Angel's POV
The next day, we left at noon.
The sun was high and bright and the road out of Merrick's territory was wide and smooth. Merrick rode on my left, his men in formation around us, and I rode - actually rode, for the first time without feeling like the horse was making all the decisions - with something close to competence.
The riding lessons had helped.
"You look comfortable," Merrick said, watching me from the corner of his eye.
"Don't jinx it," I said.
He smiled.
We rode.
The first day was easy - the landscape familiar from my arrival weeks ago, the road open, the pace comfortable. I watched the countryside change as we moved out of Merrick's lands and into the neutral territory between the two domains - subtler here, less tended, more wild at the edges, the trees growing closer to the road.
I talked to Merrick and watched the treeline and thought about what I was going to say and didn't practice it out loud this time because he would hear me.
