Free B008P7JX7Q EBOK by Usman Ijaz Page B

turning
around and looking back. Then they turned a corner and the inn was lost from
view.
    They rode through the city silently. Alexis fell
back and rode beside them, while the other two Legionnaires led them all. In
the early hours of the morning the town appeared sleeping; alive, but as if
awaiting its occupants to return from some grand ball. The small party rode to
the Great Road leading east. As they joined the Great Road, leaving the city
behind them, Adrian couldn’t help but feel as though they had stepped from one
world and into another. Certainly everything looked the same as it always had,
but it was the only way he could express how he felt.
    They rode in silence, and the land slowly gave
way to plowed fields that receded to plains on both sides of the road and then
to farms. On the farms people were already up and about, tending to livestock
and beginning their chores. The party rode on, and soon the farms grew sparse,
and then there were only empty grasslands rolling off to their left and right.
Overhead the sun was still rising, casting aside the dull grayness of dawn.
    “Where are we going?” Connor asked.
    Adrian watched Hamar and Owain ahead, awaiting
an answer. “East,” Hamar said at last.
    “How far east?” Connor asked.
    Hamar’s answer was blunt. “A long way. You’ll
see when we get there.”
    As the sun rose the world awoke as well and
merchants and farmers driving their wagons soon shared the road with them. Some
went racing by them going the opposite direction, while others traveled at a
leisurely pace, much as they did. Adrian lost all track of the time and how
many hours they spent in the saddle, he only knew that by the time Hamar let
them stop he was tired and the sun sat high in the sky. They stopped on the
side of the road and lunched.
    The Legionnaires had restocked their supplies.
They shared hard bread among themselves, washing it down with water from their
waterskins. Adrian and Connor were offered the same, but after one bite of the
tough bread they both declined. Adrian took out the apple tarts that Nina had
baked and took one for himself, he offered the other to Connor, but Connor
never even so much as looked at him.
    “Here,” Adrian said, handing the tart to Alexis.
“He won’t accept it from me, but maybe he’ll take it from you.”
    Alexis offered Connor the tart, and Connor took
it grudgingly. Alexis shook his head. “What’s gotten into you two? You were the
best of friends yesterday, and now you won’t even as much as look at one
another.”
    “Leave it alone, boy,” Owain said from his place
across from them. “Let them deal with it on their own.”
    Connor and Adrian were sitting near one another,
but neither one had spoken to the other since leaving the Golden Lilly. Adrian
began to wonder if they would ever say a word to one another, and if they did
what would be the point of it? He looked around at the large tree beneath which
they had stopped, at the rolling land on the other side of the road, and
wondered if they would be sleeping by the side of the road tonight.
    “Can I see one your guns?” Connor asked Alexis
suddenly.
    Alexis studied Connor’s face for several long
moments. He pulled out one of his guns from beneath his coat and handed it to
him. Hamar and Owain watched disapprovingly. Adrian looked at the gun in
Connor’s hand, and couldn’t help but think it looked magnificent, certainly
better than he had pictured in all the tales he had heard. It was a large,
heavy revolver, the metal a bright silver, with a thick barrel and a large
chamber. On the handles were iron plates, designed to ease the users grip, and
carved onto the plates was the flying eagle of Grandal. The gun caught and
reflected the sunlight, and the two boys were held by its deadly beauty.
    After a few moments Connor handed the gun back,
never allowing his fingers to go anywhere near the trigger. Alexis took it and
slipped it back into the holster at his waist. Adrian saw