Page 66 of Somewhere down the Ley Line
Felix ignored Leif. “Do you know who hired the Duskrend?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Mia.
She glared right back. “I do. But I’ll tellher,not you.”
“Fine. We need to go. I want to get out of the city before dawn.”
***
They passed by a covered market stall when Leif stopped dead in his tracks. A faint, whimpering sound came from somewhere nearby.
“Did you hear that?” Leif said, his head swivelling around, looking for the source.
“Notime,” Felix said, grabbing his arm.
But Leif already turned toward a crate, a pile of canvas bags stacked on top. He reached inside a bag and drew out a filthy, trembling little dog. It yelped and wriggled, trying to crawl up to Leif’s neck.
“Someone just… dumped it here,” Leif said, aghast. “All alone.”
Felix stared at him. “We arefleeing for our lives.”
“It’s a helpless little puppy!” Leif said, cradling the dog protectively.
“Leave it,” Felix said.
“I willnot.”
“You're adorable,” Mia said with a grin.
“Don’t you encourage him,” Felix snapped.
“He’s tiny; he won’t slow me down. Let’s keep going,” Leif said, and continued walking as if the matter was resolved, wrapping the puppy in the folds of his cloak. Felix squeezed his eyes shut, sighed, then followed behind.
A bell started ringing in the distance when they reached the gate. Felix stopped short, eyeing the pair of guards slouched under a lantern, too tired or bored to care about much of anything.
Their horses were in the livery stable. Retrieving them was a risk he knew he shouldn’t take. He gritted his teeth and made the call. “We leave the horses,” he whispered. Ranger wasn’t his own horse, anyway. He hoped Isolde wouldn’t be upset about it.
Leif’s head jerked toward him. “What? If we’re followed, we’ll never outrun them.”
“They’ll check the stables,” Felix said. “If we take the horses, they will know we’re headed west. On foot, we can stay off the road. Harder to track.”
Mia merely shrugged. “I don’t have a horse. Riding is not one of my many skills. Ridinghorses,that is.” She winked at Leif, who turned scarlet.
They waited until the guards weren’t looking, slipped through the gate and vanished into the darkness beyond the city. When Marsan’s spires were nothing but faint silhouettes in the distance and Felix’s feet felt like they were about to fall off, they found a sheltered spot surrounded by scraggly trees to camp. Despitethe chill in the air, they decided against lighting a fire. Leif curled up in his cloak, asleep in minutes, with the puppy snuggled up in his arms.
Felix sat down against a tree, his eyes trained on the distant road leading back to the city. He startled when Mia plopped herself down next to him, close enough to touch.
“What are you doing?” he said, leaning away.
She turned her head to give him a coy look. “I’m cold. Maybe you can help me warm up.”
“No. Go to sleep.” His immediate rejection of her almost surprised him, the feeling ofwrongnessthe idea invoked. A crawling sensation that made him want to physically put distance between them.
Mia did not scowl or sneer at him, as he’d expected, but stared at him with a mixture of surprise and awe. A wide grin crept onto her face. “Weaver, I knew it,” she whispered, her face shining with glee. “I knew it the moment you started threatening me about her. You’re in love!”
Felix rolled his eyes.
“You are! I didn’t think you had it in you. Turns out you just have expensive taste.”
He shook his head. “She’s not like… It’s not…” He sighed and rubbed his temples. “Forget it.”
