New Shores ➳ The Last Kingdom | Finan the Agile (The Northman's Daughter 1)

THE GETAWAY

They did not leave Lundun right away, which Shaylee surprised quite a bit. She had thought that they would travel as fast as possible to Ceaster. But the only thing Uhtred did was send a messenger to Lady Æthelflæd and King Edward.

Shaylee did not understand that, but when she asked Uhtred about it one morning, he explained: "To what end? At the moment we couldn't do anything in Ceaster. And currently, it still could turn out to be a trap, and no one is planning to move on Ceaster. We need to have more information before we can do anything. At the moment, we do not even know who the Dane is.

Shaylee could see the truth in that. But this meant that they spent some more time in Lundun, which went against Shaylee's grain. Lundun was a fascinating city, but Shaylee was damned to spend most of her time in the house by the shore. The city was dangerous, especially for a woman walking alone in these streets. Even if she could look out for herself like Shaylee could. In fact, even her uncle's men stayed in groups most of the time. Of course, she could have asked some of her uncle's men to accompany her if she wanted to go somewhere. She doubted that they would have said no. But Shaylee would have felt stupid to ask; she was sure they had better things to do than escort her around the city. So Shaylee was stuck in the old Roman house. She didn't mind spending some time in the roman house. It was beautiful and fascinating, but her world became small as the days went by; it only contained the house, the terrace, and the pier. But eventually, this world became too small for her. All around her was the loud, vibrant city. She was surrounded by it but still not part of it. Round the clock, Shaylee was bombarded by the city noise, and it never let up. The city never slept, and Shaylee slept less and less. The less she slept, the more she felt trapped.

She agonised for some time, but finally, she pulled Finan aside and asked him to accompany her to the hunt. She had to swallow her pride to ask him. It was not like her to ask some man for help. Of course, she could have asked her uncle, but something kept her from doing so. Maybe she didn't want him to see her weak. Somehow it was easier to ask Finan.

It felt good to be back on the back of a horse. And she couldn't bring herself to let her horse slow down. Instead, she pressed her heels into the flanks of her horse and let him gallop off. Riding a horse was probably the closest to flying, and Shaylee could not think of a more pleasant feeling. She felt the wind in her hair. And when they left the city, the noise subsided a little; she was already feeling a little better. And she felt even better at the moment as they entered the forest. She took a deep breath of the fresh forest air, and it felt as if the worries fell away from her, and she took a few deep breaths. They left the horses on a clearing together with the two men accompanying them to the forest. Now they would stay back and make sure that the horses would not get stolen or wander off.

Finan and Shaylee silently walked through the forest. The plan would have been to hunt, but Shaylee couldn't focus on it. She was too distracted by how quiet it was around her, but it didn't matter anyway. The game was out of sight anyway, and Shaylee couldn't have cared less. She enjoyed being out of the city and not being surrounded by constant noise and action. The further into the forest they went, the calmer Shaylee breathed. They strolled through the forest, Shaylee not even trying to spot animals. Instead, she stooped down now and then to pick flowers and finally had a small bouquet together.

The forest had still been thin at the edge of the forest. But the further they went in, the denser the forest became. Soon Shaylee had to use her bow to carve a path through the undergrowth. Now they would surely not find any more wild animals. They were much too loud for that. But suddenly, they broke through a row of trees and stood in a clearing. Here, no dense leaf canopy held back the sun, and the clearing was flooded with sunlight. All of a sudden, they were standing in this peaceful idyll. The lush green meadow glowed in the sunlight, and the chirping of the birds filled the air. With slow steps, Shaylee walked further into the clearing and rotated around her own axis. Speechless, she let her gaze glide over her surroundings. It was all so beautiful and idyllic.