Know Who to Count On

Chapter 14: The Fires Within Burn Brightly

Alexis slowed his horse to a walk as they approached the gate to the city. It had taken them a while to thread their way down the crowded streets, but Liara had guided them to less traveled back alleys when she could and they were making good time. Now they just had to pass through the gates unnoticed, which shouldn't be an issue unless the guards were looking for someone that matched their descriptions.

The guards barely looked their way and Alexis relaxed putting one of his hands over Melody's where it rested on his chest. "First phase of the escape: complete," he said. He wasn't sure why he felt they needed to leave the city so quickly. It was partly his own fault for going out of his way to piss off Halstein and much of the Banselva family the last two days, something that did give him cause for concern. The reception felt like the perfect opportunity for him and those in his care to be set up for some kind of ambush before their official departure. He didn't trust Halstein any farther than he could throw him, nor his children.

He kicked his mount into a canter and about half an hour outside of town they pulled off the road, taking a small path that led into the dense treeline. Minutes later they emerge in a small clearing that had just enough space for the carriage it was housing and the handful of horses and troops around it. Alexis pulled up next to one of his men who took hold of the horse's bridle.

"I'll get down first and then help you," Alexis told Melody, swinging his right leg over the neck of the animal and then sliding to the ground. He turned back to his wife and held out his hands to her, moving forward as if to pick her up at the waist, but she moved before he could fully get in place, mimicking his leg movement and sliding forward as he had, her hands grabbing his on her way down. "Well, well. Shame on me for underestimating you," he teased and watched her try to hide her smile. "Alright," he said, turning toward the carriage and keeping hold of one of her hands. "Everything ready?" he called out, receiving a unison 'Yes Sir' from the men in the clearing. "Let's go home then!" he replied, grabbing the door handle and pulling it open. "After you, my dear." Melody kept hold of him for leverage as she stepped up into their transportation, choosing to sit on the bench to her left as she entered. Alexis followed and sat opposite her, barely touching the seat before the contraption started moving.

He watched her as she eyed the interior, finally coming back to rest her eye on him. He knew the carriage wasn't particularly fancy, but it had a few features he quite liked. That was another reason he'd changed his mind late the night before and had sent word for the crew to take the carriage outside of the city. The first was the storage rack on top that made it easy to ride if one was so inclined. The other was the storage space inside the benches that meant they didn't have to put nearly as much on top.

"Well, I guess we have some time to kill over the next three days, so..." he stood and opened the bench he'd been sitting on, pulling out three books. "These might come in handy." He handed them to her and watched as she looked through them, the first two being the ones Liara had helped her purchase the day before and the last one being the foreign magic book.

"How long–I mean I know you said three days..." she fumbled with her words, clearly not wanting to offend.

"It's okay, you can ask for a more detailed itinerary. I will warn you though, we won't be making many stops. I'd very much have loved to pay for lavish inns to let you sleep in the luxury you deserve, but I feel this sense of urgency that we need to return to Blackridge as quickly as possible." He paused to consider his phrasing. "That makes it sound like the issue is in Blackridge. I think it's more than I want to put as much distance between your family and us as possible, as quickly as possible. Today is the most arduous of our trip as we won't be stopping until tomorrow morning. We'll push on through the night and stop at a ranch where we'll exchange all these horses for fresh ones. That'll be our first official stop unless we need to use the bathroom. Then we'll travel through the day tomorrow to a campsite my troops use that is about a day's travel from Blackridge. And by 'day' I mean roughly 'dawn to dusk' not a full twenty-four hours. So tomorrow night we'll camp, everyone resting and the next day we will set out at dawn so that we reach Blackridge just before sunset. Does that help?"