Rise of the Horde

264 Chapter 26After receiving probably, the last order which could be considered the last request of his old friend, Makalani headed towards the halls of the castle with the new head servant that was assigned since the old head servant of the castle has contracted the illness of the baron and had to stay with him as not to risk infecting the other servants. A few young servants were tailing them and in their hands were some of the things that Baron Masud had gifted to his daughter in order to let her have a worry-free life after leaving his territory.

“The young miss and the lady will be awakened by the servants and will be informed of the lord’s arrangements and they will be here later. A pair of normal carriages have been prepared for the journey as not to attract to much attention per the baron’s orders.” The head servant informed him of the arrangements that were done by his old friend. Although the baron was ill, he was still efficient and his arrangements for his daughter’s safety had a lot of thoughts put into it. Makalani nodded his head in acknowledgement while he watched the servants’ carrying chests, boxes and other stuffs as they loaded them onto the carriages. Their still facial expressions clearly indicates that they just have awoken.

The sound of hooves striking the cobblestones and neighing of horses reached the ears of Makalani, he headed towards the entrance of the castle to find out what was the commotion about. At the yard in front of the castle, mounted soldiers donning on their armors were lining up as they waited for further orders.

“They will be escorting the young miss and the lady along with you and some of the servants.” The head servants voice came from behind Makalani. He didn’t realize the old servant was tailing him.

“Fifty of the best riders that the castle has. There are two hundred of them in total and at first the baron wanted to assign all of them to escort your group but he didn’t go through with it as he stated that such a large number of escorts would certainly attract a lot of unwanted attention.” The servant continued while standing right behind Makalani.

“I think fifty is still too much and with some of the servants tagging along, our pace would certainly be slow.” Makalani uttered his thoughts as he knew that they had to moved fast or else the hounds of the king might catch up to them.

“Don’t worry sir, only a dozen of servants will be accompanying the young miss and the lady.” The head servant informed him and turned around towards where the carriages were at after a maid reported to him the young miss and the lady has already alighted the carriages.

Makalani followed after them and headed towards the carriages. The carriage in front would be the ride of the two while the one at the back would contain their luggage. “Uncle Ani!” a soft voice originated from inside the lead carriage and a small silhouette slowly poke its head out through its doors.

“How have you been little Ithra?” Makalani greeted as he approached the little girl that was smiling towards him with the most innocent smile that he had ever seen. He patted her on the head and the girl meekly reached her arms towards him for an embrace. “I am no longer a little girl Uncle Ani; I am now a grown up.” Ithra squeaked as she crossed her arms in front of her chest with lips pouting after the short embrace.

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“Sure… sure… You are now a grown up. Now be a good grown up and get inside the carriage.” He softly guided the little girl inside the carriage. “It has been a long time since I last saw you, you seem darker than before.” A voice came from inside the carriage and as Makalani turned his head towards its origin, he saw a fine lady at his late twenties smiling at him. Her skin was a tad bit lighter than most Ereians which was clearly inherited by her daughter who was sitting beside her. “It has been four years to be exact, Lady Masud.” Makalani greeted as he bowed his head to pay his respects to the noble lady.

“There is no need to be so formal with me. We have known each other for a long time already, you can just address me as one your friends.” The lady still had the smile on her face after speaking.

“It seems that the situation is really dire that he had to send us away from the castle for our safety. And if I am not mistaken, I wasn’t supposed to be with little Ithra at first in leaving this place, right?” she continued as she took a glimpse of the outside.

“The hounds of the king are headed this way and the thing about you not being included at first, I think you’re clearly mistaken.” Makalani turned around and headed towards where the servants who were going to accompany them were at.

“I highly doubt that…” Denara pursed her lips as she watched the retreating back of Makalani. She was married to Baron Masud solely for political reasons as the standing of her house was declining rapidly due to the drought that struck the lands of their house and they needed to ally with a stronger family to stabilized their house’s situation. At first, everything seemed to be going well between the two of them after their marriage but when she got pregnant with Ithra everything changed. Particularly when that woman named Helena came into the picture, her husband changed too much during that time.

“If only…” she mumbled but then shook her head. She turned her gaze towards her daughter and started stroking her hair, her eyes were filled with tender love as she watched her daughter who had her head on her lap clearly enjoying her stroking.