I really wished that I would have spent more time developing my magic after the revelations of the island, but there never seemed like there was enough privacy back on the ship. And I still had to come clean to the rest of our people about my past. They needed to know who was leading them, warts and all. One of the commonalities between Earth and The Crossroads was that there never seemed to be enough time, or never enough of the right time. There were so many things that I needed to accomplish and there were never enough hours in the day to get them all done. I seemed to be running from one catastrophe to another, some that the world created for me and some of my own devise.

It was still early in the morning when we reached Greynard. I had decided to trust Anxo’s intuition about what route we should take to reach the ship. Even if our cover story sparked the barest hesitation in our pursuers, then it was worth it. If they ended up splitting their forces and we resorted to fighting to escape, then less opponents beat more opponents. Largely being a farming and ranching community, the people of Greynard were already up and about doing their daily business when we arrived there. The visit from the Shroud Hallow guardsman must have created distrust for me in at least some of the people who lived in town. I caught many more guarded looks from people on the street than in my previous visits. Several bystanders asked where we were all headed, but everyone had been briefed about our cover story on the way into town. To a person, we all responded that we were going to take a holiday in Westfield. The inclusion of Sathebeena and Anxo raised a few eyebrows, I’m certain, especially if the rumors that they had deeded their property away had already propagated throughout the community. But people also knew that we were all friends so hopefully that would assuage some of the suspicion.

Soon, Greynard was behind us. While we were making our way through the town, I didn’t see the guardsman who had been asking about me. Perhaps he was a late sleeper, but the more likely explanation was that he had already left to summon reinforcements. I hoped the additional troops were all the way back in Shroud Hallow and not lurking conveniently in other nearby communities. If they were back in Shroud Hallow, we would make it to the ship and be away before anyone was the wiser. If they were closer, it was going to definitely be a race. And we would be disadvantaged in the race. We could only move as fast as a pair of two horse teams pulling laden wagons. I had to admit that the horses pulled the wagons much more quickly than the oxen had. Those of us who decided to lighten the load and proceed on foot for awhile had to jog to keep up with the wagons. There weren’t a whole lot of volunteers to jog. Aleyda, Bowen and I took turns jogging along, and surprisingly so did Anxo. I guess his time stalking game kept him in good shape. Everyone else rode. Thankfully, others had trained to drive the teams once we settled down at the farm and having extra drovers meant I could actually take a turn running.

We stayed on the familiar roadway for several hours, this time descending off the plateau towards Westfield. I remembered the directions that I received to Bralgren but since Anxo was along and had actually been there, I let him navigate. From time to time, we would slow the horses to a walk and then everyone would get out and stretch their legs. Around the middle of the day, we stopped at a convenient stream to water the horses and allow them to graze a little bit, supplemented by the oats that we had brought with us. I knew we had to do so to keep our method of transport viable but the longer we sat there, the more jumpy and stressed I became. I really didn’t want to have to fight off the guards. We only had five viable fighters in our group, actually seven if you counted Sathebeena and Anxo. I didn’t know how many guards they would send in pursuit, but I imagined it would be more than seven.

While the horses grazed, we ate as well. While we were sitting there by the side of the road, there was certainly other traffic that passed us. Some looked local but we also saw an army unit and a couple of merchant groups led by hard-eyed and wary guards. We stayed to ourselves, not trying to engage any of them in conversation. They were content to do likewise.

Finally, the horses had rested and eaten enough that we could hit the road again. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon, Anxo ordered us to turn onto a rutted path dirt path as that was the route to Bralgren. There was a lot of complaining once we got off the well used and well maintained main road. What had been a fairly smooth ride turned punishing. The path we were on was not properly maintained and we had to be careful a couple of times not to get stuck. Since the wagons were solid framed and weren’t equipped with shock absorbers or any type of suspension for the comfort of their passengers, every bump, drop, and rut transmitted itself through the frame of the wagon directly into the rear ends and spines of the passengers. Our pace had slowed down significantly, so many of the others decided to exit the wagons and walk alongside them.

Of course, that created a whole litany of other issues. I think Helvia was the first person to step wrong and roll her ankle. That meant she had to go back to riding. Then, Jahhaf stepped poorly and tweaked his knee, so he was helped back into the wagon as well. Sathebeena started bitching about the fact that it took her two steps to make up for one of mine and decided the punishing ride was preferable. Before long, the only people walking were Bowen, Aleyda, me, Xeng, Patrick, Anxo and Mero. Mero was blessed with the stamina of youth and frolicked forward with the wagons playing with his dog.

Finally, the remains of the day started slipping away. “How much farther?” I asked Anxo for probably the fifth time.

“Two hours ago I told you we were about six hours travel away at our current pace,” he replied. “Since we have traveled two hours, that means we are approximately four hours out.”

“Dare we travel after dark?” I asked.

“We do not,” Mariam said, overhearing our conversation. “If we had to physically carry the gold and the other important things we brought with us because we lamed our teams it will take us significantly more time to reach the ship. Some of us are getting on in years and do not move very quickly in the best of times. We already have a couple of people with minor injuries. How fast to you think they can walk?”

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We continued on until we found another small stream to water the horses, then I sighed and bowed to the inevitable. We would have to camp for the night. Every hour we spent here was another hour that our pursuit could draw closer. We hadn’t exactly gone out of our way to hide the evidence that we had departed the main trail. Camping here was a gamble but not as large of one as continuing on in the darkness would be.

I organized a guard rotation. We would have two people awake and alert at all times. Everyone would take a turn except for Mariam, Mero and Jahhaf. Mariam looked tired and worn out from her efforts driving our lead wagon. Mero had collapsed to the ground as soon as we found a place to stop. Maybe he wasn’t as indefatigable as he had appeared for most of the day. And Jahhaf was cooking for us, and wise people didn’t piss off the cook. He would have to get up early anyway to make certain breakfast was ready.

I tried to pair people with complementary skills. Aleyda, Werner and Xeng took first watch followed by Patrick and Sathebeena. I assigned Anxo and myself to the third and then Helvia and Bowen to the last. During the last watch, Jahhaf would be up as well but he would be busy cooking. I thought if the guards caught up to us, it would likely be later in the night or just before dawn. I wasn’t certain I would be going back to sleep after my watch was over. That might make for a grumpy James, but grumpy James was better than dead James. Yes, I just wrote about myself in the third person.

Jahhaf threw together some hot camp food, which was still much better than anything I had eaten back of the island. Mero managed to wake up just in time to eat. It’s strange how that worked. Then, since he was up anyway and wouldn’t stand a watch, I took him with me to the stream to clean up the pots, bowls and pans so that Jahhaf could get some rest. He complained about the extra work, but I could tell that he was complaining just to complain. His heart really wasn’t into it. I caught him letting Kadar, his dog, lick the pots and bowls clean before he washed them. I didn’t much care. Dogs have to eat as well. Kadar was a good beggar and had gotten plenty of food from the rest of us as he made his rounds tentatively from person to person with his mournful eyes. Hell, even I wasn’t immune to his dubious charms. I hoped our food did not make him too gassy. A large, flatulent dog below decks on a ship was not a recipe for a happy life. I hoped Captain Serxio would allow him on the ship. Mero seemed to have really bonded with him and I didn’t want to break Mero’s heart again.

After the pots were clean, I bedded down. It felt like very little time had passed before I was shaken awake by Patrick. For once, surrounded by all of our people, I had not been plagued with nightmares. That was good because I did not try to stab Patrick. A solid stabbing is not something that is easily forgiven. I walked over and kicked Anxo’s boot, not wanting to get stabbed myself. Anxo got up and we stood watch together.

It was the deepest part of the night. We spread out, each taking a separate direction on the roadway, keeping well away from the campfire to avoid ruining our night vision. I took our backtrail while he set up in the direction of Bralgren. Besides the normal sounds of wildlife, including the howling of a wolf pack in the distance, the watch passed uneventfully. When it was concluded, we woke up our replacements but I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was too on edge. Even the sounds of Jahhaf waking and starting a pot of some sort of oat gruel startled me. If our pursuit was close, the guards could arrive at any time. I wanted to be ready to fight. Soon, though, I realized my mind was looping in threat assessment over and over. I needed something to occupy my time. Finally, I got up and dug in Werner’s pack for some ink and parchment. I might as well do something productive while I waited.

So, what did I do? Did I brainstorm a couple of dozen ideas for products that we could bring to market? Did I try to work out a budget of some sort? No, I did neither of those things. Instead, using the primitive writing technology with the aid of the light from the campfire, I painstakingly wrote out an account of what my alleged victims back in Shroud Hallow had done – theirs attempts to befriend me and then press gang me. I intended to leave it with someone in Bralgren to give to the leader of the guards, who I thought would inevitably arrive at some point. When, of course, was the only pertinent question. I wanted to defend myself, even if it was only in written form. Maybe some investigation would reveal it wasn’t the first time that those two orcs had managed that trick. More likely, though, it would be ignored. I wanted to get it off my chest in any event. I am many things, but generally I have not been a cold blooded murderer.

As I finished my account and returned the rest of the writing supplies to Werner’s pack, I realized that the first hints of the impending dawn were lighting up the sky. Before long, we would be able to move again. And the pursuit had never arrived. Of course, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t catch up with us before we were on the boat, but fighting when it was light out beat fighting in the dark as far as I was concerned. Quickly, I walked around the camp and woke everyone up, receiving little for my efforts other than a bunch of groans and complaints.

Breakfast was over in short order. After quickly washing out the cooking gear again while others hitched up the teams, we hit the road. Four hours. We had to beat the guards by four hours. If we made it to the ship on time, I doubted they would have the means to pursue us.

Those four hours passed very slowly. I think I made myself dizzy from the number of times I looked back over my shoulder to try to detect signs of imminent pursuit. I never detected any. As we got closer to the village, we started seeing a variety of farms and ranches along the roadway. Some of them were tidy and well kept, others of them were less so. People were out working and several of them waved or nodded at us, Not wanting to be unneighborly, we waved or nodded back. Several times, small packs of dogs would charge out at us from the surrounding properties. Some of them were friendly but others were aggressive and snarling. Kadar greeted the friendly dogs in kind, but when we were approached by the more aggressive canines, he stood his ground greeting them likewise. I noticed that he was quite a bit larger than many of the other dogs. The property owners, well acquainted with their pets’ proclivities, called the dogs off before things ever turned violent. Thankfully, they seemed to be decently trained. I doubted this was a well used road but having dogs viciously attack travelers was a good recipe for losing those dogs.

Soon enough, we crested a hill and could see the ocean again. Below us was a small village, nestled in a bay, with a couple of dozen houses that had obviously seen better days. The bay was dotted with small boats that I assumed to be fishermen. Anchored in the middle of the bay was Merfolk’s Tears. Captain Serxio was true to his word and they were there waiting for us. I would have looked like a complete idiot if we had arrived and there was no ship. The meager village docks obviously couldn’t accommodate a ship of that size so we would need to be transported out to the ship by boat.

Time was still ticking. I hoped that we could make it to the ship quickly. Coming this close, only to have hope snatched away at the last minute, might be more than my people could take.