A Court of Queens

A Heart to Heart on Horseback

The next morning Jazlyn and her escort of soldiers rode out of the dense Assax woods into the sprawling wide-open countryside. They trotted for miles through tall grass fields and passed by a few small abandoned villages scattered amongst the plains.

Later in the evening close to sunset Jazlyn's legs began to ache from riding all day, and she felt her eyelids turning to lead. "W-w- wait. Hold up for a second." Jazlyn whined.

"What's wrong?" Aldini asked.

"I can't do this anymore, can we take a break?" she asked.

"We have to keep moving Jazlyn," he said.

"Can I ride with you and someone else can take my horse?"

"Fine." Aldini stopped his horse and signaled for the soldiers to halt. He grabbed the rope and hitched Jazlyn's horse to another.

Aldini helped pull Jazlyn onto the back of his saddle. She laid her head on Aldini's back for a moment. "I'm sorry I just needed to take a break," she uttered quietly.

"It's okay," he said. They rode for another mile or so.

"Can I tell you something?" Jazlyn asked.

"We have all the time in the world," he said.

"I had a dream last night. We were back in that cabin and the bandits attacked us, but this time Celena didn't show up and you... you made a deal with them. You let them take me and you left." Jazlyn said.

"Hmm that's a wild dream," he said nonchalantly.

Jazlyn was silent for a moment. "Aldini, do you resent me?" she said.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Are you angry with me for...all of this? If you are, you don't have to hide it, you probably should be furious with me, I ruined your life." Jazlyn said.

Aldini chuckled. "Well I'm not exactly blameless in all this, am I?" he admitted.

"But we're here because of me?"

"Yes that's true, I'm not thrilled about it. I'm a little homesick, I've hardly slept but I know you can probably relate. Honestly, I don't know how you've been keeping it together, so I'm not gonna complain to you about my aching foot when your leg is broken."

"But, isn't there a part of you that regrets coming here to help me?"

Aldini sighed "...do you remember when I got caught stealing from that butcher and he threatened to cut my hand off." Aldini said

"Yeah. So?" she said.

"Do you regret pardoning me?"

"What? Of course not, but that didn't cost me anything."

"That doesn't matter. If you hadn't I would have been a one-handed, orphan thief, I'd be good as dead. I'd be worse than dead, but you saved my life that day, so my life is yours to ruin as well, isn't it?" he said.

"What!? No, it's not, that's not fair!"

Aldini giggled. "I'm kidding Jazlyn, I needed your help then and now you need mine. That's it. Don't overthink it."