off.”
“Oh my,” Elle said.
“What will the Duke do to them?” Kaitlyn asked. Her hand began shaking with fear for her son.
“They’ll stand before his court and will face a charge of thievery,” he explained. “If found guilty, they’ll lose their right hands.”
“No!” cried out Elle as tears formed in her eyes.
Kaitlyn patted her friend on the arm again. “It hasn’t come to that,” she said reassuringly in a voice tight with her own emotions.
Daniel nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “I have friends in the Duke’s court and could facilitate their paying of what they owe the Duke.”
“You would do that?” asked Elle.
“That’s why I’m here,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure your boys have no idea there was such a law, else they wouldn’t be in the trouble they are now.”
“Riyan would have done what was right if he had known,” asserted Kaitlyn.
“Chad too,” agreed Elle.
“I’ll be in town for awhile,” he said as he rose from his chair. “If they should return to Quillim, have them come to me immediately. The sooner we get this rectified, the better.”
“Thank you,” Kaitlyn said. Realizing Daniel was ending the meeting, she helped Elle to her feet. Her friend leaned heavily upon her as they turned and headed for the door.
“Just one more thing,” he said.
Pausing, they turned back toward him. “Yes?” asked Kaitlyn.
“It might be best to keep all this quiet for now,” he said. “The fewer who know about what’s going on, the easier it will be to get this reconciled without incident.”
Kaitlyn nodded, she could see the wisdom in that. “We will,” she assured him. Then turning back for the door, they left the inn.
Elle began sobbing in earnest as they passed from The Sterling Sheep and into the street. “There, there,” Kaitlyn said to her friend. “We have to be strong for our boys.”
As they started down the street back to Elle’s home, Kaitlyn saw Rupert emerge from around the corner across the street. Her breath caught when she saw him. What if Rupert found out? She was sure he would inform the Duke on Riyan since he was the only thing preventing his marriage to Freya from moving along.
She felt Elle’s grip tighten on her arm as she too saw Rupert emerge. Moving along quickly they were soon back at the Kelon home and sent Eryl on his way. There they talked for hours about their sons and what the future may hold in store for them.
As night deepened over the small town of Quillim, a second stranger rode through the quiet, snow covered streets. He made his way to The Sterling Sheep where he dismounted and secured the reins to the rail outside. Glancing around at the deserted streets, he made his way to the door.
Inside, he paused in the shadows before the common room and scanned the tables. When he didn’t find who he was looking for, he made an inquiry of one of the workers and was soon heading to the rooms on the second floor.
Knock! Knock!
Two firm raps on the door to room eleven, and two seconds later, the door opened a crack. “Yes?” a voice asked from within.
“It’s me,” the stranger replied. The door opened wider and he entered the room.
“About time you got here,” Daniel said.
Disregarding the comment, the stranger asked, “Well?”
“It’s done,” Daniel replied with a grin. Then as the other man entered the room, he closed the door.
Chapter Five
Darkness had fallen on their second day out of Hunter’s Reach. Progress was slower than any of them had anticipated. In fact, they had been told the crossroads were only a half day from the inn where they spent the night before, yet it had failed to materialize thus far. Now they were caught outside in a night that was quickly losing what little warmth the sun had given earlier that day.
“C…can’t be much f…further,” Chad was saying for the tenth time. Ever since the sun had gone down, he had been making some comment or other to that effect. Glancing to the stars above, he saw a sky all but devoid of cloud cover. If it wasn’t for the fact that his teeth were chattering so badly, he would have enjoyed its beauty.
“Cold?” asked Bart. In the moonlight he turned his head back toward Chad and grinned. He saw the shadowy bob of Chad’s head as he silently agreed. He was cold too, but unlike the others, Chad was bemoaning the situation.
His father had always told him that there came times when you were put into an unpleasant situation that you couldn’t escape. Either you pushed on and made it through, or you whined and made the situation worse. Chad, he discovered, could be a whiner at times. Though it mainly manifested when he was cold.
Turning his attention back to the road, Bart saw an all but imperceptible glow coming from up ahead. “I think we may have arrived,” he announced to the others. Bart couldn’t help but chuckle to himself when he heard Chad give out with a sigh of relief.
Chad’s relief was short lived for they soon came to realize that the glow ahead of them was coming from a man carrying a lantern. If Bart hadn’t been cold himself, he would have laughed at Chad’s discomfort. Truth to tell, he had been just as hopeful as Chad that they had reached the inn.
As they continued riding closer, they saw that the man was moving across their path toward the right. Bundled in warm clothes as he was, it was hard to tell anything about him other than he was about six feet tall.
The man had moved a ways off the road before he became aware of their approach. Stopping, he raised his lantern high as he turned to stare in their direction. “Burdy?” he asked.
“No sir,” Bart replied as he came to a stop on the road near where the man had crossed.
“Damn!” the man exclaimed angrily. “Did anyone pass you going north?”
The others came to a stop behind Bart as he replied, “Haven’t seen anyone else all day.”
“How far is the crossroads?” Chad asked.
The man glanced in his direction, glared, then pointed down the road. “Not too much further,” he said.
“Thank you,” Bart said.
The man nodded and watched as they rode off.
When they had put some distance between themselves and the man, Riyan came abreast of Bart and asked, “Why didn’t we offer to help him?”
“He could have asked for help had he desired it,” he replied. “Besides, what help could we give, if any was in fact needed? We don’t know the area.”
Riyan glanced back to the where the glow of the man’s lantern continued to move off to their right. “Hope he’ll be alright,” he said.
“If he’s a local,” offered Soth, “I’m sure he knows the area well enough.”
“If not,” added Seth, “he’s a fool to go off by himself in the dark.” And from his tone of voice, he had little sympathy with fools.
By the time the glow from the buildings at the crossroads came into view, they had all manner of theories on who the man was, what he was doing, etc. None of which had any basis in fact.
The crossroads held little more than a couple inns and other auxiliary buildings that surrounded the junction where their road merged with the one running along the northern slopes of the Tinderlock Mountains. Their tall peaks were but shadows against the backdrop of stars.
It was quiet as they entered the collection of buildings. Not a person was about and both of the inns were subdued. “Must not get much business this time of year,” suggested Chyfe.
“I wouldn’t think so,” replied Soth. “What with the majority of caravans dormant until spring.”
