She was tying down her bedroll and then needed to affix her harp to the pack.  Normal things, things she had done dozens of times before in the company of the Last Landian.  It was rather that before he hadn’t hovered over while she was doing it.

“Where are we headed?” she eventually asked, more interested in breaking the silence than even their plan.  He would handle that after all.

“We should have enough time to reach Verken tonight,” Quartes answered.

Pausing in her packing she looked up to him.  “We’re going to hide behind the walls of a city?”

“No,” her relief at his answer did not last, “you’re going to stay there and I’m to lead them off until I can make my way to the tribe chief and end this hunt.”  When Keto looked at him his stern glare softened, but only slightly.  “Please pack.”

Minutes later they were moving, stepping back out of the woods and heading towards where they had left the Greenway.

Keto picked back up their conversation, “I can’t be a very good story teller if I’m not there to tell the story.”

“I don’t need a story of me fighting people, it does me no good against end of the Cycle,” came back the Landian’s stoic reply, sent off like he had already prepared it.

“It’s a change Quartes, it may be something we can build upon.”

“Then I will tell you all the details you can think to ask when it’s over.”

“But I may…”

“Keto,” he stopped then and turned to her, “they are foolish enough to think killing me is both a good idea and something they can do.  In that kind of madness they will show no concern for those around me.”  There was heaviness to his exhale as he finished, an opening for other words he hadn’t yet found.

“Ok,” Keto answered, reaching out a hand and laying it on his chest, “Ok, I will do this.”  He closed a scarred hand over hers, eyes shutting.  A breath later they reopened, his stern glare returned, and turned as they continued.  “You gotta leave me coin or gems to keep me well cared while we’re separated,” she called after.

“Wouldn’t think of otherwise.”

*****

The sun was setting when they crested a ridge and the City of Towers came into view.  Though it was a bit of a stretch between him clearing the ridge and her catching up, gulping down air came several steps behind the Landian.  The Greenway had given over to paved stones and they had passed through an outlying village, Keto’s stomach had rumbled at the sight of the village’s tavern and served to voice the neglect their haste had imposed upon it.  Quartes was standing at the crest and while she had noticed the sight of Verken’s proud spires before her first, she noted his frown second.  His hands were resting on the hilt of his swords and it was then saw what he had noticed.

The fires of a camp up ahead, Taikeets arrayed in a makeshift paddock.  Attentive riders already point back up at them.  There was a cluster of guards between the riders and the gate but that hardly seemed to benefit them.

“That seems a bit unsporting,” Keto commented, catching her breath.  Her head tilted after a moment, “I guess people of open spaces would be unhappy with others hiding in cramp places.”

Quartes had turned and started back down the way they had come.  Keto stepped to follow.  “They’ll want to keep us to the open country, makes it easy for them.”

“Forcing you to make it easy for them doesn’t lessen the honor of their hunt?”

“It offers me the greater honor to beat them where they believe themselves the superior.”

“Seems like excuse making.”  The sun continued its decent, nearly falling behind the Hendarks now.  “We do have a plan don’t we?”  The Landian did not immediately respond, and his silence continued even int he pause she gave him.  “It is getting dark.”

“That group was of ten, they’ll descend on us at first light.  There’s a crop of woods we can make.  It’ll be dark but we’ll make camp.  I can fight them with the woods behind me, at least stop them from trying to ride me down from behind.”  The Landian’s pace had picked up as his words caught up with his plan.  Keto struggled to keep up.

“You sound,” she caught her breath, “worried.  Is there something about them that makes them deadlier than a dragonkin?  Or a horde of dragonkin?”

His head inclined, “It’s having the Sword of Lehn not in the fight.  I will win but the risk is greater, and the fight longer.”

The shock was enough to cause Keto to stumble a step, and Quartes stopped and turned for a moment to check on her.  The Sword of Lehn was definitely his trump card.  While she’d seen him move and fight without it, it’s power is what made the legend, made him more of a force than a mortal.  “It would seem to me we’re already suffering enough disadvantages, why can’t you use the lightning sword?”

“Lehn is meant to fight monsters, and it’s not monsters that are after us.”  It was a grim reply.

“Oh,” Keto answered, it was a worried syllable.  “So, the nomads aren’t the only ones making excuses.”  The Landian did not give her a reply, and Keto spent the evening doing her best to keep up.