Chapter 14.1.2

Peter responded to his offer by shoving me forward; Charles caught me before I sprawled in the snow. They worked together to put me in the stiff saddle of the warhorse. Peter tied me in with roped while Charles shorted the stirrups to feet my feet. When my sleeves fell back to reveal the raw flesh on my wrists, I heard the knight suck in his breath.

He had yet to see my face or ribs.

"Which way do you travel?" Charles asked.

Peter pointed toward Krast.

"The town is filled with soldiers." His tone was light, disinterested, as if gossiping. "They’re searching every house and building, and stopping every one, looking for people who left Rockridge last night. It might be easier for us if we went a different way."

We could go over the pass and into the Badlands, passing Rockridge on the way, or into the Eastern Green Forest. Perhaps, while the sun shone, the powers of the forest would be weak. If we could pass before sunset, we might be safe. There was a better chance among the enchanted boughs than with the soldiers, slim as it was.

I nodded. We would follow Peter’s path, after all. Hopefully it was the same one that the Master of Paths wished me to travel.

As we moved forward down the road, I thought of Elise. Was she safe? Would the soldiers recognize her, as well as Jason and Ison? Or would her sister’s gifts be enough to protect them? What did Charles know? I waited until he glanced back to check on me, and clumsily signed, "What of the lady and the harp?"

"It’s a good thing for you two that I happened to be free. I had just decided to go on a pilgrimage, and had planned to travel with companions, but they went on without me. The whole lot of them. It’s my own fault, of course. They sent the message for me to come, but I was too much into my cups and dice to pay any heed."

Charles? Drinking and gambling?

Then I realized what he was saying. My lord and my oldest friend had summoned Charles to go with them, but he ignored his lord and stayed for the one they were leaving behind. Not all Christians were evil. But Elise had gone with them, and taken my harp.

What had they said to make her leave me? That I was dead?

Probably. If not for Peter, I would have been.

Charles continued on, as if he was bothered by what he said. "I do not think I broke faith with my companions. I believe they broke faith with me, by leaving before they knew that all of our company was free. And I had made a promise that I found bound to keep. Do you think I did wrong?"

Peter lifted his hands, palms up. Those of his order do not judge.