Galloping
The Black Void - Episode 3525
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The old man still looks uncertain, but looking at the sword that Baras
wears seems to help him make up his mind. As soon as he shows us which
horses are Salley's, Baras knocks him unconscious. "I feel guilty about
hitting an old fellow like that," Baras says, "but there wasn't much
alternative. I'm going to let out all the other horses to delay pursuit,
since I expect that Salley will buy horses to replace the two that we've
taken. Even so at best we'll have an hour's start, maybe much less. If our
ruse doesn't work, of course."
Once he's released the other horses, Baras helps me up into the saddle. I'm rather nervous, as it's been a long time since I've ridden and in any case I don't have much experience. Also I'm hardly ideally dressed. I suspect that I'm going to finish up with a rather tender backside, and I wish that I had a sports bra to keep my breasts from bouncing. I don't even have Baras's cloak to give me some protection from the elements, since in all the excitement he left it behind in his room. At least my mount seems well behaved. (Baras, who claims to be a reasonably experienced horseman, has taken the friskier of the two.) We leave the stables behind us, and turn onto the road. Thankfully there is no sign of anyone outside the inn. Then we kick the horses into a gallop, bringing up spray from the puddles on the road. Luckily the rain has now almost stopped, but there's still a gusty wind and it's decidedly chilly. At least I get some warmth from the horse itself. We have to keep our eyes peeled, as it's very dark and it would be easy at speed to stray off the road. Fortunately this section is fairly wide, reasonably straight and doesn't seem to have any potholes. We have agreed that we'll head towards Theras initially, as we hope that Salley won't be expecting that. That is the ruse that Baras referred to. We'll turn off as soon as the road forks, and then take an alternative route to Castle Van Alder. That will add some time to the journey, but now that we have horses it shouldn't take us more than three more days at worst. The risk is that Salley will be clever enough to send someone back towards Theras, even if the main pursuit goes the other way. Though our hoofprints will be clearly visible in the mud of the road, we hope that there will be enough other hoofprints going in both directions for it not to be obvious which are ours. Horses can't keep up a gallop for all that long, and besides the faster we go the colder it feels. So after ten minutes or so we ease back to a canter. That also makes it possible for us to talk to each other as we ride side by side, which wasn't practical while we were galloping.
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JH
4/21/2007 12:37:35 PM
Extending Enabled
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