Page 57 of Ties of Legacy

“They’re not stopping for the night, then?” he asked the parrot as Frank landed in his usual place on the saddle.

“Tied themselves in a line. Lots of horses,” Frank said, and Elliot expelled an angry breath.

He didn’t need more explanation from Frank to know what that meant. With lanterns to light their way, and their horses tied in a line, his quarry could continue on through the night, taking turns sleeping on horseback. And with enough mounts to swap between, they could give the horses rest breaks from carrying the weight of a rider.

They wouldn’t be able to move fast in that arrangement, but they could keep moving all night. Whereas he needed to stop—not only because of the danger of riding in the dark but because he and Nutmeg would eventually need rest. They couldn’t keep going endlessly, just the two of them.

Elliot slid down, and took Nutmeg’s halter, leading her forward. If his quarry had swapped their cart for horses, they must have abandoned their cart not too far ahead. He would at least lead Nutmeg that far in the hope they had left items of use behind.

But when they finally stumbled onto the cart, it was completely empty. It certainly didn’t hold a stray lantern as Elliot had hoped.

Admitting short-term defeat, he took off the saddle, rubbing Nutmeg down before he climbed into the cart and stretched out to sleep himself.

Frank, who had been sleeping on the saddle since his last report, stirred, and Elliot addressed him sternly.

“If I sleep past first light, wake me. No matter how little light, I want to be back on the road.”

But he didn’t end up needing the parrot’s services to wake. After a few hours’ sleep, he bolted awake and sat alone in the darkness as the minutes ticked by toward dawn.

When he woke Nutmeg and the parrot, he expected Frank to protest. But the bird and horse had formed an alliance in Avery’s absence and even extended their temporary truce to Elliot. He could only assume it indicated the extent of their worry about Avery.

He did catch Frank muttering, “Useless landlubber,” in his direction at one point, which was a senseless insult he found strangely reassuring. Frank was the only one of them to have actually seen Avery since her abduction, and if he was muttering insults at the man trying to rescue her, he must not have been as worried as Elliot was.

Unfortunately, with his quarry now on horseback, and with their head start lengthened by their night travel, catching them was no longer a foregone conclusion.

He once again pushed Nutmeg as hard as he dared, but another day passed without sign of Avery, Mattie, or their pursuers, beyond the occasional piece of dropped detritus.

Frank still flew scouting trips, but his journey to Avery and back was taking significantly longer now than when they had first left the city. At least he continued to report that Avery appeared unharmed, and that the abductors were only three in number.

He had been half expecting two such redoubtable women to escape without his aid, but according to Frank they had been given sleeping potion. From his description, it sounded as if they had been secured to special saddles that allowed them to remain in place despite riding unconscious.

At least it meant they weren’t enduring constant fear and torment. But it also left them without any possibility of escape. Elliot was their only chance, and he spent the hours devising countless possible methods—each more ridiculous than the last. In truth, he couldn’t come up with a serious plan until he finally caught up to them and saw where they were and the statethey were in. As much as he was ready to charge in when that moment came, shouting and waving a weapon, he would need to scout the situation carefully. He was only one man against three, and there was no backup coming.

But before he could strategize a rescue, he needed to continue on, enduring his one man-one horse marathon across the width of Glandore.

But eventually the day came when Frank left on a scouting mission only to return substantially quicker than usual.

“Did something go wrong?” Elliot asked. “Couldn't you find them?”

“They’ve stopped!” Frank called with a noticeable lessening of his usual irritation. “They’ve reached the sea and stopped.”

Elliot urged Nutmeg faster on instinct, his breath quickening. He finally had a hope of catching them!

“Was the sea their goal, then?” he mused aloud.

“No.” Frank swooped in to land on Nutmeg’s saddle. “They’ve only continued east all this time because they know someone’s pursuing them.”

“What?” Elliot reined Nutmeg to a stop, twisting to stare at the bird. “Have you known that this whole time? Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”

Frank took off, putting some distance between them before he muttered, “Why mention it? Pointless! They were going east. That’s what you always asked.”

“Why, you useless—” Elliot broke off, pulling at his hair. That was what came of having a bird as an ally. He shouldn’t have been raging at Frank, who clearly knew no better.

“I’m outnumbered,” he said tightly, “so I was relying on the element of surprise. And now you’re saying I don’t have it? That is absolutely relevant information!”

“Nonsense,” Frank cawed, but it didn’t have his usual heart behind it.

He flew in close, moving cautiously, and hovered beside the saddlebags. He pecked at one several times before flying away again.

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