty-five gold to get him out, and another twenty-five gold to get him on a river boat to Meridea. He was so stinking drunk that I feared he would remember nothing after passing out and waking. I gave a note to the boat pilot, to give Sammyl when he woke up. Said good bye to another ten gold just for that favor.

No sign of Alec yet.