Millennial Mage novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Per Policy Fourteen

We spent the night in a bean sack.

Bran put us in the third wagon, between a stack of flour barrels and a tarp.

There was a wedge of space just wide enough for two people lying very still.

"If anyone asks, you are twelve sacks of lentils," he said, and pulled the canvas over us.

Teo lay on his back, and I lay half on top of him, because there was no other way to fit.

His hand sat on the small of my back.

"This is a bad plan," I whispered.

"It was not a plan. It was a window."

"I can feel your heartbeat."

"Then I am not hiding it well."

I laughed into his shoulder, and he moved his thumb in a slow circle against my spine, and I stopped laughing.

We did not do anything else.

We lay there until the wagons rolled out at dawn, and every bump in the road pressed me against him a little harder.

By noon we reached the river gate.

It was a stone arch over the road, with a Hall guardhouse, a barrier pole and a line of carts already waiting.

Through a gap in the tarp, I saw a man in gray silk standing under the arch with a clipboard of rolls.

He was not Vesk, but he had the same smile.

"Every wagon is inspected," he told Bran.

"By order of the High Examiner.

We are looking for a fugitive thief and a deserter."

"I have twenty-two wagons of flour and salt for the Marshal at Harrow," Bran said.

"I have a bill of lading and a stamped permit."

"The permit will be checked."

"Then check it."

I felt Teo's whole body go taut beneath me.

"They will pull the tarp," he said into my hair.

"Not if I get there first."

"Hana."

"Do you trust me?"

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