Tate left his family's residence before daybreak. His things had already been packed and sent ahead to the palace to be loaded onto the packhorse that he and Aliya would use to transport all their possessions. The Emperor wanted them to leave under the cover of darkness.
As he left the house Dian came down and hugged him tightly. "Take care of yourself until we meet again." Tate nodded and returned his embrace.
To his surprise, his father was waiting by the horse the groom was holding. Tate stopped in front of him. The older man held out his hand to his youngest. Tate took it and they shook firmly. Akir Delmont held his son's hand even as it was pulled away but that did not stop it from slipping from his grasp. Tate didn't look at him after shaking his hand and mounted his horse. He looked down at his father for one more silent moment but it seemed Lord Delmont had nothing to say. Tate nodded respectfully but tersely. He squeezed his horse's side and the animal began a brisk walk away from the house towards the gate.
The words. "I love you, son." were so faintly said to his back that Tate wasn't sure they were real, but one last tear for his family rolled down his face in the darkness.
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When he entered the courtyard of the palace there was not much going on. Only the sleepy guards and a few servants milled about. Near the steps that led up to the main entrance he saw the Head Chamberlain standing beside a little figure wrapped up from head to toe in a dark cloak. The hood of the cloak was pulled down low covering her face. In her arms was a humble, but large wooden basket. Her little arms barely fit around the width of it.
He dismounted his horse and bowed in greeting to her. "Good morning, Aliya."
He couldn't see her face but he heard her quiet, "Good morning."
"Is everything in order?" He addressed the Chamberlain.
The man nodded and gave a prompt and professional rundown of the trip's completed preparations.
"Good, good. Excellent work sir." Taking this as a dismissal the man bowed to Tate and took his leave not sparing the little girl a glance as he did so.
Tate held out his hand towards her but she dind't move.
"You're going to need to hand me the basket."
She clutched it a little tighter and he could tell she was staring down the poor pack horse distrustfully even though he couldn't see her eyes.
"I promise, he will be safe. The pack horse is old and slow, it will be like rocking in a cradle. You put lots of soft things in there for him didn't you?"
She nodded, "the maid told me I was allowed to take the little blankets." She quickly said.
He nodded. "Well, then I'm even more positive that he'll be fine. Besides it won't be for the whole trip. Once we get out into the wilds where there are hardly any people you will be able to take him out. He might even get his first chance to try flying."
Her gaze flew up to his and he was finally able to see her eyes, or the shadow of them, underneath the dark hood. "I want to see him, fly!"
He leaned down close. "Then let's get going." He held out his hand again.
She sighed and handed him the basket. He took the precious cargo to the pack horse and made sure she saw him securing the straps tightly. He grinned when he saw the hood nodding in approval. After this was done and he visually checked everything the chamberlain had told him himself he decided everything was where it was supposed to be. The few belongings he'd opted to bring were there, as well as provisions for the journey, the dragonling, and a small satchel of clothing that had been bought for Aliya. There was also a small leather pouch containing some money that Tate untied from the pack horse and put into his inner pocket. He preferred that this item stay on his person.
After his inspection, he effortlessly mounted his horse. He looked down at Aliya and held out his hand once more. She looked up at him, and at this angle, he could see all of her face. She looked very unsure. "Am I riding with you?"
He nodded, "Unless you know how to ride on your own?" He knew that was very unlikely.
She shook her head. "I'll ride with you."
Her hand finally reached out to take his and it was shaking slightly.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, his name is Benny and he's a very nice horse."
She nodded and didn't say anything.
"On the count of three jump straight up and I'll pull you up in front of me. Try not to kick him in the shoulder."
She gripped his hand tighter.
"One, two, three!" She jumped and even though it was far from graceful, she made it astride the horse. He felt her scrambling for something to hold on to in front of him. He guided her hands towards Benny's mane.
"I'm not going to let you fall, but if you feel like you want to balance yourself grab here. It won't hurt him if you pull his mane a little bit, okay?"
She nodded stiffly.
He grinned down at the little hodded figure in front of him. He reached back and pulled up his own hood. Now they were two unrecognizable figures leaving in the near darkness.
Benny began to move and Tate used a lead rope to guide the unnamed pack horse into line behind them and they slowly but surely they wound their way out of the capitol streets.
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They made it out of the city before daybreak but it was a long time before either of them spoke. They were on a long and shady forest road that would take them towards the open wilds near the Misty Vail.
The Misty Vail was the fabled divider between the realm of men and the dragon realm. Whether this was fact or fiction had been lost to time, but the fact was undeniable that there was a veil of mist that stretched from the ground and went up into the heavens as far as the eye could see. This mist would make one think that it was just dense fog, but it was really an impenetrable barrier. He'd read once that running into it was like hitting a stone wall. Long had passed since the time when man had been curious enough about it to do studies like running headlong towards it to see if it was soft mist or solid wall. Now most people in the realm just accepted that it was what it was and thinking about what may or may not be on the other side was fruitless.
He was interested to see this veil because it was said to be a wonder to behold, but also because of its legendary connection with dragons. No one really knew where the dragons came from, according to ancient texts they had appeared somewhere around 3000 years ago give or take some centuries, but mentions of the veil seemed to be present in some form in older documents than those.
He had always liked to imagine there was a whole realm full of dragons beyond the wall. When he was a child running and flying around with Aquana they had often played "veil explorer," as a dragon she was interested in this topic herself and it had been their favorite game of pretend and they had taken turns coming up with what really lay beyond the veil.
He guessed that the Emperor had planned this route because not many people took the road that passed by the Veil. It was an old and longer route than what was convenient. More direct roads to people's destinations had been developed over the centuries so it was common to bypass the Veil entirely when journeying around the continent.
Aliya suddenly swayed forward and pitched over Benny's neck. She snapped up and almost hit him in the chin. She moaned softly and looked around. Her hood had fallen off a long time ago but there was no need for her to have it up unless they came across people. Her eyes blinked slowly and sleepily.
"Lean back and rest, we have a long way to go."
"I'm not sleepy." She mumbled as she did exactly as he instructed.
He grinned and only a few minutes later he heard her snoring.
He took the time to think over their route and was planning where would be the best place to stay for the night in this forest. He had studied the map that had been drawn carefully and had it almost memorized but he was still not as used to navigating a map from the ground as he was in the air. He was not bad at it by any means, it was something he'd had to do from time to time even as a dragon rider, but if he'd been flying he would know for sure at this point where his stopping point would be. For now, he could only make up a primary and backup plan depending on how far they got and the conditions they found at the places he planned to stop.
He was still deep in thought when he heard faint voices coming from behind him. His ears pricked and he was immediately alert. Aliya made a small noise and sat up a little, she couldn't help but respond to his sudden hypervigilance. "Wats rong?" She mumbled.
"Shhh." He put one hand over her mouth and directed Benny off the road with the other. They went back off the road far enough where they were hidden by the bushes and thicket as long as they were very quiet. "Some travelers are behind us, we are going to wait until they pass us by." He whispered in her ear. "Be as quiet as possible."
She nodded.
They stayed still and silent for a long time until the party behind them rounded the corner. His eyebrows rose, looking at their clothes and the weapons strapped to them they looked like mercenaries. Each of them wore dark pants and shirts, topped with a coat that had a silver rose embroidered on it. It was the symbol of the Thorn Mercenary Guild. Tate prayed they were just passing through, he wanted to just be paranoid, but then.
"Where are they? Is our information incorrect?" A deep voice growled.
"I'm getting tired of this, wasn't this supposed to be easy money, but we've been walking all day." A more weasly voice whined.
"They can't be far ahead, and it should be easy money. We just need to kill the girl and steal a baby dragon."