"My lord, we haven't found her yet," the captain of the guard said, bowing her head.
"You mean she wasn't in that caravan? I thought you said that was the only place she could be, that they hadn't had enough time to take her out any other way," the lord snapped.
"We did search every wagon. When we did so, one of the people in the caravan was found in a wagon that had a hidden cage inside and when we apprehended her, she merely looked confused. Like she expected something, or someone, to be in there," the captain replied. "If your daughter was in there, then it's possible someone else took her and we don't know where they might be or when she might have been taken."
"Can you at least tell me if whoever has her now will return her?"
The captain shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't know that either."
The lord blew out his breath, clearly trying to remain calm. The captain couldn't help but feel worried about the marquis. He had been under enormous pressure even before his daughter was kidnapped. Now he hardly seemed to be able to function.
Not only hadn't he slept the entire night, but now he almost seemed like he was ready to ride out personally to conduct the search himself. An act that the captain was certain their enemies would love, because it would make him that much more vulnerable to anything they might want to do to him.
"Fine, if she wasn't there, then send out runners to establish checkpoints along all roads at the borders of my lands," the lord said, looking like he was struggling to keep himself together as he paced around the front hall.
"My lord, it's very possible that your daughter was already taken off of your lands," the captain reminded him. "The road where we found the caravan on was close to the border of your lands already. The only way that your daughter could still be on your lands now is if they didn't take any of the roads."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" he demanded. "You know whoever has taken her will be making demands of me, and I'll have to comply or risk them doing something terrible to her."
"I know that, my lord," the captain said. "However, until one does, we can't think that you daughter might not have managed to get out on her own. If she did, then you know she knows these lands almost better than you do."
"She's only five," the man said, sounding more defeated than the captain had ever seen him. "How far would she be able to get on her own? Especially with the night wolves in the area we're still dealing with."
The captain nodded gravely. The night wolves were so named because they always seemed to attack the livestock, or young children, when they caught them at night. They were especially active in the forests, which unfortunately for the marquis, was almost all of his lands.
"So, you're expecting me to just wait here to find out who has my daughter?" he snarled. "Or to find her remains?"
The captain sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do. We know your wife was only able to bear that one child for you before her death last year, but surely you can still look for another wife to be a step-mother for your daughter, even if she's kept as a hostage by your enemies.
The captain didn't really believe this, but at the moment, she could only grasp at straws to try and keep the marquis calm. After all, he'd only become the marquis because he'd married his wife. It was through his wife's family that these lands were held. That the church had declared that the one who ran these lands needed to be a man so long ago, that the reasons were already lost to history.
As such, the marquis' daughter would never become the lady of these lands. Her husband would become the lord when she got married. At which point, the marquis would step down as the lord of this march, as his wife had already died.
The captain didn't pretend to understand this arrangement, but she at least respected that the marquis' wife was completely happy with it. She'd even mentioned a few times how she was happy not to have to deal with some of the expectations as the lady of her family's march. She'd even once talked about how she wouldn't be able to spend all day riding around if she wanted to if she'd had to become the marquess of the land.
The captain never said anything about it, but she did worry that others would see the fact that it was a man who was in charge of this march as a weakness for them to exploit. That they weren't going to take him as seriously as they would if it was his wife who had become the lady of the march.
"My lord, would you at least go to the kitchen to get something to eat?" the captain said, suddenly realizing how light it was getting outside. "You won't be any good to your daughter if you don't at least take care of yourself. Not matter when we learn about her."
The man looked at the captain, glaring at her. The captain wasn't surprised at that reaction, but kept her composure, doing what she could to try and get the marquis to try to keep himself together.. For one thing, if she allowed the marquis to continue on like this, she wasn't sure how she'd be able to explain it to his daughter when it was revealed who currently had her.
She could only hope that whoever had her wasn't their enemy. That they'd let the girl return to them safely and with very few demands. Even though she knew that was probably too much to ask for, she couldn't help herself.
"Have you maybe tried praying for your daughter's safety?" the captain asked gently. "You know the church says that Goddess hears all prayers."
The lord looked at the captain like she should know better than to suggest that, but she didn't back down. The marquis may not be a believer, but she thought that it at least would do some good to the marquis to at least try.
If only for his own peace of mind.
_
Ralph woke up when the rain started falling again. It was still just as dark as before, but now he wasn't able to do anything to keep from shivering. He briefly considered using his magic to keep himself warm, but quickly dismissed the idea.
If he did that, he was confident that, while he'd be warm, he'd wear himself out and wouldn't be able to use his magic any more.
"Should we use our magic to make some light?" he asked as he heard his friends groaning about being woken up from the rain. "I mean, we'll at least be able to keep moving, right?"
"Sure it'd be safe to do that?" Tim asked. "I mean, I didn't hear anyone come close to us in the night."
"Come on, Tim," Amelia complained. "You were sound asleep through all of that. You wouldn't have heard a deer walk by your head with how you were snoring."
"Let's just start following the stream," Wes said. "It's gotta go somewhere."
"Yeah, it goes that way," Hannah remarked, clearly mocking Wes. "What's in that direction nobody knows."
Ralph couldn't help but smirk, glad that he wasn't the one who said that, since he wouldn't have to deal with the fallout from it. Although, at the same time, he couldn't help but wish that it was him who said it.
"You know, Ralph suggestion about making us some light isn't a bad idea," Beth said. "It should also make it easier for our guide to direct us."
"Wait, we have a guide?" Ralph asked, feeling like he might have missed something. Either that or he'd forgotten about it. Both options were equally possible for him at the moment.
"Yeah, the girl who we saved," Tim said, sounding like he thought Ralph should already know this.
Which he did, but he didn't exactly consider her their 'guide' at the moment.
"Anyway, I'll create some light for us," Amelia said. "I'm the best at it anyway."
As Amelia conjured a few orbs of light, Ralph couldn't help but shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. The light the orbs gave off was dim, but it was still a lot greater than his eyes had gotten used to.
"A little warning next time," Wes complained, echoing Ralph's thoughts.
"Is everyone ready to go?" Beth asked, looking around.
Ralph didn't say anything, though he doubted if he had said that he wasn't ready to go that it would have stopped his friends at all. He was confident that they'd just leave him there.
As he looked at his friends, he saw that Amelia had the girl on her back in place of her pack, instead carrying her pack in both of her hands. Hesha and Feon looked close to commercials he'd seen for The Walking Dead series on AMC. Not that he could blame them.
Cinder was helping guide the goats, holding the rope that kept the goats from wandering off, and Hannah was helping carry Lyshean. Although, Ralph couldn't help but wonder if maybe they should see if the goats were strong enough to carry some of them. He doubted that any of the goats would carry him, but he wasn't as sure about Feon, Hesha, and the girl they'd just rescued.
As far as he knew, these goats would be able to handle their weight without a problem.
However, he didn't bother saying anything. He felt like if he mentioned it, that it might not get taken as seriously. In addition, he wasn't sure that they wouldn't be wrong about it either. While felt a little more rested than he had earlier, he still felt rather tired. If they had gotten their tents set back up, he was confident that he wouldn't have gotten woken up at this time. As a result, he couldn't be sure his thinking was as clear as it otherwise would be.
"So, where should we go now?" Amelia asked the girl on her back.
"That's the stream," the girl said, sounding like she was thinking out loud, "and it's flowing that way. So, we should go that way!"
The girl pointed in a direction that Ralph almost felt was random, but he didn't argue. He couldn't say how familiar this girl was with the terrain, or if she'd spent a lot of time in this particular area, so while it might seem random to him, he couldn't say if it was as random of a direction at it felt like.
"Then let's get moving!" Amelia cheered, which seemed to at least get the children they had with them excited.
Ralph merely shook his head and kept quiet himself. While it was at least four feet across the stream, at the narrowest part they could see, Tim created a bridge with his magic for them to cross.
Ralph couldn't be sure if it was an illusion or not, like with their raptors, but he wasn't going to ask. If he did, he had a feeling he might fall through it if it was in fact an illusion.
Regardless, after they had all crossed the stream, the bridge disappeared, like it had been an illusion, leaving no traces of its existence.
Ralph couldn't help but think that if there was anyone who were pursuing them, and could track them, to this point, that they'd probably get confused at the fact that their trail ended at the stream, unless they somehow noticed their tracks on the other side.
Although, if that happened, he wished he'd be able to know what their thoughts were about it. As he certainly would be rather confused at that. Or he would if he didn't consider the fact of their magic. Which he was a little surprised didn't seem to be as common in this world as he would have thought.
As they started walking along, their only source of light being Amelia's glowing orbs, Ralph felt himself fall into a sort of trance. His mind seemed to shut off, but he kept walking. He wasn't sure how long they'd been walking for, when it stopped raining, or far they'd traveled. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to find his way back to that stream or even the campsite they'd had before Beth had noticed the sounds that led them to letting this girl into their party.
All Ralph knew was that his friends hadn't stopped walking, so therefore, he needed to keep moving himself.
When they did stop, Ralph actually tripped over one of the goats, eliciting a good amount of laughter from his friends, though Cinder looked at Ralph reproachfully. He assumed it was because the goat certainly wasn't happy about it, but he didn't feel like trying to explain to the boy that it was an accident. He just didn't have the energy to.
"Looks like you should have called in sick today," Wes joked.
Ralph didn't respond, but merely took the jab stoically. All he cared about at the moment was finding a place he could sleep. Not matter where it was.
However, he was able to pull together to ask an important question that no one else seemed inclined to ask.
"Where exactly are we?" he said, not really seeing anything of note about their location.
There were still trees all around them, the sky was still shielded from view from all the leaves and the branches. He couldn't tell what differences there were, other than the fact that they'd stopped. Which didn't mean anything to him at the moment.
"It should be somewhere around here," the girl said, sounding like she expected whatever it was to be out in the open.
"What're we looking for?" Beth asked.
"A key," the girl replied absently, as she looked around from Amelia's back.
"Well, at least it's almost dawn," Hannah remarked, yawning.
"Why do you say that/" Ralph couldn't help but ask, feeling like it might be a good idea to go to sleep here. He couldn't say how long they'd be here looking for a simple key, but he wasn't going to argue. All it meant to him was a chance to get some more sleep. Hopefully this time, without the dreams that had been haunting him lately.
"What's the key look like?" Amelia asked.
Ralph wasn't really surprised when the girl didn't answer Amelia. He merely walked over to a tree and sat on the ground. "What would a key be doing out here anyway?" he asked as he made himself comfortable.
"I put it out here," the girl replied, sounding a little hurt and sheepish.
Ralph held in the groan he wanted to make. Of course that's how the girl would know that there was a key out here. What didn't make sense to Ralph was how she knew that it was this place where it would be. There wasn't anything remarkable about this location, so as far as he could tell, they were lost.
Ralph leaned back against the tree and had barely closed his eyes when Hannah called out, "Found it!"
Ralph cracked his eyes to see that Hannah had indeed found a key. To Ralph it looked like it might be brass or bronze and larger than any key he'd seen before. This one was longer than his hand.
"What's it open?" Amelia asked as Hannah handed the key to the girl.
"A door to my home," the girl replied as if that explained everything.
Knowing he was either not going to be able to get the sleep he'd been hoping for or that he'd get left behind, Ralph groaned as he got up. He really wasn't happy with this turn of events, but he hoped that if they went to where this girl lived, that they'd then have a place where he could sleep and not get interrupted by other things, such as rain or his friends hearing something in the distance.
Where he'd be able to just rest.
"So, where is this place?" Beth asked.
"That way," the girl said, pointing in another direction that Ralph still felt like it was random.
What he couldn't understand is how this girl could recognize where they were in this forest. There weren't any landmarks and he was confident that the girl couldn't see the sky, since he certainly couldn't. Which meant that there shouldn't be anything for the girl to look around and recognize.
Despite his certainties that it had been a random direction, not ten minutes later, they came on a stone wall. There wasn't enough light to tell if it was part of a castle wall, a mansion, or something else entirely. Amelia's glowing light orbs, only gave a little bit of light, although he could tell the sky was starting to brighten, indicating it was almost dawn and we was surprised to realize that there was a little more light around them. Though, not enough to really see more about the wall in front of them clearly. Or maybe he was just too tired to fully process what was in front of him.
Ralph also estimated that there was about maybe thirty feet of open space between the trees and the wall. Which didn't really surprise him too much. Especially with the look of the metal door.
Then as the girl directed them, behind a tall, thick bush, there was a door in the wall. A door that looked even more durable than the stone blocks used to make the wall. Not that it told Ralph anything more about what kind of building it led into.
Which then brought another question to Ralph's mind: Who is this girl that this stone wall would be part of her home?