Before long a groom found us and handed us the reins to four horses. One was Rain’s palomino stallion. John grabbed his reins.
“His name is Goldie,” John told us. I remember that John had spent time with Rain just the day before.
I took the reins to a sturdy bay gelding.
“His name is Willow,” the groom said. I nodded my thanks and patted him on the nose for a few minutes to get to know him.
“I guess we are going to be hanging out, buddy,” I said.
We could see everyone on horseback gathering.
“You guys should probably mount up and get going,” the groom told us.
“Murphy, can you ride with your arm?” I asked.
“Thanks, Lydia, I’ve got it,” he said. He attempted a smile but it came out more of a grimace as he hoisted himself up with one arm while the groom held the large black mare he was getting on. Erin had already mounted her dappled gray gelding. Even though Murphy and John did compete in horse sports back home like Erin and I did they were both comfortable in the saddle.
We all turned our horses and gathered with the rest of the riders. We hung to the back of the group. I could see Aidric at the front discussing something with Reynard. There was a stiffness in the air around us. Everyone looked exhausted and more than a couple people had cuts or had their limbs bandaged or in slings.
“Nadine,” Erin said to my left. I turned in the saddle to smile at the dark-haired soldier as she and Tulip rode up next to us.
“We were wondering how you were,” Erin continued. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Nadine smiled weakly at them, “Thank you. I’m a little sore and a little weak. One of our healers patched me up enough until we get to the palace. Then the healers there can finish up.” She stopped Tulip and settled in to wait with us. As we continued to wait for things to get going, I couldn’t help but watch Aidric interact with everyone. He was laughing and talking. Most of the people around in the convoy seemed relaxed around him.
Glancing at Nadine, I said, “The prince seems laid back.”
Nadine smiled. “He is. It’s funny, he’s only nineteen so most of the soldiers he commands are older than him. But he has their respect, and he keeps it. He’s a strong leader and, as you saw, incredible on the battle field. He demands a lot from his people, but he rewards them by always being open and honest. His soldiers, including myself, are proud to serve him and the kingdom.”
“So is the prince the head of the army?” John asked.
“Yes and no,” Nadine said. “The prince is the Commander and in charge of the day-to-day operations. But if the king is here, he is automatically the head of the army. Aidric is very different from his father. The king commands respect in his own way. He is a strong and fearless leader, but he is not laid back like the prince. In fact, he insists on everyone showing him the respect that he deserves.”
She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, and then said, “The king is a great ruler but he is hard. After all of this I am sure you all will have an audience before him so he can recognize and honor you. That is very much his style. He likes to make grand gestures and get grand compliments in return,” she said.
Before they could have any other conversation Aidric rose in his stirrups at the head of the company.
“I know it’s been a hard day for all of us. But we need to get back so we can report this issue to the king and come back with reinforcements to take care of this problem once and for all.”
There was a roar as everyone around us lifted their fists and yelled in agreement with the prince. The horses began to paw and snort in excitement as if agreeing in their own way.
“Let’s move out!” Aidric said. He wheeled Midnight around and began trotting down the road. Everyone fell in line in two columns behind him. The four us followed suit at the end of the line. Murphy rode up beside me. I could tell his arm was hurting him, but he seemed in good spirits.
“I’m sorry for snapping at you yesterday, Lydia. It wasn’t right,” he told me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him, reaching out to lay a gentle hand on his arm. “We’ve all been stressed. I wasn’t exactly sure where we stood since all of this had happened. Two days ago, I would have said Murphy and I were about to start something exciting, but now everything seemed up in the air. His closeness felt nice and familiar, though. Yet, I still couldn’t stop the errant thought of Aidric and the memory of the moment we had shared in the woods earlier.
As the whole party made its way to the road, I turned my attention to riding Willow and the uncertainty of the future that awaited us.
The day passed uneventfully and the group road until the stars began to shine in the sky. Aidric brought the company to a halt and everyone quickly constructed a makeshift camp. The weather was nice, so everyone received a bedroll and some food. A fire in the middle of the campsite for everyone to gather around. It wasn’t long before the horses were all groomed and tethered and everyone had settled down in their bedrolls.
I laid there in the darkness, staring up at the stars. I tried to close my eyes but couldn’t get the image of the man falling to the ground in front of me out of my head. I wondered why Aidric had agreed to keep my secret. He certainly wasn’t under any obligation to. I couldn’t help but think we had only been here a couple of days and already my plans of flying under the radar were shot. I thought again about telling Erin, John, and Murphy about my powers and how we ended up here but decided against it. I didn’t even know what was going on yet, there was no reason to drag them into it.
The camp quieted down around me until everyone was settled haphazardly around the fire in their bedrolls. I briefly wondered where amongst the rest of the people Aidric was sleeping. Everything was quiet except for the occasional sound of a horse shifting its weight or someone turning over in their sleep. Murphy rolled over and reached his hand over to me. I held it and he squeezed my hand reassuringly. Finally, I closed my eyes and fell asleep, hoping for a peaceful night.
21
The next two days passed much the same. We all rose at dawn, cleaned up the campsite and mounted our horses for another day of riding. The road continued to follow the river. As we went along, the river became wider and placid. Aidric would occasionally come by and check on us and chat with us, but most of his time was spent leading the group towards the capital and the castle. The group was still subdued so there wasn’t much talking as we rode on toward Windburn.
The four of us hung to the back for the most part. When we let the other riders get a bit ahead of us we were able to talk in peace.
“So what happened to you night of the battle?” Erin asked me the next morning. It was the first time we had all been able to talk alone since that first night. I filled them all in on the basics, careful to leave out my magic and my conversation about it with Aidric. I made it sound like I just got lucky during the battle.
“Wow, Lydia, that must’ve been scary,” Erin said when I was finished.
“Yeah, it was, I threw up afterward,” I confessed to her. “What about you guys? What happened over at the main campsite?”
“Nadine came back and offered to take us on a tour,” Murphy began. “You were asleep, and we didn’t want to bother you, so we snuck out and went with her. The campsite was huge. It was split in two, with most of the wagons and supplies in the back where we were. The other half held most of the soldiers and horses, expect for the ones that were on duty to protect the supplies. Nadine said something about they were visiting remote villages and handing out supplies and counting how many people lived there.
“Anyway, it got dark and they were serving dinner, so we were all sitting around a fire and eating before Nadine brought us back. Then, out of nowhere, we heard these crazy yells and people just started running into the campsite on every side, waving weapons. They were all dressed in black and had their faces painted black which I guess is how they got so close before anyone noticed. Nadine told us to hide in a nearby tent,
so we did.
“I kept watching out of the flap to make sure no one was coming our way. We found a couple of daggers in the tent, but that was it. It was awful just sitting there, listening to all this fighting going on and thinking someone was going to come barging in and chop off our heads any moment. Well then someone started setting everything on fire. I guess they were using magic, I’m not sure, but we had to leave the tent once it caught on fire. We didn’t see Nadine anywhere, but there were a few soldiers fighting in front of the tent, clearly trying to keep any of the attackers from getting to us. They probably didn’t even know we were there until the tent burned down. There was one soldier to my right getting overwhelmed. He just about went down, and I couldn’t let that happen, so I went to help him.”
Murphy stopped to take a breath and Erin cut in. “Murphy’s being modest. He through himself toward this other solider with nothing but a dagger and a piece of wood he picked up from the ground to use as a shield. He rushed forward and an attacked him in square in the piece of wood with a sword, it immediately splintered and cut Murphy’s arm open. That didn’t stop, him, though. He just reached out and grabbed the guy and threw him on the ground, taking his sword from him while he was at it. The guy ran away when he realized what happened.
“We could tell most of the attackers were between our little group and the rest of the soldiers. John and I managed to pick up weapons that were lying on the ground. The attackers rushed us and we did the only thing we could, we fought back. Mostly I just swung the sword I had in my hands back and forth. One guy got me across the cheek pretty good, but another solider saw him and took him down. It was gruesome. That guy, Reynard, was on our side. One of the attackers got him in the back of his leg and he almost went down, but John saw it just in time and clubbed the guy over the head. It was enough that Reynard was able to get back into it and all the soldiers were able to join together again. When that happened the attackers just scattered.”
“Man,” I said, in awe. “That’s crazy. It must’ve been terrifying.”
“It was,” Erin said.
“Yeah, but it was kind of epic, too,” John added. Erin smiled at him.
“Yeah, it was a little epic,” she agreed.
I spent most of my time for the rest of the trip lost in thought or speaking softly to my horse. I quite liked the bay Willow. He was sturdy and laid back. I could trust him to carry me along with the rest of the group without having to watch him constantly. It felt nice to be back in the saddle. The tack and the horses may be different than the ones I was used to but being in the saddle still felt like home. In fact, riding was the only thing that felt comfortable to me in this place.
Toward midday, I noticed the road was becoming more crowded. The day before our group of twenty or so people had occasionally passed travelers, but now they were getting more frequent. As the road became more crowded, Aidric gave the order for our group to get closer. The days on the road he had been lax about formation but now everyone reformed the two columns behind him. He moved people around so the four of us were up front.
“We don’t want our travelers to get lost in the big city,” he said with a wink at me. I smiled at him. It was nice to see him in better spirits after the last couple of days. Erin and I rode behind the prince. Murphy and John fell into line behind us. I couldn’t see where Nadine was. She had stuck close to us over the last couple of days. But now she was lost in the ranks of soldiers and horses.
“You know Lydia,” Aidric said over his shoulder as we continued on down the road. “When I asked you if you could ride, I recall you saying ‘some’, but I can’t help but notice both you ladies look like you were born in the saddle.”
“Well, Your Highness,” Erin cut in with a grin. “You can’t expect us ladies to reveal all our secrets.” Aidric laughed at her response.
“I suppose you are correct, Lady Erin,” he said. “After we come around this bend, you will be able to see Windburn.”
We turned the corner and I realized we were on a ridge. The city came into view below us and I gasped. Aidric held up his hand to stop our group so we could take it all in. Windburn stretched almost as far as the eye could see. The houses and roads lay sprawling across the foothills of the mountain range before them. The road we were on continued down the ridge and met with two others at a crossroads. The main road then traveled between barns and paddocks and a few other buildings to a large wall and gate. The gate circled the remainder of the city. Inside the wall there was very little green space as the buildings were pressed as close together as possible. The streets wound their way around the buildings as the city made its way up the side of a mountain. The buildings and houses had roofs of every color. The city looked like a rainbow sprawled out across the valley.
The river that flowed alongside the road flowed down along the side of the city into a harbor. Ships filled the docks. There were more waiting where the harbor opened up into a massive sea. The gray blue water stretched to the horizon and beyond. I could feel the wind and the smell of salt that came off the sea.
On the far side of the city, backed against a snow-capped mountain, was a huge castle. Even from this distance the stone glittered in the sunlight. There were five towers connected by countless passageways. The color of the stone of the castle gave the illusion the castle had been carved right into the face of the mountain. The road continued past the first wall and straight to an inner wall and gate. This one encircled the castle grounds. I could see various outbuildings and structures, all made of the same gray stone as the castle. Facing the sea, around the side of the mountain were little gray houses that made up what looked like a small village. Further in, the road ran into the castle courtyard itself. The entrance was framed by two watchtowers and a portcullis that could be lowered.
“What do you think?” Aidric asked us after we had had a moment to take everything in.
“It’s breathtaking,” I said. He sat up a little taller in his saddle and smiled down at the city.
“Centuries ago is used to just be Windburn Castle. Just the castle on the mountain next to the sea. Over time, people built the village you can see part of from here. More of is wraps around the side of the mountain. Now those houses are for people who work in the castle and those in the army who are assigned to be here. Once the village filled up, people began to settle in what is now the Inner City. Then, during the Golden Age, the Inner City filled to bursting and the Outer City was created. We have a huge industry of fishing. Almost all the fish for the whole country of Thavell comes in through Half Moon Harbor.”
“It’s amazing,” John said. “Really wonderful.”
“To me, it’s home. And I hope it will be for you as well. Come, let’s get to the castle.”
Our group started off again. As we neared the gates, the streets became congested, but I noticed that everyone moved out of the way for us. One of the perks of riding with the prince, I guessed. People called out to Aidric as he passed. Some even threw flowers on the road in front of us. He smiled and waved at everyone. We got bogged down a bit as we went through the market that had set up on either side of the main road.
“Some purple ribbons for your hair, my lady? To match your cloak, of course.” I jumped as an old lady touched my knee and reached out some ribbons to me.
“And blue for the other lady?” she asked, looking at Erin. Aidric heard what was going on and turned around to see. Both Erin and I look at him, unsure of what to do. He reached into his saddle bag and tossed a couple of coins to the lady. He motioned for us to take the ribbons. I grabbed them from the woman and handed Erin hers.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Thank you, Your Highness, my ladies,” the woman said as she backed away. “Always so gracious.”
I waved at her as she turned and disappeared into the crowd. Soon we were at the gate to the castle grounds. I took a deep breath as the guards opened the gate and ushered us in. I could feel my heartbeat speed up as our horses’ hooves hit the stone of
the courtyard. I couldn’t decide if I was excited or nervous about what was going to happen next.
22
It only took a few minutes for everyone to dismount in the castle courtyard.
“Thanks for the ride,” I whispered to Willow before swinging my leg over his back and lowering myself to the ground. When my feet hit the stone ground of the courtyard, my knees gave out and I saw the ground rushing toward me. A quick grip on my arm and around my waist stopped me from completely falling. I looked up into the amused eyes of Aidric.
“Thanks,” I squeaked, feeling a blush creep up in my cheeks. Was I always this awkward? And since when did I fall so much?
“Steady there,” he said, holding me upright. “We were in the saddle for quite a while. Give it a moment or two and you’ll be fine.” He continued to hold me, and I became aware he was holding me on the arm with his other arm wrapped snuggly around my waist.
“Oh. I’m okay now,” I said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious
Aidric released me slowly, and when he was satisfied I wasn’t going to crash to the ground, he stepped away from me. I watched him as he moved away. I felt a chill and rubbed my arms as I watched Erin, Murphy, and John approached me from the other side of the courtyard.
“Lydia! Are you all right?” Erin asked.
“Yeah, I’m still just really tired.” The last few days had been tough and as Aidric had pointed out to me, using my magic had pretty much zapped me of all my energy for the time being.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Murphy asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
Just then Aidric approached us followed by two young women.
“Lydia, Murphy, John, Erin, these two maids will take you to your rooms. Dinner will be brought to you. Feel free to clean up and rest for the rest of the day. I will send a messenger to let you know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I have to talk to my father to firm up some plans, but it should be very exciting.” Before anyone had time to reply Aidric smiled at us and strode off through the courtyard and into the castle.
Gatebreaker: Book One Page 9