__(a week later)__
The caravan had reached the shore of the Silver lake, the border of the Kingdom. Beyond the lake was the Faust walkway, a wild land that almost nobody live in. The mountain range and rocky cliff at the horizon showed them the harsh conditions they were about to go through.
The cold in this land has brought the surface of the lake to a freeze that happens every year. It created a temporary shortcut for anyone who walked pass it, also the last warning for them to not waste more time.
Vaterian and Igor were holding some belts with nails, prepared to strap it around the wheel so they wouldn't slip.
"Are you sure that the surface won't just break down and all of us just fell under the water?" Asked Igor, he had no experience on traveling through the lake. However, he did hear that some people get unlucky every year.
"The autumn came fairly early this year, the surface should be much more thought than usual. However, I couldn't say that we were safe, the only thing we could do was prepare for the worst. The rest will rely on Selania's hand." Vaterian replied to Igor questions, despite neither did he have the confidence.
Vaterian fastened the straps and looked at the rest of the crews, they were already done a while ago and just waiting for them. "I think we should go now." Igor tapped Vaterian's shoulder and hopped on his seat.
"Was anyone there? Help!"
A large scream came from along the shore, Igor looked at the direction where sound came from. He saw a boy, running toward them with only base clothing and without shoes, he was unable to maintain his balance when he ran and quickly fell on the ground.
Igor quickly jumped down the wagon and rushed toward the boy, he picked up the boy and looked at his eyes, there was red in his eyeball and lid, the boy had obviously didn't closed his eyes for a long while.
Igor tore a piece of cloth from his cloak and strapped it around the boy's eyes. When he was just about to take off his cloak, he felt something fall on his shoulder.
"Remember don't underestimate the breeze in this land, this was the time when a spare cloth came in handy." Igor looked beside him, Valerian dropped down an additional set of clothing, while he put the mask on the face of the child.
Valerian noticed there was a tiny hole on the boy's wrist, looking like a leech used to suck on it.
"What happened here? You knew that we needed to go through the Faust walkway before the other." Valenciano stood beside Vaterian, he stared at the boy and asked.
"Silverster... help," the boy spoke some words before he finally passed out.
"Silverster…must be something happened there." Vaterian tried to figure out what happened, but he had such limited information on it, but he knew the boy was not lying.
The fact the boy was able to run such a long way with blurry vision showed he lived locally, and the only town around this lake was Silvester. His clothing also proved his hurry.
"Silvester was 1 days away from here, did he really run for such a long time?" Igor spoke silently.
"There was a murder happened in Silvester couple weeks ago, there must be some relation between it." Valenciano memorized the newspaper he read before.
Vaterian looked at the small hole on the boy's wrist, he don't think it was just a murder, "A murder in such a small town? What was the judgement they given to the murderer?"
"They sent the murderer deep into the woods, they might undermine the ability of the murderer to survive " Valenciano made his prediction, but Vaterian hardly able to agree to him.
"In any situation, we must help them!" Igor held the boy tightly in his arms. Within his eyes he saw a boy asking help from the crown, just like what he did 10 years ago.
"Just let him go! If we head to Silvester just to help them we would all be dead soon, don't forget about the Grand duke! It won't be a problem for the entire town to handle just a murderer!" Valenciano yelled at Igor, he would rather keep himself safe than help an unknown person.
Igor refused to put down the boy, until he heard the voice from his friend, "Put the boy down, Igor. It's time for us to go."
"Vaterian you bas…!"He turned his head around, he just about shouted at Vaterian, but he stopped once he saw Vaterian.
Vaterian put down the wagon beside them and detached it from the horses. Some cloth had been placed on the horseback to serve as basic saddles, Vaterian sitting on one of it.
Igor smiled, he knew that Vaterian wouldn't fail him, at least until he heard what Vaterian said later. "I need to warn you, if I was a bastard from two Helland families, then as a child from an Angles noble and a Helland woman, you were very bastard."
Igor jumped onto the other horse, and swore at Vaterian, "pissed off!" The two teenagers kicked on their mount and galloped in the direction of Silvester.
"You…" Valenciano's mind went blank, he can't believe these boys didn't even consider what outcome they would face.
"Argh…Follow them!" Valenciano gave his order, he had no other choice. Without the two horses he need to carry one an extra wagon, that will slow them down even more
The caravan temporarily attached the wagon to another wagon, and moved slowly toward Silvester.