He winked, and I smiled, but I wasn’t as reassured as I wanted to be.
We all climbed back into the wagon, and for safety’s sake, we lay in the wagon bed with canvas covering us, the same as we had that first night. As Horacio drove away from Appius’s family home, I grasped Appius’s hand in a silent reiteration of the promise I’d made not to forsake him.
I wasn’t certain what time we started for the mountains, around noon, and I’d no idea how much time passed as we jostled over rough roads at first, and then over what felt like open field. I could see enough through the slats in the wagon bed to see when we reached the tree line, but that was about it.
“This should be good,” Horacio announced after what felt like hours of traveling.
He stopped the wagon, and it jostled as he jumped down from the seat. We didn’t wait for him to uncover us. The six of us rose up from where we’d been lying and glanced around, getting our bearings.
True to his word, Horacio had taken us right up to the edge of the woods. His wagon was parked in the shade of the trees that divided the field we’d driven through from the uncultivated land. There were no other people or animals as far as I could see, and only a few farm buildings on the distant horizon.
We climbed down from the wagon and settled all of our packs and equipment on our shoulders, each of us glancing into the depths of the forest and mentally preparing for what was ahead.
“We’re on the north side of the mountain pass,” Horacio explained. “I brought you as close as I dare to the new palisade, so you shouldn’t have to walk for long before reaching the path. It should be about a mile that way.” He pointed off to the south.
I took a deep breath, glancing to the south, and nodded. Then I looked at Horacio, tearing up a little.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this,” I said, blinking rapidly. “You might just have saved all our lives.”
“And I might just have condemned you to death,” Horacio said with a heavy sigh. “There’s no way of knowing.”
“We’ll make it,” I said, filled with determination. “I know we’ll make it.”
“You will,” Horacio said, though I couldn’t tell if he believed it.
“And if they ever repair the mountain pass and connect the Old Realm to the frontier again, I will personally welcome you to the Wolf River Kingdom, should you ever wish to visit,” I went on.
Horacio smiled and reached out to shake my hand. “I would like that. And to be honest, if the six of you make it across the mountains, if no word of wicked students being found dead and half-eaten by mountain lions reaches those of us you’re leaving behind, and if King Julius continues to rule like a tyrant, I might just try climbing over the mountains to join you.”
“You would be welcome,” I said, shaking Horacio’s hand.
That wasn’t enough. I leaned into him, hugging him with one arm and giving him a manly pat on the back.
When we stepped apart, Mara nodded to Horacio and said, “Many thanks. And if you run into any trouble in Royersford, seek out a baker named Christoph and tell him that Mara sent you.”
Horacio’s brow rose. “I’ve heard of Christoph,” he said. “You’ve given me a powerful gift by referring me to him.”
Mara nodded, but her face remained expressionless.
For a moment, we all stood there in silence, staring at each other and the woods around us.
“Well,” I said at last, “we’d better get going.”
“Yes, you’d better,” Horacio said.
That was it. Those were the last words we spoke, possibly the last words I would ever speak to someone from the Old Realm. The six of us started off into the woods, heading into deep cover at first, until we couldn’t see the field beyond the edge of the trees anymore, then south toward the mountain pass.
None of us spoke for the first part of the journey. I couldn’t believe we were really doing what we were doing. Thoughts kept spiraling through my head: it was too early in the year, the snow wouldn’t be melted and it would be too cold, King Julius would send soldiers after us, there would be an army on the remains of the mountain pass to stop us, the chasms where the bridges had once been really would be impassable.
I pushed all of those thoughts aside, concentrating on what was right in front of me. The woods were easy to walk through for someone who had lived the last two years in a much denser forest, but I noticed that Lucius, Leander, and Darius struggled a bit. Mara walked with all the calm grace of a member of the royal family, but I could tell she wasn’t used to rough terrain or carrying such a heavy load over that much distance. Appius kept up with surprising ease, which made sense, considering he’d grown up in the country.
It only took about an hour until I saw a variation in the light ahead of us that told me we’d reached the mountain pass.
“Why don’t you all wait here, and I’ll sneak ahead and see if we’re going to run into trouble on the pass,” I said, gesturing for the others to sit down and rest.
“Good idea,” Darius panted and immediately flopped to the ground, bringing Leander with him.
“I’m coming with you,” Appius said, striding after me as I started away from the others.