Disclaimer – I do not own BMT world, it belongs to Trudi Canavan

The Road to Corres Fort

They had been riding for almost an hour, but to Sonea, time had no real meaning. She was simply concentrating on keeping her horse under control. What Lorlen had failed to tell her was that Jalette was a fine horsewoman, used to the fieriest of steeds and the stable hands were used to giving her what she wanted.

Almost as soon as Sonea saw the animal the stable boy was leading towards her, she knew something would go wrong. For a start, it was a tall horse, much taller than she was used to. The second thing she noticed was the way it danced along, its ears back and the whites of its eyes showing. She tried to say something, but the boy just smiled.

"He's been waiting for you, Lady Jalette. He hasn't had a real ride for weeks."

Feeling less than reassured by this, Sonea accepted a leg up and settled into the saddle. The boy let go the reins and immediately the horse started to jig about, eager to be off. Sonea pulled back on the reins and tried to calm him down. The horse continued to fight the pressure of her hands, dancing sideways, so that they knocked into another horse. This unsettled both Sonea and the horse, which broke away from the group and started off along the track.

Sonea could hear the shouts behind her, but could do nothing except hang on and hope the horse would settle. She tried to remember if there were any obstructions between the stable and the main gates, but her mind was a complete blank. She was conscious of the sound of hooves behind her but was fearful to look round. Then, to her relief, there was a strong hand on the reins, pulling the horse to a halt.

"Thank you, " Sonea started to say with a grateful smile, but the smile froze on her lips as she realised her rescuer was Regin. Luckily, the Warrior wasn't very interested in what she was trying to say.

"Return to the rest of the group," he said sharply. "Try to keep the animal quiet, you are upsetting the other horses." With that, he wheeled away and galloped back to the main party.

Sonea felt the colour bloom in her cheeks as she cursed Lorlen once more for not telling her of Jalette's horsemanship. However, by the time she had walked the horse back to the others, her face was smooth and she was able to laugh at some of the joking comments sent in her direction. However, she did notice that two of the Healers were looking at her with some surprise. After all, Jalette was supposed to be a good horsewoman. She smiled ruefully at them and made some comment about not having much riding practice lately due to looking after her sick mother. Luckily, they nodded sympathetically and turned away to continue their conversation.

Sonea kept a firm grasp on the reins and tried to send soothing mental messages to her mount. Luckily, the horse was quieter and she began to think that the journey would not be too arduous. She hoped that the fairly long procession would travel at a reasonable pace and she would be able to keep up without too much trouble. After all, it wasn't as if the High Lord was in a hurry.

There had been no urgency in their instructions which were to pick up their horses from the stables after the midday meal and be ready to set off once the High Lord arrived. She wondered if Balkan had any belief in Akkarin's fears that the Ichani were considering a new tactic. She suspected not. Time passed and still there was no sign of their leader. Sonea wished she could dismount like some of the others, but she didn't want to risk unsettling the horse further.

When Balkan did finally arrive, he was accompanied by Osen and a group of ten Warriors, who kept close to the High Lord. Almost as if he feared for his life and needed a bodyguard, Sonea thought. Perhaps he does, her thoughts continued, especially with Akkarin here.

She glanced over to where Akkarin stood, next to his horse. He was still, observing closely what was going on around him. His Warriors were grouped a short distance away seemingly not paying him much attention. Almost as if he felt her eyes upon him, Akkarin suddenly glanced in her direction. She hurriedly dropped her eyes and fiddled with the leather in her hand. When she chanced a quick glance at him again, he had turned aside and was in conversation with an Alchemist.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She had no experience with the spell which was maintaining her appearance as Jalette. She didn't know if a powerful magician would know what she was doing. All use of magic left a trace, and the trace was much stronger during the time the spell was being used, that was a lesson learned in the first year of the noviciate, but whether that trace would clearly identify the actual spell was not known to her. All she knew was this spell required a lot of power, especially to sustain the illusion for long periods. She had made sure to collect as much power as she could in the short time she'd had available. She had even fitted in a quick visit to Takan and taken all of his available power. She could only hope there would be no need to further drain her power during the journey.

Balkan gave a signal and the whole company jumped into action. The procession quickly formed, with Balkan and Akkarin at the head, with Balkan's Warriors and Osen close behind them. Sonea lost sight of Akkarin's Warriors for a time, then spotted them towards the head of the column, but not especially close to the High Lord. Sonea found a place well down the procession. She wanted to be lost amongst the other Healers and Alchemists, not conspicuous among a sea of red. It was very unlikely that anything untoward would happen while they were on the move. When night fell, she would need to find a sleeping place not too far away from Akkarin, and just how she was going to do that was one of her main problems, but she had several hours before she needed to worry about that.

She found herself riding alongside an older Healer called Mostyn, who seemed friendly enough. Lorlen had given her a lot of information about Jalette, but after discovering he had failed to mention his friend's riding abilities, Sonea was unsure just how accurate it was. As a consequence she tried to keep their conversation on more general things. She encouraged Mostyn to talk about his home and family, his time as a novice and the sorts of jobs he had had since graduation. Luckily for her, Mostyn seemed happy to talk and she found she could tune him out for twenty minutes or so without missing very much. That allowed her to give much of her attention to controlling the horse.

The procession was moving at a rather sedate pace. That had been understandable within the confines of Imardin, but they had been outside the city for some time now, moving along the main road towards Coldbridge and it might have been expected that they would have picked up the pace by now, but Balkan, it seemed, was happy just to move along quietly. Part of Sonea was pleased as it made riding a little easier, on the other hand, it made the journey time longer and she was eager to stable the horse and rely on her own two feet again.

The horse, whom she had nick-named Trouble, had other ideas. He obviously resented the slowness of their pace and frequently tried to break into a canter or worse, a gallop. It took a lot of her energy just keeping him at the pace of the others. Any hint of relaxation of her hands led to his dancing on the spot, ready to fling himself along the road. Fairly soon, she became aware that it was difficult to concentrate on the horse while maintaining her appearance as Jalette. It was taking more of her power than she had thought and she began to worry about how she could keep her power source topped up.

Black magicians could take power from a range of things. Other magicians were best because the power was easily absorbed from the cut, but power could be taken from animals, rocks, stones or buildings and even plants. Out on the road, her options were restricted. She could hardly go off chasing animals, even if there were many animals around she could use. Buildings imbued with magic would be few and far between, so that left her with the plant option. There would be trees, shrubs and other plants widely available. She had planned to use them, but that was before she had been given Trouble, and now she realised that the small amounts of power in plants would mean she needed a lot of plants and enough time to get sufficient power to make a difference.

It just gets harder and harder all the time, she thought ruefully. It had seemed a reasonably simple plan, once she had convinced Lorlen and later Vinara, but now, the difficulties were mounting up.

They stopped for a break a few hours into their journey. Sonea slipped gratefully from the saddle, unwilling to use Healing to deal with her stiff and aching muscles because of the necessity of conserving power. She tied Trouble's reins to a nearby bush and sank to the ground. Servants materialised from somewhere, bringing mugs of fruit juice and pieces of cake. She drank the juice quickly but looked at the cake. It was a large piece, full of dried fruit and her stomach rebelled at the idea of consuming it. She stuffed it in her pouch, perhaps she would feel hungry later on.

All too soon, the order was given to mount up again. Sonea undid the reins and looked around for a suitable rock to give her a leg up into the saddle, but she was unlucky. She sighed. There was no other option. Looking around to see if anyone was watching, she carefully and slowly used a little levitation and was able to regain the saddle without difficulty. More use of my power, she thought unhappily, but there was no alternative. Jalette would probably have leapt on to the horse with no problems and she could not appear to be too amateurish, tending a sick mother would not have destroyed all of Jalette's horsemanship!

They rode on, still at the slow pace Balkan favoured, reaching the outskirts of Coldbridge by nightfall. Sonea had been looking forward to a comfortable bed somewhere on her own for the night but that hope was soon dashed. Only the higher ranking magicians had been allocated sleeping places in one of the local inns, the rest of the party being accommodated in tents outside the town. Guild servants, who had been driving a number of carts loaded with supplies at the rear of the procession, were soon at work putting up the tents and making an evening meal.

To her dismay, Sonea was allocated a bed in a tent with four other female Healers and the three female Alchemists. With a sinking heart, she realised that Kelda would be sharing her tent. What if the spell weakens during the night? What if she sees glimpses of Sonea on Jalette's sleeping face?

They were served their evening meal just outside their tent. It was the usual Guild fare of stew, vegetables and bread, with some fruit to finish. Sonea bent over her meal, hoping to discourage conversation, while at the same time, listening to the others. She didn't know any of them particularly well, apart from Kelda, but she was interested to hear what they made of the trip.

There were the usual grumbles about the food and the softness or otherwise of their beds but nothing of real interest. Sonea tuned them out while she chewed her way through the stew. It was the sound of her own name which recalled her attention to the conversation.

"…Sonea is?" one of the Healers asked.

Kelda laughed, "Yes, she usually skulks around after him like a dark shadow, but he doesn't take much notice."

"I heard she was unwell and confined to her room," another Healer said with a grin. "She's probably sulking because she wasn't allowed to come."

"What? Not allowed? Did the High Lord order her to stay behind?"

An Alchemist, Sonea thought she was called Herben, glanced around, then beckoned them to come closer. As one, the group inclined their heads to hear Herben's whisper, "No, I heard it wasn't the High Lord! He ordered her to stay at the Guild."

"He? You mean…."

"Yes," Herben interrupted, "Him, Akkarin, he told her to stay behind."

"Well, that's interesting," Kelda said. "He must be sick of her by now, always there, like a shadow. They say he didn't want her to go with him when he was sent into exile, but she insisted."

"That's true," someone else said firmly, "One of my friends was there and he was very angry with her. But she went anyway. Didn't know when she wasn't wanted!"

But it wasn't like that, Sonea's thoughts screamed. You don't know anything about us! Part of her shuddered to hear what others thought of her and her relationship with Akkarin. The other part of her, that bit like a painful cut you couldn't stop rubbing, wanted to hear more, no matter how hurtful. But the group soon lost interest in the subject and they began to talk about something else.

Later, Sonea wondered at the accuracy of their information about her being told to stay behind. How did they find that out? Only she, Akkarin, Balkan, Osen and the King had been at the meeting. Which one of them would have disclosed what went on? She could only think that somehow Merin had mentioned something when talking to his Advisors and the information had got out that way.

As the women prepared for sleep, Sonea cast around for a reason not to stay in the tent. Finally she muttered something about needing to find some more of a particular herb she needed, and taking her cloak and pouch, left the others to go to bed without her. Sonea wrapped herself in the cloak, for the night was chilly, and wandered through the camp. The servants had set up a well ordered camp, with tents organised in rows, each with its own fire outside, and were busily preparing food for the next day's breakfast. There was a lot of people moving around, so she moved away from the tents, looking for somewhere she could pass the night.

Her wanderings took her past the horse lines, where she resisted the temptation to look for Trouble, out into the countryside. She found a small grove of trees, with some good grassy spaces between the trees. She felt weary after the seemingly endless ride, desperate for some sleep. She made a bed for herself, and, using the cloak for a cover, settled down for the night. There were lots of trees and plants around, so she promised herself a good 'breakfast' of power in the morning. She needed to wake early, so she could take power and return to the tent before the others noticed she had been absent. She fixed that thought firmly in her mind and concentrated on the hour she needed to wake up until she fell asleep.