“Might could break unexpectedly,” he returned, twisting in his seat as he answered. “Can’t predict the future. But it’s as solid as my head and won’t break of its own accord. Kit’s fine as a fiddle, too.”
If anyone became unable to walk, for whatever reason, she could just throw them onto the cart. Making a snap decision, she said to the group, “We’ll cross today then.”
Hammon raised his hand to get her attention. “If I may…? Guildmaster Maley, I have an old family friend in the city that runs a stable. We could likely rent horses from him and make it across much faster. His business partner is on the other end in Quigg and will take the horses from us at that point.”
Thereby avoiding having extra weight for Grae to transport. Siobhan perked up at the idea. Horses would make crossing the bridges much faster and lower the risk considerably. “We’ll do it. How much will he charge?”
“Depends on who asks,” Hammon responded dryly. “Miss Waverly, if you’ll do the honors, he’ll surely drop it down to half his usual price.”
Sylvie gave him a casual two-finger salute. “Consider it done. Although it’s not like price is really an issue. Not with that fat purse Darrens gave us.”
Too true. Though Siobhan didn’t intend to squander it little by little with unnecessary expenses either. They had no idea where this trip would take them, after all.
It took a remarkably short amount of time to visit Hammon’s friend, rent their mounts, and get through Converse. In fact, they arrived at the beginning of the bridge before the bell could toll out the tenth hour. Siobhan couldn’t remember a time they’d made it through a city that quickly.
They exited the western gate while leading the horses, nodding respectfully to the gate guards as they passed. Siobhan led them off to a small waiting area off the side of the road and gestured for everyone to gather around. She mounted her horse so that they could all easily see her.
“Alright, everyone hear me? Good. Usual rules of crossing the bridges apply—we go at a quick walk, nothing faster than that. I don’t intend to waste our stamina if we don’t need to. If any of the horses pull up lame or something, tell me immediately.”
Grae raised a hand and pointed toward the bridges. “You did see the storm front moving in on us?”
“I did,” she grimaced, shooting the sky a look over her shoulder. “Getting rained on won’t kill us, so I don’t want to hurry across the bridge unless we absolutely need to.” For one thing, making several horses run on stone could become deafening after a while. But they’d all learned the hard way that a steady pace would get them across faster than trying to run the distance, losing their strength, and stumbling to a near halt.
Shaking off the worry, she finished, “Everyone mount up!”
They all climbed aboard their horses—all except Beirly and Fei, that was. Fei chose (for some inexplicable reason) to not ride but stay in the cart, and of course Beirly was driving. Siobhan watched long enough to make sure they were all ready to go before she kneed the placid mare around and led them off in a steady walk onto the bridge.
Nothing could be quite as cold as the sea with winter approaching. Siobhan rode ahead of everyone else with Tran, leading the way across, and as they moved it felt like the wind cut right through her heavy jacket and cloak. She shivered hard, once, and urged everyone to go a little faster. The sooner they could reach the island, the better.
Not many chose to travel at this time of the year and the scant traffic on the bridge emphasized the season well. Aside from them, only one caravan and a family group with a professional escort traveled toward Wynngaard. Since they all traveled at different speeds, a gap developed between them, and soon it felt as if they were on the bridge alone. Almost no one came from the other direction either. It brought up a question that Siobhan hadn’t thought to ask before. Why had Darrens sent his daughter at this time of the year to negotiate some kind of trade deal? Couldn’t it have waited until spring?
Grae came up from behind to ride at her right side. He usually looked a little brooding, but now he looked outright worried. “Siobhan, do those look like rain clouds to