King Alexander's Witch

2

The sun had completely fallen by the time Isabel had come back into consciousness after accidentally falling asleep on the horses back.

"Ah, nice to have you back sleeping beauty." Theodore says,  sounding tired and Isabel blushes.

"Do you want to stop here Theo?" Rowan directs at his partner as he slows to match his pace.

"Yeah here's good." Theodore nods and veers to his left, stopping on the side of the dusty road. Rowan does the same and they jump down. Rowan looks at Isabel, assessing her height before deciding to lift her off of the large animal. He leads her over to where Theodore had started setting up a campfire and stopped, crouching down.

"I'm sorry, but we have to make sure you're not going to leave." Without giving Isabel time to think, he takes a pair of shackles from inside his forest green coat and putting them on her ankles, leaving her enough space to walk but not very fast. She looks startled and tries to shake them off as Rowan turns back and goes to take the equipment off of the horses.

Isabel sits, quickly growing annoyed at the metallic restrains. She grumbles and pulls at the chain. She starts mumbling some words as she brushes her tangled hair back and the chains begin to heat up.

"That wont work." Theodore states comfortably as he glances at the cloaked witch and she gasps, immediately removing her hand from the hot metal. Theodore chuckled and sat down by the fire, closing his eyes.

"Do you really think the king would get us to restrain a person with magic with simple cuffs? No. That metal is highly resistant to heat, acid and brute force, plus it doesn't rust." Rowan explains as if it is obvious. Isabel just nods as Rowan walks back over, brushing his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes and tosses the witch and Theodore an apple to eat. Isabel catches the fruit easily and the other one hits the half-asleep Theodore directly in his privates, making him yelp and curl up.

"Eat your apple and get some sleep Isabel. We leave at sunrise." Rowan quickly states before sitting down and leaning back against a tree.

---

Isabel wakes early, not needing as much sleep due to her horseback nap. She looks around, her eyes adjusting to the early morning light and thinks.

I could kill them.

The thought lingers in her mind and she chuckles, discarding the idea to stay on the kings good side. All she would have to do is touch the bodies or something in the area for one of his skilled hunters to have her scent and track her down. Instead, she reaches for her bag that had been placed within her reach and takes out a hairbrush, using the spare time to neaten her hair.

---

The trio pass through the forest at a hurried pace, Rowan stating regularly that they are behind and need to hurry up. Isabel aches due to the rough travelling on horseback and she now has her muddy dress sat up around her thighs despite the two men complaining and protesting for her to cover up.

"We're almost to the capital." Theodore calls from behind, sounding bored.

"You're going to need a new dress before you meet King Alexander. You look like a peasant woman." Rowan scoffs and turns to Theodore, who chuckles softly.

Isabel sighs and mumbles a few words, summoning a weak electrical spell and zaps the horse she is sitting on. The horse bucks and Isabel jumps down, landing awkwardly and running off down the road. She hears a yelp and then a thud as Rowan is tossed from the horse.