Coalesce: The Escape
Chapter 10

“Go tell everyone else that we are leaving, just don’t say why.” Glancing at my two colleagues, I make sure they’re paying attention before returning to the task at hand.

“Alright,” Kylon and Luciack get up and do what I told them to. I grab my bag and pull out a dark blue gown the same color as my cloak. I quickly change and pack the things I would need. I wore my boots instead of slippers and put my hat on then joined Kylon and Luciack out in the main room.

“... goodbye my brothers and sisters, we wish you all well in your future hunts.” I hadn’t heard most of what Kylon said, but I nodded and smiled at our little family. He bows and I curtsy then we gather food and take our leave.

It was just past dawn now, several soldiers and the few civilians left had gathered around the smoldering remains of Dallek. From the trees I survey the scene for myself. It was worse in the light than the dark. I sigh and we step out of the trees and begin to walk down the road. I just hoped that no soldier would recognize me.

“Do you think they’ll pay any attention to us?” Luciack asks, unnerved by the foreign soldiers.

“Hopefully not, we can’t risk being caught after that. They hopefully won’t know we were in the castle. With any luck, they’ll think the both of us escaped and presume us dead. After all, not many did survive the fires.”

“The war has torn this Empire apart,” Kylon sighs and glances back, stiffening. “They noticed us, run!”

Both of them grab my arm and we run farther down the path. Several soldiers begin to chase us, apparently not recognizing Luciack and I from behind. This probably made us look even more suspicious though, running from the soldiers. Sparing a glance back, I see the captain among the ones chasing after us.

“Their captain’s with them,” I say out of the corner of my mouth. Heart racing, I pray we can lose them in time.

“Stop!” The captain bellows as I trip over a root growing in the road. Kylon tries in vain to pull me up before the soldiers get to us. They had a much better gain on us than we had thought. I pull my hat farther over my face and brush myself off.

“Oh, it was the soldiers! By the Deus, Xavier, it wasn’t thieves at all!” I try to sound truly shocked and fake the accent of the people from Merchant’s Crest. Thankfully, the others catch on to my scheme quickly. Kylon makes a face but decides to go along with it. Luciack was busy pretending to look for something along the roadside.

“How silly of me. Forgive me, I didn’t recognize you as soldiers. We came from Merchant’s Crest. My wife and I got lost, our caravan was ambushed somewhere near the border and most of us were killed,” He hooks his arm through mine and pulls me towards him with a smile. The soldiers seemed quite confused, but not completely convinced by this. Luciack elbows Kylon’s leg and mutters something under his breath but we ignore him.

“My dear husband has been quite skittish since the ambush. Our two children were among the ones who perished that night,” To give myself a reason to look down and hide my face more, I force out a sob. Kylon pulls my head into his chest in a comforting gesture.

“I’m very sorry,” The captain says with a skeptical eyebrow raised. “I’m sure that was hard for the both of you. You seem quite familiar though...” He looks over us, eyeing me critically as I look up. Dabbing at my eyes, I try to obscure my face as much as possible.

“I don’t believe we have ever met before. The three of us only just arrived here last night.”

“I found it!” Luciack jumps up holding a ring in his hand.

“Found what?” The captain pushes Kylon aside and takes the ring from Luciack’s hand. “This looks like a royal ring, where did you get it?”

“It’s mine, I got it from my mother-in-law. It had been a gift to her from the Queen of the Northern Kingdom of Shadow Mountain.” I quickly say.

“She died, just before we left with the other merchant’s, see. It was very hard for all of us,” Kylon takes my hand and we both look down as if disheartened by the memory.

“We really should be going now, we have to get to Haven’s Hold within a fortnight. It’s quite a long journey on foot,” Luciack hastily takes the ring back from the captain.

“Very well.” The Captain glances over us again, but doesn’t make a move to stop us. With a soft sigh of relief, we turn away from them and continue down the road.

“That was close,” I mutter as soon as it’s safe to speak without fear of being overheard.

“Good cover,” Kylon laughs. I grimace and sidestep a bit away from him.

“We are not using that again. I refuse to be called your wife,” I say stubbornly.

“Are you sure? Either you’re just a great actor, or you really do enjoy calling me husband,” He smirks and I elbow him in the ribs. Frowning, he rubs his side as he watches me. I stick my tongue out at him and look away again.

“You know I am still here right? If we have to do that again, I should be the one to be her husband, seeing as I am,” Luciack puts in crossly. We both look over at him and Kylon raises an eyebrow.

“Whatever, I saw nothing wrong with it,” He shrugs, the two of them glaring at one another.

“Both of you shut up,” I cross my arms and walk ahead of them, refusing to speak for about an hour until we veer off into the thick trees.