To Stand Beside Her (17 page)

Leila returned to her
stall
room and cautiously opened the door.
Inside the men were anxiously waiting.
She handed the
m
each a stack of clothing.
“Sorry about the mess,” she said referring to the room.
“I was in a bit of a hurry to catch up with Kay, I didn’t exactly pick up before I left.”
Leila noticed the men were surprised by the amount of clothing she had returned with.
“Just choose a shirt and pants,” she said.
“The rest we will bring with us.”
Theo held
a big fluffy
jacket in his hands.

“How cold?”
Theo
asked
.

“It will be fairly cold tonight at
Rogers
, but tomorrow by the time we reach my home, we should be in snow,”
Leila
explained.
“Trust me; you will want to keep that jacket with you.”
She smiled at the shocked reaction on Theo’s face.
“The rest room is right there,” she said
,
pointing to the wall that a blanket covered.
Nalick pushed the blanket aside to see the room next to it.
He grabbed his clothing and walked inside.
Leila began to pick up
clothes around the
room
while
at the same time looking for her boots.

“Where to now, boss
?
” Nalick asked Leila
once they were all changed
.

“To
Rogers
,” s
he replied before pausing to add,
“
T
hough
,
I don’t think he will be too happy to meet you.”

Chapter
10

Outside the courier stop, Kay stood leaning against the horse waiting for Leila.
Leila ran over and hugged Kay.
“What are you doing here?”
Leila
asked.

“You said not to wait for you, but I thought I could wait a couple days.
I knew it would not take much for you to leave there,” Kay replied beaming at Leila, but her smile quickly faded as she saw the three men behind Leila.
“I thought you would have lost them by now,”
Kay
said disappointed.

“I brought them with
,” Leila tried to explain, but Kay just glared at Nalick.
Leila began to
re
calculate her plan.
With an extra person, it would make getting the men out of Cath easier.

“So you didn’t escape?” Kay asked confused.
Leila shook her head
,
no
.
“He forced you to stay, just like all the other kings.
And it is my
fault,” Kay
was seemingly
about to cry.

“No, no, no,” Leila hugged her friend.
“It is not your fault.
I chose to stay.
Really.”
Leila indicated to the men to stay with the horses and pulled Kay a little distance away.
“Kay, I have had many opportunities to leave.
I can leave
at any time
.
Nalick is not holding me prisoner.
I am staying with Nalick because I
want to
.
It is chance for me to have a new life.
One where I am not reminded daily about Erich.”
Reluctantly
Kay nodded.
“I know he seems just like any other king, but he is different.
Trust me.
Now he was followed here.
If you could escort Nalick and Theo to
Rogers
ahead of Macarius and me, I can see if anyone else is following him still.”

Kay smiled at her friend.
“Good plan.
Then, I should l
ose them on the way
?
”
Kay
asked wanting to help her best friend.

“No,” Leila quickly replied.
“I expect to see Nalick tonight.”
Kay looked disappointed. “Promise?”

“Fine, but all you have to do is ask,” Kay replied.
“I would gladly lo
se them on the way.”
Kay was much better at her job in the familiarity of home.

Kay
and Leila walked back to the me
n
.

“Kay will take Nalick and Theo by road to
Rogers
.
It is the easiest way to find his place if you should have to do so in the future,”
Leila
explained to Nalick.
“Macarius and I will take a shorter more direct route.”
Leila handed each man the reins to one of the horses.
While
hand
ing
Nalick the reins,
she didn’t let go of them.
He moved closer to her.

“Kay doesn’t trust you,” Leila said quietly to him.
“I made her promise to not l
ose you on the way, but I doubt that means she will go easy on you.
Please talk to her.
She
probably
thinks you are keeping me chained up in a room.”

Nalick smiled.
From the short time they had met up,
Nalick
could see Macarius was acting different towards Leila.
The least he could do
wa
s try to get Kay to understand him a bit.
Nalick
leaned over and kissed Leila’s forehead.

“I will do my best,”
Nalick
said before hopping up onto his horse.
Leila mouthed the words
thank you
as the three of them headed out of the city
;
Kay leading and Nalick and Theo following.

Kay kept her promise
,
and after
a
three hour ride
,
they arrive
d
at Roger’s inn.
F
ollowing
a
short hike into the woods
outside the inn
, they stepped
out
from behind a set of trees to
discover
an entire camp.
Macarius was sitting near a fired slowly stirring a pot.
Kay
ushered
him out of the way and began tasting the food.
She then
quickly ran to a door in the ground and walked down the steps.
Nalick watched as
Kay
disappeared from view.
He looked around carefully.
Set to one side was a lean-to shelter built against some trees
, and
u
nderneath the shelter were five mattresses and blankets.
On the other side of the camp was the door Kay just went through.
Nalick cautiously walked near the door as Theo pulled up a chair and sat beside Macarius near the fire.
It was getting near sunset and the air was getting cooler.
Nalick looked down the doorway in the ground.

“It leads to our camp supply room,” Leila said approaching from the woods.
Dressed in her normal clothes with her hair down
,
she looked like a new person before Nalick.
“Would you like to see inside?”

Leila led the way day
down
the stairs.
At the
bottom, the ro
om was lit by several oil lamps
as
they were completely underground
inside
a long rectangular passage way.
Along both sides were stocked shelves.
To one side he saw more mattresses like the ones that were outside.
Further down,
Nalick
saw
that
the shelves were lined with food.
Kay was at a bench adding spices to a bowl.

“Did you taste that stuff?” Kay asked Leila.
Leila shrugged.
“Well
,
I am going to fix it.”
Kay
hurried back out the door with her bowl of spices.

“I’m not real
ly into the whole cooking thing
,” Leila explained to Nalick.
“So this is the half
-
way point between my home and Cath.
We
will spend the night here to l
ose any stray trackers.
If anything should happen tonight, that door there leads back to the inn,” Leila pointed at a table.

“That table is a door?” Nalick asked.

“Behind the table,” Leila
replied
.

Nalick moved closer to try to test his luck.
Leila
had not shied away from him since the first day they met. Leila stood still as
Nalick
slowly put his hands around her waist. She was so tiny yet so powerful in everything she did. Nalick wished to be able to hold onto her forever. Leila kept her breathing steady as her heart raced. Just being near him alone was enough to make her heart race, but his hands resting on her hips holding her close to him was pushing her heart into irregular flutters. Leila closed her eyes
,
lean
ing
forward and rested her forehead on his chest. His heart was beating just as fast as her was. It had been so long since
Leila
had felt her heart beat so fast
soley
due to someone’s touch.

The clanking above the doorway quickly reminded Leila
of reality
. Sighing,
she
stepped back and
led Nalick out of the room
to join
everyone around the fire.
Kay was busy fixing the food
,
and Macarius and Theo were huddled near the fire.

“Did Roger say anything to you?” Kay asked.

“No,” Leila replied.
Kay stopped stirring and looked up at Leila with a worried expression on her face.

“Is he mad at you?
Does he know you are going to stay in Lexia?”
Kay
started with more questions not giving Leila time to respond
.
Leila was always Roger’s favorite courier.
Kay could not believe he would not come
and
greet her.

“I doubt he is mad.
More than likely he is too ashamed to come
and
talk to me in person
since he made a deal with Nalick and now I know
.
Either way, tomorrow morning I will need to stop by and get the herbs from him,” Leila shrugged.

“
A deal?
” Kay
asked
.
Leila shrugged.
Leila still didn’t know how she felt about Roger’s actions.
He had always protected her over the years.
Roger was like a second
father
to
her
.

“Would you like me to go
and
get bowls?” Leila asked Kay trying to change the subject.

“I’ll help you,” Kay replied
,
hand
ing
the spoon to Theo.
“Keep stirring it.”

After they were alone, Kay stopped Leila.
“
Nalick
gave me this,”
Kay
said
,
opening her hand to reveal the ring to Leila.
“I guess he had it all along.”

Leila chuckled.
She had been so unaware of the
situation
that
she didn’t even know where the ring was the whole time they were running their assignment.
I should have known
, she thought.
“I’m not surprised
,
”
Leila
replied
,
hand
ing
Kay
five bowls.