Novel Jumper

Chapter Nine

"I was correct. These soldiers are from the Southern Realms." Connor handed Lilia the fabric, as if she could make something out of it. As she held it up, she realized that she could - it was a flag.

There had been no pictures in Star of Winter and although Lilia was a huge fan of the book, she couldn't quite recall the description of the Southern Realms' flag, or if a description had even been given. She could only trust Connor that this was it. The flag was a deep crimson color with a cluster of dark gold stars scattered across it like shooting stars. As Lilia looked closer, she saw the different realms' names embroidered into the fabric. Along the bottom of the flag were words written in no language that Lilia could recognize.

"'Survive and conquer,'" Connor read, running his finger over the words. "Their motto."

"Seems a bit...pessimistic, for lack of a better word. Shouldn't it be something like 'thrive and conquer?'"

Connor snorted. "You obviously haven't been to the Southern Realms."

Lilia shrugged. Judging by his tone, it was a joke that only people who had been to the Southern Realms would understand, so she let it slide. She handed the flag back to Connor and asked, "Now what?"

"Good question," Connor said. "This is very confusing. I truly expected them to spend longer getting around to conquering the town that we just left, or at least take a break in between and then afterwards."

Lilia wondered if that meant the people in the town had been spared, or if they had just been killed much, much faster. She prayed for the former.

"Now we have a real problem. They're obviously not going to rest very often," Connor pointed out. "They're hellbent on getting to the capital, from the looks of it - to jumpstart the war. They're going to obliterate the towns ahead of us. We won't have anywhere to get food and rest."

Lilia sucked in a breath as the reality of the situation hit her. "What are we going to do?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Connor muttered. Then, he snapped his fingers. "Actually, you know what - we hurry ahead to the towns, get there before them. I warn the revolution. The revolution gives us supplies, maybe even horses, and we take a new path to the wizard. One that doesn't pass so close to the capital."

Lilia felt a pang of disappointment at losing any chance of seeing the capital, but she nodded her head, not having even realized that she had wanted to see the city until now. "Okay." What else could she say, after all? She had no choice in the matter that didn't end in their unnecessary demise.

"We need to hurry." Instead of moving forward, however, Connor turned to the right and began walking.

"What are you doing?" Lilia asked, confused.

"We'll get farther into the woods, where there's no chance of us being seen or heard from the road. Then, we can move as fast as we need to without caution," Connor explained.

"That makes sense," Lilia agreed, following him.

Once they had hurried several hundred feet deeper into the woods, Connor turned to Lilia and asked seriously, "Can you run?"

"Can I - I'm not physically incapable of movement!" Lilia exclaimed, offended.

"I'm sorry. That's not what I was trying to say," Connor apologized, looking truly abashed. "I just meant, how is your stamina?"

"It's fine, I guess," Lilia said weakly. "Fine" is stretching it, she thought, but decided not to mention this.

"Let's go." Connor broke into a quick run, Lilia following him. Soon, she found herself short of breath. Embarrassed, she pushed onward, ignoring the spiking pain in her lungs. After a few more seconds of running, Lilia could taste blood in the back of her throat. She began lagging behind Connor.