The Prince’s eyes flicked in her direction, and he saw small spots of color light on her cheeks, but the young man didn’t seem to notice.
“No worries, sister mine,” Davydd said. “We’ll lead them up to the higher pass, cross the bridge, and cut the restraints. We should have enough time to get there, and they won’t be able to follow us. We’ll have to repair it eventually, but since winter will be on us soon and the pass will be closed for months, we can deal with that later.”
“The Elders will take us to task for ruining what was just built,” said the large woman, Lorna. Her mouth didn’t move much when she spoke: in fact, it barely opened, which made her words come out in a mumbled growl that took a minute to understand.
“You’re right, but there’s no help for it,” Leah said simply. She looked at Tomaz, who nodded his assent, and they all mounted, the Prince remaining silent, seeing no way forward but to go with the group for now. He had to stay out of reach of that army; he’d made his choice back at the crossroads.
Even though they would have been fine without me,he realized.These two would have been able to fend of the Daemon. I didn’t help at all.
His mood turned black, and he was glad that they all traveled in silence. He struggled to keep a sudden wave of despair from crashing over him. He focused on breathing, and pulled out his anger again, which gave him energy and focus.
He would find another way out. Hewould.
They made their way out of the clearing and continued the upward trek. The temperature continued to drop, and soon they were passing patches of snow. The Prince pulled his drape-over closer about him and settled the hood over his head. It helped, but there was no keeping the cold out entirely, and he soon began to shiver.
They continued without stopping for the better part of the afternoon, keeping up a quick trot along a narrow hunting trail, working their way through territory treacherous enough that the army coming up behind them would no doubt be forced to slow to a crawl to maneuver their larger numbers, if they could follow at all.
At one point they passed along a ridge that afforded them a view of a castle and city far down at the entrance to a large pass through the mountain range.
The castle of Roarke.
The Prince reached out and felt the life of his brother Ramael, even from the large distance. The Ox Talisman endowed his brother with enhanced physicalstrength and power, and he was positioned here in the southern-most Province because of that fact. He was not the general that Rikard was, but he was the most unforgiving and brutal of all the Children. His physical strength was matched only by his force of will, and he had never been defeated on an open battlefield. The Exiled only managed to keep him on this side of the Pass because he could not bring his full force to bear on them; they were able to hide by stringing his force along with ambushes and false trails that led nowhere.
Suddenly the Prince realized the significance of what was about to happen. He was about to pass into the lands of the Exiled Kindred, a place where none of his siblings and none of the subjects of the Empire had been for centuries.
“Why did you come back?” Leah asked.
The Prince looked up. She was frowning at him. He had fallen behind the group of Exiles, and she had fallen back with him.
“You needed help,” he said. “You didn’t know the Daemon was coming. I thought I could warn you in time, and we could get away before….”
He trailed off and shrugged.
“Guess that didn’t work particularly well,” she said.
They exchanged a glance, and his black mood inexplicably lightened. He laughed ruefully. “I suppose not.”
She smiled at him. It was small and tentative, but it was a smile.
He turned away from the view of Roarke and began to ride forward again. She waited and then fell in beside him. They rode along together for a stretch of time, not saying anything. Finally, he broke the silence.
“And I couldn’t ignore what I’d seen,” he said.
He kept his head firmly facing forward. She did too, and when she spoke it was with a pausing awkwardness that was very unlike her.
“You could have. Ignored it, I mean. None of your brothers and sisters would have even given it a second thought. And none of them would have listened to what I said… for which, I apologize. It was said in anger.”
“I… there is no need for apologies. And I know that none of the other Children would have come to help you. But the more time I spend away from them the more I realize I’m not very much like them.”
They lapsed back into silence, following Davydd, Tomaz, and Lorna. A few minutes later, they rounded a boulder completely covered in snow and ice, and she spoke again, the heat of her breath misting the air.
“I know you didn’t want to come with us,” she said, her tone taking on a steely quality, as if she expected a fight. “But it doesn’t look like you have much of a choice. And I should tell you that once you cross over into Kindred lands, you won’t be able to come back.”
He looked up sharply.
“What?”
He pulled on his reins, and the horse came to an abrupt stop amidst a small cloud of dislodged snow and earth. Leah pulled up as well. The others heard the noise and turned. Leah held a hand up to them, and then turned back to him and spoke quietly.
