Page 32 of Between Despair and Hope

“Yes, and no. It’s hard to explain. Like walking while talking. I need to use my divinity—let some of the extra power go. I suppose if Rain were here to share it, I might not feel it as strongly.”

“He’ll be sharing it soon,” she replied, anticipating my thoughts going dark.

“I know,” I murmured, trying to convince myself more than anything.

We fell into silence again for a while, and the shadows helped. Mairin seemed to fall asleep next to me, leaning back into the embrace of the dark I provided, and I couldn’t help but smile at her. Her head was tipped toward me, and her mouth hung open. She wore her hair loose, and it tumbled down her back, swaying in the breeze. She looked so young when she slept.

I wondered how close it was to dawn when Dewalt held up his hand, a low whistle coming out as he slowed to a walk.

“Those are our soldiers,” he said, as he brought his horse off the path.

Looking off into the distance toward a bend in the road, I counted over a dozen men before we ducked into the sparse trees on the mountainside. Though it was still dark, I used my shadows to shroud us, helping blend in. This close to the coast, the trees didn’t provide the best coverage.

“It has to be them, right?” I asked, my voice a whisper.

“I assume. I’ll go scout and see if I can spot the boy.” Dewalt swung off his horse, pushing through the shadows and crouching low as he made his way through the trees. I didn’t like him going alone, but I knew better than to argue with him about this. He knew what he was doing. It didn’t stop me from pacing, worried about my friend. Too many people had been taken from me.

“Your—Emma, it’s going to be alright.” Thyra stood nearby, watching me pace. “Between the four of us, we should be fine. Shivani has surely threatened them to not hurt the boy, and they won’t hurt us. It will be fine.”

While I heard her words, I didn’t stop pacing and wringing my hands until Dewalt returned, a sour look on his face.

“They’ve already made the trade. There’s a village a few hours north where they passed the boy off,” he reported.

“To who? Declan? Soldiers?”

“I’m not sure. They’re making camp before they head back to the Cascade. If you want me to grab one of them and compel them—

“No, we don’t have time. We need to go.”

It was with a sigh and a nervous look thrown at me that Mairin said, “We’ll have to go past them.”

“I’ll use my shadows to cover us or bind them, or my light to blind them. I don’t care. We have to go.” I was already mounting my horse, Thyra following suit, when Dewalt crossed his arms and cleared his throat.

“Emma, I don’t know if this is worth it anymore. It was one thing to take on our own soldiers, but Declan’s? We won’t be able to get to Rainier if we die attempting to save the prince.”

“Elora never wakes up if we don’t save him. We can find Cyran and still save Rain. I won’t let us die.”

He studied me a moment longer before mounting his own horse. “On your head be it,” Dewalt mumbled, but it didn’t stop him from following as I set the pace with renewed purpose.

Opting to avoid Shivani’s soldiers on the path, I brought us farther east, closer to the coast and nearly to the water where the sand was packed. The wind was frigid without the meager coverage from the trees, and the waves crashed with force. We were far enough away, I couldn’t even make out the soldiers in the distance, although I used the shadows to protect us once again.

When we finally approached the village hours later, I knew we’d have to stop for a short time, our horses needing the rest. I considered leaving them and attempting to buy fresh steeds, but the village didn’t seem big enough. Knowing our accents would give us away as hailing from Vesta, we proceeded to the pub in the village center with caution. It was early, and the only people outside were a few women stringing up laundry on a shared clothesline. One woman’s toddler clung to her dress, a smudge on her face and a tremble on her lip, a wail barely kept at bay behind it. Loose strawberry blonde curls rested on her shoulders, and it caused an ache in my chest. I’d never missed those moments more than in recent days. I cursed my past self, eager for those days of clinging to skirts to end and ready for Elora to gain some independence. I’d have given anything to go back to those days. It was simpler then.

Thyra led the way, and we elected for her to do the talking as much as possible, unaware of the barkeep’s loyalties, who was eyeing us warily as he cleaned out a glass with a rag.

“The missus is in the back baking some muffins, but they’re not quite ready yet. No one comes in this early,” he said, his voice leaving off the brittle endings of his words.

“We’d like muffins, yes,” Thyra began, leaning into her accent more than usual. “We heard rumor of king’s men passing through not many hours past?”

“I wouldn’t know about that, ma’am. We just opened up not too long ago and heard nothing overnight.”

His heart was beating out of his chest. Why did he lie? I took a step around Thyra, leaning on the bar next to her.

“What’s your name, sir?”

Dark brown eyes whipped over to me, his heart still racing. “Aldric, ma’am. And yours?” He cleared his throat, looking down at the glass he still polished.

I took a chance, perhaps a stupid decision given where we were, but I had a suspicion.

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