Arisanna scans the words, and her heart drops.
“What does it say?” Cerian asks.
After breathing out slowly, she reads it aloud. “Elowyn gravely ill. Bringing her to Feressa. Meet us there.”
Cerian’s legs buckle, and he slides down the wall.
She rushes toward him and cups his cheeks, forcing his glassy eyes toward hers. “It’s all right, Cerian. It will be all right. Do you hear me?”
He shakes his head, and her heart breaks at the fear in his eyes.
“I need you to be strong, my fire wielder. Show me that fire you hide from the world. I can’t do this alone. Elowyn needs you. I need you.”
He takes a few shuddering breaths and nods.
“We are going to get Tharios. All right?”
He nods again.
“I need you to lead the way.”
He swallows and nods once more.
Then she turns to the men, who watch her with wide eyes. “I need food we can eat quickly and horses that won’t spook in the woods.”
Cerian shakes his head. “One horse. We’ll move faster if you ride with me.”
Arisanna turns back to the men. “One horse capable of riding double.”
One of the men takes off, and Arisanna runs her thumbs over Cerian’s brows. The touch calms him. She’d caress his ears if it wouldn’t mortify him for her to do that here.
“Thank you,” he says softly.
“You and I, Cerian. We’re in this together. My light will fill your darkness, remember?”
He breathes out slowly, and with a caress of his cheek, she lets him go. Then he finds his feet and reaches for her hand.
A woman rushes into the small office with a tray of cheese and buttered bread, and to Arisanna’s relief, Cerian eats without a fuss. Then a groom leads a horse forward. It’s large but lithe. They chose well.
“Prepare a room for Princess Elowyn,” Arisanna says as Cerian mounts and pulls her up in front of him.
Stars above. She’s not dressed to ride astride. No one sends her looks of anything but compassion, though.
“And tell my brother we’ll be back as soon as we can,” she adds.
The people who so quickly came to their aid nod and send them off with wishes for a safe and quick journey, and Cerian nudges the horse north, back toward the Wildthorne Woods of Lostariel.
It’s Elowyn
Episode 62
Rominystaresabsentlyaheadas Dr. Fulton checks his pulse again. The doctor started checking Rominy instead of Elowyn when he grasped the details of the heartbinding. Elowyn is so hot it’s difficult to touch her now.
The train clambers along on the tracks as the boxcar sways rhythmically. It was faster to put a mattress on a boxcar for Elowyn than to move a passenger car to the industrial track.
“You feel her heart beating, still?” Dr. Fulton asks, and Rominy nods without speaking. That glimmer of a heartbeat not his own is his anchor right now, and he clings to it as he reminds himself to breathe.
“It’s still hours to Feressa, Your Highness,” the doctor says. “It might be in your best interest to sleep while you have the chance.”
