by Sandra Elsa
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The next two months passed in a flurry.
Bella became skilled at the nuances of life within the palace walls and Tessa became at least competent with a bow and a sword although after several tries with throwing knives Captain Torel decided that she was more hazardous to her friends than her enemies and they dropped that from her list of skills.
With only two weeks left until their planned departure day, Bella began to get nervous.
Her riding skills had improved considerably, she could now, not only sit in a saddle, she could do so on nearly any horse handed to her.
She and Trace couldn’t have been closer or more familiar with each other if they had truly grown up in the same household.
With Conall’s assistance, they defeated every ambush the Weaponsmaster scheduled.
A touch of magic from the Wizard Corps gave Trace the Telgarn language, and Sellene had come up with a design that was more modest than the sketches Bella had viewed earlier in the winter, but would still fit tolerably well with the current Telgarn styles. The dresses had been completed.
Bella modeled them for Sellene and Tessa, but with their assurance that they fit as well as they could, she refused to model them for anyone else. She liked the riding outfit. Not that it was practical, but it covered more than the dresses. It at least had to be designed to keep things where they belonged while riding sidesaddle.
Bethany managed to narrow the list down to exclude about sixty of the Guardsmen that had disappeared during Dorang’s lifetime. Either the location they had disappeared from was wrong, or she found reports of personalities that were vastly different from Conall’s. This still left a large number, but Bethany promised to keep digging through texts and enlistment records.
Winter warmed quickly into spring. Bella and Trace packed their gear. They would be met by a member of Trace’s old unit at Dylan’s farm. He would provide them with Telgarn tack, and resupply them as they entered enemy territory.
They were leaving with a goodly amount of gold and silver and copper coins, which had been stamped in Telgar. They also carried more money than she had ever possessed in local currency. They had memorized the portrait of Prince Lorun. And with no further reason to delay, one fine spring morning, before first light, with King's Guards on the gates, two riders and a wolf disappeared unnoticed to the north.
Chapter 39