Chapter 16
The others were gone.
Theo crouched beside the little fire pit he’d built before walking down the hill to fetch Melodie, and touched the stones.
Still warm.
For a moment, he wondered if the others had, under the grip of befuddlement, continued on to Warven. Given the heat in the stones, they were here as recently as an hour ago.
Melodie stood beside him, looking over the scene, and then walked past him to the stream. She came back with two horses, his own and Caro’s.
“They were loose. I don’t think he could take all of them, or maybe he already has too many, so he left these two free to go their own way. He probably hopes someone will find them and think themselves lucky.”
“You think he took the team?” Theo had thought things would be difficult, but he had not suspected he would be bested before they even arrived in Warven.
“Yes.” Melodie patted a horse’s neck. “Maybe he checks here regularly, to see who has been caught in his confusion trap.”
If that was so, it could be that persuading people off the road was part of the trap’s magic. And he’d been in such a rush, he’d accepted Gallain’s word without a murmur.
“Can you see if he was here? If he worked magic?” It was time he started using her expertise.
She hesitated, then gave a nod. “There isn’t any magic to see anymore, but if someone uses it, I can sense . . . something. Like the smell in the air after it rains.”
“He can’t take every traveler he finds up here. Not if the trap’s constantly putting out magic.” Theo couldn’t see how that would be feasible.
“No. But maybe he listened to them talking for a while before he struck, and heard something that made him realize they were here for the children.”
That made sense.
Their enemy was forewarned.
“Then he knows about the two of us,” he said.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Melodie shrugged. “But it’s best we assume he does.” She bent and began picking up the things the others had left behind. Caro’s bag, Ivan’s cloak, two cups and the small kettle Theo had put on the fire to boil water.
She packed them into the saddle bag of Caro’s horse.
“We need a story,” she said.
She was pale, and he remembered she’d been looking forward to resting and a meal, but they couldn’t stay here. Not in a place that Marchant checked regularly.
“A story for where?”
“The inn in Warven. We can’t go on without sleep, but we can’t stay here.” She gently took her horse’s reins from him, handed him his own, and began walking up the trail. “At least in Warven, with other people around, we can’t disappear so easily. And there will be a door we can lock at a room in the inn. If we have a good enough story, we won’t raise suspicion, and we can maybe gather some information about him.”
“You’ve done this before,” he said.
“I made a lot of enemies in my life,” she said, glancing behind him. “Especially when I was much younger and innocently spoke about what I could see in a voice that was as clear and carrying as a bell, according to my father.”
He smiled at the thought of a tiny Melodie, piping up in a sweet voice about the spell work she could see. He realized her father had probably been in constant fear of her being taken or silenced.
No wonder she had an air of loneliness about her. An aura of isolation.
He moved up, so they were walking side by side, the horses following behind. “We could present ourselves as a couple,” he said. “So that sharing a room is a given.”
She glanced at him, gave a serious nod. “Yes. I think that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t want you out of my sight again. We’re a team. We have my sword and the truth you can see when it comes to magic. Together, we have a better chance of protecting ourselves.” He slipped an arm around her shoulder as they crested the hill, and saw Warven winking its lights at them below. Forests stretched along the hill to the left and right, but someone had cut a swathe through the trees wide enough for four horses abreast, all the way down to the bottom.
With night having fallen, the forests were an impenetrable wall of darkness, and something about it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
He bent close to her ear. “We should also be aware he could be watching us right now.”
She stiffened for a moment beneath his arm, and gave a nod. “Good point.” She swept her gaze around, as if looking for a sign of their enemy, then leaned in close to him. “And we need to remember that everyone in Warven could be either under his spell, or a paid informant.”
He gave a nod. That was worth keeping front of mind.
The path that led them downward twisted and turned, but was wide and well kept. Maybe Gallain wasn’t under a spell when he’d suggested they take it.
“We should find the main road, and pretend we came in on it,” he said.
She gave a nod. “And we’ll have to pretend to be coming from Taunen, not Illoa.”
With their story more or less straight, they reached the bottom of the hill and emerged onto the main road.
Warven was just ahead, the road open but empty. There was no gatehouse, which wasn’t unusual in either Grimwalt or Kassia, where the government was stable and law and order was respected.
Someone did step out of the shadows where the road turned into the main street, though.
“Help you?” He was dressed like a town guard, in a tunic with a leather vest, leather arm braces and sturdy boots. A half-blade hung from his belt, but his hands were relaxed at his sides.
“Please,” Theo said, easily. “We’re looking for the inn.”
“You’re late on the road.” The man indicated they follow him.
“We misjudged our timing, but we could see the lights every now and then on the road, and decided it would be better to push through than make camp so close to town.”
The man drew in a deep breath. “Misjudging timing is common around these parts, but it feels like the wind has changed.”
Theo felt Melodie tense by his side.
“The air does feel fresher,” she said. “I feel like I’ve had a headache all day, but I think it’s just the exhaustion speaking.”
The man gave her a quick backward glance. “If you’ve been on the road all day, I’m not surprised.” He gestured ahead of him, to a building with the lower floor lit up, and a few lights on in the story above. “The Warven Inn. Should have a room for you, and place for your mounts.”
“Thank you.” Theo watched as the man sauntered away, disappearing into the dark.
Neither of them spoke about him, or what he’d said, until they had the horses stabled, and were sitting in a warm corner of the inn with two steaming bowls of stew and a half loaf of bread between them.
“Not even here, I think,” Melodie said, and he forced himself not to look behind him, to whoever her eyes had flicked to and then away from before she began to eat.
He threw himself into eating, as well, and enjoyed the way the small nook they’d settled into crammed them so close together. He would usually feel a little crowded and uncomfortable, but instead he just felt happy.
When they were finished, the innkeeper came to fetch their bowls herself.
“It’s a good wind you blew in on,” she said. “This is the first night we haven’t had raised voices in I don’t know how long.” She stacked the bowls and grabbed up their mugs. “I had the boys warm water for a bath for you,” she said, nodding to Melodie. “I know someone who’s saddlesore when I see them.”
Melodie gave a wincing smile. “Thank you. I might have difficulty just getting up from my seat, I’m so stiff.”
The innkeeper gave a chuckle. “I’m Peg Hanson, but everyone just calls me Peggy. I spent some time in the saddle, but I’m very glad to be in one place, and off a horse these days.”
She whisked away at a call from the bar, and Theo reached out and helped Melodie out of her seat. “Do you want to be carried upstairs?”
She gave another delightful blush and shook her head. “Maybe an arm to lean on, though.”
He held out his arm, and she tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow.
They had adjusted his clothing on the road in to Warven to make him look less like someone in the military, and had invented a story of journeying to Illoa from Taunen, but there were still curious eyes on them as they made their way out of the tap room toward the stairs.
Everyone here was a potential enemy, and Theo let his gaze sweep the room as casually as he could before he helped Melodie up the stairs.
A man stared at him from a table, a mug of ale in front of him.
Theo nodded to him politely, and after a moment’s surprised pause, the man nodded back.
If he could, Theo would hold a sword to each of their throats and frighten the truth from them, but they were alone here, with no help and no idea of who they were dealing with.
They would have to tread carefully.