“The two of you are looking tidy and ready to travel,” Dushka said, pretending to be gruffer than he was. “It’s a shame you all can’t travel together.”
“Anton and I have work to do in the forest,” Ludvig said, sending Anton a sad smile as Anton went to the fire to pour a cup of tea for himself. “Otherwise, all of us traveling together would be ideal. I know how Anton values his friends.”
Anton straightened abruptly, knowing he was being talked about. I could tell he didn’t like it either. At least I knew why he was so twitchy this morning.
“We value Anton as well,” I said, moving to stand by Anton’s side with the cup of tea Dushka handed me. “And we show him just how much we appreciate him every time all the Sons get together.”
I grinned and elbowed him, knowing he’d take my words as the ribald teasing they were.
“Whore,” Anton mumbled back, and grudgingly smiled, as he drank his tea.
The two of us fell into companionable silence as Dushka and Ludvig continued to talk, and as our various parties loaded up packs and prepared to depart. I’d meant what I said about Anton being liked and appreciated by the Sons, by me. I truly wished we could spend more time together. As the moment of my departure drew nearer, a feeling that I might never see Anton, or the rest of my friends, came over me.
I shivered with the thought, and Anton turned to me with a frown.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
I laughed nervously. “Didn’t I just ask you the same question?”
Anton blinked at me, then shrugged. “You did, but you look like you need me to ask too.”
I squinted and rolled my shoulders. “I guess I’m just nervous is all. This is a huge trip. It’s much more than a quick jaunt down the river to Magnus’s new king’s city.”
“How long will it take you to get to the Old Realm?” Anton asked.
“It’s hard to predict for certain, but Uriah thinks it should only take about three or four days for us to get to the mouth of the mountain pass,” I said. “I’ve been told that it takes about a week to get through the mountains.”
“That long?” Conrad looked surprised.
“Apparently,” I said with a wary shrug. “The terrain is difficult, and even though the pass is wide and well-traveled, it’s steep in places and rough in others. And I’ve been told that the higher you get into the mountains, the colder and thinner the air is.”
“There’s a small village about halfway along the pass,” Dushka said, evidently overhearing my and Anton’s conversation. “It’s the midpoint between the Old Realm and the frontier. You should be able to restock your supplies there, and then it’s only about a week’s journey to Royersford.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked him with a smirk. “When was the last time you traveled to the Old Realm.”
Dushka growled threateningly, but his eyes lit with fondness. “Cheeky pup,” he said, coming over to throw his arms around me in a rough hug. “I have half a mind to tell Uriah to throw you off the highest mountain peak to save me the trouble of containing that cheek once you get home.”
“What would be the fun of that?” I asked in return.
“It would keep you quiet, that much is certain,” Dushka teased. Flirted was more like it.
“If you keep talking like that, I might never come back,” I laughed, then bumped him with my shoulder.
“You’d better come back,” Dushka purred. He leaned close to my ear and whispered, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
My heart squeezed and my eyes stung, but I forced myself to take a deep breath and hold it together.
“Conrad, we’re ready to leave when you are,” Uriah called from several yards away, on the path that led down to the crude dock area along the river.
A sudden wave of panic hit me. What if something happened? What if I didn’t like my healer’s course, or people in the Old Realm found out I was a wolf, or some kind of war broke out, in the Old Realm or here?
“Don’t give me that look,” Dushka said, throwing an arm around my shoulder and walking along the path with me. “You’re going to have the time of your life on this adventure.”
Anton and Ludvig and their party followed behind us, as the forest road they would be traveling on ran parallel to the river for a few miles.
“I know this is a good thing,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to Anton so he knew I was talking to him as well. “I really do want to take this healer’s course and earn my certificate. I could do so much for the Wolf River Kingdom as a highly-trained healer. But it’s so far from home.”
“You’ll be farther than any of your Sons friends have ever gone,” Ludvig commented behind us.