Gabriel pulled his horse up short at the large tree. It was just as Gwen had said, and so he wheeled his mount to turn West. The messenger birds on the back of the saddle protested the sudden change in direction, but his agitation was growing.
It had been hours since he'd talked with the Fae. His worry over Victoria was ever-increasing. She'd been his friend since they were little. He'd defended her from bullies at school, helped her with her lessons when she had troubles. When Finn and Roland had been called into official duties, the two of them had played surrogate parents to their shared niece and nephews.
She had been kind and cheerful through every hardship. Whenever he began to slip into brooding or morose dwelling on what was wrong in the world, she'd popped up to brighten his day.
It annoyed him when she called him brother and insisted they were related, but there was no harm in it. Why did he tell her to pull back from their friendship?
He prodded his horse faster, determined to reach the young woman as quickly as he was able. She needed him, didn't she?
A stranger would be fooled into thinking Victoria was naive, unacquainted with grief and the harsh ways of the world. As the king's adoptive sister, she was now practically a princess, though she would never claim the title.
By all rights she should be pampered and proud.
Few knew her early childhood like he did. She became serious and sullen only on the rarest of occasions, and yearly in midsummer, on the anniversary of her parents' death. It was quickly coming, and he didn't want her to spend it alone.
It bothered him immensely that she was alone.
He had feared that she surrounded herself with so many people in Klain that no appropriate suitor would be able to pierce the crowd and find his way to her, and that the girl would wind up an unintended old maid. That was not what she deserved. She deserved family, children…
She deserved the chance to make the home she lost as a child. Though the Shermans were excellent surrogate parents, Victoria's longing for more familial connections was plain.
Evey whined, and took off forward.
"Come back, you silly dog!" Gabe called. She would wear herself out and fall behind like that. He kept the horse at a steady pace, quick but not grueling. He wasn't sure just how much further they had to go.
Evey was hard to spot in the tall grass. There was no path nor trail at this point. A wagon would have left ruts, or some sign that it had been through, surely?
Victoria definitely wasn't with the wagon, then, or had taken some other route to whatever destination he was headed for.
"I hope you're right, Gwen," He said to himself. Where had that dog gotten to? He hadn't seen a rabbit or squirrel to take her attention, and she hadn't barked like she did when she sensed danger.
He thought back to when she'd found Whalen amongst the ruins of the broken ship. She'd been barking like mad then. If Evey had found Victoria, surely the behavior would be similar, with plenty of barking to get his attention and take him straight to the site of the person in danger.
Another hour passed, and he began to get worried. Evey had always come back, before. He was anxious that perhaps her leg hadn't fully healed and she had reinjured it in this latest dash towards whatever end.
His horse's ears began to swivel.
"You hear anything?" He mused, leaning forward in the saddle. The animal snorted softly and shook its mane, clearly reacting to something.
Ahead, the next grouping of evergreen trees loomed, tall and proud. It was getting late in the day, but he didn't want to make camp and sleep for the night. Finding Victoria before sundown would be ideal. And Evey as well.
He glanced around, but neither was in sight.
The tall trees made for an almost gloomy haven from the sun's rays. He shuddered, feeling something not quite right in the air. The sensation wasn't at all pleasant, but he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
"Evey?" He called. "Are you here?"
The horse's pace suddenly picked up, and he heard a sound ahead. The sound of water. The stream Gwen had mentioned! He must be arriving!
Evey could find her own way in the world, but Victoria had never been made for wilderness survival. Her life was more important. Evey would find him again when she was ready.
"What did Gwen say? Drink from the stream and I'll find her," Gabriel murmured as the horse came to a stop at the edge of the water and began to drink deeply.
It was a spring, spewing up from the ground and flowing downhill. Fresh, clean water. But where was Victoria?
"Hello?" Gabriel called. There was no answer. Should he search?
He decided to follow Gwen's advice and drink first. He didn't know when the next source of freshwater would be available and it would behoove him to refill his waterskin and supplies.
Bending beside the stream, he scooped up a handful of water, and promptly lost consciousness.
_____
Victoria was still discussing the terms of her freedom with Tom and his friends. They had taken her some distance away, afraid the bandits would come back to try and reclaim some of the stolen property divided amongst the former criminal partnership.
"I'm only saying that if you want true prosperity in your lives, don't you think the king is a good person to know to facilitate that?" Victoria challenged.
"Hush," Bran said harshly, his head tilted into the breeze. "Something's coming."
"A deer?" Tom asked, tilting his head as well. "No, footsteps are too heavy. A horse."
The halflings tensed. Victoria was no longer tied up. They didn't want to carry her, but assured her that they wouldn't hesitate to put her back to sleep with their herbs and leave her for some animal to eat if she didn't follow instructions precisely.
As she wasn't sure exactly what kind of animals lived this far North, and couldn't be positive that something terrible like Simone's bug hadn't come through a nearby portal at some point, she obeyed precisely.
Now she sat at the edge of their little camp, debating the merits of taking her back to her friends, or even to Klain. Even if they simply let her go find her own way with a bit of direction, they would be better off than getting themselves in deeper trouble by killing her, she argued.
Tom remained largely silent. Bran had pitched the idea of an anonymous ransom demand. The king would have deep coffers, he argued, and surely wouldn't mind parting with some portion of them for his dearest and only sister?
Victoria hadn't liked that idea one bit. She'd rather be killed or on her own than be a liability to her brother and to the kingdom.
Still, she remained active in the conversation as the debate raged on. The other two halflings had lost interest in the argument. Since Bran and Tom were the ones who knew Victoria, they could decide what was best.
But now… A horse was coming? Was it the bandits, tracking them, or Shayn, Kyler, and Walter tracking her?
She would rather not fall back into the hands of the bandits.
"Quiet." Bran said, and crouched to an even smaller stature than his already diminutive height to sneak off to see what it was.
Victoria and Tom remained silent as they waited. Though his expression barely changed, his darting glances informed her that he would rather be investigating the noise than sitting here guarding her.
Perhaps he would just leave her behind and be done with it. What could she do, a lone woman in the wilderness? She wouldn't survive very long with no supplies and no shelter. She saw the thoughts pass through his head, emotionless though he was. She shuddered, and he looked away, back towards where Bran had left.
The halfling returned shortly, along with the two others who had disappeared before. The female led a horse, which had an unconscious passenger unceremoniously dumped across the saddle.
Obviously, the halflings did indeed have more of the sleeping herbs they'd threatened to use on Victoria, she wondered how much they kept in their supply. Was that the last of it? Could she escape now?
The horse wasn't one she recognized immediately; it certainly wasn't one of the ones her group had been riding for three weeks. That in itself was a relief; none of her group had been captured by the halflings. That would have complicated matters considerably.
Besides, they should be focusing their efforts on rescuing Simone, who was in far greater danger at the moment than Victoria was. All she had to do was keep her captors in some state of disagreement about what to do with her, and she would be relatively safe for the time being.
Still, the brown, tousled hair was somewhat familiar, she thought, as the halflings dumped the breathing-but-sleeping body off of the horse. Victoria gasped aloud.
"Gabe!"