Let's Go

We walk at double pace for the first hour, my arms tight around Rosa to make sure she didn’t stumble, but as it became obvious that we weren’t being followed our gait returns to normal. Collywaddle trots ahead of us to scout over the next rise as the rest of us walk as a group.

“Ceres damn those rubes.” Cassie hisses under her breath, her grip on Catalus’ reigns tightening with hot anger. “Hope their crops wither on the stalk next season.”

“Those ‘rubes’ are you and me, Cassie.” I say. “They’re our people. They were just scared. They’d never seen magic before.”

“Not like me. Not like that. I was never like them.”

I had to concede that point as Cassie was never quite your average farm girl, which was one of the major reasons she found herself with our growing family of misfits in the first place. At my side Rosa walked with her head bowed and her lips clamped between her teeth. I keep a steady arm around her shoulders while in my opposite hand her pack swung. Though she remained close to my side she didn’t lean into me like she usually did. And she hadn’t made one noise since we’d left the farm. I wanted to find out what was wrong but first certain things simply needed to be said, and I knew I was the only one that would say them.

“Rosa…I’m sorry, but…by the gods what was that?” I say, doing my very best to keep my tone gentle and respectful. “What was Danae doing? She almost got herself killed! And worse!”

Rosa flinches as if I’d struck her, tearing my heart to pieces as she does. “She was…hungry.” She whimpers. “She was just hungry.”

“Hahh.” I let out a hard breath, trying to expel the frustration inside of me before I spoke again. “Rosa…”

“I don’t control her. She’s her own fox.” She says, her sightless eyes still rooted to the earth in front of her. “She’s a wild creature, Quin, with a will of her own.”

“A wild creature? How do you expect to get her on a ship if she’s wild?”

“She’ll…follow me.”

“But you can’t control her?”

“I never said…um…” Her face flinches as she realizes she had just said exactly what she was about to deny. “She’ll be good on the ship. I think.”

“Rosa!”

“I’m sorry!” She sobs. “I’m so sorry!”

I stop and wrap my arms around her. “Baby, we just…you just…we can’t have you using magic. It could get you killed! We’re trying to stay unnoticed, remember?”

“Says the ‘Wingslayer’.” Mutters Cassie.

“Cassie!”

“Just sayin.”

“I didn’t plan it.” Rosa says through a shuddering breath. “I just…woke up…Danae screaming…I didn’t know what was happening. I had to protect her! I had to!”

“I know, I know.” I go down to one knee so I was closer to head height with her and I look up into her big glimmering eyes. Danae, the real sister, had been killed by a lover and client who found out the meretrix was pregnant with his child. The grief of not being able to protect her sister was one of the heaviest burdens that Rosa carried on her slender shoulders, her lethal **** afterward had done nothing to ease that pain. “But…” I sigh. “Rosa…you CAN’T keep using magic where others can see it. You just can’t. If we have any chance to…please.””

My Lady, my goddess, bearer of my daughter, my reason for living nods like a scolded child. I’d never seen her look so small since that very first day at the **** market in Rome. Her bottom lip quivering, tears rolling down her fair cheeks, she pulls off her magical bracelet and puts it into my hand.

“Rosa, no.” I try to push it back into her palm but she refuses it.

“I was useless.” She whispers. “I couldn’t help. I couldn’t do anything. My family was in danger because of me. I caused the trouble and I couldn’t do anything!.”

“My Lady.” Cassie says softly, coming up behind her to lay a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“No.” Rosa says. “Hold it, Quin. Just…until we’ve left your family. I’ve already ruined your relationship with your cousins. I don’t want to… I don’t trust myself. Alexandria. Grumentum. Your cousin’s. Everywhere I go I end up having to run away.”

“Rosa.” I say softly. “Your magic saved us with the minotaur and the harpies, even Lydia.”

“Your family aren’t monsters or mages, Quin.” She says, folding my hand around her Janus bracelet with both of hers. “I’ll only mess things up with it there. Just hold it for me. Until we’re on our way North. Please, Master.” She takes a deep breath and huffs. “And let me carry my own pack. I can do that at least.”

Another long sigh. “Very well.” I reach up and cup her soft cheek, my thumb wiping a tear away. “Rosa. I was helpless when Lydia had me in the grips of her mind magic. And you saved me. You saved us. You are NOT useless. Okay?”

“You’re the bravest woman I know, Rosa.” Cassie hugs her from behind and kisses her cheek. “You are being a very silly Lady right now, my Lady.”

This brings a half smile to Rosa’s face. “You know me. Emotions on my sleeve. Thank you two.” She hugs Cassie’s arm to her chest while gripping my hand with her other hand. “And yes. I’ll have a long talk with Danae as soon as I can.”

I kiss Rosa’s hand then rise again. “Come on. We shouldn’t linger. I’d like to get…home before this news does.” It felt strange calling the old family farm ‘home’ now, but I hadn’t a better word for it. I help Rosa on with her pack then bring her to Catalus to hold the knotted rope at his side. Stepping back I ask. “Ready?”

With a look of wounded pride but deep determination Rosa nods, her hair bobbing with the **** of it. “Time is wasting.”

With a smile I get us moving again. “Let’s go.”

As we travel, soon returning to the main path Westward, there were no sweet songs to accompany our footsteps as we wind through the fields and over the hills. The raw edges of Rosa’s hurt pride had been blunted but I could still sense just how deeply her helplessness during a time of stress and danger affected her. Back in the villa Rosa had had time to lean the layout of the house and the land to the point where she could almost function as well as a sighted person. Out here on the road every minute was a new mystery for her to solve.

On the bright side Catalus, with a proper wrapping on his ankle, was moving more freely than the day before. It wasn’t until midmorning until we saw the member of our party truly guilty for all the drama of the morning. Though as Danae trots up to shadow Rosa that little foxy grin couldn’t have been more defiant or mischievous. The cheeky little vixen even had a brown feather still stuck in her fur! Oblivious to Cassie and I’s scolding she happily trots along beside Rosa. We shake our heads and give up.

Of all the miles of my journey since I left the family farm the ones this day were the most surreal as sights and faces, sounds and voices, landmarks and vistas as familiar to me as my own two hands begin to reveal themselves.