Emmaris shrugged. “If he left a while ago, I doubt we can find him. Get some sleep, Arwing. We’ll figure this out in the morning, I promise.”
She nodded, sniffling back tears she hoped he couldn’t see in the dark. They both rose; she to return to her place by the fire, him to his post to keep watch until dawn. Neither slept as the sky faded from navy blue to light gray, and then to colorful hues of pink and red. Arwing stared at the sky, praying that Maston would return to her.
Maston watched the same sunrise over his shoulder as the horse cantered through the wood. His mind wandered as time passed. The only sound was the snort of the horse as it struggled for breath in their hurried ride. Finally, Krystal called over the wind, “Do you have any kind of plan?”
“Not really…We’re both good fighters, I think we just storm the jail and try to spring him. They probably won’t have a lot of soldiers lying around, the garrison’s back in town, remember? And the Guard doesn’t fight that well anyway.”
She nodded. “Actually, I meant overall. This is going to look suspicious, you know. And I do believe your girlfriend saw us go.”
“She was asleep. I checked.”
“Pretending. I saw her eyes open when you threw me on the horse.”
“When we come back with Bond, it’ll all be obvious.”
“And how will we catch up to them?” Krystal pressed.
“We’ll buy, or steal, a horse. Then we ride like hell. They’re the bigger party, we should be able to catch up.”
And indeed, one horse moved faster than four. Before the sun was fully risen in the sky, Krystal and Maston cantered through the ghostly Port Sarim, south to the prison building. Pink had turned to light blue when they rained up in front of the small, squat stone jail and dismounted.
16-Jun-2007 21:17:52
