“I will.” While she didn’t like the idea of separating, she understood the necessity of it.
“Lady Reid,” Ackley drawled. “Follow me.” He steered his horse to the right, veering off the path.
“Silly Ackley,” she said as she joined him. “You should know I’d much prefer you following me.”
Chuckling, he moved his horse over so she could ride alongside him.
Glancing over her shoulder, she watched as the others headed in the opposite direction.
“They’ll be fine,” Ackley assured her.
“I know.”
At the top of the rise, the town came into view. It appeared roughly a mile or so away. Still riding side by side, Ackley started humming a tune Reid wasn’t familiar with.
“Here you go.” Ackley handed Reid a black hat.
She put it on, shoving her hair underneath it.
At the first set of buildings, the dirt road turned to cobblestone. Reid thought the City of Radella had been the only place afforded such luxury, but apparently not. Were all the cities and towns in Axian equally equipped? The structures they passed were two or three stories, made from bricks and stones—not the wooden buildings she was accustomed to back home. Only a few people milled about. The deeper Reid and Ackley traveled into the town, the more crowded the streets became. Most citizens seemed to be walking, even those with horses.
“Let’s dismount,” Ackley said, pulling his horse to a halt.
Reid climbed off her horse. “Should I put my cape on?” It would help hide the fact she was a woman.
“No. The hat will suffice.” He scanned the area. “It’s not like at home. People don’t need to believe you’re a man. We just don’t want one of the king’s men to realize it’s you if spotted.” He gestured to the side, so Reid headed that way.
In order to not attract unwanted attention, they meandered along the street, peering into various store windows. Ackley even smiled at a few people, as if he knew who they were. Almost everyone they encountered seemed to be from the merchant class. Their well-made clothes lacked the holes and patches Reid was used to seeing in northern Marsden.
The sweet smell of cakes baking wafted in the air. Reid breathed in deeply, then smiled. When she reached the bakery, she stopped to look in the window.
“Do you want to get something?” Ackley asked.
“No.” Since the sun had already set, the sky was starting to darken. Seeing inside the bakery was good enough for her. A handful of tables dominated the left side. People sat around them, eating and talking. A counter covered with breads, cakes, and muffins stretched along the right side. Behind the counter, a woman took orders, exchanging the baked goods for money. Reid loved to see a woman working while people treated her with respect.
As she turned to leave, an eerie sensation prickled her skin. Remaining rooted in place, she tried to find the source of her unease. Ackley remained beside her, also staring through the window. Reid focused on the reflection in the glass. On the other side of the street, a man passed by for the second time. There was something familiar about the way he carried himself.
“Well, I lost that bet.” Ackley scoffed. “I could have sworn he was following Dexter, not you.” He sighed. “Dexter is never going to let me hear the end of this.”
“Is that Victor?” Reid hissed.
“It is. I assume Anna sent him to keep an eye on you. While I have nothing against the man, he’s not someone I’d willingly spend time with.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Nothing.” He moved to the left, and Reid followed. “For now, at least.”
Reid adjusted her grip on her horse’s reins, trying to act casual as she strolled through the town with a Knight. “Should we say something to him?” Pretending she didn’t know Victor was there was hard. Maybe it would be better to just acknowledge him.
“No. We’ll allow him to follow us. Let him see us heading north, just like we told Anna we would.” He smiled.
They finally exited the town. “What do you think he’s going to do now?” Reid asked as she mounted her horse, stealthily peeking behind her as she did so. She didn’t see Victor.
“Well,” Ackley said, climbing on his horse. “I imagine he will follow from a distance. With the horses, it’s not hard to track us.”
When the cobblestones ended, the road returned to dirt. Reid kept glancing to the left, hoping to see Dexter, her father, and Gordon riding toward them. After about thirty minutes, three figures emerged. When they cut across the field directly toward them, relief filled her.
“You were right,” Ackley said to Dexter when he neared. “It’s Reid.”
“Thought so,” Dexter replied, steering his horse alongside her.
“I thought maybe Anna had sent Victor to murder you in your sleep.” Ackley shrugged, acting as if discussing Dexter’s death was no big deal.
Dexter glanced sidelong at Ackley. “As much as you’d enjoy that, Anna won’t try to have me killed until her daughter is securely on the throne.”
“Can we please stop talking about Dexter being assassinated?” Reid asked, exasperated.
“The issue will need to be dealt with,” Duke Ellington chided her. “At some point, we will need to discuss it so we can come up with a plan to stop her.”
The number of insurmountable tasks kept piling up. Trying not to let her thoughts overwhelm her, she focused on the scenery. On this side of the town, the land was flat. Field after field full of agriculture dotted the landscape. “Where are we making camp?” She didn’t like the idea of being out in the open—especially with Victor following them.
“There’s a cave up ahead,” Dexter replied. “We’ll stay in there. That way, we can have a fire tonight.”
“In that case…” Ackley pulled his horse to the side. “I’m going hunting. I’ll catch up with you in an hour or so.” A wicked smile spread across his face.
“When you say hunting, you do mean animals, right?” Reid asked jokingly.
“I can’t promise anything.” With that, he nudged his horse and veered to the right.
Shaking his head with amusement, Dexter led the way between two plots of land.
“I’m not sure where Ackley plans to find animals to hunt,” Gordon muttered. He was probably upset he didn’t get to go with his brother.
“I want everyone to ride single file behind me,” Dexter ordered. “There’s a crevice up ahead. Since the sun has set, it’s getting harder to see.”
Everyone did as instructed. He led the way off the road, traveling slightly northwest.
“How are we going to cross this crevice?” Reid asked. The last time she’d traversed a great divide had been the Gast River. The bridge she and Harlan strode over had been so high up that she’d had to crawl on her hands and knees. She couldn’t imagine doing something like that on a horse.
“We can take the road that zigzags down the side of it, make our way along the rocky bottom, and then go up a steep incline. The journey will take all day because we’ll have to walk.”
She didn’t remember encountering this obstacle when she was here with Harlan last time. “Is there another way?”