Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(13)

She sat atop a mount, but she wasn’t alone. A man sat behind her, no bigger than she was. She blocked most of him from view, but I marked his eyes peering over her shoulder at me. They were impossible to ignore.

My thoughts churned like tufts of feathers floating through air, looking for a place to land. The savage urge to reach her seized me, but I held back, remembering I couldn’t even help myself, much less her.

I sat rigidly, not relaxing against the giant behind me.

The horse plodded along under us, and I felt the strain of his muscles in every rolling stride. Our combined weight had to be a burden. We would have to stop soon to rest the horses or they would collapse. This thought gave me hope. Perhaps then Luna and I could get away. Or Luna at least.

“Fowler, these men are taking us to help.”

She made it sound so possible that they were helping us, that I could be anything other than dead at the end of this.

I opened my mouth and then closed it, uncertain what to say, what Luna had told them. I had no idea what they knew or didn’t know . . . whether they even realized she was a girl. For her sake, I hoped not.

She said they were trying to help us. Could that even be true?

The man-boy sitting behind Luna spoke. “Glad to see you’re awake. We’ve been traveling as hard as we can to get you to Ainswind quickly, and you haven’t hardly stirred through it all.”

“How long?” I managed to get the question out of my still-parched throat.

“How long have we been traveling together?” he asked, his tone all politeness. “We discovered you and your companion here three days ago. We’re almost to Ainswind now. Once there, we will get those wounds the attention needed.”

If we were almost to Ainswind, then we were in Lagonia. I peered through the dark at their soiled tunics stretched over chain mail, my vision becoming clearer. The Lagonian hawk was emblazoned across the front of the fabric. They were soldiers. A foul taste rose up in my mouth. Going to Ainswind was almost as bad as returning to Relhok City.

I took a bracing breath, shoving the pain aside so I could think clearly. Someone might recognize me there. Lagonia and Relhok shared a border. There had been an on-again, off-again accord between the countries—at least before the eclipse happened. Relhok and Lagonia had been in a cautious truce through most of my life. My father worked hard to maintain that truce. Lagonia’s durability was the chief reason my father fought so hard to establish the alliance. Their fortifications were stronger than Relhok City’s. Their numbers, too. Stronger could be applied to them in general, and that fact filled my father with endless frustration and forced him to act with diplomacy when it was his instinct to conquer.

Ever since I could walk, I’d been told that I would marry the princess of Lagonia and bring relief and stability to Relhok. Behind closed doors, my father never minced words on the matter. He told me we would find a way to get rid of the king and crown prince of Lagonia after I married the princess in order to rule both countries. It was the vision of a madman, I knew that now, but as a boy it was just one of many things my father said. I wished he were all bluster, but I knew differently. He did horrible things. Killing Luna’s parents had just been the start for him.

I didn’t know how things had transpired between Relhok and Lagonia in the years since I left. Apparently friendly enough, if convoys journeyed there.

King Tebald’s emissaries had been to Relhok more than once while I was part of my father’s royal household.

If my identity was exposed, I wasn’t certain what my reception would be. There was also the fact that my father would likely hear of my presence in Lagonia. He’d issued an edict for the slaughter of all girls. It would be nothing for him to send an army after me.

My thoughts spun with too many questions to ask—especially with these soldiers as an audience. I decided to stick with the most important one.

“Why are you helping us?” There was no such thing as altruism in this world, in this life. Certainly not from these soldiers.

Perhaps the question was a waste of breath. No one was completely honest, after all. Even Luna had kept her secrets, holding them behind those deep, soulful eyes for so long. Like a fool, she took me in. I fell into the fathomless eyes, and kept falling . . . into her, without even knowing who she really was. And once I did know, it changed nothing. Not even when she ran from me did my feelings for her change. After that night together, after I had bared myself to my most raw and vulnerable for her, she still left me. She drugged me and slipped away as though I were a bad dream she could outrun.

I lied to Luna, too. The contrary thought slipped inside my head. I wasn’t the most forthcoming person either, but I would never hurt her.

These men . . . they were capable of anything. Luna had a bounty on her. They could decide to take her head at any moment.

“We’re close now. Ainswind is just half a day’s ride.” No one answered my question.

I stayed my tongue, wincing and holding my dying arm close to my chest. Half a day. Bleakness rose inside me. How was I getting us out of this in that span of time?

The smaller man continued talking from behind Luna, his voice deceptively amiable. “It was good luck to find you and the boy here.” My shoulders practically slumped in relief. They didn’t know she was a girl. That was one less worry. For now.

The Lagonian soldier was still talking, and I concentrated on his voice. “Imagine our surprise to find you with him. In your condition, no less.” At these words, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. He made it sound like he was surprised to see me specifically. “We’ll see you mended. No fear, Your Highness. You’re in good hands.”