“Turn your back, at least,” Ash said.
Lila heaved a great sigh, but she turned and faced the door. “I can’t believe you’re making a fuss about this, after everything that’s happened.”
Stripping quickly, Ash dropped his bloody clothes on the floor and yanked on clean smallclothes, a fresh set of breeches, and a linen shirt.
“Can I at least help pack your things while you’re busy being shy?” Lila said to the ceiling.
“I’m already packed,” Ash said, pulling his panniers from under the bed. “Let’s go.”
11
GOING EAST ON THE WEST ROAD
Either Ash Hanson sul’Han didn’t want to be rescued, or he had no common sense. It wasn’t like Lila expected a medal, but still—a little cooperation would be damned nice. She hadn’t planned on spending a month or two nannying a blueblood mage. She had business of her own to attend to. Pressing business.
Leaving the bodies where they lay, Lila and Ash carried their gear down to the first floor. The guards that were usually posted in the doorways were gone, and the corridors yawned, empty and sinister.
The kitchen yard, so busy during the day, was tenanted only by moonlight and by Scraps, the Mistress of Kitchens’ battle-scarred tomcat. The lock on the kitchen door easily gave to Lila’s practiced hand. Scraps watched balefully from the doorway as they gathered as much travelers’ food as they could carry: salted meat, bread and cheese and dried fruit, two skins of wine. Given the carnage in the dormitory, a raid on the kitchen would receive little attention in the morning.
While they worked, they argued, debating which road to take.
Lila favored the Tamron Road, which would get them into friendly territory quicker and keep them away from Ardenscourt. She didn’t feel it necessary to mention that it would also make it less likely that they would run into someone she knew. The last thing she needed was to be seen with Princeling sul’Han.
Ash pushed riding east to Ardenscourt, then north through Delphi. “The Tamron Road is the logical choice, which means they’ll be watching it,” he said. “Only an idiot would head straight for Ardenscourt.”
“Exactly,” Lila said. “Only an idiot would try that. I don’t like it. That road is heavily traveled, always crawling with southerners.”
“We are in the south,” Ash said, rolling his eyes. “More traffic means we’ll be easier to overlook.”
“Unless we run into more of those bloodsucking crows of Malthus.” Or some other people I’d just as soon avoid, Lila thought.
“Let’s split up, then,” Ash suggested. “I’ll go via Ardenscourt and you go via Tamron. We’ll lay bets on who gets there first.”
You’re trying to get rid of me, Lila thought, so you can go south to Freetown, like you planned. Well, I’m not going to let you. But that meant giving in.
Once that was decided, they hurried on to the stables, where Ash insisted that they pick out horses to steal, arguing that they couldn’t take their own if they wanted to play dead. Ash chose Maribel, a spirited piebald mare that had belonged to the messenger service, so she’d been exercised more than most of the students’ personal mounts. Lila picked Brady, a bay military gelding newly arrived from Arden with a student at Wien House.
Less than an hour after the last man died, they rode away from Oden’s Ford. At least Lila convinced Ash not to leave a note for Taliesin, dean of Spiritas, the healing academy. She was determined to win that one.
“I don’t want her to worry about me,” Ash said, looking down at his hands.
“Maybe she’s the one that outed you,” Lila suggested. “She knows you better than anyone, right?”
Ash flinched when she said that, but then he shook his head. “If she wanted me dead, I would be dead,” he said.
“That’s an odd thing to say about a healer,” Lila said. “Anyway, she won’t worry if she thinks you’re dead. And it’s probably best for now if that’s what everyone thinks. Especially while we’re traveling through Arden.”
So far, the princeling had met all of her admittedly low expectations. He was a major pain in the ass. Still—she couldn’t get the image of the bloodsucking crows out of her mind.
They rode first in the moonlight, and then in the darkness after the moon had set, and finally in the mist of the early morning, climbing the long, gradual slope away from the river. As the light grew, the great trees of Tamron Forest gradually became visible on either side, like rooted ranks of soldiers. Their horses moved at a brisk pace, their hooves flinging up the mud of the road, splashing through the puddles of a recent rain. They didn’t have much to say to each other.
“I wonder how wide a net they’ll cast,” Ash said, after an hour’s silent riding.
“Who knows?” Lila said. “Depends on how committed they are to killing you.” She studied him critically. “Your size and that copper head of yours make you stand out.”