Page 52 of I Ran Away to Evil
Why was he constantly abusing his powers?
Henrietta closed up the straw crate. The princess had easily removed the nails sealing it, and now, she simply pressed her thumb on each nail to hammer it back shut.
Henrietta tucked the now buffed and padded box back in with the rest. Then she squealed with glee at something she found tucked behind the crate.
“Oh, perfect! I found rope!”
CHAPTER 33
Special Delivery for You
Henrietta
The rope was almost enough to carefully hog-tie every mercenary I’d felled. Except for the boss, who was knocked out mid-animorph and took up as much rope as three of her companions.
I gave up trying to make her fit within what little rope I had, and instead punched a hole through one of the larger crates. It was quick work to shove her through the opening and have Keith reshape and reinforce the wood. She could still use her legs, so I threw her in the wagon first and dumped the rest of the mercenaries on top of her. A few groaned but they were otherwise still below 10% health and unconscious.
It was harder to manage the horses. I justcouldn’tabandon them … as much as I so desperately wanted to. Keith had let me know that the scouts were half an hour behind me at my pace (or four hours at theirs), and there was no guarantee the horses would still be here if I didn’t bring them.
Aaaaachooooo.
“Gods save me. Why am I doing this! ARGH.”
Sniffle.
My plan was simple. Load up everything (including the people) into one wagon, then cover the eyes of the four horses, and guide them into the now empty armored wagon. The armored wagon was likely meant for the mercenaries to fall back to in case of a fight. Not that it had helped much against me.
This wasn’t my first rodeo. I had a bit more experience pulling horse-laden wagons than most, I assumed, since I often transported the knights mounts back in Drendil.
“Keith,” I sniffled and blew my nose into my kerchief. My eyes were watering something fierce, and I had to rub them a few times before I could focus onHubert. I’d need to deliver the eggs as soon as possible if I wanted to head off the griffin attacks, but it would be nice to check in at the castle on my way past. “Will you be available if I arrive around midnight?”
There was a long pause and no response. “Keith?”
“… No.” Keith’s voice was strained. “… Sorry.”
“Is everything alright?” My heart skipped as I waited longer and longer for his answer. What if an assassin had attacked while he was connected to Hubert? Or the invasion had started early? I could abandon the mercenaries, but even then, it would take a few hours—
“… Just … need rest,” he finally answered. “Disconnecting … Hubert.”
Magic took a lot out of mages, even arch mages. I could only imagine how many spells Keith had going at any given moment, let alone on top of crafting new automatons for the army and joining me for part of my mission.
Hubert shook himself after his master left, going back to being a construct raven. He didn’t seem fazed and shuffled softly on my shoulder as I walked to the front of the wagons. It might be a bit of a bumpy ride for the mercenaries, but the horses were more important.
I carefully stepped into the wagon harness, draping it over both shoulders and carefully tightening the straps. The rest dangled behind me. I wasn’t a horse after all—no matter what Mother always said—but that was fine. I was just happy that I’d had Keith clean everything before I touched it. His [Cantrips] were so useful!
With two hitched wagons in tow, I ran back up the Great Road.
“Princesss!” Sithli came forward to meet me at the crossroads. I didn’t have the best night vision, so Imayhave wrecked a bit of the road coming to a quick stop. The horses werenothappy.
The lizardman guard was part of the team patrolling from the castle to the front line further south. He met me with ten other lizardkin guards; I only recognized Yulith, a short gray-green lizardkin with a Fu Manchu and a love for butternut rum balls, another castle favorite fromOut of This World.
“Sithli!” I smiled at the lizardman. He stared a bit wide-eyed at the whole affair and scrambled to catch my reins as I tossed them at him. I needed the entire affair lifted slightly to better unveil myself of the straps.
“This is Lieutenant Franni,” Sithli introduced the leader of the scouts, a tall lizardkin with purple-tipped scales and short red hair.
“Princess.” The lizardkin bowed.
“Special delivery for you,” I quipped, waving a hand at the two wagons. “I just need to grab the griffin eggs, and then I’ll be on my way.”
