After several hours of following the girl, Sylvia’s voice was hoarse from the constant one-sided argument she’d been having. As they came to the top of a small hill, she tried one more time.
“We can just go back now, and no one will know,” she offered.
Maddy flung herself down to sit on a rock, shaded by an enormous oak tree, and didn’t answer.
Sylvia huffed. She couldn’t very well leave the girl to wander the wilds alone. Sure, it was possible Maddy knew where she was going—maps were the first thing Sylvia had studied when training—but the beasts lurking in the wilds were as unpredictable as the weather. And there was no way she could return to face Gloriana and Aurora, having left Maddy alone in the wilds. She was good and stuck with the girl.
She flopped down to sit on the shaded grass, opening her water canister. Just as she did, Maddy rose and stretched, heading down the other side of the hill. Sylvia rolled her eyes and returned to her feet.
“Hey!” she called, “Do you think I’m doing this for fun? You could at least wait,” she hissed as she caught up.
Maddy continued to ignore her. Sylvia stifled a groan. She couldn’t take it anymore. She grabbed Maddy by the arm and whirled her around.
“I’m doing this,” Sylvia said through her teeth, “because I can’t go back to Lightcity and tell your sister I left you alone in the wilds. You know, the sister you left all alone when you decided to go do this?”
Maddy, who had been avoiding looking at Sylvia up until now, turned her face to meet hers. Sylvia squared her feet and returned the gaze with interest.
“If you’re coming with me anyway, would you stop lecturing me, then?” Maddy said coolly.
Having already thought the girl couldn’t get any ruder, Sylvia let go of her arm in surprise, mouth gaping. She hadn’t been like this when she was younger, had she?
“Maybe if you stopped acting like a child, I wouldn’t have to,” she shot back, after Maddy had started walking again.
The girl’s footsteps faltered by a fraction. Sylvia lunged at the opening in her attention.
“Clearly someone needs to lecture you. I wonder if your parents will want to continue your training after they hear about this little adventure.” The corners of Sylvia’s mouth began to turn up as she noticed Maddy’s pace slow.
“If they’re even alive,” the girl muttered, coming to a halt.
“I told you,” Sylvia said patiently. “Delays like this happen all the time to Riders. My journey just got pushed back two weeks, and there’s nothing I can do but wait.”
Nothing but follow fledgling Riders into the wilds so they don’t get themselves killed, she added to herself.
“Yeah, I guess,” Maddy muttered, turning her back to Sylvia again, and drawing the back of her hand under an eye.
Wondering whether Maddy meant she guessed that’s what could have happened, or she guessed they could go back to Lightcity, Sylvia shrugged and opened her water canister again. She set down her pack, and began searching for her rations, hoping that Maddy wouldn’t go running off again.
As she looked into her pack, though, her vision suddenly bloomed black, accompanied by a devastating pain at her temple.
The axe handle swam in her vision as she fell, and time slowed down long enough for her to silently curse the girl once more before her world went completely black.