Not Alone (A Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

     My escape plan had worked beautifully, except for one little hitch: Aetra was still alive.  The skull splitting headache had started directly after I used the Shout, so most of what had followed I hadn’t been able to focus on, but I would have sworn to Talos that the Shout had hit her, no matter what she said about ducking.  It must not have, though, because she would not be alive now if it had. 

     Gods, it would have been so much simpler if she had just died in that cave!  Now I was faced with killing her in cold blood after she had helped me escape, or else letting the traitor live.  Both options were unappealing.  My enemies could say what they wanted about me, but I was no killer. 

     Up until now I had just been riding in a random direction, any direction that was away from the cave, but now I slowed Gormalith to a walk and waited for Aetra to do the same.  “Where are we?” I asked, unable to keep the terseness out of my voice. 

     She hesitated briefly before replying, “A ways to the northwest of Windhelm.” 

    She’s afraid that I’ll gather the Guild and destroy her new hideout the same as I did with the old one, I realized.  “Decide whose side you’re on,” I said shortly, turning Gormlaith to the southeast and spurring her onward.

     I heard the sound of hoof beats behind me as her mare followed, but at the moment I was too tired to care.  Predictably my fears and plans to escape had kept me up the night before, even if I had been able to sleep on that cot.  Sleeping with your hands tied behind your back isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds. 

     Thinking about the sleep I’d lost caused me to yawn cavernously, and I brought my mental image of Skyrim back up.  I was still on the northern side of the mountains south of Dawnstar, so I would have to ride to the east for a ways to the pass before I could go south.  The sun was already low in the sky, and I estimated that it would sink entirely behind the horizon in a few hours.  Unless I rode through the night, there was no way I could reach Windhelm before tomorrow evening.  I wasn’t unused to riding during the night, but not when I was already short on sleep.

     I grabbed a handful of Gormlaith’s mane as she stumbled slightly in the deep snow, slipping up her back without the saddle to hold me in place. 

     Lack of sleep presented me with another problem.  After everything Aetra had done, I was not going to let my guard down around her.  A part of me knew this mindset was ridiculous- after all, why would she help me escape just to turn me over to the Summerset Shadows again?- but most of me didn’t care.  Maybe I could make it all the way to Windhelm to the inn tonight….

     The sun sank lower and lower, slowly ceding the sky to the moons.  The night was crisp and clear with no wind or snow, just the crunching sound of the already fallen powder under the horses’ feet. 

     A few hours after sunset the auroras appeared in the sky, and I took my eyes off the ground in front of Gormlaith in order to look at them.  They seemed to shimmer and shake, dancing in the sky like softly rustling leaves.  I watched them, fascinated, as they twisted through the sky in a fantastic pattern of light and color, writhing around like dazzling snakes.  Wait… were they coming closer?

     With a sudden jerk I snapped awake and pushed myself upright again on Gormlaith’s back, saving myself from falling just in time.  Blinking like a falmer in the daylight, I cleared my blurry vision and yawned again.  That’s it, I give up.  If I didn’t fall out of the saddle at this rate it would be a miracle. 

     I asked Gormlaith to halt with my voice since I had no reins, and she obeyed after a couple seconds.  I jumped off and nearly fell when my feet hit the snow and sunk deeper than I expected.