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The blue-eyed soldier raised his brows behind him. I went to him and felt Fiona doing the same.
He was suspicious. I convinced him it was an overreaction. I went deeper into his mind and pushed the thoughts that could help us. He was tired and worn out from the patrol. If his commander wanted to release us, why would he object? There were five of us, six of them. Fighting with us would leave them weaker. And he wanted to go home. His wife was waiting for him.
His suspicion drowned out, and his need to go home amplified; he did not object. With their captain’s order, the soldiers moved, and we were on our way again.
The forest surrounding the main road was silent as we rode our horses away from the soldiers. We kept going without looking back. Soon, we heard the soldiers move in the opposite direction.
The ground was frozen solid. The sun was still hiding behind the clouds, making the air crispier and colder. Animals who slept through winter were still in their warm nooks, and the rest moved away from the roads that belonged to fae.
When the distance between the soldiers and us was enough to keep our voices from reaching them, I relaxed a bit. Distance made mind magic fuzzy, and it became increasingly difficult to hear or influence the soldiers’ thoughts as we rode our horses away, but Fiona and I had to keep tabs on them as long as we could. If they decided to come back to hunt us, we had to be aware of it.
“We should stay in the town for the night,” Dearen said after a while. “We can replenish our food. If we can find an inn with stables, we can get someone to look at the horses."
“I agree,” Brigid added. “We won’t find an inn in the in-between realms. The horses should rest before the long journey.”
“We can take turns sleeping,” Fiona offered and turned to me. “What do you think?”
Staying at an inn in a town required Fiona and me to work together. We had to stay up in shifts, and if either of us felt too tired to keep tabs on suspicious onlookers, we would have to avoid civilization and stick to the wild.
“I feel fine,” I replied. “They are right. We should get more food and have someone look at the horses.”
“Are you sure?” Kieran asked, his voice full of concern.
We were riding our horses at a slow pace. Kieran had been riding in front of me, but he pulled the reins on his stallion to bring us side by side to look at me closely.
He cocked his head as though he did not believe I would tell him the truth and wanted to see the answer on my face instead of hearing it from my lips. The journey had made his face look leaner, accentuating his already sharp cheekbones. There were signs of tiredness that put a little shadow under his eyes.
Even if I had been lying, seeing him up close and noting the marks of tiredness on his face would have made me want to spend the night at an inn.
“Yes,” I replied, reaching down to stroke my mare’s neck. “I think my mare is tired. And Brigid’s mare is putting less pressure on her right forefoot. We should get her shoe looked at.”
“I’ve noticed that too,” Brigid replied without turning back to look at us. “If Jasmine and Fiona think they can handle it, we should stop at the next town.”
“We’re almost there,” Dearen replied. “And we only have an hour of sunlight.”
“Great,” Fiona said. “We are stopping.”
Decision made, silence befell our group.
It had been a while since we had slept in proper beds. We’ve been sleeping under the stars and on the grass for the last week. After we realized they were searching for us, we avoided cities, towns, and even villages. When the main road took us toward Kellibre, a big city to the west of Qam, we made a large circle around it to avoid the fae inside the city walls.
With plenty of food to eat and horses to carry us during the day, the journey so far had been uneventful. Sure, we slept in the forests and had to avoid others as much as possible, but I knew it could have been much worse.
Still, we were all tired.
My fingers were aching and stiff from the cold as I held onto my mare’s reins. My legs and back hurt from riding the horse all day. Staying at an inn meant sleeping on a bed tonight.
The thought of a warm supper and a comfortable bed relaxed me.
I should have guessed that was a mistake.
You pushed me out again.
The dark-eyed girl’s presence inside my mind made me feel weary at once. She did this. She always wanted to be inside my mind, and I didn’t know how I pushed her away from time to time. If I could push her away at will, she would be as silent as a map. After all, that was the only reason I needed her.
Oh yeah? She responded to my thoughts. I think it was stupid to waste your strength to convince those soldiers. I have monsters in these forests. I can take care of them with ease.
No, I pushed once again. We will not have fae killed.
