I didn’t have the energy to argue with her or tell her that Alois probably owned all of those books in her bag, so I simply settled for nodding my head with a large sigh.
“Ilyas, can you carry the bag, please?”
“Better yet, why don’t we strap her bag to the prisoner? Since he’s a big-ass Earth Mage and all. Plus, he’s already tied to the horse. Win-win,” Ilyas suggested, and I had to admit the idea had merit. We had kept the rebel commander subdued with Pleasure for the most part over the past few days, and he was currently tied to one of the empty horses, a glazed look on his face.
Enjoy that pleasure now, because you will have everything but when Alois gets his hands on you. I didn’t envy the pain that was coming for him.
“Very well, tie it to him.”
Ilyas jumped from his horse and hoisted Faylinn’s pack with a grunt. “How many books do you have in here, girl?”
She kicked the ground, still clutching the cat carrier to her chest. “A few. What if I need them for reference? And I have so many notes and things that I would hate to lose or have to redo, so I brought them all with me!”
Ilyas shook his head but hoisted the bag onto the back of the horse before tying it to the Earth Mage.
“That fucker killed my dad,” she said suddenly and extremely offhandedly. Her eyes glared daggers at the Earth Mage, and I suddenly didn’t know if turning him over to Alois or Faylinn would be worse.
“He’ll get his due, Faylinn.”
A wicked smile cut across her face before she muttered a word and the horse carrying the prisoner and her pack whinnied. I raised a brow at her in question.
“I just negated the rune that made the pack lighter.” She shrugged her shoulders as if that was an everyday occurrence.
I barked a laugh before holding my hand out for her.
“Come, Faylinn. You and the . . . cat can ride with me.” She grabbed my hand with one of hers, the other clutching the cat carrier as she climbed atop Balios. Her legs straddled his sides, her back pressed to my front, and her ass snug against my crotch.
Ilyas and Lex saw my stricken face, most likely devoid of all color, and let out loud barking laughs.
Oh, they would definitely be paying for that later.
Faylinn turned to regard me. “What’s so funny?” As she moved, her butt pressed even more firmly against my dick, making it twitch involuntarily.
“Nothing,” I gritted out. “Face forward, please, Faylinn. We’re going to be moving now.”
She hummed but settled back against me, moving for a bit before finally getting comfortable.
“Move out!” I called, and the line of Mages and Vessels moved as one toward the woods.
“On to Vespera,” I said.
“On to my new life,” Faylinn added under her breath. I couldn’t help but feel a spark of something that her new life would be in Vespera with me.
Chapter 46
Rohak
The journey back to Vespera was long but uneventful, thank the gods. After the events of the last few weeks, I was happy for our journey home to be almost quiet. The only interruptions in the landscape that slowly changed from warm and dry to cool and wet were the constant questions from Faylinn, and the intermittent hissing of her cat, Cotton.
Her thirst for knowledge was insatiable. She asked questions about everything we saw, from the wildlife and vegetation to the politics of the areas we passed through, to the development of the road system. It seemed every few minutes she had a new question for me. Some I knew, but there were many that I simply didn’t know the answers to. Faylinn’s childlike curiosity piqued the interest of a few other Mages and Vessels, and soon everyone was calling out answers to her questions. It was clear that some of the answers were made up, simply to get a rise out of Faylinn, but she rolled her eyes good-naturedly and looked to me to clear up any muddy areas. Luckily, Sasori was able to interject a few answers every now and then, and Faylinn ended up sharing a horse with her two days into our journey. The hum of their voices was our constant companion as we made our way north.
“What’s the city like?” Faylinn asked once we crested the border into the southern part of Vespera. We were on the last leg of our trip and wouldarrive by the afternoon. I was surprised that she hadn’t asked about the city until now.
I hummed in thought.
“Big,” I answered.
“Busy,” someone else called from the front of the line.
