Page 56 of Ties of Legacy

But now she had chosen to put her trust in him. As someone dragged her away, she had called for him to find her. She had trusted he would do so, even knowing she had given him the tool that would allow him to walk away and never look back.

But the days of his walking away being possible were long gone. Elliot still didn’t have any way to reconcile their opposing perspectives and goals, but he knew that he would do whatever it took to find and rescue Avery.

“What did she say?” he asked Frank, the words rough in his throat. “What else did she say?”

“She said to go find you. She said you’d come after her. She said to show you this. Nonsense! She should have run.”

Frank took off, flying frantically around the room, his frenetic movement indicating the level of his worry.

Emotion rose in Elliot, but he fought it back. It was time for action. Energy filled him, not only from his determination but from his closeness to the lamp. He hadn’t been so close to it since it had become more potent after its reshaping.

Rummaging through the packs they had brought inside, he found a small bag he could use to secure the lamp to his side, echoing the way Avery always wore it. He didn’t want to linger any longer, but he knew he would regret it later if he ran out of the house with nothing but the lamp.

Fishing through their packs, he tossed things to either side, choosing only the basic necessities as he put together a smaller pack he could sling onto his back. Frank was no help, flying around the library in a continued frenzy. When the bird had been back and forth between the sitting area and Elliot twice—knocking over the teapot in the process and spilling tea all over the floor, Elliot gave up further packing and stood.

He closed the front door securely behind him as he left, heading for the yard behind the house. Nutmeg neighed as he approached her shed, sensing something was wrong. Frank swooped down and landed on her back, and she turned her head to look at him, whinnying.

When she turned back to Elliot, she lunged forward, her teeth snapping.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Elliot stumbled backward out of her reach. “I’m not the problem, all right? Someone has taken Avery, and I need to rescue her. But I need your help for that.”

Nutmeg turned to look at Frank again, and the bird gave a reluctant cackle.

“The fool boy is telling the truth. Surprisingly.”

Nutmeg settled, and Elliot snorted. “You believe the parrot over me? Really?”

But he was already moving, folding a blanket and putting it over Nutmeg’s back. Thankfully, Mattie had a saddle hanging in the shed, and Nutmeg allowed him to place it over her back and secure it in place. He didn’t know if she’d been trained with a saddle, but she was the smartest horse he’d ever met, and she loved Avery. Clearly she was willing to help.

“Frank,” he said, as he secured the last of the straps. “You’ll be able to move much faster than I can, especially in the city. And you’ll be able to cover greater distances, too. Check each of the city’s exits and see if you can spot the cart carrying Avery and Mattie—or a suspicious-looking boat on the river. If you spot them, come straight back and tell me which direction to take.”

He only hoped the cart had headed straight for one of the city’s gates. If they had holed up inside the city itself, it would be a lot harder to track them down.

He swung himself into the saddle, watching Frank wing away without a word. He would worry about how to search the city once he knew they weren’t on a road or boat out. If it came to that, he would rouse the city’s guards to help him. The only reason he hadn’t done it already was his suspicion that their abductors intended to leave the city immediately. The dusty cart had looked as if it had traveled a long way in the last few days.

His secondary hesitation was due to the question of why the women had been taken. If the abductors were after knowledge that Mattie possessed, the roving merchants might not want him to involve any of the kingdom’s guard forces.

He directed Nutmeg out onto the street and along the road in the direction he had chased the covered cart. He had seen it turn the first corner, taking the path leading directly to the city’s eastern gate. He trotted toward the gate himself, staring at everything around him as he passed, but he could see nothing out of the ordinary.

He had made it only halfway to the gate when a flash of color appeared in the sky. Frank swooped down toward him, landing neatly on the back of the saddle.

“East Road,” he cawed. “Out of the city and heading east already.”

A band around Elliot’s heart eased. He had a direction and something to aim for. And if they were still on the move, it was unlikely Avery or Mattie had been harmed—at least not yet.

The cart had been harnessed to two horses, and it had a head start, but Elliot and Nutmeg would be faster. There wasn’t much light left to the day, but he hoped to be able to close the gap between them before night fully fell.

Elliot urged Nutmeg through the streets as quickly as possible, weaving between the other traffic until they reached the East Gate. They passed through without pause, and Elliot was finally able to give Nutmeg her head.

But after a short period of galloping, he reluctantly drew her back to a slower pace. As much as he wanted to sprint the whole way, no horse was capable of keeping up such speed indefinitely. If he didn’t want to harm Nutmeg and leave himself stranded, he would have to alternate between faster and slower paces.

The hours wore on, and he had to ignore his increasingly painful muscles. It had been too long since he’d ridden, and he was out of practice. But to his dismay, despite moving as fast as he dared to push Nutmeg, the sun had set and night had fully fallen without any sign of the group they pursued.

He could barely see even Frank’s bright feathers as the bird glided toward him after yet another scouting trip.

“Lanterns!” he cried. “They have lanterns.”

Elliot ground his teeth together. In his hurry to leave he had tried to think of anything essential, but he had forgotten a lantern.

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