Leaving Riverfell

 

Getting out of the city had been harder than they expected. Vanessa didn’t trust much of anything anymore, not that she was very trusting before, either. A couple of the street kids wanted to follow them, but most others wanted to stay in the city. All the gates were being watched, so they couldn’t walk out. Vanessa had wanted to leave two days before, but it just wasn’t possible.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” James whispered.

“No, but do you have a better idea?” Vanessa replied.

“Nope.”

“Ok, it’s almost dark enough. We need this to work,” she said.

Casey and Riley were sitting silently a few feet away. They were the youngest of our kids and didn’t want to be left on their own. James was glad they were coming with. The others were more prepared to take on the city on their own. They were taking over the house James and Vanessa set up, and after some teary goodbyes, they said they would continue trying to help other street kids. Vanessa wasn’t much for public displays of emotion, but that really meant a lot to her.

She looked around one more time and then gestured for James to help her move the platform. Casey and Riley saw them and came over to help.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to use your magic to get this all the way out here and then into position?” Riley asked.

“It would have been, but then I wouldn’t have the magic to get us out.”

“But you have a ton of magic,” Casey chimed in.

“Not yet, but maybe someday,” Vanessa said with a soft smile.

As abrasive and snarky as she could be, she had a soft spot for the kids. She would never admit to having any soft spots, but you could see it in her eyes whenever the kids were around. She had been teaching Casey how to use her magic efficiently. She’d had Casey drive the nails in to hold the platform of scavenged wood together.

She was 11 and had clung to Vanessa immediately. The two of them worked together to strengthen Casey’s magic enough that she was already starting to move past the incantations. Riley was a little jealous Vanessa couldn’t help her as much, but Vanessa only knew about fairy magic in theoreticals. She still worked with her all the time, though.

“Ok, everyone sit down and try to keep as still as possible. I know it will be hard but do your best. Casey, I will do most of it, but I want you to add your magic to mine so you can feel it working. Don’t push harder than I am, ok?” Vanessa whispered.

Casey’s eyes widened, but she nodded. Vanessa and James sat on the sides, and James took Casey’s hand to provide some silent support. Vanessa started using her magic, and James felt Casey tense up as she pulled on hers. The platform began to rise. It was a little shaky, and James had to resist the urge to steady himself.

“Careful,” Vanessa said softly. “I can feel you pushing too hard on that side.”

The platform steadied as it crested the wall that surrounded the city. The descent on the other side was much faster. James had a feeling it was because Vanessa was running low on magic. She had gotten a lot stronger, but she had a tendency to push herself too hard at every turn. He felt better once the platform was almost back on the ground.

“You did so good!” Vanessa whispered to Casey as we all got up and moved quickly into the trees. The forest didn’t start in earnest for quite a distance north, but there was still some tree cover. “We can camp out here for the night and catch a ride north on a merchant convoy in the morning.”

“We have to be quick, or we won’t make it, so you have to be ready,” James said.

“I’m going to go find a good place to set up a small shelter for the night,” Vanessa said.

James sat down on the ground as she walked out and leaned against a tree. The girls settled in on either side of him, and he put his arms around them. They tried to make life for the kids they took in as normal as possible, but squatting in abandoned buildings and scrounging for food wasn’t very normal. They didn’t have a complete plan yet. Once they snuck a ride on the convoy, they would bail just outside of Crestwall and make their way into Cypress Mountain. Vanessa didn’t want to risk another city just yet. Not with Kent looking for them.

The girls had fallen asleep. It had been a long day of preparing and then a long night of waiting. When Vanessa returned, she saw the girls were asleep, so she dropped down in front of James.

“I found a spot. I was going to have them help me so they could get some practice in, but I think they need the sleep. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll have something mostly acceptable for the night,” she whispered.

James nodded and was content waiting. It really didn’t take long at all. They wished they could’ve carried the girls, but it wasn’t possible. The shelter they moved off to was wedged between two trees, with a few branches precariously covering the top. She had put together a small fire, surrounded on three sides by a brunch hut. It would conceal the light well enough, and the dark night would make the smoke harder to pick out.

“Can this work?” Vanessa asked him after they got the girls settled.

“We can make it work. We always do,” James answered as he sat next to her by the fire.

“I was glad they decided to come with us so we can protect them, but now that we’re out here…”

“Hey, it will be ok.”

She leaned against him, and he wrapped his arms around her. Not all that long ago it was the other way around. She was always comforting him, reassuring him, but he had grown up. He realized how hard everything Vanessa dealt with was and didn’t want her to bear it all alone. He kissed her temple and squeezed her once.

“We will make it work, and we will make sure they are protected. We can take some time away from everything up in Cypress, and then from there, we can pick a city and try to get a business up and running like we talked about.”

“You sound confident.”

“That’s because I am.”