Abducted [W&W Book 3]

Chapter 20

"Farrel?  Where is Ty?" Ildri asked anxiously as she stared at the wolf.

A low keening whimper was her only answer. 

"Where is he?" she asked again, even though she was not certain that he could understand and knew that he could not answer and she already knew that something was terribly wrong.  Farrel would not have come alone if there was any way he could be with Ty.

A horrible vision of Ty hurt and bleeding like Saul had been flashed through her head.  "Is he dead?"

Farrel stared at her.  "Was he captured?"

Farrel whined again.

Ildri closed her eyes.  What was she going to do?

It was clear that there was nothing that she could do to rescue him herself.  If he had been taken prisoner Ildri would not stand a chance against them.

Her only hope and Ty's was to reach the capital and somehow convince the king that she actually knew what she was talking about.

Ildri prompted Sarabella into motion and the horse seemed pleased to comply.  They went through the forest as fast as the horse could go.  She was dimly aware that Farrel was following behind her.

They reached a place where the forest ended and fields began.  Ildri and Sarabella burst forward into the sunlight.  She was encouraged to see signs of civilization and she led the horse around the fields of waving grains.

Eventually they came near to a house.  There was a chicken coop and a barn alongside a vegetable garden.  A woman working in a large straw hat looked up in alarm.

"I'm sorry, but could you tell me how far I am from the capital?" Ildri asked, hoping the woman would know enough to tell her.

The woman seemed less concerned about her odd presence after looking her over.  "It takes my husband about an hour by oxcart to bring crops to the city.  You can surely get there faster than that on a horse.  Just follow that road," she explained, pointing.

"Thank you," Ildri cried as she urged Sarabella on.

Ildri let Sarabella run and Sarabella seemed more than happy to do so and they passed farms and houses, a small market and the occasional inn.  It did not take long before Ildri could see buildings and walls that surely signalled her arrival at the capital growing in the distance.  As she galloped into town she wondered where Ty's wolf dog had gone, but she spared it no more than a thought.

She entered the walls of the city, but no one challenged her.  She supposed that she looked nonthreatening and she slowed Sarabella to a walk so that the horse would not run over any hapless people on foot.

Ildri followed what seemed to be a main street and looked around.  She had seen spires of the castle in the distance but the buildings obscured her view now that she was in the city.  She had never imagined so many people in one place.  There was too much happening and too much noise and movement for her to take it in.

She reminded herself that she needed to get to the castle.  For something that she had not thought to be concerned about it seemed a most daunting task now that she had arrived.

It seemed that every street she turned down led her in the wrong direction until she was woefully lost.  The dread was getting worse with each wrong turn and her belly felt like lead.

Finally she gave up.  The first harmless looking person she saw was a bored looking street vendor selling vegetables.  He was a skinny looking adolescent leaning with his face propped against one arm.  Ildri wheeled Sarabella around to speak to him.