Page 53 of The Abandoned Princess

“Her nose will already be full of her own smoke. And if she does realize there’s a second fire somewhere, she’ll assume it’s other travelers. This isn’t a highly frequented part of the road, but there’s the occasional traffic in both directions.”

I didn’t fight any harder, already looking forward to the warmth of the fire overnight and the lure of hot food. Sitting down was even more luxurious, although I wasn’t sure I’d manage to fall asleep when every part of my body was hurting.

“How can every single one of my muscles hurt?” I groaned when we were finally eating the meal Lori prepared.

“It only feels like it’s all of them,” Lori said heartlessly. “There are plenty more that could be hurting still.”

“Shouldn’t you be saying something encouraging?” I gave her a mock glare.

She looked back at me blankly. “I did.”

I groaned again. “I’m not going to make it. You should abandon me now and save yourselves.”

Xander laughed. “I can’t promise it won’t get worse first, but it will eventually get better. And that comes from personal experience. I felt even more dreadful than this after my first full day on horseback.”

When I lay down to sleep with nothing but a bedroll beneath me, I wasn’t convinced by his words. I had no idea how I was going to sleep with so little padding for all my poor, abused muscles. Thankfully my exhaustion was a fraction greater than my discomfort, and I fell asleep after all, sleeping undisturbed until the sun rose.

Unfortunately, Xander’s words were proved correct, and dragging myself along the forest road all day for a second time was worse than it had been on the first day. The only thing that saved me was Xander’s insistence on hearing stories about my own home and childhood. Immersing myself in the memories made me temporarily forget my aching body, one foot somehow plodding along in front of the other.

By the third day, we had settled into Eulalie’s rhythm and no longer stumbled over her by accident. Xander and Lori took turns creeping forward at opportune moments to check she was still keeping to the expected path, but I didn’t see her at all for four days.

On the fifth day, we reached a town of significantly greater size than Charli’s village. The worst of my aches had finally subsided, but several spots on my feet were still raw, and I greeted the prospect of a hay bed in the rafters of a stable with joy.

We increased our pace enough to watch Eulalie disappear among the houses, confirming her intention to enter the town and allowing us to hurry after her. Her steady pace so far had made it clear her search lay in front of her, and we guessed she would continue to move on quickly from this town. Xander suggested she was heading for the capital, making me propose the ocean, merely to be contrary. But we still needed to watch her movements in the town, just in case we were wrong.

But it was hard to stay focused on Eulalie once we reached the center of the town and discovered it was market day. It had been years since I attended a market, and I had usually gone to the large ones in Trione’s capital. But something about the sight of the stalls and the familiar sounds and smells took me straight back to those days.

“It’s a market!” I clapped my hands, my eyes growing round. “I wish we were able to buy something!”

“I have plenty of coins,” Xander said. “If there’s something you want, we can try. You had a method worked out, didn’t you, Lori? Something about taking it when they weren’t looking and leaving coin behind.”

“We should save our coins for things we really need,” she said repressively. “I wouldn’t mind buying some more travel bread. My snares have been doing well enough during the nights, but we’ve run out of any sort of bread to go with the meat.”

“Over there!” I pointed toward a distant stall. “The baker has a stall over there.”

She peered in the direction I was indicating, searching until her eyes found the stall. “You’d better come with me,” she said to Xander. “I can take the bread, and you can leave the coin.”

She turned to give me a repressive look. “You can find a place to hide. The last thing we need is for Eulalie to spot you in this crowd.”

I considered arguing, but I knew she was right. Reluctantly I withdrew to the edge of the market, only stopping when I noticed a spot between two stalls. If I sat down and tucked up my knees, I would be out of the way as well as mostly out of sight, but I would still be able to see something of the market’s activity.

Hurrying to my hiding place, I scooted myself inside and wrapped my arms around my knees. I would have preferred to be immersed in the middle of the market, but just being present was overwhelming after so long in the isolation of my clearing. Even when multiple people visited the clearing at once, it had never had the bustle and buzz of a market.

Xander came strolling back into sight, Lori no longer beside him. From his relaxed air, I guessed she must have stopped to collect something else, and he was waiting for her to catch up. He glanced around, clearly not seeing me, and I gave myself a mental clap on my excellent hiding place.

Stepping up to one of the stalls, Xander ignored the customer already there and examined the wares laid out for perusal. My heart beat a little faster as I noticed what this particular stall sold. Xander could have no use for silk scarves and purses or jeweled hair clips. Was he thinking of me while he looked at them?

I had barely formulated the thought when a flash of something familiar caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I turned my head to look straight at the unsettling leathery face of Eulalie.

She was standing several yards away from me, her eyes trained in Xander’s direction.

My own gaze darted back to him in time to see him stiffen slightly. It was a subtle gesture, and I wasn’t sure what it meant. Had he also seen Eulalie out of the corner of his eye? What could he do to escape her when she was already so close?

My heart was racing even faster, my breath coming in fits and spurts as I tried to decide what to do. Should I leap up to help him? Or was it still possible he could get away unnoticed? Had Eulalie definitely recognized him?

While I was still trying to decide whether or not she knew it was him, Xander straightened, turned his head, and looked directly at her.

CHAPTER 18

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