Heretic by Rukis

Author:Rukis [Rukis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Family Bonds

“Luther!”

The voice of my wife carried across the lawn. It was coming from somewhere beyond the treeline of the cobbled roadway leading towards the manor. I turned my nose to the wind, alarmed that I’d missed the scent of her, when she was so close. I’d been preoccupied with thoughts of our trip to Cheron the whole way home…

I gave Specter a light kick with my heels, and she accelerated to a canter, pushing me past Lucius and Cuthbert on their geldings. I loved the way the mare felt beneath me, her gate smooth, but firm. It had taken some months, but we’d eventually come to an understanding with one another and Lucius had inevitably yielded the horse to me. She would have been too much for a man with a lame leg to handle, anyway… it had all worked out for the best. She would always have that wild spark the Carvecian horses seemed prone to, but her temper suited me just fine. ‘A difficult horse for a difficult man’, Lucius had said.

It had been two weeks travel from Cheron and unlike the journey there, we’d made few stops on the way home. I’d been stubborn enough to insist I made the daily trips by horse, because I was intent on entirely breaking Specter in before I went out to sea for the next eight months, but by this point I was regretting that decision. My lower back and my thighs ached and even with the smooth pace Specter set, my rear was faring no better.

The stay in Cheron had been brief, but eventful. Regretfully, I hadn’t spent as much of it on the ships as I’d wished to… and the only time I’d spent at sea outside the shallows had been on the skiff. I’d gotten a good feel for the Cerberus, at least. She was every bit the beauty inside as out, and her sister ships were no disappointment, either.

Unfortunately though, really getting to know the ships and settle in just wasn’t possible. They were only moored in Cheron for two days following our arrival, and then they had to head to Rhinemouth to resupply for the coming year… and we’d had to head home. Lucius’s knee was giving him trouble, travelling so much in the chill of the early spring air and apparently there were some very important correspondences the old man had to make before he sent his fleet off for the coming season. I suspect they had something to do with the profuse amount of paperwork the Captains had been quarreling over with him in Cheron.

I’d tried picking his brain about it the whole way home, but he’d seemed to have a lot on his mind. From what little he had said on the matter, it involved where the fleet would be commissioned this upcoming year, but he apparently didn’t want to say much more until he’d made a few decisions. He’d been reading over the documents the whole way home. Whatever it was, it seemed to be tying him in knots.

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