Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
The brace of fresh, cold air rejuvenates me, and the horse obviously feels the same. Our speed increases even further as the stallion stretches out his neck and becomes a bird over the ground, the herky-jerky jostle gone, now only a lightning-fast, smooth flight over the meadow’s long grasses toward my village’s wall.
I’ve never gone this fast in my life, but the knight has. He’s one with the horse, as steady and true in the saddle as a statue, my anchor in the windstorm.
When we pull up short in the lee of a barn, the horse lets out an angry war cry and rears up again as if he’s frustrated his gallop is being taken away from him. I nearly roll off his butt, just managing to catch myself on the knight’s arm.
As we land with a bump, I forget all the aches in my bones and stinging in my molars. In the icy moonlight, the bridge over Greensward’s moat is raised, and the murky circle of water churns with balas thrashing in excitement as if they’ve already had some sort of a meal.
But that’s nothing compared to the unrest inside my village.
An orange glow rises up from inside the wall, billows of smoke punching at the night sky and charging at the timid stars emerging from their daylight retreat. A great chorus of shouting echoes upward from the market square, and it’s so loud, we can hear the anger even here. On the outside.
It’s as if all that fury is the cause of the bonfire.
“They think I killed the boys,” I say as I right my hood on the crown of my head.
There’s a clanking as the knight glances back at me. “You fought for their lives—”
“No one will believe me.”
With hauteur, he says, “My word is bond. I shall tell them what happened.”
It must be nice to have that kind of authority, but I fear he underestimates the problem.
Hide. You must hide—
My head pounds as I shake it, and I cast myself from the saddle. When I land, my legs are weak, and the knight catches me with a quick hand.
I stumble back from his aid. “I am not the one you seek, and I’m not going any farther with you—”
“Do you mean to go in there and face that alone?” He nods at the wall. “I heard what the boy yelled at you as he ran off. Come away with me now. I know where a royal hunting cabin is not far. We can stay there until dawn—”
“No!”
The knight removes his golden helmet and places it over his breastplate. “My honor will not permit me to just leave you here.”
“And your integrity is the least of my problems.”
He drops down out of the saddle and takes my hand. For a moment, I stare at the link between us, his rich brown skin against my freckled own. We are from two different worlds, and his is so far above mine, we might as well be separate species.
“You must allow me to be of aid to you.”
From under my hood, my eyes shift back to the fearsome glow and furious, billowing smoke. The wall that I previously measured and found wanting now seems more solid than a mountain, and fates, what awaits me there.
I have no choice. I have to leave.
Panic flows through me, running off all the blood in my veins, and as I drop his hand, I force myself to think logically. First, I want to stock Mare with some provisions, and I should have some for myself. Except as the din of the riot inside that wall gets even louder, I don’t know how I’m going to navigate the mob. And then I look to the forest, try to imagine what’s waiting for me out there, and think only of the desecrated cow—
I can smell the blood and hear the lazy flies as if the carcass is right in front of me.
There’s no way I can survive on my own.
Squeezing my eyes shut, it’s a number of heartbeats later that I say with defeat, “I am still not the one you seek. No matter what you saw back with that dragon.”
“Then I shall aid you anyway. A gentleman never leaves a lady undefended and he expects nothing in return for his service to her virtue.”
This … said to a barmaid in a Pox cloak.
Blinking away tears, I choke out, “I have someone I need to provide for first, but there’s no way we can get inside with the drawbridge up. And fates, that riot is over me—”
“It is no problem at all.”
The calm response makes me worried he’s insane, but with no options and Mare on my mind, I find myself once again up on the warhorse and holding on to the knight’s armor.
“Duck down behind me as if you are a saddlebag,” he orders as we trot off.