I tried to get some rest over the day. The knights seemed to content to keep us in check with their crossbows for now. Another bunch of them arrived towards the evening. The mood was quite subdued on our side.

It would probably the best to move towards the next dawn, my leg needed some rest badly.

“Our backpacks are all elsewhere?” I looked at Loraline.

“Unfortunately.” She gave me a sad smile.

“Try to recover yours, once it’s dark enough. We should eat before we try to move.” I carefully tried to move my left leg slightly.

My sleep was a mess as last night as the higher mana regeneration while sleeping seemed to be enough to trigger the healing of the slave mark. While it didn’t help too much with my other injury it would keep the mark low on power according to Alenae.

Loraline managed to recover her backpack without an issue. Clouds were coming from the south and the night was dark. It would be an issue for some of us, but I wasn’t able to run either. We had no lunch so it I dug in.

“We’re going to head out towards the morning, about an hour or perhaps better two before dawn.” I carefully sat up with a groan.

“It gives you leg a bit more time, but it don’t seem to heal that fast. You need a longer rest soon. Your burns look a bit better though.” She ate another sliver of cheese

“Are we going to make it? You’re seriously hurt.” Alenae gave a sullen look.

“I’m still alive and free. We are going to walk away tonight. Slowly.” I gave her a wink.

“How can you continue like this?” She shook her head.

“All we the effort we made to come here would be wasted. I’m not going to surrender as long as I have options. I would prefer better options though.” I started to chew a strip of ham.

“I’m going to carry your backpack.” She looked me in the eyes.

I nodded.

It started to rain a few hours later, which actually felt good on the skin.

“It will be slippery, but the bottom of the valley is well out of sight.” Loraline sneaked a peek down.

After a while there was a distant rumbling.

“A thunderstorm. Let’s hope it doesn’t close in.” I looked a flashes of light in the distance

“It’s time to go soon anyway. Maybe we find a place to hide at the base of cliff.” Loraline looked uphill.

“Then let’s get going.” I tried to get to my feet.

With Loraline’s and Alenae’s I was able to get up in the end.

The other three came over a few minutes later, ready to go.

I tried a few steps, but it hurt badly putting my weight on my left leg.

“Take my spear, we don’t have a better crutch.” Tilly gave me her weapon.

“Thanks.” I managed to move with the help of the spear.

“I don’t like this.” Milly shook her head.

“We shouldn’t be out here when that thunderstorm reaches the area anyway. Take the lead. Tilly, you watch the rear and take care no one gets lost.” I leaned on the spear.

“Yes, sir!” She saluted.

“Forward?” Milly looked at me tilting her head.

I nodded.

Then we started to make our way up the scree ramp again, still at angle as it was too steep for me. After a few minutes we had an angle I could manage. My leg was still hurting, but it was manageable as long as was careful. The spear helped considerably. Alenae carried my backpack, her face radiating utter determination. She was struggling with the slippery footing and the darkness though.

“As long as the thunderstorm isn’t in the vicinity we should rest once in a while. I won’t come far without.” I grimaced at the others as I reached a spot where I could stand for a few moments.

“Makes sense.” Milly nodded with a concerned smile.

It was starting to dawn as the sheer cliff finally loomed over our heads. The rain had stopped a while ago.

“They have noticed we left.” Tilly pointed down into the valley.

The knights were busy breaking their camp. Two of them were standing a few meters outside. They were looking in our direction.

“I wonder what they going to do.” Aleane stared down at them with a frown.

Milly had given her one of her training outfits to replace her torn robe on our first rest after the fight in the desecrated dragon lair.

I was still rather exposed, but any piece of cloth was a pain the last days. It had been not that bad at first, but after fight was over there was a constant feeling like a severe sunburn. Unfortunately most of the clothes we had were rather scratchy. The rain had washed away the soot though, so my bright red skin was showing now.

“Enough gawking.” I started to climb again.

The others had no problems to catch up. We reached the bottom of the cliff a while later. The sun was up, but still behind the mountain.

The knights split up after decamped. A few rode to direction we came from for a while and started to climb the scree ramp afterwards. Two of them stayed down with the horses and came back to just below us.

The other group moved ahead, and two of them came back with all horses after a while, joining the other next to us.

After a while we came around a corner and there we could see men in heavy armor climbing at a distance.

“There’s a narrow gorge a few hundred meters ahead!” Milly cried out.

“This should be our ride.” I looked at the mountains around us, comparing it with my memories of the map.

“A dead end would be bad.” Tilly shook her head.

“It’s a good question how far they will pursue.” I continued to walk.

It was a bit easier without steadily climbing up. We still had to reach that gorge way before the knights arrived.

We needed nearly an hour. The knights ahead were nowhere to see.

A few moments as we entered the narrow gorge we heard a horn sounding several times.

The gorge was steep with almost vertical cliffs on both sides. It was about one to two meters wide with a rocky bottom. It would have been easy to climb up without my injured legs. They would have to leave behind their horses if they wanted to stay on our tails. Still they would be faster.

We had to climb up for rest of the morning until we found a decent place for a longer rest.

“Let’s have a short lunch break.” Milly looked at me.

I looked at Alenae and nodded.

With the help of the others I sat down.

“At least we will be able to hear at a distance. Let’s be quiet just in case.” Caroline sat down at rim of the ledge where had a view down. The next bent was not that far away. On the other hand it would take them a while to climb up. Their armor would protect them from our arrows, but losing balance at some points wouldn’t be funny though. We could try bowling as well. I looked at larger rounded out boulder. It should be large enough to move with all of us helping.

There were no knights to hear while we rested.

“I’m placing a view point of the mirror here.” Milly pulled the magical mirror from her pouch.

“Sure. It would be nice to know if we’re followed. Chances are good the have little rest here as well.” I took a last swig of water from skin.

I tried on a light tunic again and decided to keep it. It still rubbed at my shoulders, but the rest was fine.

“It was about time.” Milly frowned at me.

I nodded. It wasn’t that much fun to run around next to naked. At least there were no strangers around. The knights didn’t count. I was glad I made this far without additional pain.

It was late afternoon as reached the end of the gorge. There was a vaguely recognizable path ahead.

“We could walk a few hours more, let’s stop here. We prepare a few boulders in the case someone comes up here the night or in the next few hours.” I made myself comfortable on a patch grass beside the gorge.

“Sounds good.” Milly nodded.

So we made camp and rested. The rest of the afternoon and the night were relatively quiet night. What would I give for an uninterrupted nights sleep?

The next morning Milly’s mana regeneration set in. She was plagued the days as well now. She had tears in her eyes as she realized it. I gave her a hug.

We continued our journey east. Alenae insisted on carrying my backpack most of the day. Two of the others took between them once in a while.

“We have knights in the gorge.” Milly informed us as lunch time approached.

“I wonder what took them so long?” I looked Milly.

She waved while holding the mirror at her ear.

“They waited for the one who knows a bit about tracking.” Milly finally said.

“Then let’s hope we can lead him astray.” I frowned.

In the afternoon we approached a small road running north - south. As it was possible to shortcut towards the north we followed the road for a while, turning east again a spot where it was easy to hide our tracks.

We met the path east again as the sun vanished over to the mountains to the west.

“Leave a marker sooner or later.” I looked at Milly.

She nodded and place a viewpoint for her mirror at point with a good view on the terrain behind us.

We walked on the next day and found a nice hidden depression where we could observe the path quite well without being seen.

“The knights turned south after discussing for a while.” Milly looked a me with a smile.

“They want to get horses, or want to send someone else. We should keep the viewpoint for now. We should have time for some days of rest.” I smiled back.