They left the city without fanfare, but the procession still attracted attention.
Tamass and Nandi took the lead, with Chaka and Hazel right behind them. All four were skilled riders, and their sleek Ys thoroughbreds high-stepped splendidly out through the city gate.
Sted rode alone behind Chaka and Hazel, ignoring the gathering crowd of onlookers. He had one leg up, resting across his saddle, and was leaning his forearm on his bent knee so he could read his book as if he was sitting in a chair that just happened to be walking.
Paul and Karen rode side-by-side, Karen radiating health and happiness, Paul squinting into the morning sun and doing his best to look comfortable in the saddle.
Jebel was eleven hundred miles away, at the mouth of the broad River Deuona beside them. Hazel was going to jump them through a distant window for the biggest part of their journey, but in order to make things difficult for any demon spies that might be out there she’d decided they should ride the first forty miles out from Ys and the final five miles into Jebel. Paul expected his backside would be sore by tomorrow evening.
Next came Borhb and Morhi, chatting about people whose names Paul had never heard before. He wondered if there was a community of shape-shifters in Ys.
Jack was on the last horse in the line. He looked even more uncomfortable on his high perch than Paul felt on his.
Tamass and Sted had argued last night and again over breakfast about taking Jack along.
Sted said they couldn’t trust him.
Tamass had snorted, and told Sted to tell him something new.
Hazel said it would probably be best to keep Jack where they could see him.
Tamass said that was his thinking exactly and the discussion was over.
Paul hadn’t heard anyone ask Jack if he wanted to go to Jebel. But the little man had got new boots and travel clothes out of the deal, and free food for the duration of the trip, and Paul hadn’t heard him complaining either.
Paul and Karen had been given matching travel clothes to wear, which suggested that someone on the palace staff thought they were a couple.
That may have been on the cards at one time, as recently as last week in fact, but it wasn’t any longer. She was growing away from him by the day. Not rejecting him. Just growing distant because she was becoming different.
Growing…beyond him.
He’d missed his chance. He’d known it was there, but had always avoided it rather than face up to his feelings of guilt. Every time he’d thought about Karen in even a vaguely romantic way, Sarah had filled his mind.
And now it was too late. And her true nature was growing fast. Dauntingly. So any relationship beyond friendship had probably never been on the cards really.
But she did look wonderful astride her tall black horse, with her dark hair tumbling in shining waves across her shoulders and the powerful river flowing in the background.
He’d described his outfit to Molly in his morning pages, while Foss was running his bath.
It was similar in style to what Tamass wore on the road, except without the fine chain mail tunic.
Paul’s tunic was thick white cotton, and his trousers were a black and blue woollen plaid with a golden thread running through it. Woollen socks, calf-length leather boots, and a hooded long woollen cloak completed the comfortable ensemble.
Like Tamass, Nandi, and Chaka, he wore his sword slung across his back with the hilt sticking up above his left shoulder. He’d protested, but Foss had insisted.
He’d never felt a bigger fraud in his life.
Past the raised bank where Karen had gone off with the merrow, past the first shallow valley filled with orange trees, and past Hazel’s invisible window from where he’d got his first distant glimpse of Ys, the river curved to the north around a range of hills up ahead.
Tamass headed straight for the high ground. “We’ll go over the hills and meet the river on the other side,” he called back. “Half the distance to ride.”
The climb was gradual and the long views pleasant. The air was cooler in the hills, even at midday, and when Tamass called a halt to eat beside a waterfall Paul thought he could happily get used to travelling in the new world.
When Karen swung down from her saddle, she lost her footing and nearly fell.
Paul grabbed her. “Hey, you okay?”
She sat down quickly on a tussock of grass. “Not feeling great.”
She accepted his offered water bottle, and a long drink cleared her eyes, at least. “Thanks. Been getting dizzy for a while but it didn’t hit me until I got off the horse.”
Morhi sat down and put her arm around Karen’s shoulders. “Let’s get some food in you.”
Borhb lifted a saddleback down from his horse and they rummaged around in it.
Sted led his horse to a grassy mound Jack had chosen to sit upon, and jerked his head. “Go somewhere else.”
Jack moved.
Sted sat down with a ham roll in one hand and his book in the other, and immersed himself again in whatever he was reading.
Nandi and Chaka watched the exchange without comment.
Tamass and Hazel were talking in low voices, while studying Karen.
Paul went over to sit with them.
“Did Karen swim with the merrow again?” Hazel asked.
“Yes. Last night.”
“I thought so.”
Tamass’s mouth turned down.
Paul looked back and forth between them. “Is something wrong?”
Hazel gave one of her subtle shrugs. “Not wrong, exactly. It’s probably right for her. We each must follow our own path.”
Paul sighed. “Would you like to tell me what you mean, please?”
“Hazel thinks Karen is becoming merrow,” Tamass said.
“She exudes vibrant good health when she’s near the river,” Hazel explained, “and now shows a marked decline when she’s distant from it.”
Twenty feet away, Karen was eating, but not enthusiastically. Her face was pale. Morhi draped a blanket around her shoulders and she clutched it to her, in spite of the hot sun beating down.
Tamass watched her. “In some ways this makes her the opposite of what we are.”
Paul’s worst fears were confirmed. He couldn’t even discuss them with Karen. Their years of friendship probably amounted to nothing for her now, so huge was the change she was experiencing.
“We can prove your theory easily,” Tamass said. “If she perks up when we get back to the river, that’s it.”
Hazel bowed her head and raised a slow down hand. “It wouldn’t prove she’s becoming merrow, but it would prove there’s something going on.”
“I think we already know that.” Tamass consulted his map. “The river loops again around Suddon Height. We’ll reach that bend at mid-morning tomorrow. If we stay with the river it will add three hours to our ride, but I think we must. We’ll sleep three hours less tonight to make up the difference.”
Hazel smiled. “Sted won’t be happy. He likes his sleep.”
Tamass wrinkled his nose. “He’ll live.”
Paul’s heart warmed to his brother.
Karen was no one special to Tamass. She was just a friend of Paul’s, and offered nothing of operational value to the quest. But he cared. She was under his command, so he cared about her welfare.
Paul had spent years writing about him being a great leader. Seeing him be a great leader was very different.