Distress: Day 15

Word Total: 90,090

Year to Date: 570,232

Summary of Events:

The Queen returned and was unsurprisingly furious to discover that Bryn was gone, threatening death on the person responsible and ordering the fortress searched thoroughly, which frightened Olwyn. Bryn came to realise that to stay and attempt to kill the Queen would be needlessly endangering Olwyn and made the decision to escape with her as soon as possible. They escaped through the hole they'd found in the fortress wall and headed southward close to the fortress . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Bryn straightened and started out into the open, away from the shelter of closeness to the fortress wall. Olwyn walked straight and confident behind him, for if they were furtive in their movements they were more likely to be noticed than if they were confident; that was something Nuaða had told Olwyn.

They crossed into the shadows and continued to creep along before Bryn stopped abruptly.

“Smell you horses?” Bryn asked.

“Yes,” Olwyn replied.

“Now let us tell if they are good horses,” Bryn said.

Olwyn followed him into a building wherein the smell got even stronger, and Olwyn could hear the relaxed breathing of the great creatures. She couldn’t see Bryn, but she could hear the horses were stirred, uttering nervous sounds, having either smelled the strange people in their midst, or possibly being handled by Bryn.

Turning to face the door, Olwyn decided to keep watch that no one would espy them or hear what they were up to, but would instead continue to sleep as they ought to be, for assuredly the people of Wygþmynd had not been ordered to remain awake and without food until Bryn was found yet.

“Here,” Bryn whispered, making Olwyn jump with fright. “Take these lines, I’ll fetch tack. These are the two best horses.”

Olwyn grabbed the lines and held them, doing her best to remain calm as she stood there. She didn’t want to impart fear to the horses, who were so sensitive they would be able to tell she was afraid even through the lines in her hands.

She — and the horses — startled at the sound of clattering behind them. Olwyn wanted to turn around, but she didn’t dare. She heard footsteps overhead, then feet advancing down wooden stairs.

“Who goes there?” a man’s voice demanded. “State your business.”

Desperately Olwyn’s heart throbbed in her chest. She prayed the man wasn’t looking at her, and wasn’t going to come up to her. She didn’t want to have to talk to him, lest she inadvertently give them away in her fright.

She heard the sound of a sword against a sheath — the sword being removed, for there was something of a ring, instead of the duller click of a sword being sheathed — then a rather fleshly sound, before the sword sheathed.

In moments Bryn came and hoisted saddles onto the horses’ backs heavily.

“You killed him, didn’t you?” Olwyn asked.

“Can’t have him raising the alarm,” Bryn replied, moving briskly.

“Surely you could’ve pretended you were a soldier or something,” Olwyn said.

“I doubt a man being slaughtered without apparent reason is as uncommon in this city as it is in Friðærd,” Bryn said tautly.

True though it might be, with what was going on in the fortress Olwyn couldn’t help but fear that someone would make the connection between the man’s death and the fact that Bryn was missing.

Next Post: June 29