The Fires of Esus - Ranger's Apprentice

Chapter 29: One Druid to Another

It wasn't until the following evening that Will knew Lewellyn was following them.

They had ridden slowly through the area Will suspected the druid tribe would be, leaving plenty of trails, fires with fresh coals, and even some clothing remnants snagged on branches. They would have to be idiots if they couldn't track them by now, Alyss knew. She had only basic tracking skills, and even she could have found this camp by now. A group of forty three riders moving along a large road should be simple enough to find, and with the extra clues, it shouldn't take them any time at all.

They were only a few hours from the Solitary Plains, in a fief just north of Stamford, and she hoped Lewellyn would intercept them soon. Alyss wanted this whole thing to be over. The tenseness of it all, not knowing when Lewellyn would appear, or how she would attack, or what she would even do, was fraying on everyone's nerves.

She could tell Will was at his wit's end, and rightfully so. He rode at her side most of the time in order to keep her company and, most importantly, because he wasn't obligated to speak with her. If he rode with the soldiers in their escort, he would be obliged to chat with them, answer their many curious questions, and be inevitably uncomfortable with the attention.

And his only other option, and worst of them all, was to ride with King Carr.

His Majesty, when given the chance, would not stop talking. If a moment of silence stretched longer than he deemed comfortable, King Carr would launch into another story about his youth, or his time with the druids, or any other petty tales he kept in his dusty attic of a mind. And occasionally, to Alyss's horror, he would offer her advice about her pregnancy. A crotchety old man, with no wife and no daughter, slightly off his rocker, giving her advice on giving birth? Terrifying, to say the least. For this reason, Will would frequently ride out in front of the group, as he was doing now, scouting and keeping watch, but also using it as an escape from the King's babbling.

"Delaney, my wife from many years ago, back when she was giving birth to... to..." the King's voice broke as he whispered his dead son's name, "Athol, she would always drink honey lemon tea and have massages to help her back pain. That really helped her feel a lot better, especially when she was really big, all blown up like a balloon." He wiped a lingering tear from his eye, which had been a common occurrence in the last few days. He sat on the back of his wagon, swinging his short legs over the edge as two horses pulled it from the front, looking up at Alyss's tall form atop her horse.

"Oh, really?" Alyss murmured politely, not really listening. Her gaze was fixed on Will's back, no more than a gray smudge in the distance, watching to make sure he was alright. It made her nervous when he nearly disappeared like this, where she couldn't be sure if the smudge she was staring at was him anymore. She liked it much better when he was safely by her side, where he couldn't be ambushed by anyone.

But she also knew that if anyone in this escort could hide from an ambush, or survive one, it would be Will. It was why he had been assigned to the mission, after all. He had to do his job.

So she let him go, with only a lingering smile and a kiss good-bye, biting back the worries on her tongue by chewing the inside of her cheek until it bled.

She heaved a silent sigh of relief as she saw the smudge of Will's cloak getting closer now. The form of Tug became clearer and clearer as he cantered quickly back to the escort, his face tired.

As her worry lifted momentarily, she realized the King had continued speaking, probably to himself, for the last few minutes. "...and the last thing she had, right before she gave birth, she wanted to prevent complications and got some really great advice from a midwife to get daily massages on her-"