“Are you going to stop me?” I ask him.
He glances at the guard next to him, and I take that opportunity to stride past him. Another guard grabs my arm, and I yank it away. “Don’t touch me.”
“You can’t go outside the wall,” he says, lifting his hands intothe air and making a show of not touching me.
“What are you going to do if I do? Are you going to shoot me?” I ask with a nod to the bow he’s currently holding at his side.
He looks at the guard that I first approached. “No.”
“Okay then.” I walk past them towards the huge door. “Do you mind opening that for me then?”
“No.” Two more guards walk over and join us, and I see my chances at getting out of here are getting slimmer. And now, I want to know what is going on. “What is Rauk doing that nobody will let me know?”
“Unless you guys are going to shoot me, I’m going out there. So, I suggest you move out of my way.”
One of them who hasn’t spoken yet steps forward. “We can’t let you go out there.”
Frustration burns through me. “Why not?”
They look at each other, and I’m so frustrated. “Just tell me.”
“His orders,” one of them says quietly.
“Wait, Rauk’s orders?” I stare at them incredulously. “Are you kidding me? This is Rauk’s doing?” I shake my head, furious. “Move out of my way.”
“We’re not going to do that,” one of them says.
“Just let me go out there; I’ll tell him it was my idea,” I argue.
“He will literally have our heads if we let you out there,” another says.
Let’s go,Redara suddenly says in my mind.We'll go over the wall.
I turn around and race back to where she’s standing. If shewants to go over, then we’ll go before anybody else, including Nox, talks us out of it. I climb up her leg and am seated on her back seconds later.Go!
I hear the men shouting, but she takes a few running steps and lifts into the air. Nox snorts his displeasure, but we’re already climbing. I bend over and blow a kiss to the guards on the ground. The guards on the wall don’t do anything as we fly over, but I tense anyway. I don’t think they would shoot us down, but I don’t really know because I know nothing about this place! Nox cuts us off again, forcing Redara to land. We land a few dozen yards from the wall, and Nox lands next to us, shaking the ground as he does. I don’t bother reaching out to her because I can tell she’s in a heated debate with Nox. I look back over my shoulder and see the doors in the wall starting to open.
“That’s not good,” I mutter to myself. I pat Redara’s neck before I dismount.I think they’re going to come after me or something. I’m going forward. You go back with Nox; you can’t get through this forest of trees anyway.
I start jogging forward, doing a mental check of the weapons on my person. I have a dagger in my boot, and my slim knife in the band of my pants.
Where are you going to go?Redara asks as she gets as close to the trees as she can.
I’m going to find Rauk and figure out what in the world is going on. I wanted to find him just to talk, but now I’m going to find him just to see what he’s up to because all of this is ridiculous and way too heavy-handed.
Just make sure he’s alive maybe when you’re done with him. Notsure Nox will let you get away with murdering his bonded.
I huff out a laugh.No promises.
I don’t like this,she sends to me.
Noted.
I step into the trees and glance over my shoulder and see that she and Nox are just outside the trees. Hopefully, they will deter the guards from coming after me. I jog forward, hoping I’m going the direction Rauk went. I look for footprints of any kind, but it’s impossible to tell in the ice and snow. I hear footsteps behind me and turn to see one of the guards from the wall. I slow to a walk. “I’m not going to go back with you.”
“Yeah, I figured that. That’s why I’m here. I'll get you to where he issafely.” I don’t fail to notice how he puts emphasis on the word safely.
“Well, thank you.”
