Sovereign - The Dark Sorcerers: Book 2

Chapter 2: Country Roads

Rowan

"We're lost."

"No, we're not. That's the Connra River over there, between those two hills, you see?"

"I see no damn river. I tell you, Larry, we're as lost as a bloody White Sister on a honeymoon!"

Smoothing out the ripple between my eyebrows, which seemed to have been burned permanently into my skin, I did my best to block out the Dwarfs' endless bickering and studied the map on my lap. Grudgingly, I had to admit to myself that the lines representing roads and rivers had begun to blend together after traveling for weeks with no more than four hours of sleep at night.

A gentle hand patted my arm. When I looked over my shoulder, I found my mother staring back at me. Concern deepened the wrinkles on her face, wrinkles that hadn't been there when Amelia and I had been younger and we had still been a happy family.

We can be a happy family again, I reminded myself. You just have to figure out the way home.

"Can I have a look at that, sweetheart?" Mom asked, holding out her hand. Lacking the energy to argue about it, I handed her the map. She spread it out in front of her on Rynn's back; Ellie, who sat right behind her, stretched her neck to peer over my mother's shoulder.

Larry shifted behind me in the saddle and his soft, kind voice whispered in my ear, "Sorry for being such nuisances all the time."

Despite my exhaustion, I chuckled. "I suppose you get used to it after a while." Larry let out a nervous giggle, but didn't answer. As the silence lengthened, I cast a quick glance backward and saw that he was staring at Ellie, seemingly unaware of the admiration that was all over his face. Ellie rolled her eyes at him, but I knew that she didn't mean it. We all knew, except for the two of them.

A few months ago, I probably would have laughed at Larry's complete adoration for Ellie. I would have found it absurd to lose yourself into another person so much that you couldn't function properly without them. However, one stubborn Sorceress had changed that. She had changed me in so many ways.

I missed her.

Most nights, Kenna's face showed up everywhere in my dreams. The guilt that swept over me in those moments almost tore apart my resolution to guide my mother and the Dwarfs back to the Academy. A few nights ago, I had woken up with my skin covered in sweat after a vivid nightmare about the horrors that awaited Kenna in Vallinstra, and it had taken every ounce of willpower I had not to jump on Eros's back and ride to the Dark Capital. No matter how much my heart yearned to return, I couldn't just abandon my companions. My mother.

Not again.

Shaking off the memories of the past and the unfortunate decisions that had led to this point, I steered Eros closer to Rynn and attempted another look at the map. Three weeks ago, Kenna's portal had spat us out near the entrance of the Maze of Thorns, and we had been following the shortest route to Brunwill until a party of rogue Dark Sorcerers had noticed my uniform and had pursued us further to the south. We had finally gotten rid of them about fifteen miles back, but now we were a bit disoriented, to say the least.

"I think that's the Silent Woods over there," Mom said, pointing at the trees which covered the hills in the distance. "So that would mean that we're close to a rural town called Emín. The Connra River runs on the other side of that town, so if we ride through it, we could follow the river back north until we reach the road again." She traced the route with her finger.

"I think you're right." Frowning, I leaned a bit closer. "Where can we find this town?"

"It should be between those two hills over there."