47

She expected to sleep horribly that night, but somehow everything that had happened caught up to her and as soon as she managed to doze off, she didn’t open her eyes again until morning, when the sound of a horse snorting dragged her out of a dream where she was back at home sitting on a couch with one of her friends and just chatting and snacking on all of the junk food she hadn’t even realized she was missing.

It was always a shock to come out of dreams like that and face the real world again, but at least this time, she had too much on her mind to dwell on it for long. Sitting up slowly, she tried to evaluate how she was feeling. Her skull was still throbbing, but the pain had lessened, and she didn't feel dizzy when she moved her head quickly, so she guessed she was all right. The fact that she had woken up at all was probably a good sign, and it wasn't like there was much else she could do, so she decided to go forward under the assumption that she would be just peachy.

Speaking of peaches, she spotted her daily peach from Saofoth on top of her bag. Kel was over by the horses, but he looked up when she swung her legs out of the hammock and started to get up.

"Do you feel any worse than you did yesterday?"

She shook her head, barely even wincing with the motion. "No. I feel a little better, actually." Raising a hand, she touched the bandage — a strip of clean cloth he'd tied around her head like a bandana. She could probably use more numbing salve, but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as the wound to her side had, probably because it wasn't a part of her body that moved much.

Slipping out of her hammock, she hobbled on socked feet to her boots and slipped them on. Then, she stooped to grab the peach from on top of her bag and held it out to Kel. "Do you want it?"

He shook his head. "I am not hungry. We should prepare to leave soon. The valley may be hidden, but I don't want to start a fire here in the daylight; the smoke would be too visible. We need to find somewhere safer to wait while you recover."

"Yeah, that probably wouldn't be a great idea." She glanced over at where Luke had been sleeping, but he was gone. "Where's–" She swiveled her head around to look for him and answered her own question; Kel had moved Luke at some point. He was currently tied to a tree closer to the creek, and was busy scrubbing the pot Kel had boiled water in to wash the rags he used to tend to her wound last night. He paused in his work and looked up as she approached.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I was kind of worried when you didn't get up when Kel and I started moving around the camp."

"Did he put you to work already?”

Luke shrugged. "It's not like I wouldn't have done it anyway. I know you two don't trust me, and that's fine, but I'll prove that I’m trustworthy and useful.”

Luke was… alright. She didn't know him and she didn't trust him, but it wasn't like she hated having him around, either. She suspected it would be nice to have someone else from Earth to talk to. Right now, though, she had more important things on her mind. She handed the peach out to him.

"Peach? I get one every day thanks to a blessing a god gave me about a week after I got here. They're safe to eat, and they're the best peaches I've ever had."

"Whoa, thanks," he said, rinsing his hands off in the creek before taking it from her. "I can't even remember the last time I ate a peach. My family never kept much fruit at home, and I didn’t see any up north. There’s a lot more fresh produce down here, I guess it’s too cold to grow much up there."

She wasn't sure what to say to that, so she just turned away to head back toward Kel and the horses. She felt oddly empty inside, though it was still an improvement from yesterday. Pausing, she turned back to look at him. "I don't know if I said it yet, but thank you. For stopping Milo. I'd be dead now if it wasn't for you."

Luke looked up at her, skinny, his face dotted with acne, a rope tied to the ring in one of his metal cuffs and the sleeves of his shirt wet from doing the washing, and somehow he still looked happier than he had at the inn. "I've spent the last eight months beating myself up for doing the wrong thing. I'm glad I got the chance to do something right."

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By the time she walked the short distance back to camp proper, Kel had led his stolen horse into a clear area, away from the dry grass and prickly trees, and was circling it with a critical eye.

"Are you going to keep it?" Lyra asked as she sat back down on her hammock and started digging through her bag for clean clothes. "You were going to get one anyway, and well..." She shrugged. "Free horse."

"I admit, I'm tempted," he said. "This is a fine animal. It's by far the most expensive horse I've ever ridden."

"Then keep it. It's not like Erik and Milo deserve to have it back."

"It's not that," he said. "A destrier like this will draw attention wherever we go. It's the sort of horse a high-ranking member of the military would own, or a priest or priestess from one of the rich temples in the city. People will think I've stolen it." He paused. "And it is stolen, so they wouldn't even be wrong. Besides, a war horse like this is far more memorable than a plowhorse. If the others from your world decide to follow us, traveling with this horse would make it all the easier for them."

"Well, at least keep it for now. If you decide it's too much trouble, maybe you can sell it and get a different horse." She eyed the horse, trying to see what it was he saw in it. It was a lot bigger than Aeliana, and it shifted impatiently while they watched it, as if it was eager to be on the move again. Aeliana, by contrast, was dozing near the tree she was tied to, one back hoof propped up on the ground. Lyra was perfectly happy to stick to her gentle, calm plow horse. After last night, at least she knew Aeliana was capable of speed when she needed it.

"It will make our journey faster," he allowed as he stepped forward to pat the horse's neck. She got the feeling he was just looking for an excuse to keep it. "We should discuss what we should do next. Do you still wish to travel to the city?"

"Yeah." She thought about what Erik and Milo had told her about the cost to get home, but she wanted to hear it herself, from a god who was actually capable of returning her to Earth. Maybe the price wouldn't be so high, or maybe she could pay it without becoming a serial killer or mass murderer. "I don't think I'll get answers anywhere else, other than maybe the Northern Kingdom. But I don't know if going there would be a good idea."

"That is a journey of months, rather than weeks," he paused. "If you wish to journey there eventually, I will go with you, but it makes more sense to go to Heliotheopoli first. That being said, I believe it would be safest to travel off the main road from now on."

That made sense. Erik and Milo knew where she was going, and she had no way of knowing for sure if they were going to pursue her or let her go, but she suspected Erik wasn't the type to let anything go. Milo had seemed ambivalent about the whole thing – which was almost worse, since he had been willing to kill her anyway – but from the look in Eric's eyes, she thought he had wanted to kill her. Now that he had a reason to hate her, assuming he survived having his hand chopped off, he had even more of a reason to want her dead.

"Yeah, staying off the beaten path seems like a good idea to me too," she said. "It's a good thing I took my bag to go meet them. I'm guessing we aren't going back to Ersgath."

He shook his head. "Even if they aren't tracking us, it's too likely that we would run into them there." He paused. "I have an idea, but it would only be safe so long as we hurry."

At this point, Lyra was ready to take Kel's advice on pretty much anything. Her own gut had led her astray more often than he had. "If it gets us to the city in one piece, let’s do it.”

"Then we will travel through the Aketian lands to the south," he said. "You will need another blessing to do so, and a godstone, but the Aketian priest you spoke to has already extended an invitation to their camp, so I do not think you will have much trouble getting either. Their gods are tied to shrines rather than temples, but there are a myriad of them and they should be able to help cover our tracks even if the others have a god helping them follow us. So long as we ride swiftly and make it out of the floodplains before the rains come, it should be the safest way to reach the coast now that traveling along the main road has its own dangers for us."

Another blessing meant asking for help from another god, but the idea of doing that was less intimidating than it had just a couple of days ago. None of the gods she met had tried to kill her on purpose so far. Even the god in the cave had been aiming for Kel, not her. Erik and Milo presented a very real danger, one that she could feel breathing down her neck. If Kel thought getting a blessing from another god was a good idea, she would do it. She had no idea what a godstone was, but she assumed it had something to do with the stones Russo wore on a leather strap around his neck. Whatever they did, it was probably a lot safer than being caught by a man from Earth who had held a knife to her ribs.

"So, we go to the Aketian camp first. That's a day's travel north of here, right?"

"Slightly less than a day’s travel now," he said. "We are already several miles north of town. If we leave soon, we should get there before dark. I suggest we stay for a few days while you rest. I will take that time to replenish our supplies. After that, we will have to ride swiftly to make it to our destination before the weather turns."

"Right. The Aketian camp, rest for a few days, then we head south. I'll start packing."

She wasn't sure what to expect from the Aketian camp, but the sooner they could lose themselves in a crowd, the better. The harder they were for Erik and Milo to find, the happier she would be. This was the first time in her life that she knew without a shadow of a doubt that another human being wanted her dead.

She didn't like the feeling in the slightest.