Free B008P7JX7Q EBOK by Usman Ijaz Page A

I’d strap
him down if I thought it would do any good, but he says that he will follow
after you even then.”
    “But why?”
    Jon shook his head sadly. “I think he wants to
know what his mother died for. He’s younger than Anne and Bertha, and he
doesn’t have any memories of her, which hurts him all the more.”
    Jon led him to Wind and helped him saddle the
horse and tie his pack and blanket rolls on the back. “You can take Wind. I
know you like her, and she likes you as well.”
    “Thank you,” Adrian said, looking towards
Connor. His cousin wore a stern expression, one that Adrian had never seen on
him before. As his father had said, he didn’t look easy to deter. Adrian walked
over to the other boy. “You don’t need to do this, Connor. I know you think
this will be an adventure, but it won’t be. It’s simply something I have to do.
You should stay here.” But for all the response Connor gave him, he might as
well not have existed. Adrian went back to his own horse, feeling as though
everything around him was crumbling to pieces, and he standing in the middle
could do nothing but watch.
    The three Legionnaires were soon ready. They had
cast aside their worn-out garments, and were dressed as though they meant to
travel. Hamar wore a dusky-gray coat that came down to his hips over a faded
blue shirt. Owain wore a wide-brimmed hat on his head and a long brown coat
that came nearly to his knees. Alexis’s head was bare and his hair fell freely
around his face and to his shoulders. He wore a black coat similar to Owain's
over a black shirt. As Adrian watched them he caught the steel glint of Owain’s
right gun beneath his coat. Hamar moved towards them. “We must go.”
    Anne and Bertha stepped out from the kitchens,
followed by Nina, joining Jon in the stables. Adrian looked at them and saw the
worry in their eyes. Jon stepped forward, and spoke solemnly to each of them.
“Good luck, boys. Watch out for one another. Come back to us.” He shook their
hands, surprising Adrian since he had not been expecting it, and hugged them
fiercely.
    Adrian looked at Connor, and for a moment their
eyes locked. In Connor’s eyes Adrian saw the same reluctance that he thought
must be in his own. It was hard to leave, he realized, even harder to say
goodbye.
    Anne and Bertha came next, and Adrian
immediately felt sure that they meant to rush past him and go to Connor.
Instead, they both hugged him fiercely, and though he could feel their
reluctance, unsure of what he might be, he loved them for it. “Come back home,
Adrian,” Bertha said. “Take care of yourself,” Anne told him. They hugged their
brother in the same fashion, and gave him the same message. When they stepped
back, they were wiping tears from their eyes.
    Nina came last, and she was already in tears.
She handed Adrian a small package wrapped in a white kerchief that radiated
heat. “I baked you two some apple tarts,” she said, and tried to smile. The
boys couldn’t help but respond to her smile.
    “Thank you, Nina,” Adrian said.
    The head cook moved back to the rest of the
party and Adrian and Connor were left alone. On one side awaited the
Legionnaires, on the other side stood their family. And are we not family? Adrian wondered, looking at them. Even if everything else comes between us,
in the end are we not still family?
    As he and Connor turned around Adrian could feel
the onset of tears. He wiped the back of one hand across his eyes, trying to
forestall them. They mounted their horses, and looked at the small party that
watched them with somber faces. The boys smiled wanly, and then turned their
horses and followed the Legionnaires out of the stables.
     
    2
     
    They hadn’t gone fifty feet down the street
before Adrian turned around in his saddle to look back at the Golden Lilly. He
could still see the small party in the stables, and he waved half-heartedly at
them; one of the forms returned the wave. He saw that Connor also kept