“Fast, Madeleine, dress warm. Very warm.”
I stared into his eyes a brief moment before I nodded and dashed to my trunks.
And this was because, if I was right about the bottom line, then the top one meant Christophe, Élan at Karsvall.
And ten men were going.
I got my hat, my gloves and wasted precious time I didn’t know I’d be glad for later toeing off my boots in order to exchange my thin, eveningwear wool tights for thicker, warmer wool tights. I pulled my boots back on and barely straightened when Apollo had my hand and he was dragging me to the door.
But he halted at the man on the floor who had his back resting against a heavy chest, his hands tied to the foot of it. He was also now groggy but conscious.
Apollo let me go to kneel beside him.
“Did they send ten men for my children?” he demanded to know.
The bad guy blinked at him.
Then he smiled.
It wasn’t verbal. But it was an answer.
My heart thumped hard and it hurt.
I held my breath as Apollo straightened, unsheathed his sword, flipped it so the blade was held in his gloved hand, and he whacked the guy across his cheek with the handle.
Blood flew from his mouth as his head lolled on his neck.
Out again.
I didn’t get a chance to take in this latest ghastliness.
Apollo had my hand and we were away.
* * * * *
We rode hard the rest of the night and all the next day.
Five times, we stopped to exchange horses. With Apollo’s commanding presence and heavy bag of coins, this took us less than five minutes each time. He only spent another thirty seconds the first change of horses to order Torment and Anguish sent to Karsvall.
And he asked only twice when we stopped if I needed food.
Both times, I shook my head. Both times he got that answer, Apollo’s eyes held relief. And both times, without further delay, we were again off. He didn’t waste time asking after that. He knew my answer.
I was not hungry.
I was also not tired.
I was terrified.
So terrified, my mind was gripped with it so the long ride, the cold, the landscape, the villages flashing by, the horse straining under me, the pounding of my bones, none of it penetrated.
None of it.
Apollo had his guys at his house and I’d seen Laures in action in the games so I knew they knew what they were doing.
But those three men laid in wait for us. If the ones that were sent for Christophe and Élan were good at being sneaky…
I didn’t let my mind go there. It kept trying to go there but I kept shutting it down. We would deal with what we found when we found it.