The Shadow Throne (The Ascendance Trilogy, #3)(22)

The vigils grabbed his arms to lift him again, but Kippenger said, “What’s the point now? We’ll wait until he wakes up, so Jaron can hear his cries.”

They manacled Tobias to another set of chains across from me and left him with his face half buried in the cold mud. Kippenger pointed at him, warning that if I didn’t cooperate, he would do the same to Tobias as he had to Imogen.

When Kippenger and his men left, I softly called out Tobias’s name again. He only stirred at first, but I called to him once more, louder the second time.

Without opening his eyes, he whispered, “Is it safe?”

I coughed out a quiet laugh. “Of course not. You know where we are, don’t you?”

Now Tobias opened his eyes and maneuvered his way to a seated position. “How’d you know I was awake?”

“People who’ve fainted don’t peek when they think no one’s watching.” He half smiled back at me, and then, with more seriousness, I added, “You thought I was dead?”

He nodded somberly. “They’re parading your clothes around for everyone to see, ripped and covered in blood. They hope it’ll discourage your people from fighting.”

With a humph, I said, “Well, as you can plainly see, I’m not nearly as dead as Avenia claims.”

“You don’t look far from it.”

I liked his joke, but in truth, I didn’t feel far from it either.

“Were Mott and Imogen able to escape, then?”

Answering was harder than I had thought it would be, and I had to force the words out. “There’s been no word on Mott since I came. I haven’t dared ask about him. Imogen didn’t . . . isn’t . . .”

Tobias nodded and opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Whatever he was going to say, condolences, or pity, or further questions, I didn’t want any of it. So before he could change his mind, I closed my eyes to rest them and then asked, “Where are Amarinda and Fink? Please tell me they made it to Bymar.”

The silence was long enough that it forced me to look at Tobias again. He was shaking his head. “We got past the border guards without too much problem. They took most of the food, but let our driver pass through. We were almost to Isel when a group of thieves attacked the carriage. There wasn’t time to get back into the holding below, so when an opportunity came, we ran and hid near the road while our driver held them off. A group of Avenian soldiers was passing and heard the commotion. They captured a few of the thieves and our driver. The thieves told them about our having escaped, and the soldiers soon realized our carriage might have held the princess. They ordered our driver to talk, but he only expressed his allegiance to Carthya and refused to answer any further questions.”

I shook my head. Loyalty was invaluable, but amongst those soldiers, it meant that I already knew how that man’s story had ended.

Tobias continued, “That’s when the soldiers told the driver about your death. They even showed him a piece of your clothing. Amarinda and I were watching from a distance. We recognized it as the same clothes you had worn when we were last together.”

“Fink saw them too?”

“We all saw it, Jaron, and it was all any of us could do in that moment to keep from crying out. Fink even rose to attack them but I held him back.” Tobias licked his lips. “It was the worst news of my life, and no better for the others. It took several minutes after the soldiers left before Amarinda felt well enough to walk.”

“Toward Bymar?”

Again, Tobias shook his head. “I tried to persuade Amarinda to go, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before word spread of your death. She felt that Carthyans would look to the throne for leadership and that someone had to be sitting on it. So she insisted on walking back to Drylliad.”

The idea of that was insane. If the soldiers who stopped those thieves knew the princess was in Avenia, they’d turn the country inside out to search for her. And Isel was their closest escape. Retracing their steps all the way back to Carthya was far too dangerous, and I told Tobias so.

“I agree,” he protested. “But she’s the princess and I’m her servant. If she wanted to return to Carthya, I had no choice but to follow. Fink went on to Bymar, to beg them to come to Carthya’s aid.”

“What?” I exploded with anger and had to remind myself to stay quiet. “You sent him off alone?”

“He insisted he could do it. And he is Avenian, so his chances of getting past any soldiers are decent. We had no choice, Jaron.”

Maybe not, but I still didn’t like it. “How’d you get captured?” I asked him.

“She and I were asleep one night and I heard a noise in the darkness. I crept out to investigate and the soldiers found me. By the time they dragged me back to where I’d slept, she was gone, along with any trace of her trail.”

I felt terrified for what had happened to the princess since then, and by the expression on Tobias’s face, he felt the same way. The thought of what would happen if she was also captured was unbearable, made even worse since I had become so helpless here.

No more. It was time to break free from this place.





Despite my best intentions to find an escape from the Avenian camp, the realities of our situation complicated those plans. Now that they had Tobias for leverage, their work on me intensified. Even if the opportunity for escape arose, my strength to accomplish it was dwindling. Tobias offered to help where he could, but his treatment was little better than mine, and without my cooperation, things would only get worse for him.