More ships were leaving.
Leyden was at the stables with the Horse Master, watching the ships sail into the sun. The horse master had to steer his attention back to the two horses he had.
"We could really use them," Leyden said.
The horse master seemed unwilling to part with them, there was an emotional connection there that went beyond money. Since money hadn't been enough to sway him he instead turned to the royal piece of paper in his pants pocket. He unrolled it and handed it to the squinting man with the horses.
"I wanna help you, but I gotta run a business here, and you just don't have enough," Leyden wondered if he had even read the royal orders, it seemed like he passed it back too quickly.
"You did see those orders were signed by Queen Galian, yes?"
"Look, I can't give stuff away to every guy with a piece of paper."
Leyden understood, he wished the Queen had sent him with more money. "I promise you'll be compensated when our mission is complete."
"How much money do your friends have?"
Leyden didn't like it but he turned to Yeera and Eilee and told them to empty their pockets.
"What?" Eilee asked, not liking it.
"You know you'll get anything back, what good is money where we're going anyway?"
Eilee respired as Yeera began searching for coins. When they had what they had, they gave it to Leyden and he counted it. They waited as the horse master counted it, he finally nodded and Leyden showed relief as the horses were made ready.
"Where ya heading?"
Leyden pointed up at Siladrin. The horse master shook his head.
"Might wanna wait, we sent marauders into the forest to kill trolls. If they come back, they should be back soon for coin from us."
"And what if I'm going west?" Leyden knew such an announcement wouldn't be met with approval.
"Well then I'd say that's a really bad idea."
"And why is that?" He had an idea of what the old man might say but wanted to find out of he knew something else he hadn't heard.
"Because the dormid caves are west of here. Nobody knows what's down in those caves, that's because nobody has ever come back to tell anybody about it. Besides, the entrance is blocked off. Smartest thing King Erimon ever did."
"We're not going that way, are we?" Eilee asked, nudging Leyden.
Leyden was indeed thinking about it. Even if they could sneak past the troll giants there was no way to know for sure that they would not be caught in a blizzard.
"If we take the mountain pass Covac might send scouts to stop us. Dormid would give us the quietest approach," he added to his thought process.
"Listen, sir!" The horse master's urgency gave Leyden pause. "There's nothing but death down there," he said, shaking his head with genuine concern.
Leyden pulled on the reins of the bigger horse and nodded at Yeera to get the other.
"Wait for the marauders, take the path through the forest, I beg you! Don't go in the caves!"
"Thanks for the horses."
Leyden walked away with Yeera and they mounted their horses. Eilee didn't want to go, she wanted to quit right there, she thought Leyden would probably let her too, but she wasn't getting paid to quit, so she got on Yeera's horse and they went west. The horse master knew he would never see them again, and he shook his head because they were being stupid.
It was still early morning when Morrigan, Cara, and Sandril reached a road marker with many boards on it pointing in many different directions. The crickets were waking up, and the few stars visible quickly went home with the others. The two clearest boards read "SEA" and "CAVES," the sea was to their right, the chill was reaching them even there, the caves were straight ahead. Sandril reached the sign post first and sniffed it and lifted his leg, claiming it for himself.
"Maybe he can tell us which way they went," Morrigan said hopefully.
The path to the sea wound through a small wooded area, the way to the caves led to a darker wooded area, it seemed obvious to Cara which way to go.
"Left you die, right you live. Not a hard decision," Cara said plainly, and she wasn't wrong.
Sandril was confused as he sniffed around, he started down both trails, unable to get a strong scent either way. He finally just guessed and walked straight ahead for dormid.
"Sandril wait!" Morrigan called out, he sat right where he was on the path.
"There's absolutely no way a man with any sense would go that way," Cara said, shaking her head, the fear she was showing made Morrigan wonder if she knew for certain what the path led to.
"Sandril seems to think otherwise," Morrigan said calmly, calm because she was pondering.
Cara looked down at Sandril again, he was licking himself with one leg spiraled straight up. He sniffed himself and seemed disgusted. Cara motioned to him as if to say "just look at him!"
"There's a difference in brain size we can't ignore here," Cara said, laughing a bit.
"I'm just saying maybe it's worth investigating."
"Did you come all this way just to die? If you did, by all means, follow the thing chewing on its own behind. I'm going to the beach though."
"Maybe I will," Morrigan said, she felt annoyed, they hadn't disagreed over much yet. Cara wanted to avoid the fight at all costs and started off on the sea path.
"If we hurry we might even be able to catch up."
Morrigan gave in, she didn't want to go into the dark woods, but Sandril's great interest made her think it was the right way. She called Sandril over and they followed Cara, they both took a few looks down the more menacing path until they couldn't anymore.
Further along the dark path there were two pairs of horse tracks.
Frightened people held their confused and timid children tight as they boarded ships. The Harbormaster spoke with Morrigan and Cara as they looked on. He shook his head in disappointment, he looked like a man who secretly enjoyed strife, it was profitable.
"Some just can't handle another war. They spent so much time rebuilding, losing it all again would just be... too crushing."
The businessman turned to them feigning concern. "And where are you bound to? Young girls like you should be on that ship."
Cara pointed to the forest with pride. Birds sprang from the trees suddenly enough to make some passersby jump.
"You know there are trolls out there?"
"And dragons," Cara added, the pride in her voice.
The harbormaster shook his head like he was their father and wouldn't allow such a dangerous game to be played.
"The roster for that ship has two openings, and I think we could squeeze a dog in."
"Why do you want us to leave so badly?" Morrigan asked, not understanding that he didn't care for them, just their coin.
"Everyone should want to leave this place. Not just because it's good business for me, but because I'd be gone if it wasn't."
Morrigan understood him a little better, he was elated after making a profit, the only thing that was missing was dancing. Still, she thought about it, she wished she was back home with her father and Sandril, calm and peaceful, thinking about Yule.
"We're in this to the end now," she finally said, shaking her head, and that seemed to make her sad.
The trees in the forest fell silent. Once again rain clouds moved in to tease.
--
A torchlight pierced the dark.
Leyden's eyes scanned the path ahead, though the light did little to help. He started forward, looking over his shoulder every so often to make sure Yeera and Eilee were still behind him. All they could focus on was the dark, their minds were dark, the world was dark, it was hard to focus on what it was shielding their eyes from. They stayed quiet, not wanting to disturb or anger what lurked beyond.
The light went out and a woman screamed.