The Maze - Tor's Quest Book 2

Chapter 19

"Are you crazy?" Seth yelled when Tor explained that Dal was still with the unicorns. "You left him alone with an entire herd. Who knows what they are doing to him." He started off toward the hill, but Sam grabbed his arm.

"Come with me," she ordered, dragging him away so they could talk in private while Tor filled everyone else in on the unicorns' offer.

"Calm down," she said once she was sure they were far enough away to not be overheard. "He is fine. When we left he was playing with a couple of foals."

"How do you know he is still alright? They could be tearing him to pieces as we speak," Seth retaliated angrily. Samson, who had followed them, whined. He did not like to see his friends upset.

"I thought you and Dal agreed to be just friends," Sam stated, giving Seth a puzzled look.

"We are," he snapped. "That does not mean I do not care about him."

"Then stop overreacting. Do you really want the others to start getting suspicious of your true feelings? Samson agrees with me, don't you boy?"

The wolf sat down on his haunches and nodded. Seth also sat down. "Is he really alright?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"We wouldn't have left him there if we had even the slightest doubt," Sam assured him. "We all care for him, Tor especially. They are family, or had you forgotten?"

When Seth had composed himself, the three of them returned to camp.

"Good timing," Tor said as he saw them approaching. "We were just discussing what to do with the cart. As we can only take the bare necessities through the plains with us, I feel someone should take the cart, the horses and all the rest of our supplies the long way around. It will take a lot longer, but we can always leave a message at the inn if we have to leave before they arrive."

"I will take the cart," Seth volunteered.

"Are you sure?" Sam whispered to him. "Dal will be going with us."

"I am sure," he whispered back.

It was the answer that Tor had been expecting. "Thank you. Now, does anyone wish to accompany Seth rather than travel with the unicorns?"

"I will," Grimmel answered. "I have heard that they are much swifter than horses and I have enough trouble staying on a horse. I would rather not risk falling off a unicorn."

Predictably, River stated that she would stay with Grimmel, though she would like to meet the unicorns first. Oak also expressed a desire to meet with them, though did not want to try riding one. The big surprise was Torrick. He flatly refused to enter their territory. He did not trust that they were not luring the entire group further into the plains in order to torture and kill them at their leisure and nothing Sam could say would make him change his mind.

Cirren appeared unsure as to what he should do, so Tor made the decision for him. "Cirren, you will travel with me. We have to be together when we find the rest of the clues and I do not want to risk us getting separated and not meeting up again. We cannot allow our other brothers to get to the rest of the clues before us because we are wasting time searching for each other." The argument was sound, so he was forced to agree. He had received a fair amount of training, both military and political, and understood how to minimise risk.

"So eleven of us will cross," Tor announced, then corrected himself when Samson growled. "Sorry, twelve." He looked up into the sky to see the position of the sun. "We still have a few hours before we are due to meet with Prince Spike once more. We should prepare our backpacks, load up the cart and get something to eat. I have no idea what we are going to do about food while in the plains."