“Was that really the best we could do?” Gael asked as she watched Erendella’s men leave by the north road. “Most of those mounts are ready for pasture.”
“Or the tanner,” Erendella said.
I couldn’t help but agree. “They can buy more at the next village. They’ll get a few leagues out of them.”
“We hope,” Bolt said.
I nodded. “If we didn’t, we would have given up a long time ago.”
Rory knelt, looking at hoof impressions in the earth, comparing the village mounts to ours. “I can’t tell the difference,” he said. “Will they be able to?”
“I don’t know.”
We mounted and put the nose of each horse east. Gael rode next to me with Mirren on the other side. Rory took point, despite the low likelihood of meeting a dwimor here in the pastures and fields of northern Caisel. Erendella and Herregina rode behind me with Bolt guarding our rear.
The fact that I rode with the most concentrated collection of gifts in the north failed to cheer me. Mirren and I were spent. The presence of so many armed men and women passing through the village had aroused the curiosity of most of the populace. We’d had to muddle the memories of nearly every resident, at least those we could get to. The children who’d seen us had sensed something amiss and had run away before we could touch them.
We crested a hill a few hours after noon, and I heard Rory’s shout of satisfaction. Below us lay a small branch of the Dirgewater. “Thank Aer,” I said.
Bolt rode up beside us to take a look. “It’s about time something went right, but there’s bound to be farms along the banks. We won’t be able to completely disguise our passing.”
“At least it will buy us some time.”
He nodded. “Let’s get the horses into the water and ride north until dusk. When we leave the river, do it separately, and look for rocks so you can hide the tracks.” He sighed. “We’ll still have to find a place to hide our camp.”
The rolling farmland of this part of Caisel didn’t offer much in the way of forests, but we managed to find a hollow between two hills that offered concealment. The fold of land had caught the windblown seeds of a few trees and brush so we were able to hide the horses.
“Will they find us?” Gael asked.
I pretended confidence I didn’t have. “No, I don’t think so.” If they found our tracks coming out of the river, they’d be on us before daybreak.
She tapped me on the head. “Whatever Ealdor put in here is the key to defeating Cesla and the Darkwater. You have to live.”
I hoped she would stop there, but she didn’t, of course. When Gael wanted to make a point, she didn’t do it by half measures.
“My life isn’t as crucial,” she continued. “I’m not going to ask you to be less than you are, but don’t die for me.”
The argument wasn’t one either of us could win, so I let it go. If Cesla’s men found our tracks, they’d be coming from the west, so we put the horses to the eastern side of the little stand of trees, and the six of us bedded down for another dark camp.
Two hours into the night, I woke and stumbled my way to Erendella.
“Your Majesty,” I called softly.
“Yes?” Erendella answered, but so did Herregina on her far side.
“Have you contacted Rymark recently?” I asked.
She might have shifted in the darkness. “There’s trouble in Treflow.”
“What is it?”
“Treflow is the closest major city to the forest,” she said. “Gold fever hit there pretty hard, and Toria Deel and Fess haven’t returned yet.”
“So he has no way of knowing who’s been to the forest,” I said. “The tidings keep getting worse.”
“Not all of them,” Erendella said. “Queen Ulrezia is only two days away, and Pellin has returned from the southern continent.”
“Is there any word about Regent Cailin and Brod?”
“No, I’m sorry, Lord Dura.”
I gnawed the inside of my cheek. “We need all six.”
I heard what might have been a soft chuckle from Erendella. “It’s amusing to think that we and all the kings and queens before us have been so wrong about our place in history.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Lord Dura,” she said, “you’re being polite. I’m sure you’ve noticed a certain arrogance in the kings and queens of the north.”
“I’ve seen it in nearly everyone who holds power,” I said. “But King Laidir was a man of uncommon humility for all the power he held.”
“I wish I had known him better,” she said. “Still, it’s humbling to realize that my position as queen is hardly the gift of divine right that our history claims. Instead, it’s a creation of the Fayit, an artifice against the evil of the Darkwater.”
I shook my head. “A construct, perhaps, but the gift does more than just provide a last hope. It provides the people of this continent with wise rulers.”
“Wise?” she asked. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Well, I hope so—most of the time, anyway.”
“I would like to be worthy of that hope, Lord Dura. Thank you. I will keep the scrying stone at hand. If I hear anything, I will let you know.”
Hearing the note of dismissal, I went back to my blanket. Gael put a hand protectively over me but didn’t offer any conversation to go with the gesture, and I fell asleep.
I couldn’t breathe.
Frantic, I reached for the hand covering my mouth. Warm breath covered my ear. “Don’t move,” Gael said. “They’ve found us.”
Bolt crouched a couple of paces away. The sky lightened from a sea of black to charcoal. Dawn would be coming soon,
