Page 175 of A Legacy of the Light

I sit next to Tavish and thank him as he hands me some bread, cheese, and fruit.

“Doing okay?” he asks quietly.

Reyne strikes up a conversation with Fergal, the sandy-haired guard sat to her right.

“Yeah, I think so. I’m sad to be leaving but excited to see Grandpa and Rach.”

“I’m sure they will be excited to have you home. You’re going to have to come up with some stories about your trip, you know.”

“Ugh, I know,” I sigh. “And Rach knows when I’m lying out my ass too.”

“Tell her you went to Scotland. That way you can tell her about Elfayne but not tell her the whole truth. The landscape is pretty much the same,” he shrugs.

“That’s . . . not a terrible idea,” I reply. “Not just a pretty face, are you, Prince?”

“You think I’m pretty?” Tavish wiggles his brows.

My eyes roll and I scoff.

Tavish laughs and we finish our lunch, joining in the conversations with the guards and Reyne. We let the horses rest for an hour before we mount up to continue our journey.

We ease into a trot, and the forest quickly consumes us.

Chapter 42

We stop again after a few more hours of riding in a small glen nestled between a break in the Jura mountains that soar around us. Moss climbs high on the stone around the water, and the intermittent sun creates diamond-like reflections on the surface as the horses drink.

“Flame creeper,” I observe, smiling when I spot the red climbing flower growing alongside the moss.

“What?” Tavish asks as he crouches by the water’s edge.

I point to it. “They’re flame creepers. Granny would grow them in the garden. They’re pretty awesome; can grow in any conditions and any weather.”

“Your grandmother knew a lot about plants?”

I nod and remember fondly all the time she spent in the garden. “She loved it. She’d journal about all the plants she grew. Grandpa and I kept it up after she was gone so I learned a thing or two. Those are my favorite.”

Tavish slips his fingers through mine, almost having to drag me away from the glen. The spot is so enchanting I would happily stay.

We push on through the afternoon, and our path starts to incline up a hill and the sun moves across the sky. We crest the top, granting a perfect view of the valley beyond. The path winds through the land, dipping in and out of patches of forest and small villages scattered about the flat terrain. We can see far into the distance of nothing but green and streaks of blue where streams and small lakes cross paths, surrounded by snow-capped mountains to the left, spring not yet reaching their peaks. The sky is putting on an impressive display, the pastel blue starting to fade to a soft orange.

“Holy shit,” I whisper.

“Bonny sight, isn’t it?” Reyne asks, stopping her horse next to me and Mabel.

“Aye, it is,” I breathe.

“We’re rubbing off on you, lass,” she chuckles.

“It’s about time,” Tavish chimes in. “Let’s move, we’re losing daylight,” he says to the rest of the group.

“How far to Lassodie?” I ask him.

“Another couple of hours. We’ll be lucky to make it before nightfall.” He points to a larger town that’s just at the edge of my vision. We nudge the horses into a gallop and follow the path to our stop for the night.

As we near the town, the sun dipping lower in the sky, we pass a farming village, where small stone homes are gathered in groups with large fields and wooden barns in between. Seelie children come out of their homes to run alongside the horses as we trot through, waving and shouting for their prince. I watch Tavish as he greets his people, waving back and smiling at them with enviable grace. No wonder the people love him.

The next village we pass through has a different story to tell.