Garinor decided that the risk was too great. He needed to leave the orphanage and therefore lead other pursuers away. Inera tried to convince him that he was perfectly safe, but it wasn’t entirely his own safety he was concerned about. If he did anything else to endanger the lives of the children and the women here, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
He accepted a pack of provisions for the road and set off immediately. It was still late morning and he had a lot of hours ahead of him to put distance behind him. He didn’t even take time to say goodbye to Jinorrah, for he thought that if he did, he would change his mind about leaving.
Determined to get as far away as possible, Garinor set himself at a brisk jog toward the north. It wasn’t an easy route to take for there were many stones and pebbles along the way and on a few occasions he slipped and nearly fell. It was bad enough that the men were after him; it didn’t help feeling like the landscape was against him as well.
Yet he made good progress. He was glad when he turned around and saw that the orphanage had disappeared behind him. He didn’t want to cause them any more trouble than he already had. But he didn’t slow his pace. He rested when he needed to, but he kept his legs pumping all the rest of the time.
As the afternoon drew late, Garinor heard screams and shouts of anger in the distance. He kept low and dodged around the random smattering of trees, but he didn’t see anyone. He kept pushing onward, further north, and when the ground sloped upward, he lay on the grass and crawled forward to see.
There was a battle going on below. Men and women in mismatched armor were defending themselves against the leather-armored men of the opposing forces. Garinor knew at once what was going on. The prince was clearly involved. He looked around to see where the royal leader would be hiding, and as he scanned toward the western side he saw him there, astride his horse and out of range of the fighting.
The sun was setting and the prince looked down on the battlefield like a god playing at chess. He fiddled with a horn in his lap, as if debating whether or not it was worth the effort to use. Looking at him there atop the hill while his troops fought in his stead angered Garinor. He could see that the other combatants were weary, but they were not giving up.
Garinor didn’t think he could possibly jump into the fray and help the other army, but he wanted to do something. With the prince just paces away, he thought he might be able to take him down and put an end to the tyrannical hunts. On the other hand, the prince seemed like he could handle himself in a battle if it came to that, and he wondered what an unarmed boy of fourteen could possibly do. No one was to the east of Garinor, so he could escape that way if he needed to.