Apprentice (The Black Mage, #2)(58)

I hesitated as Andy dragged the child over.

"Are you sure we need to bring the girl?" I swallowed over Tamora's cries. I couldn't imagine hurting such a small, innocent child. "Surely we don't-"

"Are you questioning me, apprentice?"

I clutched the small girl by her shoulders – they were frail and tiny, like a bird's. Her body trembled violently against my hands. I couldn't bring myself to move.

A sharp, whistling noise – like a whip lashing out into the air before us - and the child fell to the ground. I gasped and looked to Mira in horror. The leader had just cast the child unconscious. Tamora now had a small trickle of blood flowing from the left side of her head.

I immediately picked the girl up in my arms, silently loathing the woman who could be so heartless. "You didn't need to do that." I couldn't stop myself.

"You did well getting us in, apprentice," Mira replied sharply, "but if you ever jeopardize a mission again I will personally ensure you are thrown out of your apprenticeship for insubordination."

And I thought Byron was as bad as it got.





****





Darren and Flint were waiting for us at the end of the tunnel. They were keeping an eye out to make sure our route was safe. The second the prince saw the limp child I was carrying Darren's mouth formed a small, hard line. Flint looked surprised but unperturbed.

Mira gave orders for Darren to take over at the front. Cethan and I would stay at the middle of the pack with our hostages. Flint, Mira, and Andy would guard the back.

We took off at a run.

And we ran. Every second, every breath seemed to go on for hours as we made our retreat through an endless sea of green and brown and white. Every once in awhile Flint would shout out a landmark or a direction we missed, but for the most part the only sound was the heavy panting of breath and the crunch of pine needles beneath our boots.

Minutes into our escape Tamora awoke – but before she could cry Andy slipped something into my hand. "We were supposed to give it to the mother if she was difficult," she whisper-panted, "but I have a mind she'll play nice so long as you don't let Mira touch that child again."

I shot the mage a small smile and then held the vial to the child's lips. "Please?"

Tamora met my eyes, not quite understanding but seeming to trust the pleading tone of my voice. The girl swallowed the potion and then fell to sleep in my arms immediately.

Thank the gods for Alchemy.

Returning focus to the rocky trail in front of me, I sped up to catch up with Cethan. The man was lumbering through the forest like it was nothing, even though the lady he was carrying was easily five times the weight of her child.

"You can't be mortal," I wheezed.

The corner of the mage's lip twitched – but that was it. Cethan was too in control of his emotions to chuckle or laugh. I took it in stride anyway. He didn't smile for anything.

After three hours of running, climbing, and small bursts of hiding we reached the camp we had left behind the night before. All of our stuff was still hidden deep under brush and the others quickly set to work locating our sleeping rolls and the rest of the supplies, including a much more comfortable change of clothes (it hadn't been easy running in a full skirt but thankfully I'd had on my most comfortable boots beneath).

Cethan and Andy took charge of our hostages. Lady Sybil refused to speak except to ask for her daughter. Her eyes were red – undoubtedly from crying - and she had dark welts across her cheeks from where the gag had been placed too tight. I could see that her wrists had been rubbed raw from constant jostling during the escape, and yet despite her obvious suffering the woman remained strong. Her keen blue eyes unfazed.

Flint set out our supper: cold jerky and two fresh loaves he'd managed to steal during the hour he'd been patrolling the tunnel's exit. Everyone exhaled loudly at the scent of fresh bread. At sea we'd been living on almost nothing but overly salted meats, barely preserved vegetables, and very stale baker's rolls that Andy had referred to as "rocks."

I watched Lady Sybil cradle her sleeping child - Andy had explained to the baroness that Tamora would be out for two days with the dose we had given her - and swallowed hard. The lady refused to eat. It was hard to imagine a woman like that – one that was brushing the strands of hair out of her daughter's eyes and adjusting the pale silk ribbon on the waist of her dress - was responsible for the rebel attacks in the desert. What was so important about this woman? She was only a baroness with no relation to the monarchy in Caltoth. She wasn't even a mage.

Darren took a seat on the other edge of the log Andy and I were sitting on. In his hands he was rotating a bit of his bread over and over again, watching Lady Sybil with an unreadable expression. I didn't say anything but I knew instinctively he was wondering the same thing I was. I knew he carried the weight of Caine's death on his shoulders, and I could see him trying to figure out the baroness's role in all of this. We weren't allowed to question the prisoner - Mira had made that very clear on our first day out at sea - but that didn't stop us from wondering.

Somehow my hand found a way to his, almost unconsciously. Darren looked up, startled, and I gave it a small squeeze. We had succeeded so far in our mission. Soon, eventually, this woman put an end to his guilt. We had accomplished a very important thing for our country… even if we didn't know what is was yet.