“Help me load up her saddlebags,” he said, and the boy nodded rapidly, gasping for breath. Taegan hesitated, then stepped away. “Finish packing her. I’ll be right back,” he said, and he jogged across the field to the archery range. The largest longbow was missing from his personal cache, and a quiver. Zorvut must have taken it.
He slung his own bow over his shoulder, grabbing a full quiver, before running back to the stable. Jumping, he mounted Moonlight in one quick movement and took off, leaving the stable boy stammering and stumbling behind him.
“Open the gate!” he roared as he approached the castle gatehouse. He didn’t think he could slow down if he wanted to. With a shout, the guards standing post at the gate leapt to action, flinging it open just in time for Taegan to gallop through. He could hear them shouting for him, but he did not look back.
The main road out of the city was all cobblestone, so there were no prints to track.Where would he have gone?Taegan thought desperately as his eyes scanned the trail for any sign of Graksh’t’s massive hooves. Zorvut had appeared just as afraid of the warlord as he had been of the king, so it seemed unlikely he would go north toward the orc homeland. But he was unfamiliar with much of the area, and had only left the capital twice—the hunting trip with his father, and their hunting trip alone.
Their hunting trip. Surely he would have headed south, toward the Silverwood where the road eventually led into Autreth, to neutral land. He had a good twelve hour head start, but Taegan could catch up. He had to.
Chapter Thirteen
Taeganrodesouthforover an hour with no sign of Zorvut or Graksh’t. His head still throbbed, each pulse of pain a wave of doubt that he could ever find him. For all the certainty he had felt about where Zorvut would have fled, did he really know him that well after all? It was certainly wherehewould have gone, but Taegan didn’t know if they were truly alike at all anymore. It was hopeless, he told himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn Moonlight around. So onward he rode.
And then he saw it—just a flash of a print, much larger than Moonlight’s. He thought he might have imagined it, but then there was another, and a line of them in a stretch of the dirt road that was muddy and soft. It had to be Graksh’t. No other horse could leave a print so large. It had to be them.
“Yes,” he heard himself breathe in relief, relaxing into the saddle for the first time since he’d set out.
He rode on. Eventually, Moonlight’s pace slowed, and as much as he wanted to push her to maintain the same gallop, he knew the last thing he needed was to lose his horse, too. When he spotted Pondshear coming into view around the bend in the road, his heart leapt up into his throat, but there was no sign of the orc as he approached, only some muddy hoof prints continuing down the dirt pathway. By now, the sun had long since reached its peak and was beginning its descent back down toward the horizon in the west. His back ached, his thighs burned, his head still throbbed unendingly. But he couldn’t stop. He had to catch up.
When the sun was low in the sky, he finally saw a tendril of smoke in the distance, a singular dot of light beneath it. It was coming from up ahead, a little way off the path.
“Please,” Taegan whispered to himself, almost afraid to hope it was him as he rode toward it. As he drew nearer, the faint shapes became clearer. A campfire, a tent, a massive horse—and an orc with a greatsword strapped to his back.
“Zorvut!” he shouted with every ounce of strength left in him, standing in his stirrups. The figure whirled around to face him, reaching reflexively for the greatsword on his back. As he turned, he could see Zorvut’s fierce, battle-ready expression morph into shock as he recognized Taegan galloping toward him. It felt as though he were moving in slow motion, unable to get to him fast enough.
“Taegan?” he asked incredulously once he was within earshot. “What are you doing here?”
Taegan pulled back on the reins and Moonlight slowed to a stop a few paces away. Leaping off her in one quick motion, he moved to close the gap between them, but Zorvut stepped away hesitantly.
“I had to find you,” Taegan said as he stopped, realizing he was panting for breath. “This was a mistake. I’m so sorry, Zorvut, please, you have to come back.”
Zorvut’s brows furrowed, his lips pressing together in a grim line. He lifted a hand as if he wanted to pull Taegan close to him, then turned away.
“You should go back home,” he said, a forced coldness in his voice as he stepped toward his campfire.
“Not without you,” Taegan insisted, following him. “Please, I made a mistake. Did you...” He swallowed hard, forcing down the fear that welled in his throat. “Did you feel it, in your head, last night?”
Zorvut stopped when he said it, instinctively reaching up to touch the spot where his skull met his neck. All pretense of tough aloofness was gone now.
“Yes,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I made a mistake. It was me,” Taegan said, causing Zorvut to look back at him in confusion. “When you left, I... We talked to my father, and he suggested severing the bond, and... It was a moment of weakness, but I accepted. I never should have done it, I regretted it immediately. I’m so sorry.”
For a long moment Zorvut stared at him silently, processing his words.
“Severing the bond?” he repeated slowly.
“Yes,” Taegan replied, nodding. The anguish in his voice was palpable. “The bond between us was cut. We’re unbonded... Unmarried.”
Zorvut blinked, and Taegan saw a tear fall down his face as he looked away.
“I thought it was me,” Zorvut said softly, shaking his head. “I thought I had gone too far from you, and... And that’s just what the distance was like.”
“No, it was me. It was my fault,” he interrupted, fighting back his own tears. “I’m so sorry. Please, Zorvut, I beg you, come home.”
“Ican’t,” Zorvut insisted, pressing a hand to his eyes. “It’s not safe. Not for either of us.”
“I can’t go home without you.”
