The gate was closing.
Vesaria drove her heels against the horse's flanks, urging it forward as the guard hauled on the heavy timber. The animal lunged beneath her, its hooves slipping in the frozen ruts before finding purchase, and she barely kept her seat as the narrowing opening rushed toward them.
Someone shouted. A hand caught at her cloak, pulling the fabric taut across her throat, and Vesaria choked out a cry, twisting desperately in the saddle. The clasp tore free just as the horse surged past the guard, carrying her toward the gap between the cart's rear wheel and the swinging gate.
There wasn't enough room.
She pulled on the left rein, but the horse had already committed itself to the opening. Vesaria flattened herself against its neck as the timber struck her knee, sending a sharp pain through her leg. The animal stumbled, recovered, and sprang forward with such force that she nearly pitched over its shoulder.
Then the ground changed beneath them, the hard-packed yard giving way to the deeply rutted road beyond the palisade.
The horse bolted.
Vesaria grabbed a handful of mane as it tore down the road, her loosened cloak whipping behind her. She could hear men shouting at the gate, followed by the furious pounding of boots, but the sounds quickly disappeared beneath the thunder of hooves and the rush of cold air against her face.
She tried to straighten in the saddle, but the horse threw its head, snatched at the bit, and accelerated, forcing her to crouch again as the road curved sharply between the trees.
Branches swept overhead. One struck her shoulder, and another caught in her hair, tearing several strands loose before she ducked beneath it. She pulled at the reins, trying to slow the animal, but it fought her hands and plunged onward, frightened by the shouting and the unfamiliar rider clinging to its back.
"Easy," she gasped, struggling to make herself heard. "Easy, you wretched beast!"
The horse paid her no attention.
A dark shape loomed beside the road, and Vesaria flinched before recognising a fallen tree. The animal swerved around it, throwing her weight against the saddle. Her left foot slipped from the stirrup, and she spent several terrifying moments trying to recover it while gripping the reins with fingers that had begun to ache.
She had ridden since childhood, but never like this, never at such speed through unfamiliar woods with darkness gathering beneath the trees. At home, the paths had been broad and well kept, and the horses obedient enough that she had seldom needed to fight them.
This creature seemed determined to run until either it collapsed or she fell off.
She finally recovered the stirrup and sat back, drawing the reins steadily rather than jerking at them. The horse resisted, tossing its head, but after another long stretch of road, its frantic gallop eased into a rough canter.
Vesaria drew a breath that hurt all the way down her chest.
The settlement was nowhere in sight.
She twisted in the saddle, searching the road behind her. Only trees stood there, their trunks crowding close together beneath a canopy of dark branches. No palisade, no watchtowers, no guards rushing after her.
She had passed through the gate.
For several moments, she could scarcely believe it. She looked back again, half expecting to see the walls rising between the trees, but the road remained empty.
A breathless, unsteady laugh escaped her.
She had done it.
Seven days of careful planning had brought her beyond Azgar's walls. Vesaria smiled despite herself, but the memory of the shouting guards quickly sobered her. They had seen her escape, and Azgar would soon have men searching the forest.
She urged the horse onward, glancing back as the road descended between thick pines. Patches of old snow covered the frozen ground, and she guided her mount around exposed roots and stones, searching for some indication of her direction. The sun had already disappeared behind the hills, leaving little to guide her beneath the darkening trees.
She knew the Southern lands lay beyond the mountains, but that hardly meant she knew how to reach them.
For now, distance mattered more.
She rode until her thighs ached from gripping the saddle and the cold worked through her gloves. The horse's breathing grew louder, and its pace slackened despite her encouragement. When it stumbled over a shallow rut, Vesaria finally allowed it to slow to a walk.
"Very well," she murmured, patting its damp neck. "You may rest a little."
The animal lowered its head, blowing heavily through its nostrils.
Vesaria glanced back at the empty road as it curved out of sight between the trees, hoping she had put enough distance between herself and the settlement. Her knee still throbbed from striking the gate, and shifting in the saddle only worsened the ache in her hips.
She had food, water, and warm clothing, but no map or idea how far the nearest Southern settlement lay. Perhaps she could find a village or persuade a trader to take her south in exchange for her remaining jewellery.
A gust of wind tugged at her cloak, reminding her that its clasp had torn away during her escape. She pulled the loose fabric tighter around her shoulders and continued riding.
There would be time to worry about that later.
A faint sound reached her from somewhere behind. Vesaria straightened and listened, holding the horse to a walk as the noise faded beneath the rustling branches. For a moment, she heard nothing, and she wondered whether she had imagined it.
Then came the unmistakable sound of hooves.
Her fingers tightened around the reins.
The noise was distant, but it was growing clearer, accompanied by what might have been a man's voice calling to another. Vesaria turned in the saddle, searching the dark road, although the bend behind her concealed whoever was approaching.
They had found her trail!
She urged the horse into a trot, ignoring the protest of her aching legs. The animal obeyed reluctantly, its earlier panic replaced by exhaustion, and she resisted the temptation to force it into another gallop. If it collapsed beneath her, she would have little chance of escaping on foot.
The voices came again, faint but unmistakable. Vesaria searched the roadside for cover, though the dense pines offered little room for a horse among their tangled roots and fallen branches. Ahead, a narrow gap between two trees led down toward a shallow stream.
She dismounted, wincing as pain shot through her injured knee, and took the reins. "Come along," she whispered, coaxing the reluctant horse between the trunks. Branches caught her cloak, and the animal shied whenever its saddle brushed the trees, but she eventually led it down the bank.
The stream ran over dark stones, its water cold enough to make her gasp as it seeped into her boots. She led the horse along the streambed, hoping to conceal their tracks, though its hooves scraped noisily against the stones.
She couldn't tell whether that would fool the men following her.
The stream curved beneath a rocky rise, where dense pines grew close enough to hide a small hollow between their roots. Vesaria guided the horse up the bank and into the shelter, pushing aside the lower branches until there was room for it to stand.
She looped the reins loosely around a sturdy trunk, keeping enough slack for the animal to move its head, then crouched beside it.
Her breathing sounded terribly loud.
She listened for the riders, but the stream murmured over the stones, and the wind stirred the branches above her. Somewhere farther off, an owl called.
Perhaps they had taken another road.
Perhaps she had lost them.
The horse suddenly raised its head.
Vesaria followed its gaze toward the trees, and a moment later she heard voices.
She pressed herself against the rocky bank as the animal shifted beside her, its hooves disturbing the damp earth. Through a gap in the branches, she caught the faint movement of something passing along the road above.
A rider.
Another followed, his horse pale enough to stand out against the dark trees. Vesaria could not distinguish their faces, but their cloaks and the shapes of their weapons were unmistakable.
Northern men.
She gripped the reins, willing her horse to remain still. The animal snorted and tossed its head, pulling against her hand.
"Please," she whispered, stroking its neck. "Please, be quiet."
It shifted again, and Vesaria reached toward its muzzle, hoping to soothe it. The horse jerked away, nearly striking her face, and she withdrew her hand before it could make another sound.
One of the riders called something.
Vesaria stopped breathing.
The voices grew louder, and she heard a horse moving through the undergrowth somewhere beyond the stream. She pressed closer to the rock, scarcely daring to look through the branches.
A shadow passed between two trees, followed by the dull clink of metal. The rider halted long enough for Vesaria to hear his horse blowing through its nostrils.
Her own mount lifted its head again.
She stroked its neck with trembling fingers, feeling the muscles shift beneath its damp coat. If it called to the other horses, the men would have only to follow the sound.
The rider spoke to someone farther away. Another voice answered, and after a brief exchange, the horse began moving again.
Vesaria remained crouched until the hoofbeats faded.
Even then, she did not move.
She could not know whether all the men had gone or whether one had remained behind to search the stream. Her legs had begun to cramp, and the cold earth soaked through her skirts, but she stayed beneath the pines, listening to every movement in the forest.
At last, the horse beside her lowered its head and began nosing through the dead grass.
Vesaria loosened her grip on the reins.
She had no fire, no proper shelter, and no certainty that the riders would not return. Her knee ached, her boots were damp, and the darkness beyond the trees seemed deeper than anything she remembered from home.
Yet no guards stood over her. No walls surrounded her, and no one had come to order her back to Azgar's quarters.
She drew her cloak around herself and settled against the rock, keeping the horse close enough to reach if it stirred.
For the first time since her capture, she would spend the night beyond the settlement's walls.