For a day and a half, Vincent rode Sparks south, trotting along next to the Governor’s carriage. It was far more protected than any carriage he had seen before, which would hopefully scare off any rangers from trying to rob it. In all his life, he never expected to be preparing to be on the other side of a robbery, but life continued to surprise him. 

He’d seen a few rangers among the trees, once while they were walking and once while they’d been camping. But none of them had decided to actually attack. There were far too many guards for one or even two people to take on and not even the toughest rangers would bother to waste their energy. Or maybe they were like Vincent, desperate and struggling and unable to take on more than an unguarded carriage or a weary traveller. 

Spencer stuck by his side for the majority of it, but they didn’t speak as much as they usually did, if teasing counted as having a conversation. The other guards, people born and raised in New Feridian, gave them awful looks, judgemental and disgusted, but when it came down to it, Spencer and Vincent were the ones who knew the most about where they were going.

The only one who didn’t was Mira, who happily walked alongside them as if she had no idea who they really were. She knew, she had to, she was the one Nicholas had requested to watch over them while they worked. But she was the only one who wasn’t unfriendly towards them and while Vincent wasn’t there to make friends, he was at least grateful for the respite. 

Spencer was happier than he was with the arrangement and talked to her whenever he wasn’t bothering Vincent or the Governor. For some reason, he wanted friends and kept trying to force Vincent into long and boring conversations. He was happy enough with Sparks and the dull surroundings they passed, the talking becoming a soothing background noise when he wasn't involved in it. 

The morning they had left, Charlotte had filled them in on where exactly they were going. She needed to visit a handful of southern towns to check on the projects she and Nicholas had been personally interested in. The first, the quickly growing town of Victoria River, held an important mining site that Charlotte had been told to visit by Nicholas. The advisor in question was in the carriage with her instead of staying behind in New Feridian. 

If only they had been able to stay behind. With Nicholas and the Governor gone, they would have had the perfect opportunity to sneak into his office and investigate whatever they needed to. But they weren’t going to have that chance for a long time. They were stuck with Nicholas’s judgemental looks and Vincent’s longing to be anywhere else. 

Sparks, at least, seemed to be the only one who was happy about travelling again. She would be. Being locked up in a pen for a week hadn’t been good for her. At every chance he got, Vincent had taken her out for a walk. Spencer had laughed at him for it, telling him that he was far too attached to his horses, but he hadn’t cared. If anything, he was tempted to bring up Archie again. 

After the long day and a half, a night catching sight of the town on the horizon was a relief. The river it was named after ran through the middle of it, a short distance from the road. Vincent shot a glance at the carriage, spying the Governor smiling and talking through the little window in the door. She didn’t seem at all worried considering where they were going. She had bushrangers in her group, she should have known exactly what kind of people ran amok in her province. 

He couldn’t help but find her strange. She was far more friendly than he had expected and seemed to enjoy having his and Spencer’s company, despite who they were. Criminals with unusual backgrounds weren’t the kinds of people a person like Charlotte should be seen with and yet, they had been asked to accompany her nonetheless. 

Men and women stared at them as the carriage trundled down the main road of Victoria River. It would have been a long time since they had seen something so lavish, so protected, and it wasn’t hard to see the anger in their eyes. If they were struggling as much as he assumed they were, then they would be offended by the show of money the Governor was putting on.

Victoria River could have been pretty. The river running through the middle of town was loud in his ears, filled with the sound of ducks quacking cheerfully. Violet bushes sprung up between the houses and shops, a bright contrast to the pale wood and the dirt roads. The tall eucalyptus trees that covered most of Ilsania provided shade in the intense heat of spring. 

Spencer, from the other side of the carriage, gave Vincent an odd look, one that might be nervousness, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking when he wasn’t grinning. It shouldn’t have been possible, not from someone like Spencer, but they were in an entirely new situation. Neither of them had expected to be where they were and the looks they were getting from the townsfolk were unnerving, to say the least. 

He had seen so much of Spencer in the week they had been working together, much more than he had ever expected. The most time he had spent with the man was when they had both been far too drunk to care about who they were with. But that had only been for a night, nothing more. During those few nights, Spencer had been the same happy and cheerful person he usually was, making jokes at Vincent’s expense. 

When they weren’t having a drink together, he only saw Spencer if they happened to run into each other on the road. That usually resulted in arguments or scuffles, thefts and fights. Even then, Spencer seemed far too happy about it. But over the week they had been in New Feridian, Vincent had seen so much more of the younger man, more than he thought was possible, and he didn’t know what to think about it. 

It had barely been two weeks since Spencer had stolen from him. He was still angry about it, but mixed in there was a concern he didn’t want to acknowledge. Things might have changed a bit since the theft, but he wasn’t going to let it change any more than that. They weren’t friends, they were just two people who had to work together and who had similar interests in mind.

He wasn’t given much time to think it through properly. The carriage pulled to a stop and he struggled to rein Sparks in. A chuckle sounded nearby and he turned to see Spencer on his horse next to him. “You need to be paying more attention,” he said, a proud smirk on his face. 

“What are you doing over here?” he asked, frowning in confusion. 

Spencer shrugged and put a finger to his lips, his eyes bright with something that only meant trouble. If the carriage door wasn’t opening in front of them, Vincent had no doubt that there would have been some snarky line to try and rile him up. It wasn’t as if it was hard to make him angry and for whatever reason, Spencer seemed to enjoy doing it. 

Charlotte climbed down from the carriage and brushed off her dress. It was a pale green thing, cleaner and made of nicer material than most of the clothes he’d seen her wear in New Feridian. She looked less like a maid and more like the Governor she was. The only downside was the sneers from the common people nearby. She might look like she fit her position, but also that she was better than everyone else. 

They had stopped outside a large wooden house with a verandah out the front, a rocking chair sitting in one corner. An old man stood on the steps, watching the small party with a frown. Many people had gathered around them, others standing in the doorways of buildings that looked only a little better than those in Hurendi Creek. Their faces were angry, curious or bored, and it only made the nervousness in Vincent’s gut worse. 

The man on the stairs stepped down as Charlotte walked towards him, her hands bunched in her dress to keep it out of the dirt. Nicholas hopped down from the carriage behind her, glanced around at the town in disdain and walked towards the wooden house. None of the other guards had climbed down from their horses, so Vincent focused on keeping Sparks still. 

He couldn’t hear what Charlotte and Nicholas were talking about with the man, but it seemed important. Some of those around them had gotten over the strange sight of the Governor and had walked away, but others were whispering to each other. On the wall of one of the shops were familiar posters. 

None of them had his name or face on them, but one had Spencer’s. Of course, his mask was far more memorable than Vincent’s young face, but neither of them had travelled that far south as far as they were aware. At least there was one good thing about Spencer no longer being allowed to wear his mask, no one could possibly recognise him. 

“Good to see I’m popular everywhere,” Spencer whispered in his ear, a bright grin on his face. 

“Of course, that’s what you care about,” Vincent replied with a roll of his eyes. 

“Hey, I put a lot of effort into what I do,” he said, pride in his voice. “It just didn’t work out as well as I planned. Give me some time though. When I’m done here, all of Morgot will know who I am.”

“I’m sure they will.”

“Isn’t that what you want too? For everyone to know you, fear you?” Spencer asked.

Vincent chuckled and shook his head. “I was going to go to North Ilsania. It’s where I was heading before Henricks came to me,” he said before he could think about it properly. It wasn’t something he was supposed to tell Spencer. He was just supposed to leave and never have to deal with him again. 

“What?” Spencer asked, eyes wide with shock and something else Vincent couldn’t figure out. 

Before he could get a chance to explain himself, Nicholas turned and walked towards the group of guards standing in the middle of the street. “You two,” he said, pointing to Mira and the other woman at the front. “Take the carriage to the stables behind the manor, you will be shown the way. The rest of you will come with us.”