"Ooh, la, me traipsing about a castle like my lover owns it," Odilia said with a laugh, holding a hand to her chest. "Won't even know what to do with myself."
"I'm sure you'd find something," Everard drawled, "especially since I can already see Lee intends to drown you in fancy gowns and jewels and whatever else your magpie heart desires."
"What in the world would I do with all that nonsense? I can barely manage the three gowns I do own."
Leonine laughed. "It's a castle—there's staff for that. You're going to have to get used to the idea you're not the staff anymore, not when you're with me."
"Don't think they get out the gold candlesticks and the fancy plates for the lord's scandalous lovers."
"Scandalous?" Leonine scoffed. "What's scandalous? You should see what they get up to in the royal castle. Just days before I left, Lady Winra was caught with two footmen and her personal maid. All at once. In the same bed. Some are saying her husband almost killed her and sacked all of them, but others are saying he joined right in. I had to leave before I could figure out the truth, sadly."
Everard laughed. "You and your gossip."
"It's like free entertainment all day, every day," Leonine said. As long as he didn't take it seriously or actually judge anyone by it, as most gossip had all the substance of fairy candy. "There were rumors only just trickling in about Lord Caruther's newborn when I had to leave. Hopefully someone will catch me up on everything when I get back."
"There's always someone willing to talk about other people's problems, don't worry," Everard replied. "If not for free, then usually for a few drinks."
Leonine laughed. "Divine truth. I…" He trailed off as something caught his eye, a bit of root or something that seemed out of place. "Hold a moment." He guided his horse toward it, drawing his sword just to be safe—and immediately sheathed it again when he got close enough to see it was a boot, and that boot hadn't moved for some time.
Dismounting, Leonine dug out his trowel and set to clearing the snow away as best he could. After a few minutes, Everard joined him, and then it was quick work to finally get the body free.
"One of the men who attacked me," Leonine said. "Looks like he was heading for town to treat his wounds. Why didn't someone help him?" The snow he'd been buried in was caked with red, so he'd clearly bled out before he'd frozen to death, though the difference had probably been slight. "If he'd had help, he likely would have made it."
Everard pulled the body to a clearer, firmer patch, and with a quick kiss of thanks, Leonine crouched and started to go through the dead man's clothes. Easier said than done, since he was as frozen as the ground, but a careful use of magic made things a bit easier.
Unfortunately, his efforts didn't turn up much: coin, cigarettes, a couple days' rations, a cheap knife, and a smudgy charcoal drawing on a piece of greasy paper that looked like the kind herbs, medicines, and other such things were wrapped in at sale. "What is this, do you suppose?"
There really wasn't much to the drawing—some lines and numbers, one of them circled.
Everard took it. "Port map, I think. Dock nine. Place is a maze if you don't know it, so people are always drawing these little shorthand maps that can be matched to the official one at the port." He grinned and handed it back. "Surely you fancies need to get around the port too."
"They send servants, or simply go to the main office and send one of their staff to do all the hard work," Leonine said with an answering grin. "So assuming this is a recent thing, and not leftover from a previous job, they're heading for the port. That's something, at any rate. We'll need to work hard to catch up to them, though. If they reach the ship before I reach them…"
"You're vastly underestimating how much this weather is slowing down everyone who doesn't have your abilities, money, and determination," Odilia said with a smile. "Come on, unless there's more you can get from him." She wrinkled her nose, but like any innkeeper, she'd seen her share of the dead and dying.
Leonine and Everard mounted back up, and the trio rode off, making slow, but steady progress to the tree line, where hopefully things would get a bit easier.
"What I wouldn't give for a mug of tea right now," Odilia muttered. "When we stop for the night, I'm going to drink so much I'll be boiling clear through tomorrow."
Everard laughed. "You'll be pissing clear through tomorrow too."
"Oh, shut up," Odilia said as Leonine laughed. "You men and your latrine humor."
"I mean, he's right," Leonine said.
Odilia sighed.
As they entered the tree line, following the closest thing to a road he could find, the going did indeed get easier. Eventually they were even able to settle onto the actual road, which made traveling even easier.
Unfortunately, if the men he was hunting had made it into the tree line, they could be well on their way to the port by now, and there was no way Leonine could catch up in time, even if he was traveling alone.
"Stop worrying yourself to death, Lee," Everard said gruffly. "You don't know where they are, what's happened, what could be delaying them—too many variables to be worth obsessing over."
Odilia laughed. "You should know."
"Yes, exactly."
Leonine cast them a puzzled look. "What do you mean? I don't think Everard worries about anything. Except maybe when you both worried about me so much you cast me aside."
They both sighed. "We don't need the reminder."
"Too bad," Leonine replied in singsong tones, and laughed when they glared at him. "Seriously, though, Everard never worries."
"Used to, though, when I was a little younger than you. Worried myself literally sick. Headaches, couldn't keep food down… had to work a long time to get over that habit. Every now and then it tries to creep back up, though less and less the older I get. By the time I'm wrinkled down to a prune, probably won't even worry about taking a shit."
Odilia groaned. "Stop it!"
Leonine and Everard laughed.
When they reached the eventual split in the road, which Leonine had been quietly worried they wouldn't, given how difficult it had been at times to follow the road—they veered left, toward the port city of Javera.
They hadn't been traveling down the new road long when Leonine heard something. He threw an arm out, halting the other two.
Just when he was starting to think he'd imagined it, or had simply heard an animal or breaking branch, the sound came again.
A sneeze. A poorly muffled, very human sneeze. Signaling the other two to remain where they were, Leonine slowly and quietly dismounted, drawing his sword before venturing off the road and into the woods where the sneeze had seemed to come from.
Several steps into the woods, he came across evidence of another person, and the further he went, the more obvious the signs became, especially the odd splashes of blood scattered about. Someone had been foraging about for food, but not long or well. Likely they were sick or injured.
Leonine pursed his lips. Injured. Like a man with a leg wound that had slowed him down before and might be proving an even greater trial now with the weather so much worse, especially if he hadn't been able to afford a healer.