When all she did was stare at him, he frowned, breaking eye contact. “I’ll be back in anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. See you then.” With that, he gave Eclipse a kick, and left her standing there with a sinking feeling in her chest.
10
Surrender
I t wasn’t hard, luring the lance away from the trail they followed. As if they didn’t realize that the single rider couldn’t possibly have made so many tracks, as if they thought he could be the quarry they searched for. Fools. But, it served to his benefit, their foolishness. If they had been smart, and only sent a dozen or so soldiers after him, he would have had to devise some strategy to attract the rest of the lance. Then again, he could have just dealt with the dozen, then the next dozen they sent, then the next.
Well, what was the fun in that? It would be too easy. This way, he had a challenge—a lance of around seventy knights, all thundering on Eclipse’s heels.
More importantly, this way he didn’t need to worry about the wards and other Wardens. With the entire lance after Yhkon, Grrake would have plenty of time to get the group gathered up and moved out.
He’d also made it more difficult for the Kaydorians to rediscover the trail later. They had been dumb enough to follow him as he had criss-crossed the trail multiple times before heading west, away from the group’s direction. That way, the knights’ coliyes would have trampled over a great deal of the tracks, hopefully obliterating the trail to an untrained eye.
Now, of course, there was the matter of “dealing” with the lance. Yhkon twisted to look over his shoulder, satisfying himself that they were still after him. Eclipse had been going at an easy gallop for nearly an hour, but was still fresh. He had at least a few more hours of energy, before he’d begin tiring. The coliyes, on the other hand, with lower speed but greater stamina, would be able to run for significantly longer than a celith; even a well-bred, excellently trained one.
Which meant, sooner rather than later, he would have to find a way to deal with them other than just outrunning them. Well, he had options, and they weren’t so bad. Take on the force, cripple it, get captured and fight his way out—all sorts of fun ways to handle the problem.
The thought immediately brought a nagging stab of guilt. Oh, gods’ end, why couldn’t he go ten minutes without thinking, saying, or doing something that made him want to look around lest Grrake had noticed? He didn’t give a dragon’s hair what the council thought, what the other Wardens thought, what just about any other person thought of him. Why did Grrake have to be the exception? He wasn’t even present, and the man managed to give Yhkon a guilty conscience.
He drew in a long breath. That didn’t matter here. Whatever Grrake thought, the simple fact was that the lance had been about to find and attack them, and had to be stopped. Yhkon was stopping them. Simple as that.
~♦~
“So, how’s he gonna find us, though?”
Rikky voiced the question that she had a feeling all the wards were thinking. The only reason she hadn’t already asked it was because she didn’t really want to talk about the lead Warden, just then.
Talea caught a murmur from Grrake, who was walking nearest her, that no one else seemed to hear. “Finding us won’t be the problem.” His head was down, hazel eyes tangibly pained.
Whatever her resentment, hurt, or disappointment directed at Yhkon was, it was clearly a laborer’s living compared to Grrake’s. It made it difficult to hold on to any bitterness, as if by doing so she was somehow hurting Grrake more. Ahjul was assuring Rikky of Yhkon’s excellent tracking abilities that would make finding them easy, but she tuned it out to speak quietly to Grrake. “Don’t you think he can deal with the lance?”
“No, I…” He closed his eyes briefly, pursed his lips, then mustered a weak smile for her. “I’m sure he can. Truly, I am, I know better than anyone how capable he is.”
Somehow he managed to sound like he completely believed his own words, yet wasn’t convinced by them. “Well, you trained him, right?” She gave an encouraging smile of her own. “And if he’d felt the lance was more than he could handle, he would have come back and gotten some of you Wardens to draw them off with him.”
The way Grrake’s expression sagged, adding years to his appearance, told her that had not been the right thing to say.
A tingling sensation crawled over her skin, sinking into her muscles. Connections, realizations, they all took place in her alarmed mind without her being able to quite comprehend their conclusions. She knew what Grrake’s reaction meant. It explained things that had previously confused her—Yhkon’s savagery in a fight, his bouts of apathy and vacancy, his eagerness to engage in a conflict where he was severely outnumbered.
Her voice snagged in her throat twice before she finally cleared it and spoke quietly, moderately. “What happened to him?”
Grrake shook his head, shoulders even more slumped than before, making her feel like she was just packing more weight onto the burden he was already carrying. “A lot of things happened to him, none of which he would want me to tell.”
Yhkon and his secrecy. Did he not realize that if he was dealing with that much pain, it was probably past time he accepted some help with it? Or could he not see past the pain? Or, did the nature of what had happened have something to do with it?
“But…” Grrake surprised her by speaking again. His demeanor had changed, there was a spark of energy, or at least of desperation. “You can help him. He cares for you. If you could get him to open up to you…he needs someone, someone to help him. I think that could be you, Talea.”
Her life hadn’t been carefree, all sunshine and roses. But it seemed unlikely that she had any personal experience with whatever sort of grief Yhkon faced. How could she help him? All he’d ever done was shut her out when she’d tried. Unlike Grrake, she didn’t even know what exactly she was trying to help. If Grrake hadn’t been able to help the lead Warden, how could she?
Other than to look at him anxiously, trying to find the words, she didn’t get the chance to reply. Larak, at the head of the group, stopped. “Grrake, what do you say to stopping for the night, even though it’s a bit early? We can send two of us out to check for any signs of pursuit, but I imagine Yhkon has the lance well taken care of.”
The baritone voice held a note of sympathy, of discreet support. Larak knew. He understood the details of the circumstances.
“Yes.” Grrake straightened and nodded. He still looked weary, worried, but he obviously wasn’t going to succumb to it yet. In Yhkon’s absence, he was their leader. “Tarol, Gustor, you go. Three miles. Everyone else, let’s set up camp. No fire.”
Mechanically, Talea joined Kae and Terindi in performing their usual tasks. The entire group was lethargic, though the Wardens less so. After Talea had come panting and stumbling back into camp the previous morning, telling about the lance and Yhkon drawing them off, they had packed up and rode out. Through the day, into the night, and into the next, to put as much distance between them and the lance as possible. The wards had been able to sleep, sort of, riding behind the Wardens through the night. Except Wylan, since he rode Ash. She’d ridden with Gustor. Still, no one had gotten much rest, and during the day they’d done plenty of walking to give the celiths a break.