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The men retied Allabva’s bonds after she had eaten her fill. She had been hoping they would relax a little and not require that anymore, but she supposed that she couldn’t keep her hopes up when she was among kidnappers. They left her ungagged, however. She settled back in and tried to endure the discomfort of needing to relieve herself. Eventually, that was resolved when they made another stop in mid-morning.
As the day wore on into late morning, they crested a small rise and Allabva saw an expanse of water ahead of her split by a narrow sliver of land down the middle. “What’s that?” She wondered aloud. “Is that the sea?”
“Can’t be,” Qurast answered. “We’re at too high elevation for the sea to be here. It must be a lake.”
“You’re both right, in a way,” Nolder said. “Those are the Roula Seas. They are lakes, truth be told, but the old name sticks. Palf Glen is on the other side of the South Roula Sea. We’ll stay on this road and go right between the two seas—er, lakes—and we’ll keep going until we come out on the other side. This is the Tallens Road and goes straight on to Tallensworth. If we turned around and took the north fork, we would eventually wind up in Nolnarn, on the north sea.”
“Might there be traffic on the road, then, if it’s the main road to run between Tallensworth and Nolnarn?” Allabva asked.
“Fair chance.” Nolder considered this. “I mean, most traffic coming up the Tallens Road and trying to get to Nolnarn would probably leave the road and board a boat at Roula Docks, on the southeastern shore of the North Roula Sea. Still, there are plenty of people who don’t like to travel by boat, or who don’t have money for the passage by water. So yes, I think it’s likely enough we’ll meet some traffic coming the other way.”
Nolder looked at Allabva, frowning, then to Nillan. “You know we’ll have to untie her, right?”
Nillan had been studying something in his lap, but looked up as he was addressed. “Yes, I know it.” He sounded annoyed. “And, little girl, do you realize that you might gain your freedom if you answered our questions? I won’t guarantee it. Your answers might require us to hold on to you until we reach the encampment, or you might go free. But guess what? Not answering our questions does guarantee that we take you all the way to the encampment.”
Allabva kept her mouth shut. While Nolder and Qurast may be worth talking to, Nillan was trouble.
As they descended into the depression forming a shallow valley surrounding the lakes, a neck of land maintained itself above the surface of the water on either side. It slowly narrowed from what Allabva supposed to be a league wide at the start of where it was flanked by the seas on either side, to the width of several carts as it continued forward. Allabva and her Disaffected escort detail saw fewer trees as they left the higher ground. When they were in line with the shore of the North Roula Sea so that if Allabva looked directly to her left to see the line between land and water, she thought there must be some way to use this geography to escape if they were traveling the other direction. As it was, as the neck of land narrowed, she knew her prospects of escape at this time narrowed even more so.
“Ho, driver,” Nillan commanded abruptly. Halmon put a hand on Tunbloth’s shoulder, who pulled the reins to stop the horses. “Get out,” Nillan said to Allabva.
“What?”
“I said, get out of the wagon. Qurast, untie her. Little girl, you’re going to walk. There’s nowhere to go but forward and backward, and we can see you. Don’t run, or we’ll make you pay for it later at first opportunity. You wanted to be untied; why stop there? Stop free loading off my horses, and get out of the wagon. Oh, and make sure you keep up. You fall behind, you’ll pay. You make us keep a close eye on you and tell you to speed up, you’ll pay. Keep pace. I won’t tell you again for free.” Nillan’s menacing tone confirmed to Allabva that she was right not to tell him anything.
Qurast untied her and Allabva started walking behind the wagon. She quickly noticed that the wagon was going faster than it was natural for her to walk. Every few steps, she had to extend her stride and take a bouncing step or two in order to keep up. This would be fine, except for knowing that she would soon sweat, and her cloak would become as uncomfortable as she had known it would when she left home. Unfortunately, she didn’t see any way around it, so onward she went. Step, step, step, jog-jog. Step, step. This annoyed her, but when she thought about it a little bit, it was a lot better than constantly jogging on.
“A little cruel, don’t you think?” Nolder said to Nillan.
“Cruel how?” Nillan replied. “She likes running. She was born for it. See? She’s running all by herself just for the fun of it.” He laughed at his own joke and at Allabva’s expense at the same time.
Halmon piped in. “I concur! Nobody made her run when we found her. She told us she wasn’t alone, but that was a lie. If she had an escort, then where is he? It’s been nearly a day and a half and nobody’s showing up.” He laughed as well, and Nillan laughed louder than before.
“I don’t know…” Qurast said.
“Look, ask her yourself,” Nillan said. “Ask her if she minds jogging a bit for her health.” He grinned sickeningly, and then met Allabva’s eyes, showing a warning in his.
Qurast shrugged, not seeing Nillan’s menacing gaze aimed at Allabva. “All right. Allabva, do you mind jogging?”
Allabva was smart enough to realize that she did not possess freedom of speech when she was among these men. She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t mind, realizing full well that that was the prescribed response, regardless of whether she truly minded or not.
The wagon rumbled on and the men ignored Allabva, talking among themselves. Traveling this neck of land, Allabva watched it narrowing while they came closer to what amounted to a causeway crossing between the lakes. She wondered if Hronomon was still out there, but for some reason could not approach the Disaffected men and their cart. Who knew with these Nomord? It seemed there were so many things about them she had never imagined, because humankind had forgotten everything throughout the centuries.
Was he unable to come close to horses? Or, could it be that he was lying to Mother about protecting her? She didn’t believe he had been lying, especially since she felt she could see his character, so she found it perplexing that he hadn’t shown up to free her from her captors.
Allabva knew Hronomon wanted to avoid the two of them being seen together. Any obvious cooperation between human and Nomord would somehow be a signal to Sacalai that they were on this mission. If he was following the Disaffected, he must be keeping himself hidden on purpose.
This thought made Allabva realize something else that she found unsettling. If Hronomon had been following along from the shadows as she accompanied Nillan and his group, then when they ventured between the Roula Seas, the open surface of the water would deprive Hronomon of any means of staying hidden.
With his thought, she turned and glanced behind her, uphill at the closest trees, now quite some distance away. She thought she caught a glimpse of white, fleetingly exposed from behind some foliage. Could that be him? Could that be Hronomon?
Allabva searched her mind for any excuse she could use that might get the party not to cross between the two lakes. She didn’t want to go because then Hronomon would be exposed to the risk of discovery, not only of traveling with her but also of being a male Nomord, and traveling with her. Not wanting to be exposed or found out… That was what she needed.
“Is it wise for us to take this road?” Allabva raised her voice so the men in the wagon could hear her.
Nillan cocked his head and raised both eyebrows. “Did she really—?”
“What do you mean?” Nolder asked.
“Well, I—” Allabva stalled, unsure. She glanced to Qurast. “I thought, since…”
“You want to tell me about my business?” Nillan started.
Realization dawned on Qurast’s face. “No, she’s right.”
“Right about what?”
“We shouldn’t travel this road. We…our wagon and horses are problematic,” Qurast let out.
“Problematic.” Nillan turned his displeasure from Allabva to the younger man. “Problematic? First off, nobody is following us clear from Littonwelt to here. That would be completely unreasonable. Second, you told her that? Just how much did you tell her?”
“Not enough for me to know that you started from Littonwelt,” Allabva called out. “You just told me that yourself.”
Nillan looked frustrated. “Watch it, girl. And Qurast, whose side are you on, anyway?”
“She’s right, Nill,” Nolder coaxed. “You’re probably right, too. I bet nobody is still following us, but we don’t know that for sure. And even if nobody is following us, there’s the slim possibility that we’ll meet somebody who knows these horses and may wonder how we came to have them. It’s better to go around. We’ll go around the South Roula Sea. It’s not that much longer, and it gives us the chance to change our route on the way if we need to.”
Nillan was red in the face. He had recognized the wisdom in going around. “Driver, you heard. Turn about. We’ll take the Palf Road.” He turned his attention back to Allabva. He didn’t look happy. “Little girl, you can stay out of my wagon for a good, long while.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Halmon said. Halmon and Tunbloth manipulated the reins to get the horses to turn gently to the right, then in a wider arc to the left in order to turn around.
The group had to backtrack for nearly an hour in order to come to the Palf Road, then turned left toward the south. After another hour, they stopped for a break and a change in drivers, taking their normal security to ensure Allabva didn’t run off. They resumed travel, and they soon found themselves once again close enough to the southern lake on its gently sloping shore that the border of trees allowed clear terrain some distance uphill from the road. They didn’t stop for lunch, but ate in the wagon while traveling. Each driver had a turn away from the reins to have his lunch. They did not give Allabva her bag, nor the opportunity to request anything from it while she continued to walk behind.
Instead, holding an apple toward the rear of the wagon as if to hand it to Allabva, Nillan said, “Here, free food!” Then he tossed it to his rear as he faced her, launching the apple forward and far ahead of the horses. It hit the ground where the earth was hard packed, bouncing and rolling. By luck, one of the horses kicked it rather than trampling it, and the apple rolled down toward the water. Allabva chased after it to pick it up, but then she had to climb back uphill because the contours of the lakeshore made the road snake over a rise at that point. Wishing she hadn’t had to expend extra energy to retrieve it, Allabva ate the now heavily bruised apple.
As the road hugged the lakeshore, Allabva found herself step-step jogging behind the wagon again to keep up. As this continued, she gradually allowed more distance to build between herself and the wagon before she jogged to catch up again. She kept a careful eye on Nillan’s mood to make sure she wouldn’t run afoul. The more distracted he appeared, the more distance she allowed to build, so that she was not spending the entire time halfway between a walk and a jog.
Once the distance was far enough that she felt she didn’t mind the alternating pace, she held that consistent and continued to travel in longer intervals of jogging and walking. She asked for her waterskin, which Qurast tossed to her without consulting Nillan, then she drank water as she needed. She was able to refill it in moments when they were close enough to the lakeshore that she could take the liberty to deviate from the road down to the water and scoop it up.
By mid-afternoon, Allabva had long ago removed her cloak in her discomfort and tossed it over one shoulder. As she jog-walked in the warmer weather, she was glad for the convenience that the wagon was carrying her bag and her staff for her, neither of which she needed at the moment, barring for food. She was also unhappy that it held them because it meant that if she did try to run off, she would have to sacrifice them to do so. Not to mention her knife, but more significantly, Delgan’s flute.
She tried to make the best of the situation. She couldn’t do anything to ensure her freedom at the moment, and as she began to tire, she couldn’t stop to rest. But she could try to enjoy the view. The sight of the water to her left kept her glancing over the South Roula Sea, and she had the pleasure of watching seagulls and other birds. Occasionally she saw a fish disturb the surface of the water.
She could also watch the mountains looming on the horizon. How far away were they? She couldn’t tell for sure, but she wished she could share the view with Brelin. The mountains also made her think of the tune Fiewren had sung over their campfire.
Allabva wished she could hear Delgan’s flute play its sweet tune like she did two days before, or make her poor attempt to play the tune herself. She took little comfort in knowing where the flute was; Nillan still must possess the instrument, because he hadn’t had any opportunity to sell it since yesterday. She dared not ask for it back, afraid that she might reveal that it had some connection to the Nomord. Besides, there was no chance that Nillan would return it to her, anyway. If she wanted it back, she would have to bargain a deal for which she had no leverage to trade, or she would have to find the seemingly nonexistent chink in his armor of vigilance over her.
She started to sing to herself, reminding herself of the words to In the Cool Shade of the Mount. Then she immediately stopped herself, afraid that she might give away any information about the flute. Breathing heavily, more out of anger than shortness of breath from exercise, she fumed at how she felt boxed in. Tearing up yet again since being caught up with these Disaffected, she trotted along in silence, now upset that she was losing even the mood for the song.
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