Knight devoted, p.9
Knight Devoted, page 9
Even she smiled now. Weakly, though, because it was still true. Corruption still coursed through her, a blight on the world, even if it didn’t seem so in this moment. But it was nice to have someone notice—to have him notice—just how benign her powers could be. “I… I think I hid it from you most of all.”
“I understand.”
“I am sorry I let you down.”
“Do try to be more diabolical, won’t you? You have the reputation of all mages to consider.”
She flinched. If he noticed her reaction, he didn’t show it. He was still smiling.
“The hounds’ masters won’t be far behind,” he said. “They’ll want to see what’s stopped the dogs from barking. And the snow marks our path.”
“And the blood,” she whispered.
“And that. We’ve got to keep moving.”
She heaved a shaky breath. “You’re right. But I’ve got to walk.”
“You’re in no shape to walk on those feet. And it’s too slow.”
“Well, I definitely can’t ride that horse.”
“You must.”
“Come with me. Please.” Maybe if he was there behind her, she could shut out the memories of that first frightening experience on the stallion… the fall… the fear…
“Our pursuers have horses too. They might even change horses. Two riders on one horse will slow us down too much. They’ll be guaranteed to catch us both. One rider has a chance to make it, though.”
“But we don’t have two riders. We have one useless princess and one rider.”
He frowned at her. “You’re hardly useless. If we’d gone with my approach, you’d be waffling helplessly on the horse while watching me get mauled to death by three hounds right now.”
She snorted. “Probably right before they leapt for me.”
“Thankfully, that didn’t come to pass. Yet, at least. Thanks to you.”
She tore her gaze away from his again and ducked her head. “My… I have a way with animals.” It was the most she’d ever openly said about it, and it was ridiculously vague.
Silence settled for a moment. “You need to go. I’ll make a second trail. It’ll throw them off. They won’t know which to follow, so they’ll have to sniff around, divide their forces.”
Her gaze snapped back up to meet his. “I’m not going without you. What if I run into more unfriendly creatures in the forest? Wolves? Bears?”
He shrugged. “You handled the dogs—why not those?”
Only the aching in her feet kept her from stomping a foot in irritation. “They will find you, and they will kill you.”
“Better than finding both of us.”
“What if I order you to come along?”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear.” He pushed her gently toward the horse. “I pledged to serve you and Nefrana, my princess. And this is how I choose to do it. Now, if you please, get on the Nefrana-blessed horse before I knock you out and tie you to it.”
Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
She gritted her teeth. She would not let him sacrifice himself for her like this, no matter how determined he was. There had to be a way to convince him. “What if they pick my path and not yours? What if they do catch me? Or I run into other humans? I can’t charm them so easily.”
He faltered. Yes, this was a winning tactic. “You… Well, you should… Hmm.”
“See. You must come. Get on the horse yourself!”
“You first. Are you sure you couldn’t charm them? Perhaps you just need to be more diabolical.”
“Never!” She glared at him. “I would never.”
His eyes softened. “Sorry. I didn’t think that through.”
“Listen, it’s not just that. You have to come. I can’t protect myself from people, I’m totally unarmed, but worse than that—I’m terrified of horses, Jav.”
“You have a way with animals, don’t you?” he asked slowly.
She hesitated. “Well… yes.”
“Maybe you can reach out to the mare? Like the dogs?” His voice was gentler now.
“Maybe.” She was hardly certain. The last time she’d touched a horse’s mind—well, she never wanted to do it again. “Where’s your horse? This isn’t your usual steed, is it?” She raised an eyebrow.
“He’s in the stables. With my sword. Out of reach.” He shook his head. “Another mistake.”
“No.” She frowned. “What’s his name?”
“His name is Sky. What does it matter?”
“Maybe, if I can use my way with animals to get on this horse without fainting, I could also get your horse to follow us. Would you ride with me then? Until Sky catches up with us?”
His eyebrows flew up. “You can do that? My sword too?”
“I know it’s not as diabolical as you were hoping, but I refuse to let you sacrifice yourself if our chances are better together. I can’t guarantee I can get Sky out if he’s locked in or something. He only has hooves. But I can try.”
“Well, then…" He stared at her for a long moment, eyes searching her face. What was he thinking? “Fine. Yes. Let’s try.”
As his hands gripped her waist, she permitted herself a little satisfied smile. “I didn’t think you’d be so determined to die that you’d even defy an order.”
He shrugged. “Already did it once today.”
“Bastards,” she muttered.
“I agree. But the way I see it, dying nobly would be so much preferred to dying of boring old age, don’t you think? Who needs to live an eternity? For what, to lose all my teeth? My youthful good looks?” He laughed.
She smiled, but her soul sobered at those thoughts. It was good he couldn’t see her expression as he thumped her down on the very patient—if concerned—mare and climbed into the saddle behind her. Thinking more clearly now, she sent patient, calm feelings toward the horse. Its appreciation was palpable.
Her small pride in her achievement, though, was dulled next to the image her brain had formed. What exactly was a noble death?
Was it Javarin, armor shining, falling in battle? Was it an arrow lodged in his neck? Was it kneeling for a cruel-hearted prince like Alekur to carry out the appropriate punishment for this so-called service—execution? Was it one justice served while another justice was denied?
Was it truly being ripped apart by hounds to save a princess who hardly deserved such a sacrifice?
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Right about now, old age sounds quite noble to me.”
“Staring death in the eyes will do that to you.” He chuckled again as he eased the mare into a walk, wincing a little at the rocking motion.
That injury… it was going to be a problem.
Chapter 14
Red Fields
Although they could hear shouting in the distance as they rode, no new barks or growls reached them. If there were more dogs, they were remarkably quiet. Iseris could only hope that there weren’t any more, but dogs she could handle, the same way she’d talked the others down. Reasoned with them.
Men, however? Alekur? Reason would have no chance with them.
At every distant shout that reached her ears, her heart jumped in her chest, and she wanted to urge the mare on faster. But with two of them… Even if Jav hadn’t told her it would be hard, she could feel the mare’s growing weariness. The slow pace was all they could manage right now.
She did her best to shower the girl in gratitude and encouragement, in spite of the nagging fear in the back of her mind. Thank you, thank you, pretty horse, she’d chant.
Eventually, the mare huffed in response. I do have a name, you know.
She blinked. She… hadn’t known. Red Squirrel and Owl had never had names, other than what she’d given them.
Squirrels and owls. The creatures you compare me to. You’re lucky you’re so grateful.
What’s your name, sweet horse?
The one before called me Mist. Another called me Cloud. There were others. I have not one name.
Which did you like the best?
Which rider? I think I liked the one that called me Pearl the best. He was kind. His beard tickled.
Then I will call you Pearl too. You’ll have to forgive my lack of beard.
That may be difficult, but I suppose I’ll try.
Smiling, she glanced at Jav over her shoulder. His eyes were on the distance, watching the shadows of the forest. “She says her name is Pearl.”
He raised an eyebrow. “She… told you that?”
“Yes.”
“Nice name, Pearl.” He patted her flank gently, and they rode on.
The low rolling hills of the forest grew more dramatic and steeper as they went, and the forest grew wilder. The path narrowed to little wider than Pearl, brushing them all with branches as the pines began to mingle with maples and oaks, some of them younger saplings with lower limbs.
Iseris barely dodged one such branch. Her sudden movement caused Jav to jerk slightly; he blinked like his tired eyes had been closed in sleep a moment ago.
“Sorry,” she murmured.
He just frowned at her. “For what?”
“Never mind. Why is the road so narrow here?”
“Because this isn’t a road. It isn’t even a path. It’s a deer trail. Maybe some foxes take this way too.”
“The deer cut trails?”
He smiled. “No. It’s just made naturally by the animals following paths softened by the ones before them.”
“Ah.” She tried not to blush but felt herself failing.
The forest seemed to wrap around them—dense, dark, close. Jav had to duck his head more than once.
Eventually, it started to thin a little, but instead of the young upstart trees, a long, red grass, which would have come to her waist if she’d been standing in it, took over.
“What’s this grass?” She looked around them as she spoke, then turned to catch his eyes.
His gaze was distant, a little glazed over. They were both quite tired, she supposed. And the injury… She knew little about how the body worked but perhaps it was somehow affecting him. “Never seen it before.”
“Strange color, isn’t it?” she said.
He nodded, and his arms around her tightened a little. It would be nice to think it was out of concern, but more likely, he was simply trying not to fall off the horse in exhaustion.
They rode in silence for a while, the sea of red grass beneath them gradually taking over for all other ground cover. Only dark black trunks rose from the red.
The wind stirred her hair, the grass, and the branches above, letting patches of moonlight flicker against the waving plants.
Iseris grew warmer as they rode. Warm enough that the cloak seemed too much, the heat of Jav’s body behind her a furnace. Heat? She must be mad. Or exhausted. Snow still clung to some of the branches above them. It made no sense.
As they topped the rise of another hill, a larger than usual valley opened before them. Something had knocked down several thick, old trees, their trunks dramatic, sad slices through the red waves. A large meadow of crimson grasses swayed, but on the far side, the trees grew again, growing darker and thicker, the mountains in the distance looming behind them.
“There,” Jav said, pointing at one of them. “We must rest. Let’s see if we can make something of that fallen tree.”
“All right.” He’d nodded off at least three more times in the last few minutes, and she still heard far more wincing and gasping than she’d prefer. So he was probably right—they needed a rest.
She wiped the back of her hand across her slick forehead. How. How could she be sweating? Was that part of being so tired? Could the cuts in her feet have gone sour that quickly?
Gods. That quickened her pulse to think of it, but it’d only been a few hours. Surely, she couldn’t be dying this quickly just from the wrong shoe choice.
She waited patiently while Jav gingerly dismounted. He stopped and stood for too long a time with his head bowed toward the red grass and the snow. Pain. He was trying to hide it, but she knew. She could feel it, almost sense it like pain in her own side. He was hurting bad.
Because of her.
She turned her eyes away. No point in bursting his illusion that he was concealing his suffering. She could acknowledge it later.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes. When was the last time she’d heard a shout from their pursuers? Had they even been real, or had it been dream-induced fears? She might or might not have fallen asleep, too. She wasn’t sure.
She was only sure she hadn’t fallen off Pearl at any point, but that didn’t mean she’d been lucid. But she hoped she had been since she’d periodically had to reach out to Sky to guide him in their direction. She did so again now. He wasn’t far.
Yellow splotches flashed in front of her eyes, and she swayed.
“Hey now.” His hand came to her thigh.
She let the connection drop. “Sorry. Too tired.”
“We’ll do our best to rest now.” He reached up to help her down, teeth gritted all the way.
Every part of her immediately started to ache, but as she hit the ground, her feet screamed their agony. During the ride, they’d gotten a much-needed rest, but the various cuts had begun to sting and ache, and sliding down onto her now swollen feet made her gasp.
He caught her shoulder, fingers tightening as she groaned. “Are you all right?”
She took an uneasy step and faltered, stifling a whimper. The wide root bed of the fallen tree was caked with earth and reached up taller than she was. “Yes, of course,” she lied. But she didn’t object as he slid his arm around her waist, helping her toward the shelter of the fallen tree.
“Here. Sit. Let me see if I can make some shelter from our cloaks. Or… Hmm.”
She happily removed her cloak and sank to the ground with far less grace than usual. “Do you think they’ll catch up with us?”
He sighed. “I’m not sure. But I don’t think we can keep going.”
She nodded, staring at her feet as he moved away. They and her aching muscles were evidence enough. Her head was starting to ache too. “Chances are good your horse will reach us while we wait here.”
He smiled slightly. “That’d be a boon. Let’s hope he’s alone.”
“Indeed.” She scanned the hillside. They were hardly hidden here, but it’d been like this for miles. Hills, hills, and more hills, but few caves or rock formations to provide more complete shelter—or a place to hide.
“I’m just going to lie down for a minute,” she called, as quietly as she could, easing back onto the bed of soft red grass and evergreen needles behind her. Quite comfortable, actually.
If only she weren’t so hot. Given the season, she should be frost-bitten, not sweaty. But she didn’t even miss her cloak.
She stared at the tree trunk. Waves of yellow fungus grew in one crevice in the bark, brown circles in another. Could they eat them? What would they eat? She had a little food, but she hadn’t planned for two.
Repeatedly stealing food to hide in her pack at the palace hadn’t been sustainable. Most of the food they ate from day to day didn’t last indefinitely, and she hadn’t known exactly when she would run.
Her thigh muscles protested as she stretched out, joining her feet in a chorus of objections. The pain felt a little duller now, the burning heat greater. Still, she drew her feet under her skirt and rolled herself into a ball. Jav had removed his cloak as well and was messing with something in the horse’s saddlebags, but cloaks wouldn’t be enough to really hide them here or ward off the elements. They’d just have to do their best.
They couldn’t light a fire beside the tree without burning their shelter, she supposed. And any smoke would reveal them if their pursuers were looking. Most likely they were. And with all this grass— She knew little about fires, but it seemed a dangerous proposition amid the waves of red grass surrounding them.
She huddled closer to the tree’s cool root wall and closed her eyes. Something felt wrong. Maybe before Alekur caught her, whatever disease was seeping into her wounds would kill her before he had the chance.
And really, as much as she hated the idea of death, she was glad it might happen here, under the open sky and not as Alekur had planned. She hadn’t had such an option yesterday.
And she had Javarin, her knight, her friend, to thank for it. Who knew what tomorrow might bring? If she lived to see it, of course.
It was an impossible hope, but in her fevered state, her brain took a flight of fancy to a world where Jav was healed, the horses were fresh and strong, and the two of them could ride off into the sunset.
No, not the sunset. Sail away on a golden ship, and not into the setting sun. She didn’t need to go west. She needed to go north. To Akaria. To true freedom.
In spite of the pain and the ache and the burn, a strangely soothing warmth swept through her at that thought, her mind’s utter exhaustion overwhelming her.
She collapsed into sleep.
Chapter 15
Sky
Jav spent what seemed like forever making camp—or trying to. In his exhaustion, he kept making mistakes. Either that, or it was the strange haze that’d come over him. He’d ridden long hours before, and he’d once fallen from his horse, landing on his shoulder, and had to ride slow as honey the whole way back in excruciating pain. But neither time had he felt quite like this.
Perhaps reality was setting in. How he’d defied orders. Assisted an embodiment of Nefrana’s corruption. Protected her. Was driven wild by the closeness of an unattainable woman for the last Nefrana-knew-how-many miles.
Still, even as the guilty voice chattered away in his mind, he just shook his head and snorted. If this exhausted haze was caused by a growing grasp of reality, he was too out of it to care at the moment.
He sighed as he sat down in the makeshift shelter he’d created. It’d at least keep off the snow and hold in a little warmth. Not enough, but some.
