As the wagon clattered southward, wheels striking stones hidden by the morning mist, Mitch rode in the back with his pack, knees loose, shifting along with the sways as though they meant nothing to him. His easy seat in the back of the wagon marked him as a man long accustomed to rough travel.
Ahead on the bench was Mister Porter, guiding the horse with steady patience. Kevin, another of the porters, sat in the bed of the wagon with him, humming in fits and starts with his eyes on the horizon. Before long, the wagon would stop in Survold, leaving the two of them to finish the rest of their journey on foot while Mister Porter collected materials from Erik in Survold.
Mitch leaned back against the sideboard, his gaze drifting back at the road they’d come down. The fort lay behind them, its walls rising pale in memory, his sister within them. When he’d left, she’d smiled and waved him off, but unease clung to her like a faint shadow he couldn’t shake. Too many eyes seemed to linger on her lately, hushed voices speaking when they thought no one else listened.
Recalling the night he crept through those shuttered windows, he involuntarily clenched his fists. The parchment, the seal broken by his touch, the words, though they meant nothing to him, their meaning had been given voice, clear and inescapable. He had memorized them by sound alone, carrying them not in ink but echo. He burned the page after, watching the flame eat away the lines until there was nothing left but ash. Her safety was secured by his own hands… yet the echo remained, heavier than the pack between his knees, pressing on him even now.
The wagon lurched hard in a rut, and Mitch steadied himself without effort, catching the sideboard as though born to the motion. Up front Mister Porter cursed in Rogalt, glanced back, offered the faintest nod, and returned the to reins.
“Quiet today, Mitch” Kevin said, settling himself back to his spot after the bounce.
Mitch managed a smile, “Just thinking about how much nicer my path’ll be than yours”
While true, it wasn’t what occupied his mind. While the stones ahead would be lifted with back and hand, the burden behind was a different kind of weight entirely. He carried it in silence, hoping this path he forged would lead him nearer to his sister’s safety.
