The Rogue Lady

Chapter Four

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     When I had gotten too tired to stay with the others, I had gone back to bed, Eric following after me, though I wasn’t sure why. Before I entered my tent though, he told me that the next morning we would be moving. At that exact moment, I had been barely capable of keeping my eyes open, thus I had stared at him through half-lidded eyes, hoping that maybe he could elaborate. He must have guessed that, beyond his words registering in my mind, nothing happened with them.

     “We are heading for Roseacre next. I am sure you have heard of the city.” His gray eyes stared at me expectantly, and eventually I nodded numbly.

     “I’ve heard of it. See you tomorrow.” I added a nod to be polite, then I turned my back on him and went into my tent.

     Now that I was sitting in the saddle on my mare’s back, I had plenty of time to think about our upcoming destination; Roseacre. A city entirely built out of light pink stone.

     I gazed up at the sky where the sun was already up high. Noon. Eric had woken me right after dawn, making sure to be out of reach of my blades this time. It had taken surprisingly little time to break down the entire camp, especially taking into consideration the amount of tents there were. It seemed like everybody knew exactly what was expected of them. Everybody but me that is; all I had done that morning was saddle up my horse and pack my own things.

     Not everyone was on horseback though, which slowed them all down considerably but there was nothing to be done about it. Those who were on horseback had to protect the group on foot. I had been assigned the back end of the group along with three other men and two women. None of them spoke to me; in fact, they weren’t very talkative in general, even amongst each other. Nothing happened around us, but like I said, it gave me time to think about where we were going.

     Roseacre was one of the better fortified cities in our Kingdom. And its Lord and Lady had sided with the Queen rather willingly. Though, because of its alliance, I didn’t understand why we were heading that way. Another thing I had to worry about was the Lord and Lady themselves, and of course, their sons. What if they saw me? The sons had been my friends for most of my life and wouldn’t give me away, but I wasn’t so sure about their parents. No, I shook my head, making my hair fly around me. They wouldn’t see me, and even if they did, they couldn’t possibly recognize me. It had been a couple of years since I had last seen them; I wasn’t even sure if I would recognize them myself.

     “You didn’t want silver armor because it catches the light too easily, and yet you let your hair hang loose like that,” a voice called out to me, throwing me out of my thoughts.

     Looking up, I saw both Darrick and Eric coming my way. Unconsciously, my fingers reached for a strand of my hair, and I looked at it in the light. It did look an awful lot like gold, like my mother’s had; maybe it was better if I tied it up or tucked it into my shirt. And that was what I did as I waited for them to join me. Guiding my horse with only my legs, I braided it before twisting it into a quick bun. Hopefully, that was better.

     “Come on, you’re on the next scouting party with us,” Darrick called with a big smile on his face. Why was that a good thing? “Race you to the front of the group!” And with that he was off. Eric’s gray eyes moved from me to Darrick’s quickly retreating form before a smile stretched onto his face and he took off as well. Cheaters! I sped after them, glad that my horse was fast, even though she wouldn’t be able to go for as long as their horses could. I was also lighter than those two men, so maybe I could catch up and eventually overtake them without too much trouble.