You move ahead, pulling your horse up in line with Elya's. She glances sideways toward you, momentarily startled by your sudden appearance.
"You got 'ere quicker than I thought you would," she says with a light chuckle.
You shrug. "Not much else goin' on." After a tired, disinterested yawn, you ask, "So what's wrong? Why summon me?"
"We're running out of route."
"Come again?"
"On the map." She turns to one of her bodyguards and gestures for something. The man reaches into his saddlebag and retrieves a sheet of parchment. He passes it back to your sister.
You bring your horse closer to Elya and tilt your head to see what she's holding.
"This is one of Velinor's boys' maps." She traces a finger over a line traced onto the sheet. "Assuming that this thing is accurate—"
You interrupt, chuckling. "Which is a pretty damn big assumption."
Elya rolls her eyes. "We have a fork in the road coming up. Which means we'll have to choose. Any idea which one?"
You narrow your eyes, scanning over the map. After locating the upcoming fork on the map, you trace your own finger over the two possible routes.
"Two paths," you say. "One heads further south, see it? Part of it branches all of the way down to Ravaria. But we can pull off of it early and continue to Krorid. That would easily add maybe two weeks to this damn journey, though."
"What about the other?"
"Much more direct. We'll make it to Krorid considerably faster. Wounded'll appreciate that."
She narrows her eyes. "Then why bother with the longer one?"
"It gets us farther from Rade. He's still lurkin' behind us. And he has our maps. He probably thinks we'll choose the faster route. We could have an… unfortunate encounter if he manages to outpace us."
Elya breathes deeply, taking in your information. "What should we do?"