Outside of the Red Gate, the glamour and filth of the capital city was immediately washed away and the emerald green countryside of Corinth unfolded before the eyes of the prince and the sellsword. The gates closed with a thud behind them; they wouldn't open until the sky was blue, and shut them out of the capital.
"So where to first, Your Grace," Crow huffed.
"What?" The prince replied stupidly. Crow rolled his eyes.
"Where are we going, princeling? Where is this dragon with your sister. What's your plan?"
"Oh. Well, I'm not quite sure," Crow balked. The prince continued like he didn't notice. "She was taken from just outside the Silver Gate and the dragon flew east from there. So I suppose we ought to ride east."
"You suppose? What kind of quest is this?" Crow demanded.
"It's not a quest! It's a rescue mission."
"Well what kind of rescue mission is this?"
"A desperate one!"
Both boys ended up glaring at each other.
"She's the bloody princess," Crow said finally. He sighed and turned back towards the horizon. He hadn't been out of the city in a very long time. "Shouldn't it be a natural that she's rescued? Why are you going on a secret mission?"
Crow glanced at the prince sideways glance to swell him clenching his jaw.
"My father is waiting for some worthy suitor to step up and rescue her," Declan gritted out. Crow raised an eyebrow.
"You're starting to really sound like you're in love with the princess yourself," he remarked. Declan shot him a seething look. "Okay. Right. Dragons typically nest in the north. They're not creatures of company but they tend to live in the same area. And the north is where most live. There's the few odd ones like Sven of the east but he almost never leaves his hoard so I say our best bet is north."
"Which way is north?"
Crow stared at the prince. How did he expect to fight a dragon? The prince just stared back.
"This way," Crow said. He tapped his heels into the flank of his horse. She broke into a trot down the hilly road leading from the city gate.
"Crow, this is east isn't it? Red for the sunrise," Declan called.
"Yes. But you wanted to leave from the Red Gate and we're already here and it would be a waste to go back through the city. Plus the northern gate of the city is the Royal Gate which is in the palace and you seem to be avoiding the palace with your covert mission," Crow answered with strained patience. Declan remains silent behind him but the sound of a four more hooves crunching under gravel reached Crow's ears.
"Have you been up north then?" The prince asked after a while. He had caught up to Crow, riding side by side. He hadn't really processed what he had gotten himself into until he glanced over at the princeling. He sat in his fancy saddle with grace and poise that Crow had never imagined a boy having. His golden curls were a bit wilder than Crow thought they should be for a prince but what did he know. Worry lines etched over his freckled features and he occasionally but the corner of his lips. They were pretty lips, full and pink. The more Crow studied the prince, the more he marveled at him. He looked like a normal person but at the same time he didn't. He was softer, obviously innocent to the world.
"I was born in the north," Crow replied to Declan. He fell silent after satisfying the prince's question. Declan did tat thing where he bit his lip again, clearly uncomfortable with his situation and with Crow.
Finally Crow broke the silence; "Why did you ask me to do this?"
Declan turned to him with his lip still between his teeth and brown eyes wide. He seemed relieved that Crow had said something. "The rumors. That you're the bravest street fighter and you have honor."
Crow snorted.
"Do you not have honor?"
"I'm no knight, Your Highness. I'm not some scoundrel that steals from little girls but I don't think I'm what you would consider honorable," Crow assured him. Declan worried the reins in his hands. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be bold and chivalrous, being the crown prince and all?"
"I just wanted some one else to..." The prince trailed off.
"To be your muscle."
"Yeah. Sure."
The pair fell back into silence.
The town of Knob sprung up around the two riders, first in the form of tiny farm houses that and fields the soon blended into clustered cottages. Crow had been through Knob once before. It was one of the four First Villages on the roads leading from Lux, where the majesty and filth of the capital ended and the wilds and backwater living began. The dirt street turned into rough cobbles that the horses often stumbled on. The road fanned out into a square in the center of the village. People were already out and selling their goods. It smelled of fresh bread and shit. A fountain splashed down into a pool in the center of the square. A young girl sat on the edge of a basin, petting an orange stripped cat.
Declan stared at everything with a childlike wonder. It made Crow think that he'd never seen anything outside of the city before. And this was the boy who was meant to be king. And sooner than later, the way the princes father was rumored to be faring currently. Crow rolled his eyes at the prince and tugged his horse towards a bakery.
"What are you doing?" Declan asked in a slightly panicked voice.
"Getting something to eat. It's bloody early," Crow grumbled. He swung himself down to the ground and tethered the reins to a post. The princeling clumsily stumbled off of his mount behind him. Crow rolled his eyes again.
"Are you going to be able to pay for this?" The baker asked Crow suspiciously when he asked for a croissant.
"I can't but my friend here can," Crow said smoothly, jerking his hand to the oblivious prince gazing at everything in the shop. Crow called his name sharply. "Pay the man."
"Pay him what? Can I get something?" Declan said, snapping out of his stunned haze.
"I suppose," Crow grumbled. He shot a glare at the prince who asked for another croissant. The baker told him the cost and Declan dropped a small pile of silver coins into the man's outstretched hand. They each took their pastries and left the bakery. Declan followed Crow over to the fountain in the square, sitting down next to each other on the narrow rim of the basin. Crow angrily bit into his food and glowered at the street ahead of him.
"How long do think this will take us?" Declan asked hesitantly as he nibbled on his pastry. He had intended to prove himself, even if it was just to this one man. But now, after only an hour, Declan felt himself caving under the sell-sword's withering gaze. He hadn't been prepared for this. He had thought as far as to get Crow onto his side and bring back Annora. She'd already been gone for a week and the pain of her absence, plus the pain of his fathers refusal to rescue her, still stung deeply. Mercer left two days before, armed with his assassins, which is what prompted Declan's uncharacteristic show of bravery. Declan suspected that his step brother was planning on earning the king's reward of marrying Annora and then somehow getting rid of Declan. Taking another bite of his croissant, he glowered at a daisy springing up from the cracks in the pavement.
"It would be easier to know what we were looking for or where we're going," Crow grunted. "But you decided to spontaneously be a hero."
"She's my sister. Don't you have anyone in your life you would do anything for?" Declan snapped. Crow's thoughts jumped to Cordelia and Maude but stays silent. Declan pipes up after a moment. "My step brother went looking for her too."
Crow raised an eyebrow and Declan remembered that the bastard son of the king was a well kept secret.
"General Mercer Grey," Declan said through gritted teeth. "The son of my father and his mistress Lady Elena."
Crow scoffed. "Let's go princeling."
