The Raven's Chronicles. Rage of the Wraith

Chapter 23. The Journey

"Everything is ready," Ravin scanned around the room and once again checked their saddlebags and bedrolls.

Jules sat by the table, pecking at the leftovers of scrambled eggs. Half asleep, he was about to toss them onto the floor - then remembered Sokal wasn't waiting for the snack as he used to do. The dog was truly gone, and after the last few eventful days, this realisation made Jules' heart ache.

Ravin took a seat on the chair across from the boy. He slapped his hand against the tabletop. The thump made Jules' jump up and look at his master with wide-open eyes. "Wake up and listen carefully. You're to stick close to me and do as I say. If I tell you to stay, you stay. If I tell you to hide, you hide. We're heading up north, and the woods there are wild and dangerous. Understood?"

Jules nodded. They would be heading in the Last Range's direction - it was the north border of the Limra Kingdom, and the land behind it belonged to no one. With no cities and no towns - no people to protect - hunters rarely launched into that area. Without their intervention, beasts and monsters lived and bred there freely. Jules didn't expect them to keep to their side of the border.

"All right, time to go," Ravin tossed Jules his bag.

The boy caught it with a groan. He hung his quiver over his back and strung his bow. He grabbed his backpack, stuck a saddlebag below one armpit and his bedroll under the other. Then, laden and barely standing, he reached for his reila. With a golden spark in his eyes, it jumped into his hand.

"I bet you won't carry it to the yard," Ravin took two of three other saddlebags and left the bedroom.

"Challenge accepted!" Jules called after him.

Opal and Grumbler waited for them on the yard, already saddled. The grumpy steed neighed crabbily when he saw his rider approaching, his face red from the effort, barely holding his luggage.

Jules dumped the bedroll and the saddlebag on the ground before the horse.

"Don't worry, it only looks heavy," he patted Grumbler's neck, then lifted his face toward the dark, cloudy sky. "If anything, I would worry about that."

Ravin shook his head at this and walked back to their bedroom to take the last bag and his weapon. Jules began to attach their luggage to their saddles. He was hitching his bedroll to Grumbler's saddle when he heard a gentle hoofbeat. He looked up to see Captain Rogre heading toward him with a chestnut mare.

"Where's Ravin?" the man stopped by Opal and the two steeds started to nudge and smell each other.

"He went to take the rest of our things," Jules watched the two animals with a hint of amusement. "Are you leaving, sir?"

"I'm coming with you," the Captain raised his hand in a welcome gesture at the sight of the hunter approaching them. "Lord Kedmon wanted to go with you himself, but the recent events made him stay here."

Jules nodded, relieved. He hadn't seen the Lord since the last afternoon. After their return from the Lensters, Ravin had taken his apprentice to Lord Kedmon's office, and the boy apologised to the best of his abilities for picking up the fight with Arthur and taking the pendant. To say the man was outraged was an understatement; he would have slapped the boy if the hunter hadn't stopped him. Then, Rosalie appeared and using what she'd learn from old Lady Lenster, she must have gotten through to her father somehow. The man paled, and as he dismissed the two mages from his office, Jules could swear he saw tears swelling in his eyes.

"His place is here, with his family and people," Ravin came with the last saddlebag, regarding his friend with a short nod. "Everybody ready to go?"