Bloodleaf (Bloodleaf #1)(23)

I couldn’t hold on, and I tumbled from my saddle as she surged forward and bolted into the cover of the trees.

I rolled to my knees, dirt and tears stinging my eyes, every bone aching. Ahead on the trail, Kellan pulled Falada around.

“Go!” I shouted. “Don’t wait! Go!” If the Harbinger’s vision was correct, Kellan needed to get as far away from Toris as possible. But to my dismay, he turned Falada around. They were riding back.

Toris was now upon me. He swept down from his horse with balletic grace and advanced on me, twirling his knife with a grin. I put my hands up. Kellan reined Falada in.

“Let me go!” Conrad shouted, twisting from Kellan’s grasp.

“Enough of this,” Toris said. “Let the boy down, Lieutenant. Now.”

Jaw tight, Kellan helped Conrad down first, then dismounted.

“Be careful, Magistrate,” Kellan warned. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Another rider emerged from the trees. Lisette’s hair had come unpinned and was flying around her face in a mad cloud. She climbed down from her horse. “Let Conrad go,” she said in a careful, cajoling manner. “You don’t need to hurt him, Aurelia.”

“What? I’m not—?”

With a frightened sob, my brother shook off Kellan’s grasp and hurtled into her arms. “He was right,” he said. “They tried to take me. Just like Toris said.”

“I didn’t want to believe it either,” she murmured. “But I’ve got you now.”

“No, Conrad!” I cried. “I would never hurt you. You have to know that! I would never—?”

“Lies.” Toris was circling me now. “We know all about your treason. Your alliance with Simon Silvis and the plot to kill the heirs of two kingdoms: your brother. Your betrothed. Thank goodness we came along with you, or you might actually have gotten away with it.”

Kellan came to my defense. “He’s lying, Conrad. Don’t—?”

“The prince has seen enough,” Toris said. “Get him back to the campsite, daughter. I’ll take care of these two.”

“Wait! Don’t take him. No—?” I felt the point of Toris’ knife between my shoulder blades.

Lisette helped my brother onto her horse, casting a look of pitiful disappointment at me from over her shoulder before riding away with him, back the way we had come.

“Now, then,” Toris said, knife raised. “I’ll be needing the documents, if you please.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” At that moment I didn’t.

“Come now. Simon Silvis wouldn’t have sent you to Achleva without a way to cross the wall. The documents. Now.” His knife pressed a little harder into my back and marched me to my horse; the blade had breached the fabric of my dress. One wrong move and it would break the skin.

I pulled the parchments from my satchel. “This is what you want? I’ll give them to you. But only if you bring Conrad back to me and let us all go in peace.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Kellan carefully advancing.

“Conrad does not want to go with you,” Toris said. “He hates you, in fact. You don’t have many friends, do you, my dear?” He tilted his head. “It hurts you greatly to lose even one, doesn’t it?”

He moved fast, ducking underneath the swing of Kellan’s sword and grabbing him from behind before yanking his head back and laying the knife against his neck. Hands up, Kellan relinquished his hold on his sword.

“I wish I didn’t need the invitations, but I do. Magic can be so irritating. That’s why the Tribunal’s work is so valuable; it keeps things orderly. Now. Give me the documents. I will not ask again.” A drop of blood left a thin trail down Kellan’s neck.

I swallowed and considered . . . then held the parchments over the river chasm. “Put the knife down or they are gone for good.”

“We’re not negotiating here.”

“Put it down,” I stated, stronger.

Displeased, he loosened the knife from against Kellan’s neck. I stepped slowly forward and laid the documents down on the ground by the cliff’s edge. The knot-stamped seal shone dull red in the moonlight. Toris dragged Kellan with him, and only released his hold on him to swipe up the invitations.

I dashed into Kellan’s open arms. From over his shoulder, I could see Toris’s smirk return as he deposited the acquisitions into his jacket pocket.

“There!” I cried. “You have what you want! Now let us go, like you promised!”

“I never promised any such thing.”

And with a quick flick of his wrist, Toris sank his knife into Kellan’s side.

Kellan collapsed against me. I staggered beneath his sudden weight. “Kellan!”

My knees buckled too close to the drop-off, and I clawed at his cloak to keep from losing my grip on him. I held on desperately as his eyes glazed over and he teetered at the brink.

With one last guttural cry, I dug in my heels and wrenched the cloak with all my strength, but the clasp gave way and his body plummeted over the edge and disappeared.

I gaped at my hands, wrapped up in the cobalt fabric that was now flapping empty in the wind. The only sound was the distant roar of the river far below and my own shallow breathing. The darkness had swallowed Kellan whole. He was gone.