Leola, clad in a deep royal blue gown with gold embroidery around the neckline and sleeves, sat atop a magnificent honey-coloured horse. The beast flicked its mane a few times and she gently rubbed the side of his neck, hoping to comfort him. Sond's horse was light brown with golden speckles, and Bottar's horse was a deep chestnut brown. Neither of them had mounted their horses yet, instead standing several feet away and speaking with Erith.
The sound of hooves rang out from outside the wall and Leola looked up just in time to see Aventus ride up. His horse was black with red eyes that seemed to glow, and the young princess's eyes went wide with surprise at seeing it.
"She's part of the Brotherhood," he said as he rode up to Leola. His horse sniffed Leola's and hers seemed to shy away slightly, but another comforting neckrub had him nuzzling the black horse before him.
"She's amazing," Leola said softly. "Very fitting."
"Her name is Shadowmere. She was your mother's companion for a while when she was in the Brotherhood – Nazir says that he first discovered your mother's disappearance when Shadowmere wandered back to the Dawnstar sanctuary on her own…so she's been with us ever since," Aventus explained, patting the beautiful horse.
The massive palace doors opened and Ulfric came out, accompanied by two guards. In his arms was a thick fur cloak and he walked straight to Leola, reaching up and draping the cloak over her narrow shoulders. She smiled down at him from atop her horse as he fastened the cloak at her neck, smiling back up at her in return.
"You be careful now, promise me that?" Ulfric asked softly, and Leola nodded.
"Of course," she said. "I'll be back safe and sound, I promise."
"She's in good hands," said Aventus, and the King turned to face him, smiling.
"Thank you for all that you're doing to help my daughter," said Ulfric. "And now her mother."
"Leola's wonderful. I'm more than happy to help," said Aventus.
Sond and Bottar began to walk towards the group. Sond was holding Volendrung instead of his own weapon. He was the only one in the group who was well-trained with two-handed weapons, so it only made sense that he carry the hammer in case of a combat situation. Being as large as it was would only cause it to get in the way.
As the two began to mount their horses, Leola saw Svari walking over with two other girls. They were both light-skinned Nords with long, dark brown hair. The first had high cheekbones and narrow eyes, her dark hair running down her shoulder in a thick braid. The second had a sweeter, rounder face with wide eyes and hair that fell in loose waves.
"Are you going somewhere?" Svari asked softly, her voice just as dreamy and distant as when Leola had first met her. Though she spoke to Leola, her grey eyes were looking at Aventus.
"We have some business in Riften and Leola's tagging along," Aventus said, smiling warmly down at the brunette. Leola could see just how dazzling his smile could be to someone, and she could see the faint pinkness that came to the girl's cheeks. "She's never been to the Rift, so we thought we'd take her along."
"Well, you'd best make sure you take care of the precious princess," said the girl with the long braid. Her blue eyes shifted to look at Leola. "The name's Agatar. This is my sister Merinna."
The girl with the loose waves smiled up at Leola, but said nothing. Leola nodded at the two, then glanced briefly at Ulfric.
"Aren't you the blacksmith's daughters?" she asked, remembering that Ulfric had once told her about them. She was surprised at having remembered their names, but she knew that they definitely rang a bell.
Agatar nodded. "We are," she replied shortly.
"My father mentioned the two of you. I was hoping to stumble upon you sooner, you can never have too many friends," Leola said, smiling warmly at the girls. Agatar didn't smile back, seemingly unimpressed.
"Well, maybe we can catch up on the lost time when you get back," she replied, though her tone indicated that she really wasn't interested in doing so.
"I'd like that," Leola said softly, unsure whether or not she really would. With that, Agatar and Merinna turned and began on their way. Svari offered Aventus one last, sheepish smile before following after her friends. Leola and Aventus exchanged an amused look as Ulfric began back towards the castle, and Erith came hurrying over to Leola's horse.
"Be careful," she said, reaching up and gently taking one of Leola's hands with both of her own.
"I will," Leola said, smiling as Erith placed a soft kiss on her palm. "But you talk to my father about what you told me last night while I'm gone, alright?"
"Which thing?" Erith asked, a smirk coming to her lips. "I'm not sure you want me telling your father about how skillful I am in the bedroom. Not when it's his little girl who's experiencing my skill."
Leola felt her cheeks turn bright red. Her gaze darted momentarily over to Aventus, who seemed to be pretending not to have heard Erith's words. She looked back down at the brunette.
"No, not that thing," she said in a soft voice, as scoldingly as she could, but Erith just smirked back up at her.
"Of course I'm planning on talking to him. Don't you worry. Let me do the worrying for now," Erith said softly.
"I'll be fine, don't worry," said Leola gently. With that, Erith gave a satisfied nod and headed after Ulfric, to the palace.
"Let's get going," said Aventus, looking over his shoulder at Sond and Bottar, who were casually exchanging gold from their pouches for reasons unknown. The two both nodded and the group began towards the gates.
The sun was shining and all seemed peaceful as they left the city. The hooves of their horses clopped loudly against the stone bridge that connected Windhelm to the rest of Skyrim. Leola could hear birds screeching at the docks and the crashing of waves against the shore nearby.
"I think one of those ships sails to Solstheim regularly," Sond said casually as he saw Leola's blue eyes focused on the watery beauty of the docks. "You don't have to go far from home or anything when you go see Hermaeus Mora."
"That's good," Leola remarked as they began down the road that led south to Riften. She saw a wooden sign with arrows – one indicated that Windhelm was behind them, the other indicating that Riften and the road to Whiterun were forward.
"The beauty of Skyrim is rivaled by no other," Aventus said casually, glancing over at Leola. Indeed, it was true – lush trees despite the frigid cold of the North, dazzling golden sunlight, and distant rocky mountains rising blue on the horizon.
"It is," Leola said softly. "I wish I'd had the opportunity to see more of it before."
"How did you get to Windhelm the night your mother sent you?" Aventus asked, looking over at Leola curiously as his magnificent black horse trotted alongside Leola's golden one.
"Signs and directions," Leola said softly. "Most of my ride was done during the day anyways, so it was still light out. I just asked people whenever I encountered them and looked at signs whenever I saw one."
"You got lucky," Bottar said from behind her.
All of a sudden, Sond's horse reared up on its hind legs, whinnying loudly. Sond let out a sharp gasp before trying to calm his distressed horse, which stopped walking. The other horses, seemingly alerted by this one's outburst, also stopped, looking around anxiously.
"What's going on?" Leola asked, and in an instant, Aventus had dismounted and stood slightly ahead of her.
"Just stay on your horse," he said to her sternly. Leola nodded nervously, glancing over her shoulder as she heard Sond and Bottar also getting off their horses and readying their weapons.
"Now, now, that's no way to greet friends!" came a voice from the trees, causing Leola to jump slightly. She looked in the direction from which the voice had come, seeing a dark-haired Breton man and a scaly Argonian. Leola guessed that the figure was female, based on the shape of the lizard-person's body. The two were dressed in furs, and a snort from one of the horses had Leola looking in the other direction, where a male Khajiit and a female Redguard were coming out of the woods on the other side of the path. Her gaze fell on Aventus, who had a long, elegant dagger in one hand.
"Back off, bandits," growled the assassin, and Leola could feel her nervous heart skip a beat.