Rise (The Order of the Krigers #1)(14)

Anders shook his head. “I meant animals. You’re moving through the forest like you’re trying to attract every single predator to us.”

“No, I’m not,” I said in a clipped tone. My father had taught me how to travel furtively. Granted, the assassin was an expert in stealth, but I wasn’t the fumbling idiot he implied.

Shaking his head, he turned and continued through the forest.

“So,” I whispered, “tell me about yourself.”

His shoulders stiffened. “You don’t need to know anything about me.”

Watching him kill those men yesterday was still fresh in my mind. The idea of not only traveling with, but also trusting a killer, made me uneasy. “How did you become an assassin?” He gave no indication he’d heard me. “Do you enjoy … your job?” I prodded.

Anders flinched, but kept walking. “Let me ask you a question,” he said, his voice barely audible. Quick as a rabbit, he jumped over a fallen tree, not even pausing. “Do you have a job?”

“Yes. I wash clothes.” I hoisted myself up onto the fallen trunk, climbed over, and then jogged to catch up.

“So you’re a laundress.” He gracefully ducked under a low branch. “Is that who you are and what defines your life?”

“No.” I barely had to lower my head to clear the branch.

“Exactly,” he replied.

Washing clothes didn’t harm other people. How could Anders justify murdering for money? Did he feel any sort of remorse for the lives he stole?

“What about the people you murdered yesterday?” I asked. “You weren’t hired to kill them, so why did you?”

“I did what needed to be done to escape from the capital,” he replied.

“You could have rendered them unconscious,” I offered. “You didn’t have to kill them.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” Anders responded. “If they lived, they would have been able to identify us.”

“It’s still wrong to kill.”

“I hardly think you’re one to judge when you benefited from it.” He spun around to face me, his eyes alight with challenge.

Not wanting to make him any more upset, I held up my hands in surrender. “All I’m saying is that there are other options. You didn’t have to murder innocent people.”

“They were soldats!” he exclaimed, his face turning red.

“Maybe they were forced into that position.” Like my father, I silently added.

“You’re a naive sixteen-year-old girl.”

My temper flared. I didn’t have to be here with him—especially if he intended to belittle me. “Yes. I am only sixteen, and I am a girl. However, you need me, since I’m a Kriger.”

“I don’t need you,” he said, pointing at me. “The kingdom does. If it were up to me, I’d have left you back in the capital to fend for yourself. But I’m required to assist you.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “Did the man you’re taking me to, Vidar, hire you to help me?”

“I’m not explaining anything to you right now.” He rubbed his hands over his face, sighing. “We have a long journey ahead of us. Let’s stop talking and get moving.”

There was only one way this was going to work. “I want you to promise me something.”

“No.”

“Please?”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he remained there, staring at me.

I didn’t want him to berate me any longer, but there was only so far I could push him. “Promise me you won’t kill anyone else unless our lives are in immediate danger.”

He laughed and folded his arms across his chest. “So if a soldat comes running at you, you want me to let him capture you?”

“No.” This man was utterly infuriating. Why didn’t he understand what I was saying? “Just don’t kill unless it’s absolutely necessary. You can wound or injure instead.”

“You’re delusional,” he mumbled. “I don’t go around killing everyone I come into contact with. I only take a life when it’s unavoidable.” Leaning closer to me, his eyes pulled tight, making him look furious. “And just so you know, I don’t enjoy killing people.” He turned and stormed away, not looking back.

“Does that mean you won’t kill unless you have to?”

He threw his arms up in the air and kept walking. Chuckling, I bent down to retie my boot. Straightening up, I headed in the direction Anders had gone. Twenty feet in front of me, he stood still as a building, spooked by something.

My hands pulsed with severe pain. A heavy breathing came from my right. I slowly turned and scanned the area, looking for the source of the threat. Between the trees only fifteen feet away, an enormous brunbjorn was moving directly toward me. It walked on all fours, smelling the air as it neared. The bear-like creature was easily five times my size.

I gradually started to back up, trying to keep a good amount of space between us. It breathed out, making a strange grunting noise. All of a sudden, it charged at me. I turned and ran. The animal pounded on the forest flooring as it neared, swiftly gaining ground. Its hot breath skimmed my neck. It roared a deafening sound and swiped its paw, slamming me to the ground. I rolled over as the brunbjorn went up on its hind feet, smelling the air. It dropped to all four paws, the ground jolting under me from the impact. I lay there, motionless, trying to decide if I should kick the animal and run or play dead.