"Keep on going!"
Even with our relatively slow pace, I had to shout from the bottom of my lungs if I wanted any hope of reaching the ears of the rented riders.
I shrugged a little before throwing a quick glance over my shoulder.
Due to the flat terrain, the relay station was still well within our view. And at the current rate…
My eyes moved north, looking for any signs of the pursuing party.
It was still way too late for them to show up anywhere near… But despite knowing that, I couldn't help but keep on casting pointless glances.
'Just a little bit more,' I internally encouraged myself, tightening my jaw to stop my mouth from giving in to anxiety and shouting the orders prematurely.
I held my breath, trying to calculate the time as best as I could.
The old man only provided me with a rough guess of how far my pursuers were.
An hour of advantage. How much was that exactly? What if the old man was wrong and there were only forty minutes? What if…
As much as I hated it, I had no other choice but to assume the worst possible scenario. And after traveling for mere ten minutes, the time for the next step of the plan finally arrived.
"The two of you!" I called out while beckoning the rented riders to come closer.
Despite both of them leading two horses each while riding on their third, the young stable boys didn't seem to have any problem controlling their mounts at will.
"I need you to sprint ahead, then circle through the plains to the southern track. Then, you are free to return back to the station!"
This was the most important part of the plan, assuming my pursuers were smart enough to get some tracking dogs in tow.
"Yes, sir!" one of the stable boys called back, before digging his heels into the sides of his mount and forcing two of his spare horses to follow closely behind.
Before long, the two men and six horses rushed ahead, gaining quite some distance in just a few moments… Only to come to a near-complete stop when their mounts got tired of the dash, forcing the riders to switch to the spares.
'Now, whatever smell there will be on the road, it will lead south,' I thought, watching how the recent additions to our group went off the road and pushed their horses on a wide arc to the south, circling around the perimeter of the relay station. 'As long as they fall for this, it should buy us enough time to safely get away.'
Right now, I had to make an extremely important decision.
Should I push my horses to their limits, rapidly gaining distance… but at the cost of draining most of the energy in our mounts?
The other option was to follow the example of yesterday, adjusting our speed to a pace our mounts could easily keep up for an entire day.
The second option rewarded us with some more advantage over our pursuers at the cost of greatly decreasing the endurance of our horses. The second option allowed us to travel much further and at a much more stable rate… but also meant risking our pursuers catching up.
"If the worst comes to be, can you handle yourself in an open fight?" I shouted, trying to push my voice through the noise made by the wind blowing past our heads.
I knew it was Nay who killed all those people I saw stacked into a bloodied pile back in the city's inn. But I could also tell she didn't really engage them in proper combat, opting to use her unorthodox skills, weapons, and expertise to eliminate the threat before it even became… well, a threat.
Nay slowly turned her head and, just like usual, took her time looking me up and down.
"I can manage," she replied after a long, thoughtful look before turning her face back to the front.
'Would it be too much for you to speak like a normal person?' I thought, rolling my eyes before hurrying my horse a tiny little bit.
There was nothing wrong with traveling while spread out from one side of the imperial highway to the other. And on the paved stones of the road, I didn't need to worry about leaving any sort of footprints for our pursuers to track…
Still, at least before reaching the point where the rented riders stopped their dash and took a turn south, I opted to keep my mounts perfectly aligned with the path those aforementioned riders took.
A few seconds passed. Then a few minutes.
Then, I nearly lost track of the passage of time, once again having nothing but the position of the sun to judge the time of the day.
Surprisingly enough, though, it didn't feel like a problem at all. If anything, it ended up turning into a weird feeling. Because while I was perfectly aware of the exact time… I struggled to believe it.
Because what felt like an hour, maybe two-hour long trip, apparently stretched all the way to the middle of the day by now!
Unable to push our horses any further, I decided to hide with them in the vast shadow of a huge, lone tree that grew near the side of the imperial road. And a mere hour later, with the sun still quite uncomfortably low in the sky, I ended our momentary rest before pushing everyone back to their feet.
'At this rate, we should be able to make it,' I thought, taking a quick glance behind my back as I jumped into the saddle. My hand instinctively grabbed the reins while I continued to glue my eyes to the area behind us.
Thankfully, I couldn't see any foreboding clues.
I couldn't sense the air trembling under the constant strikes of four hundred hooves. There was no cloud of dust raising far in the distance.
Regardless of whether it was my ploy that worked or if my decision to settle with long-term travel gave us some time, I wasn't going to waste it. And even without the heavy breath of the pursuers weighing me down, I somehow managed to bring just a little bit of juice more from our horses, pushing them even harder than I did yesterday.
'Wouldn't it be nice to invent some sort of mechanical transportation?' I thought, only for my lips to twist in a dissatisfied grimace. 'But as easy as it sounds, at least I'm aware there are some problems I would never be able to replicate or even explain the use of.'
With my knowledge of motor transportation limited to just a few random tidbits and the general idea, I had no hopes of quickly replicating the machine that turned my real world on its head.
Yet, as my trusty horse carried me ahead only to let me finally glimpse at the city in the distance, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of excitement brewing in my bones.
'It's so close…' I thought, pushing my lips together in mute frustration.
The port city of Thatcham. Its massive harbor with ship captains desperate for jobs now that the lake was on the verge of drying out. A huge number of people, all gathered to partake in commerce in this wealthy, well-taken care-off city.
And as I looked at it from quite a distance, I couldn't help but gulp my saliva down.
This city meant freedom.
Even if only for a day or two, it meant freedom nonetheless.
And right now, it seemed that all I had to do was to just reach out…