Page 120 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
“Since she started her Cast five years ago, I imagine,” Sir Pram replied. The ice mage didn’t sound like he was being sarcastic. He was sincere in his reply and happy to help.
Julian told Jeffry, “Miss Gerda’s identity was revealed when she stepped forward to save everyone at the wedding. Which you skipped.”
“I was busy.” The half-hearted excuse didn’t fool anyone. This was the half elf John had had to bribe with a Rare-class treasure to attend the ball last night, and only long enough to distract Miss Penny Bracken from lighting people on fire.
“Either way,” Julian continued. He pitched his voice into a firm command. “Miss Gerda isnotto be bothered. She may or may not choose to warn us with her powers, but that is entirely at her own will, and we will respect her privacy. Is that clear?”
I couldn’t help it; I replied with everyone else. “Yes, Your Grace.”
He shot me a look as I covered a laugh with the back of one hand, leaning forward so I didn’t tug on the reins I held to do so. I could listen to Julian give orders all day. And I would, now that we were traveling together.
“I’ll let you know if my perks react to anything important,” I offered. “Though most of my abilities focus on the future of Valaria itself and not what’s happening to just me.” While the area immediately outside the city had been bustling, the further north we rode, the less people there were. The only other group within sight was an envoy from the Empire of Sands, who were outpacing us quickly.
We were traveling down a proper stone road. It was made with large purple-gray slab rocks and some magical equivalent of binding concrete. The road wound off in the distance through gentle slopes of rolling hills with patchwork forests.
John met us in the shade of a small grove of trees that came within arm’s length of the road.
“So far, the road ahead looks secure,” John said, bowing in his saddle. “Your orders?”
Julian looked at the clear blue sky and patted his horse. “We will stop every hour to water the horses while it’s this hot. And we’ll break for dinner in Fell.” Fell was the last decent-sized town between us and the border, though there were a few smaller villages tucked away here and there.
“Good,” Jeffry sighed. “I have to speak to my sister about last quarter’s silversmithing inventory log. There were three more helmets ordered for the watch than normal, but no new hires.”
Jeffry was the viscount of Fell, though his entire family helped manage the region.
“How long until we’re there?” I asked.
“We will reach my lands in two hours, but it’ll take three to get to the city.” Jeffry pulled the map out of thin air. “This is where we are now, here is my city, then north of that is Borrow Grove.”
“It’s already later than we planned to leave,” Sir Tully piped up behind me. “Why don’t we just stay in Fell tonight?”
“We must leave from Borrow Grove tomorrow if we want to make it to the border by nightfall, Tully,” Sir Pram said.
“No, we—” Sir Tully started then stopped. I noted that Visha was glaring at the paladin and waving a hand at me. Tully changed on a dime. “Ah! Of course. Much too far.”
Whether it was my slow pace or for another reason, I accepted the schedule as it was. No sense worrying about what I couldn’t change.
“One more question,” I asked. “Does Fell have a drawbridge?”
I was excited to go home.
Fell did not, in fact, have a drawbridge, but there was a river west of the town that had a nice, sturdy bridge I could use. So while everyone else went into the city to walk around and stretch their legs, Julian followed me down a short path to the bridge.
“You don’t have to worry,” I told him when he insisted on joining me. “I’m not going to capture any North Sumbrian bridges.”
That wasn’ttechnicallya lie.
The duke smiled. “I understand that.”
“I’m just going to use it to go home for a bit,” I added, my conscience niggling at me. To make something a troll bridge, it had to be properly magicked with dimensional troll magic … but with [World Bridge], any bridge I crossed became a save point. I could teleport to a bridge, to my home, and between captured bridges. But telling the leader of a foreign domain that I could freely teleport around his lands without a permit or a by-your-leave probably wouldn’t sit right with him.
“You should leave your spell up here,” he said, surprising me. The look on my face must have given me away because he added, “If you end up in trouble, I don’t want to go all the way back to the palace to fetch you.”
“Don’t worry, I can make my way back on my own if we get separated.” I had a phoenix feather that would bring me back to life if I died and an inventory of antidotes. So in the worst case, I would just portal to the sky bridge and make my way north alone. We reached the bridge, and I stopped just short of stepping onto it. Julian walked up close behind me. Very, very close.
He leaned down, his silver eyes searching mine. “Don’t say that. How could Inotworry?”
“I could send you a Crystal Cast,” I offered, pretending like I wasn’t going to melt into the floor any second now. “Do you have a crystal?”
