The Queen & The Soldier: Book Two of the Exciting New Coming of Age Epic Fantasy Series, The Crafter Chronicles by Matthew B. Berg

Author:Matthew B. Berg [Berg, Matthew B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0978579127
Publisher: Woodfall Press
Published: 2020-11-01T22:00:00+00:00

35

The Chase

Janelle was filthy. She was covered in dust from head to toe. She understood the necessity that she not ride out front—she didn’t know where she was going for one thing, and didn’t want to stumble into trouble for another. But the guards had said the princess’s soldiers were half a day’s march away. They could have ridden north long enough to take the more well-traveled West Road, at least. That roadway was cobbled where it met the crossroads. And it was better kept along its entire length than the rutty, potholed farm “road” they now galloped down. But Cigo wouldn’t hear of it.

“With my apologies, my lady, if there is one thing the life of a Tinker teaches you, it is that you should never pass up the opportunity of a freely given advantage. If we had a half day’s head start this morning, I’d rather not turn it into a lead of only an hour or two for the sake of our comfort. Besides, dirt will come out of my doublet more readily than blood.”

Janelle was fairly certain there was nothing more annoying than a man being right. But perhaps Cigo, with his polished non-apology apology, might have found a way to reach that mark.

And so they rode. And they rode. Cigo fell back only twice all morning, both times to check on Janelle’s waterskins to ensure she had enough to drink, and each time refusing to rest the horses completely—he said it was bad for them to cool down too much if the goal was to maintain their momentum. But he finally did stop when they reached a small brook as the gloaming was deepening into a more complete darkness. There was a tangle of some short spindly trees or bushes to their right, in a long clump where the rivulet ran through a shallow valley. But she had seen no woods of any size all afternoon. Nowhere to hide from anyone following them.

“What will we do if we are followed?”

Cigo had dismounted and was leading his horse to the brook’s edge. He looked back at her as he answered. “We’d better hope we aren’t. There isn’t much we can do out here in the open.”

Janelle had been thinking the same thing. And his words didn’t reassure her. She started to climb down, and her backside and thighs protested. A small groan even escaped her lips. She blushed, mildly horrified with herself. Once she was down, she had to stomp her feet and squeeze her legs to get some of the feeling back. And then she followed Cigo’s lead and led her mare down to the brook beside his horse. The stallion whinnied and pawed the ground as Janelle brought her horse over, and she realized that they might have a situation on their hands. Cigo put his hand on his steed and spoke to him softly, and he settled somewhat.

“He is a disciplined horse. But still . . . if she is in season, it would be best if you moved her over a yard or two.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.