This Is My Town

Chapter Sixteen ~ Rye

"So," Rye murmured lazily, "seeing as how you are not talking to either of us, I will take a wild guess by saying that you do not actually plan on getting out of your deal with Pandora."

If Enzo had snapped his head towards Rye any quicker, it would have fallen off. When Rye saw this reaction, however, he couldn't hide it in time because Rye sighed and looked back towards Kiara, who was in front of the two.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Enzo replied firmly, but Rye rolled his eyes.

"I am not a stupid man, Enzo," he replied just as firmly in that strong accent he possessed. "If you try and fool me, you will only be fooling yourself."

Enzo spared a glance at Rye, but Rye felt his gaze and raised an eyebrow.

"You do not know the struggle," Enzo said at last, turning away, but Rye clenched his fists together.

"No," he replied. "You do not know the struggle. We have all been living in a much deeper pain than you ever will be living in, and turning some poor girl in to a woman who wants her for only bad reasons is not the way to go about this. You cannot possibly be thinking about doing this; it is absolutely absurd."

"I will not turn her in," Enzo replied quietly, gritting his teeth together as he did so. "I plan on helping the woman."

"Yes, but which woman?" Rye pressed, turning his head towards Enzo. And, just as Rye had suspected, Enzo hesitated and glanced towards Kiara before he looked down.

"We have half of an hour to get to Hagon before she goes into blackout," he muttered. "Let us use it efficiently."

Rye couldn't object because Enzo had sped up to walk behind Kiara and her horse, but in front of Rye who was now walking alone as well. But he knew that his suspicions were correct, and he didn't need the Prince to deny or admit to them. Whatever Pandora wanted with Kiara, Enzo would be the cause of it, if it weren't for his carelessness in thinking that he had experienced life hard. Sure, his parents never told him they loved him, but he should have known that they did because if they didn't, Enzo wouldn't be alive to make such assumptions in the first place.

But still, Rye knew that what Enzo was doing was wrong. He couldn't get the woman's hopes up, only to crush them by taking her to the only person in the world that could torment her no matter where she escaped to. But what was Rye to do about it? He would have to wait, he supposed, until Enzo threatened to make the first move. As soon as he did, Rye would be waiting. He couldn't risk this woman's life all because one Prince was unhappy with his life, and one evil woman was unhappy with her world.

It just wasn't veracious.

"Five minutes for me," Kiara called out eventually, and they were about an hour away from Hagon, so Rye stepped forward to help Kiara onto her horse, where she lay down to prepare herself for her blackout. And when it did happen, she lolled her head forwards onto her horse as it rode on with her head bumping gently on its mane.

And, precisely an hour later, they arrived at the gates to Hagon, which looked like a much bigger and highly advanced version of Longreach, just not on a river or lake. And, it seemed to be much more populated.

"Halt!" someone called from above, and Rye glanced up to see someone standing above the three on a platform that ran across a large gate that stood below the man. He had a crossbow trained on them.

"We are in dire need of help," Rye called up after him. "It involves the incident of Pandora."

The man looked down and caught onto Enzo, and he immediately bowed his head before shouting at the men on either side of the gate to haul it upwards for them. When it had been raised, the man came down and ushered the three in, including Kiara's horse. The gate shut behind them, and it was at that moment that Rye realised they were safe, now.