The General's Daughter

Chapter 16

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered, trapped in her angry gaze.

Her beady eyes narrowed on my face, apparently realizing I wasn't the boy I first appeared to be.

"Terribly sorry," Reed said, appearing at my side. "Won't happen again."

The woman looked as if she was ready to argue with him - for what I don't know - but he yanked me away before she could get the words out.

We hurried down the bustling street without looking back, and when we were far enough from the awful woman, Reed slowed slightly and shot me a pointed look, his meaning clear - pay attention.

Vowing to be abundantly more attentive, I bit my lip and followed closely beside him.

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I tried very hard to keep up with Reed. The reason for his urgency was obvious - it was long passed sunset, and this was not a great place to be caught at night, though it probably wasn't too bad in the day time. We'd clearly crossed the border from the lower class neighborhoods and had made our way into middle class territory.

The buildings here actually looked inhabitable, and there was no garbage or other mysterious obstacles in the streets as had been so prevalent a short while ago. Flowers and trees even decorated the area - an attempt to draw potential customers to the numerous shops lining the street.

But at night, it was eerie. There weren't many respectable looking homes on these streets and the merchants had all gone for the day, leaving quiet, darkened shops, interspersed with shadowy doorways and alleys. More than once, I'd been startled almost into screaming by an animal scurrying from one hiding place to the next.

I'd been lagging behind...well for most of our journey, but especially after my confrontation with that woman. Once we were more or less out of danger, my heart had calmed and I was left feeling drained.

Of course, I wanted to go home more than anything in the world, but I was just so tired and sore. Reed seemed to have boundless energy. Not to mention, he was much taller than me and his strides were twice as long.

I kept telling myself we were almost there, but that incident had probably been two hours ago and home still seemed ages away. I would have thought we were going in circles if not for the blatant change in scenery. Our progress was just taking much longer than I would have liked. After so many hours of hustling along, you'd think we would be close by now.

Clearly I'd never appreciated just how large the kingdom was.

Feeling the familiar, uncomfortable prick under my foot, I stopped and crouched down to free the pebble that found its way into my shoe. I was about to call to Reed to wait, but he must have sensed it without me having to alert him. Pausing, he turned back. His eyes were only on me for a second before his attention was drawn to the scruffy man who suddenly appeared from the large doorway and viciously put a knife in his face.

Warily, Reed watched the man and held up his empty hands in a show of compliance.

"Empty those pockets, Mate," the man said harshly. "Maybe I'll let you live."

"I don't have anything of value," Reed lied, stalling. He, of course, still had my locket.

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

Common sense told me that I should be afraid. This man was obviously a murderous lunatic, but I only felt anger. After all we'd been through! After everything Reed had done to help me! This disgusting man was ready to drive a knife in his chest for nothing! How many men had he already killed for the possibility of a few pennies?