THEY GOT an early start the next morning after Martus got very little sleep in the first place. This whole thing was a mess, and he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. The best way to do that was to get to Fitzy as soon as they could. They had a quick breakfast because Elsaben needed it and Hal did too, even though Martus had to force him again.
“Are you all right?” By the time they had been on the road for an hour or so, Elsaben was asleep—she’d barely ever been awake—and Mel was riding ahead of them in case they came across more of the people who had taken Fitzy. Martus took the relative privacy as an opportunity to check on Hal. Not eating was one thing—he hadn’t had much of an appetite for the time he’d known him—but now Hal looked like he’d gotten even less sleep than Martus.
“What do you mean? Of course I’m all right.” Hal sounded convincing, but for the fact that he looked pointedly forward, his hands fidgeting with his reins. Martus spent most of his time around him every day, and he could pick up on when things like that were out of place.
“Well, that just makes me more worried. Something’s obviously wrong, and now you’re lying about it. You haven’t been eating, and you haven’t been sleeping. My friend, if you find yourself having troubles, please tell me.” Martus leaned forward, trying to catch another look at Hal’s face. They were all tired, but there was a difference between being tired because he’d woken up early and being tired because he hadn’t gotten any sleep. Hal looked like the latter.
“Martus, you can’t be serious. I saw you last night, you know. You didn’t look any better then than I do now. Did you tell me your troubles?” Hal finally looked back at Martus, eyebrows raised.
It was Martus’s turn to look away. While Hal certainly had a point, Martus was fine with feeling bad; he could handle it on his own. Hal getting a little panicky, however, could have a much more severe effect. Martus trusted Hal and he didn’t want to make it sound like he didn’t, so he chose not to point that out.
“We killed people. I don’t like to have blood on my hands. Literally or figuratively. I’d say I’m in the majority there, so I didn’t think there was much to talk about.” Martus shrugged, forcing himself to look up at Hal. He smiled at him, even though he could picture how tense it would look. “Would you care to tell me what’s bothering you now?”
“I’m just having some trouble with the control spell, that’s all. Last night….” Briefly, Martus’s mind flashed back to Hal mumbling the words under his breath while he’d been fighting. He had the same sad, frustrated look on his face as he did now. “Last night, I was afraid it wasn’t going to work. Even before that, I had been staying up to practice, and I have been focusing better. Last night, it was still hard. I am… stressed. It makes it hard to eat. Sometimes the spell makes me ill, also.”
“It’ll take time, but I have faith in you, my friend. I truly do.” Martus didn’t know the details of the spell. He wasn’t as skilled as Hal at magick. Hell, he probably wasn’t even as skilled as his baby sister. That being said, even if it took a lifetime, even if it never happened fully, he knew Hal would keep trying. The important thing was that he knew he had support. “If it makes you ill, I would wager it’s better to take it a little more gently, maybe take a day or two off from practicing. You can’t let it keep you from eating, sleeping, functioning. That won’t end up helping anyone. Especially now. This has gone from bad to worse incredibly quickly, and I need you in top shape. You know you’re my right-hand man.”
“I know.” Hal smiled weakly at the encouragement, but he looked down at his hands a second later. “You are important to me. El is important to me. I want to be sure neither of you has to be in danger because of me. If that means a few sleepless nights….” He shook his head, blowing out a slow breath. “Sleepless nights now are better than the ones I have after I hurt people.”
“I know the feeling, I do. But El and I both need you to be around. You’ll be gone as much from not eating and sleeping as you would be if you flew away.” Martus wasn’t going to convince Hal to stop trying the spell, and he really didn’t want to. Of course he wanted to know he was safe, and of course he wanted Elsaben to be safe. However, if Hal didn’t slow down, he really was going to end up in a bad spot. That would do them both damage too, and Hal would be hurt on top of it.
“I’ll do my best, I promise.” Hal fell silent after that, a frown on his face as he stared forward. Martus didn’t try to bother him because, even if he had, he knew he shouldn’t expect much of a response. Hal could get lost in himself sometimes, and it was best to just leave him to his thoughts.
THEY DIDN’T make it to the town Fitzy was supposedly being held in that night. A bridge was down, and the river was much too deep for them to cross without it, so they had to go a few hours out of their way. On top of that, it had taken Mel and Hal hunching over the map and arguing back and forth for at least a half an hour before they could even keep going.
“We need to take the path through the forest. Sticking to the road will double our time.” Hal traced the path he intended for them to take with the opposite end of his pen. It certainly looked like rough terrain, but for a full six hours less traveling, especially since Elsaben was already getting antsy, it would probably be worth it.
“You don’t understand. They’re going to find out within the next… eh, three hours at the most, that their men are dead. When that happens, they’ll send more people after us. They may have even been the ones to take the bridge down. We’re in for enough of a fight when we get there, and taking the road may not let us avoid that completely, but they’ll be a lot less likely to attack on a public road than in the middle of the woods where there’s no chance anyone will be around to help us.”
Martus hadn’t even considered the criminals would realize their men were dead, at least not until they got to where Fitzy was. But it made sense. It had been a bad enough fight the night before—Mel had bruises, and Martus the cuts on his arms, to prove that much—but at least they’d been able to seek their pursuers out. Now if they sprung an attack on them, Elsaben would be there. Maybe they’d be able to get her out in time, or maybe they weren’t cruel enough to hurt a child. There was no way to know.
“We need to take the forest road. If they know we’re coming, and they know your brother can’t pay, he might be dead if we take an extra day.” Mel’s jaw clenched at that, but Martus barreled through. “Mel, you stay in the front, I’ll ride in the back, and Hal, you stay with Elsaben in between us. That way if they come at us, from either direction, we should be prepared.”
Martus didn’t need to tell Hal that if they did get in a dangerous situation, he had to get Elsaben out of there as quickly as possible. He and Mel could handle themselves. Usually, he had complete faith that Hal would have been able to just as well. Although not necessarily in the form he was in now, judging by his swordsmanship the night before. But he was exhausted, he hadn’t been eating, and that was going to work against him. He was in good enough shape to take care of Elsaben if someone decided to break away and follow them, but not enough that Martus was willing to leave him alone with Mel to handle any attack they might run into.
“We’ve argued long enough. I just want you boys to be prepared when we have people running at us with swords again. I warned you as best as I could.” Mel squared her shoulders, standing from where she’d been squatted over the map.
“I agree. We need to get on the road. This will be faster, but we’re still losing a lot of time. After we crossed the bridge we’d only have had about two hours left. That has nearly tripled with the new route.” Hal rolled up the map quickly, jogging back over to his horse to stow it away. Once Mel mounted he offered Martus a smile. “Thank you for listening to me. I know it could put us in danger, but we already are, and the sooner this is over the sooner we can all be safe at home.”
“I know. Believe me, that is all I have been thinking about since we left the house.” Martus got his own horse ready to start back on the road. Before he actually got in the saddle, he headed over to where Elsaben was sitting, her head buried in her magick book once again. When they were stopped, and often even when they were riding, she’d been focusing on her book. At least she was learning, and at least she wasn’t complaining about the ride. But Martus still had the image of her accidentally lighting herself on fire in the back of his mind when she tried a spell. “How are you holding up, little love?”
“Martus!” Elsaben giggled, dropping her book to the ground when Martus scooped her up in his arms. “I’m okay. I want to be at home, but I guess I’m reading more than I do there.” She shrugged, her face dropping a little, but not falling to complete sadness.
“Next time I’ll have someone to stay with you at home. Even incredibly handsome and very smart big brothers make mistakes sometimes, you know.” He puffed out his chest and smiled his most charming smile. Elsaben just shoved at his cheek, laughing again.
“It’s okay, Mar! When we get home could you get me some sweets?” It was really surprising how quickly she was learning to manipulate him, although she’d always been able to get him to do almost whatever she wanted. He just shook his head.
“Maybe.” He bent down to pick up her book and then walked over to Hal’s horse, where he lifted her up to the saddle. “For now, it’s time to get back on the road. You get to ride with Hal again, and if we stop, he may tell you to go into the woods with him. I need you to listen if he does, okay?”
“I always listen to Hal.” Elsaben crossed her arms, pouting a little bit. Before she could get too offended, Martus laughed and leaned up to give her a hug.
“I know you do. It’s just very important this time, so I wanted to make sure you knew. We’ll be there soon, okay? I promise. And when we are, this will all be over. Hal and I will do our job, and then we’ll take you home.” Martus kissed her forehead, checking again that she was safely in the saddle before he went back to his own horse.
He almost wished he weren’t doing the job for Geraldine and that Mel didn’t seem so genuinely worried about her brother. If it were just a job, not someone’s life on the line, he would have turned around and gone back home as soon as he heard there were people who wanted to kill him if he didn’t. Maybe it wouldn’t have been great for his reputation, but it would have been a lot better for his sanity.
As it was, he was worried about Fitzy now too. And as grumpy as she’d been, Mel had done everything she could to help them. Even if it was mostly for her benefit and the benefit of her brother, the least he could do was return the favor.
So he was on guard as they rode. He didn’t know how many people were in this little group of criminals who had kidnapped Fitzy, so it was impossible to really know whether they’d be coming from behind them or ahead. What he did know was that if he saw anyone suspicious coming toward them, they weren’t getting past him until his sister was out of there.
The first few hours of the ride were blissfully uneventful—there were some grumbles from everyone, and a few times Mel had them stop because she thought she might have heard something, but luckily, none of it ended up being anything more than a small animal or just the wind. Martus was still tense, looking around nervously whenever a branch broke near them or the wind sounded too much like a sinister whisper.
By the time they stopped again, his shoulders ached from tensing, and his head was filled with a stabbing pain from squinting into the dark woods around them. All in all, he needed to get off his horse and lie down, even if it was on some blankets on the ground. Elsaben was falling asleep, the dark circles under Hal’s eyes were more pronounced than they had been when they’d left that morning, and even Mel’s shoulders were starting to slump. They were only two hours out, and they probably could have just kept riding through, but if they were going to have a fight on their hands to get Fitzy back, they all needed their rest.
Martus tossed his blankets on the ground in a heap and collapsed on it almost immediately. He knew he was much closer to just passing out than either Hal or Mel. Elsaben, however, was completely asleep already, and before Martus could go to bed, he had to get her settled. Reluctantly, he pushed himself off the ground and grabbed her bag. Before he could do anything else he needed to see a bit better, so he used magick to produce a little ball of light to float above the camp. It would still be hard to see, so that hopefully their pursuers wouldn’t spot it if they were on their trail. But it was better than complete darkness.
“I can help, if you’d like. You seem incredibly tired.” Hal moved away from the sleeping spot he was setting up for himself to help Martus.
“Says the man who has barely slept in the past three days. Worry about getting yourself some rest, all right? I’ll take care of Elsaben.” Martus waved him off lazily before lifting Elsaben in one arm and her bag in the other. It was a blessing that they’d brought her blankets along too, since they hadn’t exactly been expecting to sleep in the middle of the forest. At least the ride there had gone by without incident.
“Mar? Are we finally here?” As Elsaben blinked her eyes open and shifted in Martus’s arms, he silently cursed himself for waking her. It would be impossible to get her back to sleep for at least an hour. Which would mean it would be impossible for Martus to get any sleep for at least an hour either.
“We just stopped to rest. We’ll be there early tomorrow. Go back to sleep, okay? You need your sleep.” More than that, he needed his sleep. He would certainly stay up with her if he had to, and he’d spent many nights like that before, but he was just so exhausted. If he stayed up, Hal would almost certainly insist on staying up with him. Hopefully she would be exhausted enough to completely pass out again.
“Can I have a snack?” Elsaben wriggled out of Martus’s arms, so he busied himself with setting up her blankets next to his. If she had a place already set up to sleep, he was hoping it would encourage her.
“Of course you can, Els. I’ll make you a sandwich. Lay down for now, though, all right?” Martus patted the blankets, then rose to his feet again with a small groan.
Hal had set up his blankets, but he was sitting on them cross-legged, and Martus could recognize the expression on his face as the one he always had when he was working on his spell. Mel had a bedroll that she’d set up by a tree, but she wasn’t asleep yet either. Martus couldn’t exactly spot what she was doing aside from the fact that she had a few sheets of paper spread out in front of her.
“Are either of you hungry? Mel, we have some dried meat and cheese and bread. I’m going to make a sandwich for Els and one for myself, so if either of you want one, I’ll make two more.” With a small sigh, Martus headed over to the bags on the ground and started to get the food out. He could probably eat more than just a sandwich, but they’d only brought a certain amount of food, and they still had to get back home after all this.
“I’m not hungry. Thank you, though.” Hal didn’t even open his eyes to answer Martus, and the intense look of concentration didn’t drop from his face. Mel, on the other hand, looked up from the paper in her hand and even offered Martus a small smile.
“I could eat, thank you for offering. I have some cakes in my bag we can share for breakfast tomorrow, if you’d like.” Mel seemed to have relaxed slightly, perhaps because they weren’t in immediate danger. Or perhaps because they were almost to her brother. Either way, it was refreshing for Martus to hear her in a little bit of a better mood.
“That would be really nice, thank you. Sandwiches are coming.” Martus flopped down on the ground to get dinner made for everyone. Of course he was making a sandwich for Hal despite any protests he might make too. Especially if he was practicing his spell right now, he would clearly end up needing it by the time he was done. Even if he didn’t, Martus wanted him to eat, and it wasn’t something he was going to let slide. He would waste away to nothing.
“I really like your hair. Would you braid mine?”
Martus was surprised to hear his sister’s voice. He half expected her to be asleep when he turned around with her sandwich. Instead, when he looked up he found that she was sitting next to Mel who was now clearly drawing on the papers that had been in front of her. She stared blankly at Elsaben for a second before hesitantly speaking up. Martus hadn’t heard her sound so unsure in the whole time he’d known her.
“I can try. It won’t look like mine, exactly, though. These aren’t quite braids. They’re called dreadlocks. Your hair won’t be able to take to them, but I will braid it.” Mel shifted her papers, stacking them neatly and setting them to the side of her blankets. Her face was softer than it even had been when she was drawing, her posture much more relaxed.
Martus was still ready to jump in at a moment’s notice, however, if Elsaben started bothering her. It had seemed to him like she didn’t much enjoy talking about her brother’s many accomplishments. Elsaben had grilled him when he came home and told her he was going to find “the Hero Jameson,” so expecting her not to ask Mel was a little bit unrealistic. For the moment he wasn’t going to bother them, though. It might be nice for Elsaben to have another girl around. Martus never had many female friends, and she didn’t see other children enough to have any consistent friendships besides himself and Hal.
“That’s okay! Mar braids it sometimes, but he does it messy, and then it comes out.” Elsaben looked rather accusingly over at Martus, and he shrugged before going back to his work.
He had gotten better over the years.
“I know, my brother used to try to braid mine too. Boys just aren’t as good at it. They haven’t had the practice.” Mel even laughed a little bit as she smoothed Elsaben’s hair down and started braiding it. Yes, it would definitely be good for her to be around another girl.
By the time Martus was finished with the sandwiches, Elsaben’s hair was braided neatly—much more so than he could have ever done it—and she was sitting next to Mel, both of them drawing on separate pieces of paper. A smile spread across his face before he could stop it. He took them their sandwiches first and then went over to sit by Hal.
Except that his friend didn’t open his eyes or move an inch when Martus sat down next to him. Or even when he said his name a few times.
“Hal!” Finally, when Martus laid his hand on Hal’s shoulder and shook him gently, his eyes flew open. He gasped, falling forward. His eyes were darker than usual, his face flushed very suddenly. In an instant, Martus set down their food and had one hand on Hal’s side, the other on the back of his neck. “Hey, breathe. Are you all right? Are you going to be all right?” He kept his voice hushed, eyes flickering up to Mel and Elsaben. They were chatting again, though, and didn’t seem to notice Hal.
Quickly, Martus focused on him again, finding the pulse on his neck with a finger. It seemed impossibly fast. There wasn’t much he could do; he wasn’t a doctor. But he moved his hand away from Hal’s neck, gripped his face instead, and turned it so their eyes met. Hal’s pupils were blown wide, and sweat was rolling down his forehead.
“Okay, hang on. Breathe.” Martus moved Hal so he was sitting up again, his back propped against a tree so he hopefully wouldn’t fall. Martus put his hand over his heart, pushing as much healing and calming magick into him as he knew. It was pretty weak—he was exhausted—but it was better than nothing.
“Martus. I’m sorry. I—” Hal’s eyes closed, then snapped open again in a split second, his head thumping back against the tree.
“Don’t. I don’t need to hear it. I just need to hear, for now, that you’re all right.” Even if he heard it from the horse’s mouth, it would be a little hard for Martus to just believe that Hal was okay after that. But for now it was the best he could do. When they went home, he would try to convince him to take a break, to look for safer alternatives, but for now there was just too much on both of their plates.
“I… will be all right. I just pushed myself too hard. It doesn’t happen every time, Martus, I promise.” Hal turned his head away from Martus, his eyes slipping closed once again. His brows were pinched together and lines were starting to appear where he frowned. Martus felt sick.
“Eat something. Go to sleep. Then maybe I’ll believe you.” Truly, it wasn’t his goal to make Hal feel attacked, or like his best friend was against him. The exact opposite, in fact, but it was hard when someone didn’t care about themselves as much as he cared about them. It was never something he’d had to deal with before.
He shook his head, glancing over at the sandwich he’d been wholly looking forward to eating and seeing the most unappetizing sight of his life. Luckily, that wasn’t all he saw. Elsaben was finally asleep against her paper, everything but the crusts of her sandwich gone. Martus let out a slow sigh of relief and shifted away from Hal.
“I have to put Elsaben to bed. Eat, please. I’ll move my blankets and sleep over here. You need to rest tonight. Hal, my friend, I am only worried about you. I swear.” There was only one person in the world who Martus cared about more than Hal, and that was Elsaben. He sighed, running a hand over his face before standing up again and going to get Elsaben.
Mel was still up and still drawing. When Martus bent down to pick his sister up, he was incredibly surprised to see Mel’s work. It seemed to be a self-portrait, and it looked just like her. Better than anyone else’s art he’d seen before. So rather than taking Elsaben straight to bed, he picked her up and sat in her spot next to Mel.
“Thank you for spending time with her while I made food. She seemed really happy. I always thought maybe she could do with someone who could braid her hair and handle things like that better than I could. Although that isn’t saying terribly much.” Martus laughed a little, although it sounded exhausted and forced even to his ears.
“She’s a sweet kid. I have a younger brother, so I know how it is. Besides, she likes to draw, and I have paper. It’s a natural bond.” Mel grinned, looking back down at her paper.
“Right! Drawing! I was just looking at yours, by the way. It’s really great. Looks just like you, if that’s what you were going for.” He hoped it was. The last thing he wanted to do was offend her. “And I want to thank you for more than just staying with my sister. You helped us. I know it’s your brother we’re trying to find, but still, you didn’t have to. I was wary at first, but it wasn’t fair of me. You’re great to have around.”
“Thanks. It’s my mum, actually. When she was younger, I guess she must’ve looked a lot like I do now. Weird to think about.” Mel smiled softly down at her drawing and then looked up at Martus. “I did have to. He’s my baby brother. I’m sure you wouldn’t leave Elsaben to be rescued by strangers. I couldn’t either. Sitting home, waiting, that isn’t really my thing.”
Martus could empathize with that, at least.
“I do understand. I’ve done worse for my sister.” He glanced back over at Hal, smiling a little when he saw that he was lying underneath a few blankets now. “I think I should sleep for the night. See you tomorrow. Gerdy would like that, I think. When you get home you should take it to her.”
“Maybe.” Mel laughed heartily at that, shaking her head a little bit. “Good night, Martus.”
He nodded with a smile, heading over to Elsaben’s blankets and tucking her in. He paused a long moment before he went to collect his own blankets and go to sleep. She looked peaceful, incredibly so, and he believed that she was. To her, life was so pure. Even what they were doing now was just her big brother’s job. The wound on his arm was probably just an accident. He hoped she could hold on to that view of the world.
Martus left Elsaben with a kiss on the head and then took his blankets over next to Hal. His friend wasn’t completely asleep yet, and when Martus lay down next to him, he stirred enough to wiggle under his arm.
After only a second of lying there, Martus had creeping thoughts of paranoia and sat up again. Being as gentle as possible, he scooped Elsaben up and moved her over with him and Hal so they could all be close if anything happened.
Sleep was so misleading. Hal looked as peaceful as Elsaben. Martus knew in his heart that he wasn’t, but for a few moments he could let himself believe the lie.
He tightened his arm around Hal, pressed his lips to his temple. Then as soon as his eyes closed, he was gone for the night, surrendered to peace. Hopefully.