“If we run into any Aldoran soldiers, they’ll just cart you back home again.”
“They might. So let’s not run into any.” Loren grinned mischievously at Kae.
“Princess?” Kae walked faster to catch up to Loren. “I don’t like that tone. What did you mean by that? Princess? Loren!”
Loren broke into a run, laughing. She ran full tilt down the road, her boots clacking against the stone of the Imperial Highway. The wind whipped her hair back as she did, blowing cold and crisp against her face. Kae struggled with the horse and followed the princess at a much slower pace. She smiled as she watched the princess run, knowing that she was enjoying her freedom from the walls of the castle, and shaking off the feelings that held her down. Kae herself used to race Ma’trii through the forest when she was feeling down.
The huntress sighed as she lost sight of Loren along the road. The princess was foolhardy and excitable when they met, and it seemed getting caught and forced home didn’t change any of that. If anything, whatever it was that happened in the castle for the short time Loren was taken back seemed to bolster her determination even more.
Kae caught up with Loren after a while. The princess was sitting on a large flat rock by the side of the Highway, underneath a sign that marked how many miles it was to Markholme, Rhodia, and the major path up to the Kilrough Mountains. An inn stood not far from where Loren was waiting. Light shone through the grimy windows.
“You didn’t go ahead inside to see Cassendir?” Kae asked as soon as she was in earshot.
Loren kicked at a rock on the road. She didn’t stand. “I was thinking about it. Maybe we shouldn’t spend so much time at the inns. Or at least, I shouldn’t.”
Kae was taken aback. “You? Passing up inns? What’s gotten into you, princess?”
“We waste more time at an inn.” Loren sighed. “I did pack gold, but what if we needed it for something more important than a roof over our heads? We have bedrolls, you’re used to camping. And I just feel like we have to…” she trailed off.
“What’s on your mind?”
“We have to hurry, Kae. We have to hurry. My mother doesn’t have much time. I’d run day and night if I could.”
“That would be easier if you had a horse.”
“I don’t have a horse.”
Kae offered the reins. “Here. You know I don’t like riding anyway. And besides, don’t worry about that for now. We have to pick up the mage first.”
Loren smiled gratefully, taking the reins from the huntress’s hand. It was Kae who led the way towards the inn at the crossroads, with Ma’trii running up the road to stand at her side. Loren found the horse posts and looped the reins around it, taking a second to pat the animal down and putting some hay in the feed trough.
When Loren turned away from the post and headed towards the door, a body flew through the door and landed heavily in the mud at her feet. The man pushed himself up, wiped away the mud and blood on his busted lip, and rushed screaming back into the inn.
The princess peeked inside the inn from the door that was busted open. There were men everywhere, locked in a mad brawl. A tall, lean man in leather tunics swung his fits at the jaw of an iron clad knight hard enough to snap his head to the side. A Beastman with dark fur lashed out tooth and nail against a stocky behemoth with a chest like a brick wall. The inn’s wooden tables were being thrown through the air, steins were crashed against heads with ale and beer flying everywhere. The noise was horrific, with swears and curses yelled out and mixing into a nonsensical riot of sound.
“Loren! Loren, get out of the way!” a voice cut through the noise of the inn brawl, snapping Loren’s attention back into the present. Kae rushed past her through the door, grabbing her arm and pulling her away. Behind the huntress, Cassendir stumbled out of the inn, being dragged out by the front of his silk tunic.
“Kae, what happened? Why are they fighting?” Loren pulled Kae up, checking the huntress over in case she was hurt.
Cassendir regained his footing, took one look at Loren, and lunged at her. He reached for the front of princess’s tunic, arms outstretched. The dark mage markings that swirled from his wrist to his upper arm pulsed erratically, shining a faint sickly yellow and green color.
“Cassendir!” Loren yelped. The scholar had his hands on her breasts, but when Loren saw his face, his expression was eerily blank.
The scholar was about to move in closer when Kae brought him down with a swift, solid kick to his ribs. Cassendir fell to the floor with a soft ‘oof’, and lay there groaning. “Did he hurt you, princess?” she said.
“No, he didn’t. I was…surprised.” Loren crossed her arms over her chest protectively. “What’s gotten into him?”
Kae sighed, and nudged Cassendir with the tip of her boot. “No idea, but it’s something. Seems the whole inn came down with is. I found a lady inside, she said she was the innkeepers wife. All those men, she said they’re everything from knights to traders to mercenaries. Some woman in a cloak came in and they all started fighting. At first they were reaching for her, but her husband fought them off, then they all started smashing each other in the face.”
The scholar groaned where he lay, rolling onto his back and holding a hand
