Meanwhile, Prince Kelton was quick to leave Salgon Town. The storm that came in had left them stranded for several days until the roads could be cleared sufficiently for horses to travel on. In the more cleared places, he rode as hard and as fast as he dared, hoping to reach Palion City by nightfall. He tried to keep his expression neutral as he continued on toward Pride Town, but to feel pulled in a certain direction and not being able to move in that direction was difficult. It didn’t help that he didn’t know if his arrival in Pride Town would allow him to find what he hoped to find, or strip him of everything but overwhelming grief.
The lack of news about either woman did help keep his thoughts away from his mother’s sentiments regarding Lady Iredys. He still didn’t want to believe that Lady Iredys was gone, but the longer his search had gone on, the more he was becoming disheartened. He refused to believe that he really would not find his betrothed, that all of his searching had been in vain, and that this circuit would only delay his acceptance of the truth.
As he traveled down the road, the thundering of hooves behind him increased in volume. All of his knights had caught up to him. He didn’t bother to look back, only forward. He needed to keep his eye on Pride Town. He needed to reach Palion City. He needed to see if he could reach Pride Town in the next two weeks, weather permitting. The town felt close, but the road ahead was still long and he didn’t want anything else to delay his arrival.
Motion out of the corner of his eye caught Prince Kelton’s attention. There was a large number of Timberwolves running alongside them just inside the treeline. Prince Kelton’s brow furrowed. That was an odd reaction for a pack of wolves. Especially where there were enough of them that, were they to attack, they’d have a hard time fending them off.
“Sire, the wolves,” Sir Juleack said, catching up to him.
“I see them, but until they try to bother us, we won’t bother them,” he replied.
“Understood.”
Sir Juleack fell back.
The wolves accompanied them a good distance before howling and turning back. Prince Kelton glanced back once to see one of them almost bow before turning to follow its pack.
“Strange,” he said. “Very strange.”
He could not shake the feeling that something more had been going on with those wolves. A hint of something he had started to see more of in the last four months than all the time that had passed since his father’s death almost fifteen years ago, but he had no way to prove it. Even if he followed the wolves, he may only find himself in danger.
Prince Kelton pondered the reappearance of magic a little more before shaking such thoughts from his head. He had no way to prove that it really was magic that was being used; no way to detect who might be behind it all without some of the servants that Queen Leona employed. For now, he needed to figure out why his heart was driving him toward Pride Town, to learn if that drive was really, truly, because either Iredys or the Dragonwoman was there, or there was someone there who would help him find either or both of them.
The wind caused by his swift riding stung his cheeks, but he didn’t care. He hardly noticed the air around him warming as another winter storm moved into the area. It was only when he saw the walls around Palion City that he noticed the increase of wind and the frosty bite that came with it. Prince Kelton grit his teeth, but pushed on. More snow was the last thing they needed. The wind continued to increase, slowing the horses as they ran. When they were near enough, the gates opened and allowed them entry.
Entering the streets of Palion City, a good majority of the wind was blocked, but it still rushed through the streets and alleyways with reckless abandon. They continued to ride until they reached the Crunching Otter Inn. Several men stepped out of the stables when they stopped to bring the horses in out of the cold wind. Prince Kelton looked up at the inn’s sign. An otter biting on a shell had been carved into the sign above the door. His lips twitched as more thoughts of Lady Iredys and the Dragonwoman filled his mind.
“Everything alright, Sire?” Sir Hett asked.
“Yes, Sir Hett,” he replied.
Shaking the thoughts away for now, he followed a few of his knights inside.
As they settled in, Prince Kelton listened to the wind and felt the slight shift of the building with the most powerful gusts that blew through the streets. He glanced out to the darkened sky and watched the first flurries make their way down to the ground. Were it not for the surety in his heart that what he sought was in Pride Town, they would have been caught between settlements with this storm. Still, he hoped that it would be small and not delay their travels further.
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Prince Kelton returned to the main floor to eat with his knights. The wind continued to howl and the amount of snow falling continued to grow. By the time he had finished a bowl of hot stew, he could see the snow being blown horizontally. The wind alone would make it difficult to travel, let alone having the snow to leave them even more blind to where they needed to go. Shaking his head, Prince Kelton was disappointed to be waylaid again. He knew trying to rest would be next to impossible with the sheer volume of the howling winds, but he’d try anyway.
After many hours of tossing and turning and battling with more depressing dreams about Lady Iredys and the torture dreams about the Dragonwoman, Prince Kelton rubbed his tired eyes then gradually made his way down to the dining room. A different man stood behind the counter tonight, polishing glasses.
“Anything I can get you, Prince Kelton?” he asked.
Prince Kelton shook his head and found a corner table to seat himself at. He turned his head listlessly toward the window. Behind the drawn curtain was nothing but a solid sheet of white falling from the sky. It was worse than the storm that kept them in Salgon town for almost a week. They hadn’t seen a storm this bad since before Lady Iredys’ arrival at Greywolf Castle. The last time it had snowed this hard, he had struggled to help his mother deal with the influx of requests from the people for aid since their homes had collapsed due to the weight of the snow.
At least he would have something to do once the snow stopped, since it had taken weeks for the roads to be cleared enough to answer the people’s cries. Sighing, Prince Kelton leaned forward and rested his head in his hands. He didn’t want to be stuck here for a week, or longer. He needed to get to Pride Town. Needed to find out if Lady Iredys and the Dragonwoman were there or not. With news of Lakemead’s Ball spreading through the kingdom, he wouldn’t put it past his mother to throw a masked ball for his birthday, a celebration he would be required to attend.
He was still trying to calm his anxious mind when a steaming tankard of Barley drink was set in front of him and Sir Hamnet and Sir Droyn sat on either side of him. He caught a whiff of alcohol rising with the steam coming from the cup before him. Liquid courage some men called it. For Prince Kelton, alcohol was nothing more than something to torture an already tortured mind and enhance the emotions he was trying to muffle. His kerfuffle with the Dragonwoman and the painful throbbing and disorientation that followed was more than enough for him to stay away from it as much as possible.
Sighing, Prince Kelton sat back and pulled the warm mug toward him.
“If we had chosen our usual pattern of patrol, we likely would have been caught between Grindle Village and Foreum Village,” Sir Hamnet said softly.
Sir Droyn nodded in agreement. “Better here than outside.”
“Better, physically, perhaps,” Prince Kelton replied, finally lifting the glass to take a sip.
His knights nodded their heads in understanding, saying nothing more as the three of them slowly drank their alcohol laced beverages.
The storm continued for nearly a week without a single pause. During the lighter snowfall, Prince Kelton and his knights spent their time with the villagers, shoveling snow off of the roofs so they didn’t collapse. When the storm was too much to be out in, Prince Kelton holed himself up in his room, practicing forms or pacing the floor. His anxiety was driving him mad. The drive to get to Pride Town had been increasing steadily. If the storm didn’t let up soon, he wasn’t sure what he would do. It was times like this that he wished he could fly like the birds so he could have been where he wanted to be by now.
As it was, he would be lucky to get there in a month because of how much snow this storm had brought in. By the end of the week, the storm had finally stopped. The streets were in desperate need of clearing and the barn doors were frozen shut. Feeling a flair of anger in his chest, Prince Kelton threw himself into clearing snow wherever he could. He did his best not to snip at his knights when they stopped him to eat and rest, but it was difficult. Three days of clearing snow had helped keep his mood on a low simmer until he saw the sky darkening again.
“Don’t you dare dump more snow on me,” he growled at the sky as he shook his gloved finger.
A snowball hit him in the back, making him stumble forward a few steps. He turned with a glare and found Sir Hamnet and Sir Droyn pointing at the other. Prince Kelton muttered profanities under his breath as he gathered snow in his hands. He threw the ball as hard as he could at Sir Hamnet first, since he was the most likely culprit, then another at Sir Droyn, since he probably egged him into doing so. Sir Droyn dodged the snowball, making it hit Sir Hett. Sir Hamnet danced towards Prince Kelton as Sir Hett made a snowball to throw at Sir Droyn.
It wasn’t long before many of the children in the city joined the snowball fight with Prince Kelton and his knights. After a couple hours, Prince Kelton called a truce and the children were shooed into their homes to warm up. Prince Kelton and his knights returned to the Crunching Otter Inn to eat and warm up.
“It’s good to see you smile again, Sire,” Sir Thomas said softly once they had all settled down to braised pork and baked potatoes.
“Hear, hear,” his other knights agreed.
Prince Kelton just nodded, since his thoughts were careening back into the negative now that they were no longer playing with the children.
“Rest as best you can tonight,” he said after a moment. “I would like to be on our way again by the end of the week.”
Various forms of agreement came from his knights before Prince Kelton turned in for the night.