Page 23

Chapter 23

Avery

A very’s eyes followed Elliot around the cottage, no matter how much she tried to stop them. She was almost certain he knew it, too, although he was always careful not to meet her gaze. She kept trying to steal a moment alone with him, determined to ask again about what was wrong, but he deftly avoided any such opportunity—an effort that was aided by the number of people in the small dwelling.

She consoled herself that he wouldn’t be able to avoid her once they were traveling alone again, but when morning arrived, Mattie surprised them all with an unexpected announcement. Instead of Ewan’s offered escort back to the capital, she intended to travel on with Avery and Elliot.

“I may not be the traveling type,” she said complacently, “but I’m still a roving merchant by blood. Every now and then I need to get out of the library and see something of the kingdoms.” She cast a knowing look at Avery and Elliot. “And something tells me traveling with the two of you won’t be dull.”

Avery could barely school herself to give the necessary words of welcome. After the dizzying heights and suffocating depths of emotion she had experienced the evening before, she was struggling with her usual composure.

She had never imagined a kiss like the one she had shared with Elliot, but something in her words afterward had made him close himself off from her. It had to be something she had said about Bolivere, but as much as she wracked her brains, she couldn’t think what might have warranted such an extreme reaction.

She wasn’t even sure it had anything to do with her at all. She had seen the pain in his eyes before his walls came up, and she suspected he was shielding himself from something. But it still hurt that he wouldn’t share his pain with her.

When he had taken her in his arms, a whole future together had unfurled before her. But how could they ever share a life if he couldn’t be honest with her?

Her initial reaction to Mattie’s declaration had been disappointment, but perhaps it was a good thing they would have company on the road. If she and Elliot had no future, it was better if she started distancing herself immediately, and traveling alone together wouldn’t help with that. Of course it would also be easier to create some distance if her mind wasn’t determined to replay their kiss every time she closed her eyes.

They left the cottage much as they had arrived—three people and a parrot on the back of three horses. But their saddlebags were much better provisioned, they had proper bedrolls, and all of them were better rested after Avery’s family insisted the guests take the good mattresses so they could have at least one solid night’s sleep.

“I’m glad you had family like Ewan and Sylvia to take you in after your parents passed away,” Elliot said softly as they rode away. “I can see they think of you like one of their own children. They seem like good people.”

“They are,” Avery said confidently. “Uncle Ewan and my mother were the only two siblings in their family, and they were close growing up. Even when my parents were still alive, our two families would sometimes travel together.”

“I have no extended family on my father’s side,” Elliot said, surprising her by initiating talk about his family and his past. “And my mother always refused to talk about hers. They were estranged, and she always claimed they treated her badly, but I suspect it was the other way around. She was always full of tales of how she had been wronged, and when I was young, I believed them. But eventually she began telling tales of situations I had witnessed for myself, and her tales always bore little resemblance to reality.”

“I wish you’d had an Uncle Ewan and Aunt Sylvia,” Avery said.

“I just wish I still had—” Elliot cut himself off, leaving Avery to wonder what he had been going to say.

“Are we going to cut northwest directly for Bolivere?” Mattie asked, stopping Avery’s thoughts from turning endlessly around Elliot’s unfinished sentence.

“More or less,” she replied. “We’ll reach the beginning of Glandore’s northern forest soon, so we’ll have to stick to the roads if we want to move quickly. That means we can’t go in a totally straight line.”

“Hmmm…” Mattie gazed off into the distance. “So we’ll go through Thebarton, then?”

Avery nodded since it was the obvious route. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay in the town, though,” she said reluctantly. “Whoever hired Rene might have hired other teams of mercenaries as well.”

Elliot frowned. “Maybe following major roads isn’t a good idea?”

“I can help with that,” Mattie said. “Northern Glandore has a network of old roads that get little traffic. The newer roads are the ones they maintain, so regular travelers prefer them, and the old ones should be deserted. If we had the cart, the old roads might prove difficult, but on horseback we should be fine. They’ve deteriorated, but the trees haven’t reclaimed them yet.”

Avery and Elliot exchanged a look, and Elliot shrugged.

“I usually always have my cart with me, so I’m not familiar with the old roads,” Avery said. “But I’m happy to use them if you can guide us.”

“I didn’t even know they existed,” Elliot said. “My mother and I didn’t spend much time in this region.”

Avery frowned. Exactly what had happened to Elliot’s mother in Bolivere?

Mattie led them unerringly to the closest road in the abandoned network. It was lumpy and full of potholes, but it was also empty.

“Sorry, girl.” Avery patted Nutmeg’s neck. “We’ll be back to the normal roads soon, don’t worry.”

“Better safe than wrong,” Frank squawked, taking off from the back of her saddle to stretch his wings.

“Does that bird ever get anything right?” Mattie asked with a scowl toward the streak of color above her.

“Yes,” Elliot said, surprising Avery by jumping in to defend Frank. “He was the one who rescued you. It didn’t even occur to me to pack your wake up tea.”

“Ugly and foolish,” Frank called from above, apparently not out of earshot.

“I’m not saying he’s not a menace,” Elliot added. “He definitely is. Just that he does occasionally get something right.”

“Well, I suppose of all the times for him to get it right, that was the one,” Mattie said. “But I’m not sure how I feel about finding myself beholden to one of those parrot pests.”

“Are they all so obnoxious?” Elliot asked. “I don’t remember them being so bad.”

“Some are worse than others,” Mattie said. “And Frank is a particularly bad example.” She turned to look at Avery. “I don’t know why you put up with him.”

“Most people assume I saved Frank from something,” Avery said. “And that’s why he’s so loyal to me. But it was actually the other way around. He saved me.”

Mattie’s eyebrows rose. “So he’s appalling in ordinary life but exceptional when it comes to a crisis. I suppose there are worse animal companions.”

“There are certainly better,” Elliot muttered, his new appreciation for Frank only going so far.

Avery just smiled. She would never accept a person behaving the way Frank did, but his mind didn’t work like a human’s. She couldn’t hold him to the same standard as a person when he didn’t have the understanding of one. She’d traveled enough in Glandore to grow used to him, and these days the things he said mostly amused her.

She had hoped that even with Mattie’s company, she would find a way for some proper conversation with Elliot. But it turned out to be even harder to do on the road than it had been in a crowded cottage. With the intimacy of only three of them, it would have been too pointed and rude to attempt private conversation without Mattie. Avery and Elliot might have succeeded at arranging it subtly if they were working together, but Elliot showed no interest in maneuvering their way into a private setting, and Avery couldn’t bring herself to obviously exclude Mattie.

Not that Elliot’s manner was obviously cold or standoffish. He helped with the practicalities of their travel in the same way as always, making it a simple matter to set up and pack down their camp each morning and evening, and to prepare the food. But the old warmth in his eyes had been replaced by flashes of pain, always quickly laughed away with a laugh that didn’t sound quite natural.

Avery no longer needed to sleep under the cart, so all three of them positioned themselves comfortably around the fire each night. Mattie turned out to be an excellent storyteller, as well as a keeper of written records, and she filled the evenings with tales of the various adventures and misadventures of Avery’s distant family.

She had always loved hearing about other roving merchants. When she had started traveling alone, it had made her feel connected to know they were all out there somewhere and that she could run into some of them at any time. It was a connection she had craved after the loss of her parents.

Between Mattie’s stories and Elliot’s assistance, the travel itself was easy, but Avery still regretted having to bypass Thebarton. A night in a comfortable bed and a hot bath would have been welcome. She was dreaming of a meal from the excellent kitchens of the Mortar and Pestle when the sound of boots and male voices caught her attention.

“Rats in the barn!” Frank screeched, flying overhead and disappearing into the trees.

Avery, Elliot, and Mattie turned their mounts as one, following Frank off the road and among the trees. They had yet to encounter anyone else on the abandoned roads, and none of them wanted to meet whoever was coming their way.

They didn’t go far, however, stopping among the trees where they still had a partial view of the road. Several men walked past, their appearance making Avery shiver. There was nothing obviously wrong with them, but they had the same feel as Rene and his men. If she’d been asked to make a guess, she would have confidently pegged them as mercenaries.

“Are they after us, do you think?” Elliot asked.

Avery slowly shook her head. “If they are, they’re incompetent. They won’t get far on foot.”

“Unless they have a camp somewhere nearby?” Mattie suggested, sending a shiver of unease down Avery’s spine.

But once the men had disappeared down the road, the three of them continued on their way with no further sign of any fellow travelers, mercenaries or otherwise.

They camped in the trees not too far out of Thebarton, but Avery slept fitfully. Whether because of her dreams—far too many of which featured Elliot—or the men they had passed, she wasn’t sure.

She was awake before dawn and decided to rise since there was no point lying awake in her bedroll. She prepared for the day as quietly as possible, taking pains not to wake Mattie or Elliot who had both slept better than she had.

She was just repacking her saddlebags when a distant commotion met her ears. She looked up, lines appearing between her brows as she tipped her head to the side, straining to hear.

Someone else was definitely in the forest with them, and whoever it was seemed to be in the middle of a noisy dispute. Curiosity tugged at her. Was someone in trouble?

Or was it the men they had seen earlier? If she could find their camp, would she learn anything about their intentions?

Acting on impulse, she stashed the lamp behind her bedroll and took off into the trees. The noise could stop at any moment, and they were far enough away that she needed to move quickly or risk losing track of the noise’s location. There wouldn’t be any danger to her as long as she stayed out of sight, and her mother had taught her to move silently through forests when she was only a girl. The potential intelligence that could be gained was worth the small amount of risk.

After all, she had a parrot on her side.