Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 72 - Rohana - A Slow Walk Into Darkness

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"How do you know that they'll do as you say?"

"I don't, but I trust that they'll understand that this is the only way to get some kind of upper hand and keep people safe."

"I hope you're right, or else this isn't going to work, pater."

"It'll work. It has to."

"Very well. They've got three hours, four at most if I can tether to Willa."

"Three hours in high noon. It'll work."

*****

"If you keep squirming, Aslan will soon enough toss you off of his back."

"My butt hurts," Clarice complains for the one hundredth and thirty-seventh time. She's been moving more often in the past hour, and I've kept myself from snapping at her by counting every time she complains and every time she shifts.

"It's only a few more hours before we stop for the night."

"Well is there anything to eat then? I'm hungry."

Two hundred ninety-seven times she's complained.

"It's in the brown bag to your left," Darius says gently. Where in all of Ker he has found the patience to still be soft-voiced, is greatly beyond me.

She turns in her saddle, which makes her wince and humph in annoyance - one hundred thirty-eight - and pulls out a chunk of bread. "Oh, thank the Saints."

She finally goes quiet with the bread occupying her mouth. She must've been hungry for a while now if she's so happy to be eating that she's doing a very small dance now. She was perfectly content when Sir Arden was here to keep her mind off of the fact that the saddles are never comfortable for these long rides. There was constant conversation flowing between the Grand General and everyone else. I tuned in to some of it, but most of the time my thoughts were too busy occupying my mind to allow me to listen for longer than a minute.

The General left an hour and a half ago, claiming to need to ride to the back of our slowly moving giant of an army to make sure there weren't any stragglers. He hasn't returned yet, and I'm beginning to consider misting to where he is and telling him to move his ass back up here and occupy the child we're dragging along with us.

I say that with all my love and devotion for the woman.

Of course, I'm not talking about the literal child we're bringing. Gods, the argument that I had to listen to between Darius and Roseia about her wanting to come along...I was, of course, on the pater's side, not only because he's the pater but because he was right. Close proximity to a man who would gladly use her to get to him, or just use her in General, is no place for her. Argument after argument after argument, the two went on. His power only snapped out once, and I saw the instant regret he had when it near leaped to singe her hair, but the girl didn't flinch. I gave her props for that, but I was still against her coming.

We all have enough things to worry about, and we don't need to add her name to that list of possible things to lose come the next cycle. I'm still confused about how she won the fight, but she did, and now she sits in front of Mak, the only one of us who was level-headed enough to share a saddle with her without being extremely tempted to push her off. And yes, even Clarice voiced opposition against her coming. She rather surprised us, using curse words and even going so far as to describe what Xaxias could do to her. The girl's nonchalantness had Clare tumbling into what few memories of her time in the dungeons she had. It took Claritia practically cradling her to calm Clare down before we left.