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Again, he left her alone to mount Hades. Without a boulder, Thessa stood beside her, bracing the saddle. “You’re going to let me mount you from down here,right?”
Hades chuffed, one hoof stomping in answer. Hoping that was a yes, Thessa shoved one foot in the stirrup, hurling herself up with the other. Nope. That was harder than she’d ever imagined.
Hades bobbed her long head in what had to be amusement.
Thessa tried again. She was close, but before landing in the saddle, Hades took off. Wrapping her arms around the horse’s neck for purchase, she held on and screamed. Falling wasn’t an option. The three remaining horses from Soren’s property were herding around Hades, and being trampled to death was not the way she’d like to die.
Think Thessa, think.
Grunting, she remembered what Soren had said about her lesson earlier. Squeezing with her thighs, she made several, small hopping motions until she made it upright.
Huffing, she exclaimed, “Hades, you’ve officially earned your name.”
The mare pricked her ears back, still pounding the earth beneath her hooves.
What felt like two miles had passed when Soren, who’d not been far ahead thanks to Hades’ speed, threw his arm up—a signal. Ares slowed, and all the horses followed suit.
With their horses side by side, Soren said, “Emiel’s property is across these woods. We need to get there before—” He looked up, scanning the sky.
She followed his gaze. He was right. If the soldiers hadcome for Soren, then they’d hunt Emiel down too. Thessa whispered, “No smoke.”
“Not yet,” he added, kicking Ares into a canter.
Entering a birch tree forest, Thessa and Soren kept to the trail. The three other horses banded together, weaving gracefully through the thin, silver trunks.
About a mile passed when Soren threw up his arm again.
He jumped off first, tying Ares to a nearby tree. “We’ll make the rest of the way by foot. The horses will draw too much attention.”
Thessa understood. She dismounted and tied Hades beside Ares, who’d already started munching on tree bark.
After pacing the trail ahead, she started hearing muffled voices. Thessa and Soren crouched behind a row of mulberry bushes near the edge of the thick forest.
The voices came in sharper. “In the carriage, now!”
The bushes were dense enough to conceal them from sight, while still giving her a good look at Emiel’s property. Peering through the leaves revealed a two-story brick home with black shutters and three chimneys. Two Central Divinity marked carriages sat in the driveway, along with six Elemental soldiers
A male with red and silver hair was on his knees, pleading up at them. Standing beside him was a weeping female with fire-cuffs encasing her wrists. Three other males stood behind them; two were very young.
Soren whispered. “That’s Emiel’s father Francis, on his knees, and his mother.”
Thessa sighed, “The other three?”
“His brothers.”
One soldier shouted, “We’re losing daylight, everyone in the carriage.”
The eldest among the brothers shoved the younger ones behind him and whispered something.
Every guard outstretched a sizzling hand in warning.
“That’s Wayland,” Soren said under his breath.
Wayland stepped aside and opened his arms in a plea of innocence, allowing his brothers to step inside the carriage.
“Neremiah and Brinkley,” Soren noted.
Thessa exhaled. “We have to help them.”