Elurra and Aleah bolted toward the stables. They had to cover Elurra’s hair and go through the servants’ passageways to avoid guards, but Aleah led Elurra with ease. She wasn’t sure if Aleah understood what was going on, but she’d always been good about going along with Elurra’s whims, which were sometimes random and vague. Once, Elurra decided she wanted to vanquish the dungeon of dangerous vermin. She had appeared at Aleah’s door dressed in her father’s fancy shirt, the butler’s hat, and Damond’s boots with a hunk of cheese and a wooden spoon, claiming she was going to save everyone from the plague. Aleah tagged along without any questions, and they spent the rest of the day smacking rats with spoons. Of course, Aleah used the entire episode as an excuse to teach a lesson on the past wars in Lur Alava, but Elurra still appreciated her willing spirit.
Elurra jumped onto the first horse she saw, not heeding the stable boy’s cries of alarm. She never liked the stable much, and horses made her nervous. She didn’t like riding, but she found it much easier than before because she was big enough to mount a horse by herself. She galloped off in a cloud of hay before anyone could stop her. Aleah was close behind, but she was held up while trying to quickly reassure the stable boy they would be back. Elurra didn’t bother waiting for her. She spurred her horse until she was galloping at top speed, which was dangerous on the steep, snowy slopes. Branches whipped across her face, and her horse almost broke its leg when it crossed over a patch of black ice. Luckily, the horses were used to the hazardous conditions, and it corrected itself before collapsing.
She felt nauseous. The feeling refused to go away, like honey stuck to her fingers. It settled in the bottom of her stomach, and she felt like she had swallowed tar. Her doubts whispered to her, telling her she was too late. Elurra tried to push them aside, but the thoughts wouldn’t leave her alone, like the day her parents left her. She pressed on, riding down the twisting road at a breakneck speed. She was almost to the docks when she came to a fork in the road. She skidded to a halt and looked helplessly from one road to the other.
“Which way?” Elurra asked herself as panic rose in her throat.
She hadn’t been to the docks often, and as a child, she didn’t pay attention to the roads. The cold sun rose in the east, and she knew she was out of time. She was too far ahead of Aleah to wait for direction. She examined the pine trees around her, sparkling in the sunlight. The snow shimmered on the branches. Elurra shook her head, made a quick decision, and charged down the path to her right. She could make it. The docks were only minutes away, and she would stop the ship before it left. If she was honest with herself, she would’ve realized she hadn’t put much thought into how she would manage saving him. She was too focused on getting there at all to worry about it. Nothing would stop her, even if she had to fight an entire boat full of slavers.
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Trees blurred past her on both sides until they looked like a solid wall of green and brown. Her racing heartbeat matched the horse’s pounding hooves. She felt hope rise inside her as the ocean breeze replaced the brittle mountain air. The ocean sprawled out before her in the next turn, and she was about to cheer triumphantly when she realized she was too high up. A hill rose in front of her, and she felt doubt creeping into her mind.
Are the docks over this hill?
At the last second, she realized she had taken the wrong path. She jerked back on the reins. The horse whinnied and tried to skid to a halt before the top. They slid across the icy mix on the ground and came to a stop a foot from the edge of the cliff overlooking the pier below. The precipice towered over the ocean; the waves crashed over the rocks like wild animals bashing against a cage. Spray flew into the air, and soon she was covered in the fine, salty mist. The ocean looked angry, like it was against Terrin leaving.
She squinted to keep the ocean spray out of her eyes and tried to make out every detail of the docks to her left. A vessel floated away from the rundown sketchy section of the wharf, and Elurra imagined it was the boat Terrin was on. Whether it was or not didn’t really matter. She realized how foolish she was as reality crashed down on her. Even if she had made it to the docks, she’d lost the moment Nitiri took him out of the dungeon. She had no way of knowing which boat he was on, and she was likely to get captured and shipped off herself, or worse if she started roaming the seediest parts Tor’ac Roh and poking around boats full of brutish, unsavory characters who didn’t care a smidge for human life. The waves rocked the ship below her, and the sailors scurried across the deck like ants in a hill being attacked by a child. The waves pounded against the sides relentlessly as if they could halt the ship’s progression.
If only they could, she thought bitterly.