Garinor sat down at the late morning meal and enjoyed a series of baked pastries, all filled with various fruits and spices. It was a meal unlike anything he had ever tasted and it was absolutely delicious. The cooks had outdone themselves.
As he ate, he debated Erina’s offers. First she had promised him something that was beyond logic; three days of work to earn a gold nugget. She had even admitted that it was unusual. And, in place of that, an immediate chance to be smuggled out of the city en route to the king.
Considering that he was being followed, and that she knew it since he had told her, Erina was taking a big risk on either account. There must be something for her in return, but he couldn’t imagine what it was. Maybe she thought she would convince him to work for her forever. Or perhaps she was going to alert the hunters and needed time to send word. If she sent him from the city, she would know where he was headed and they would find him easily.
He didn’t like to think ill of her intentions, so he changed the focus of his thoughts. He was being pursued and if she was found to have helped him, then she might be in danger. And so, at last, Garinor decided to venture off alone. When he finished his meal, he thanked her for her offers and headed into the city proper.
It wasn’t much later that Garinor was lost in the sunlit streets of the city. He left Erina’s complex feeling better that he would be relying on himself instead of others. His only problem was that he didn’t know what to do.
True to her other actions, Erina had offered advice for Garinor and he decided to accept at least that help. She bade him head north and seek a small village known as Fellanin and from there work his way west until he reached the castle, keeping off the main roads at all times. It was sound advice for his situation and so he worked his way to the north.
It took him a while to reach the northern gates of Kallinoria. To remain inconspicuous, he did what he could to fit in with the crowds that littered the streets. He hoped the hunters had not been tracking him through the city, but if they were, then he wanted to minimize his exposure.
He was questioned at the gate about his intended whereabouts and his plans for return. These seemed strange questions to him, so he offered only vague answers and pretended he was rather dumb. His act seemed to work because the guard eventually shook his head, sighed, and ushered him along.
It was another nice spring day, Garinor noticed once the hustle and bustle of the city was left behind him. If he were home, he and his friends would have escaped their chores in order to enjoy it together, willing to pay the price of angry parents for such a day. The breeze was crisp and rich, the sun was bright but not too hot, and soft fluffy clouds wafted lazily through the sky. He was tempted to lie on the ground and create stories for the various shapes he saw in the cloud patterns.
The sun was nearing its zenith as the town rolled away. He walked at a brisk pace, hoping to reach the village quickly. If he made good progress, he could be there by nightfall.
Everything around him seemed so much more alive than it had in the city. The hordes of people were nothing compared to the wonder of the landscape around him. Wildflowers danced in the fluttering breeze while the sunlight dimmed and brightened depending on the clouds overhead. It was a delightful journey.
However, it wasn’t delightful for long.
Garinor skipped over a brook and continued his pace when he heard a horse whinny in the distance. He saw to the east that a horse was coming fast, its rider bent low. The frantic hooves thundered against the earth. They were heading right for Garinor.
There wasn’t any place for him to run to, not that it would help. He tensed and prepared himself to dodge aside at the last moment if he needed to. Since arrows had been launched at him at the start of his journey, he kept himself ready for those as well.
“Run, hurry!”
Confused, Garinor noticed that the boy riding the horse had called out to him. Terrified though he obviously was, the boy brought the horse to a stop. His face was sweaty and he kept looking over his shoulder in fear.
“Listen, you gotta run,” said the boy, who was about Garinor’s age. “They’re after me. But they’ll get you too if you’re still here.”
Resigned, Garinor shook his head. “There’s nowhere here to hide, so you should continue and maybe they’ll look over me.”
The boy whimpered and bit his lip, his face creased in worry. “No, no, I can’t. Here, jump up!” He held out a damp palm and Garinor, reacting to the boy’s panic, grabbed on and hopped onto the horse awkwardly. He held on tight as the boy kicked the horse into top speed again.
Garinor peered over his shoulder, too, but he couldn’t see anyone in actual pursuit, just a shapeless shadow on the horizon. Either the boy had been hallucinating or he had put good distance between himself and his pursuers.
It didn’t take long for Garinor to realize that the boy was leading the horse due west. His advice had been to avoid the main road, and if they continued that way, they would hit it in no time. He yelled into the boy’s ears to veer north, but the boy was so blind with fear he ignored the demand. Garinor doubted jumping off the horse was a good move, so he held on and waited to see what would come next.
Garinor was not used to riding horses. The experience of riding behind the guard after being taken from home had been a challenge. Then, he had had a special saddle to ride in and a stolid man at the reins. This horse had no saddle and the boy acted out of desperation, with only a basic understanding of how to control a horse.
That last bit became obvious as the horse wearied and tried to slow down. The boy kicked hard into the horse’s flank and the animal tried to obey, but it was exhausted. Pushing hard, the horse forced itself to maintain its pace, but it eventually tired too much and missed its footing. One foreleg went down and the rest of the beast followed after in a horrible tumble. Garinor and the boy were propelled through the air as the horse crumpled to the ground.
The only thing that saved Garinor’s life in that perilous fall was the other boy, whose smaller body hit the ground first and acted as a buffer from which Garinor bounced and then landed a few feet away. He cracked into the dirt and rolled several times before finally stopping, his entire body in pain.
He couldn’t move. His whole body hurt. It was as if a large boulder were lying on top of him, pinning him down. He could hardly see anything. The horse screamed in pain and was flopping on the ground, trying to rise. At first Garinor couldn’t hear anything else. The other boy wasn’t moving. He was either unconscious or hadn’t survived the fall. But for the horse, all was still.
Garinor soon wished it had stayed that way.
Several minutes later, more hooves pounded into the dirt and two mounted horses arrived. Heavy-booted men dismounted and approached cautiously. They skirted around the lame horse and examined the unmoving boy. “Dead,” said one with a scratchy voice. Then they looked up at Garinor.
He strained to push himself up, to gain some control over his body, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know how badly he’d been hurt, but something felt terribly wrong inside. Regardless of his injuries, things weren’t good.
“Well lookie, Mer. Two fer da price o’ one.” He smiled a gap-toothed smile and asked, “Thinkin’ we mi’ get double pay?”
The other man skulked over and spat on Garinor. “Naw, you know da rules. Jus’ wot we was sended affer. But I got an idea.” He laughed and scratched his chin.
“Wot dat?”
“I says we take ‘im, hide ‘im, and den cash ‘im in anudder day.”
“Ooo, tha’s a good ‘un.”
Pain raged through Garinor’s body as he was bound and gagged and thrown harshly onto one of their horses. He was vaguely aware that they had taken the other boy’s corpse as well. He tried not to think about what was going on, but it was either that or think about how much everything hurt. As they went, the jostling from the horse hurt so badly that eventually his threshold of pain was surpassed and he fell finally, blissfully unconscious.