Beneath the shatter, p.14
Beneath the Shatter, page 14
While I thought this action of his was slightly unnecessary, seeing as I had been entirely safe without his protection yesterday, I let the matter go because it was better than him forcing some of his men to turn around with me in tow and escort me back to the Palais. No longer being forced to hide my identity gave me permission to relax a little and enjoy the journey.
Chapter Fourteen
A pattern formed for the continuation of the journey. Sébastien went the extra lengths and kept guards around me continuously for protection while we traveled. He hadn’t once spoken to me since the night by the lake, and it made me slightly nervous that he didn’t mention it. I knew we wouldn’t be able to break the bond during the journey, but he could have at least provided the ideas he had for breaking it rather than ignoring me and pretending it didn’t exist.
Every day we traveled, my hopes of seeing my home, getting the pendant, and returning home to the East Engles safely with Kateya increased. It felt as though finding the pendant would instantly return us to our normal lives, and even though I feared it wasn’t true, I had to hold on to that hope. I couldn’t even venture to think of what would happen if we couldn’t locate the necklace and the worst case-scenario occurred. One that I didn’t dare voice aloud for fear it would become our reality.
We had been riding for several days now. My thighs felt like liquid fire, my body ached from the constant trot, and I was not entirely certain how much longer I could hold out riding. I had hoped that over time, I would get used to it, but riding hard for ten hours a day every day wasn't helping my theory. I desperately wanted to give in, return to the safety of the Palais with Kateya, and yet that was not an option.
Glancing to my left, I was relieved to discover Dravyn rode close by, his dark brown hair tousled from riding. “How much further are we from the location the king gave us?” I half grumbled out.
A chuckle slipped as he said, “About half a day, maybe a little less. Think you’ll survive?”
I shot him a joking glare, his hazel eyes meeting mine. “Yes, I’m sure I will survive,” I retorted, even as my legs begged for a break.
“So…” He hesitated before going silent, a curious look pasted across his tanned face.
Glancing over, I prompted, “So?”
“It’s just um, well…”
“Dravyn de Cauda is speechless. Never thought I would’ve seen the day,” I teased him.
He let out a growl. “The inking on your wrist. When did that show up?”
“Oh.” All joking vanished at the question. “The first night of the trip,” I answered with honesty.
“Never thought I’d see the day.” He threw my own words back at me with a laugh. “How’d you take the news?”
I was relieved to note the sincerity in his question. “Honestly, it still hasn’t fully processed or made sense. Sébastien told me about how wolvyn bonds work. He says there is a way we can break it.”
A slight harrumph sounded from one of the other soldiers riding in formation near me, followed by a sarcastic, “Good luck with that!”
My gaze flipped between the other soldier and Dravyn, both looking at each other with a look I couldn’t quite decipher.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned, concern creeping its way in.
“Technically, yes. A forming bond can be broken. Bonds are more complicated in real life, though. Not all wolvyn form bonds, and those who do are often destined to be together. The longer a forming bond remains, the more it sinks into the skin, solidifying the bond.”
“I told Sébastien the other night. I’m not a wolvyn. So why would I even have this?” I gestured to my wrist, the black band a stark contrast to my fair skin.
“Bonds are made from primal magic,” Dravyn responded thoughtfully. “It’s possible the bond intertwined your power lines based on the magic from the pendant.” He mused.
“Power lines?”
“Yes. How is it that you say you are from the future, yet you know shockingly little of your own history?”
“The Fall happened when I was younger,” I recounted. “The Nordak grew strong enough to banish magic and power from the lands, haunting and harvesting from those who showed any sign of power. They destroyed all written records of power from Vanaiyer, forbidding anyone to speak of it.”
“Well, fuck.” Dravyn sighs as he looks at me before explaining, “Power lines are the lines that each individual has in them if they possess a power—such as shifting to a wolvyn form or a form of elemental magic. It’s possible that the primal magic of the bond could have connected to a power line in you due to the pendant.”
I thought about his wording. “So, even though I’m a mortal, there may be a tie to power due to the pendant?”
“Possibly. I couldn’t say for certain,” he answered in honesty.
“But it can still be broken, non?”
“That remains to be seen. Sébastien is one of the most powerful wolvyn in the realm. If anyone could break the bond, I would say it would be him.”
I rode on in silence, the gravity of my situation rising. My horse trotted over toward the stream we approached to rest. I half rolled off, half flopped to the ground, too exhausted to care that my technique was not proper.
It wasn’t until I was fully sprawled out in the billowing grass, eyes closed as I appreciated the steady, unmoving nature of the ground that I felt a strong gaze watching me. Pushing myself up onto my elbows, I recognized Sébastien regarding me from a distance, a slightly amused yet mocking smirk smeared across his devilishly handsome face that made my heart drop and heat fan my body. Damn that man and his looks.
Leaning back down, I closed my eyes and attempted to take a brief nap in preparation for the continuation of the journey. A continuation which occurred much sooner than I hoped as the command was being given to move on. I sat up, only to discover my horse had meandered away from me. Frantically, I jumped up in search of where it had wandered off to.
I felt a look of panic shadow my face as I searched around, not finding the horse anywhere in the vicinity. Sébastien sauntered over toward me, his destrier calmly following his lead. “Allons-y,” he demanded as he approached me.
Looking at him, I quietly muttered, “I can’t find the horse I was riding.”
A soft chuckle sprang from his lips. “Non, oui. I had one of my men take him. You appeared much too exhausted to be in proper riding shape. Now, allons-y.” He lifted me onto his destrier before mounting behind me.
“I would have been fine to continue riding,” I lied through my teeth, my thighs burning even now.
“Fine as you may have been,” Sébastien said with a laugh, “I wasn’t about to risk an injury had you fallen off your horse. It’s clear you don’t have much riding experience and are exhausted from riding full days. Just consider this me making sure my men don’t fall behind due to having to pick up your body off the ground.”
I felt Sébastien nudge his horse into a trot, my body thrown against his as he quickly caught up to the front of the lines and we were off with the rest of the men. Sébastien didn’t speak to me as we rode on, and I made no effort to speak to him. Exhaustion tugged at my body. I was aware of his muscled arms wrapped around me as he guided us down the path, my body relaxing into his while his arms caged me in. The canter of the horse and faint scent of spice mixed with the heat of the sun bearing down on me lulled me to sleep as the exhaustion began to take me over.
I awoke a few hours later, nestled up against Sébastien’s chest, his arm wrapped tightly around my waist, securing me. Shifting in his arms, I sat up, a prominent bulge pressing into my back as I glanced around, taking note of the sun lowering in the sky and men scouting for a place to set up camp. “You snore slightly,” he muttered in acknowledgement to me waking.
“And you clearly liked riding with me in your arms,” I shot back, not willing to let the embarrassment end with me.
A dark chuckle slipped his lips as a few shouts from across the group notified us that a location had been settled upon. His breath fanned my neck as he said huskily into my ear, “I never claimed I didn’t, princesse.”
I heard Dravyn mention we were closing in on a petit village that bordered the side of a mountainous terrain. I took in the rocky hills and towering peaks in the distance to my right, jagged formations scattered with protruding rocks as brambles scratched against my legs. I noticed the men slowed their pace as we neared, appearing more alert and wary than they had throughout the journey. We had been traveling through a darkened forest, brambles and thickets closing in on us as we stealthily drew toward the village.
Glancing toward Sébastien, I watched his face, attempting to read into the situation we were approaching. A flick of his hand, and Sébastien’s men began to merge into a tight formation, cautious and prepared, on guard. We were approaching the edge of the darkened forest we had been traveling through for the past few hours when Sébastien signaled to halt. Some men began dismounting, shifting into their wolvyn forms, while others drew weapons, preparing for orders.
I regarded Sébastien as he scanned his men before motioning to five soldiers to approach as he ordered them, “You five and Cassandra shall remain here. The moss rocks over there should provide enough shelter. You will protect her at all costs and keep a close watch on her. I do not want her attempting to sneak off to assist us. Her life is in your hands and if she is in harm's way, you will answer to me. Comprendre?” The five men he hand-selected nodded gravely as they began to scout the area to secure its safety.
I was less than happy with the turn of events and was about to voice my thoughts on the matter when Sébastien glanced over at me with an icy look that silenced me instantly. He strode over, leading me further into the forest and away from his men, before he turned, forcing my gaze up to hold his. “I realize that this situation doesn’t please you. However, this village has recently been taken over by a Nordak presence from what my scouts have informed me and is considered enemy territory. I will be taking the proper precautions. It will be risky enough for my men to ride in; I will not bring a lady along as well.”
I interjected, “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I don’t know how to fight. You don’t have to shelter me as if I’m incompetent.”
Sébastien released a frustrated growl. “You’re staying here because you are the key to that pendant. You are what they need to access the power harnessed inside. I don’t doubt your fighting skills. That said, you will remain in hiding with my five most trusted men, and you will not come out until I, and I alone, am there. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
I regarded Sébastien while he spoke, watching his nostrils flare, his eyes flashing, and while I knew his logic made perfect sense, I despised being told to stay put. My gaze met his piercing stare as I gave a brief nod and agreed to comply with his demands. He led me back to his men, and I watched as Sébastien took charge and discussed plans with his soldiers. I was aware that this would be risky, but hope welled in me at the increasing thought of being able to return home with Kateya soon.
As I watched, the men rode off out of the darkened forest, and I turned my attention toward the selected soldiers who had been charged with protecting me. Behind me was a cluster of trees with some larger moss-covered rocks in the surrounding area. One of the soldiers approached and escorted me over toward an oak tree near the center of the tree cluster.
The tree we had stopped in front of had a hollowed core, burrowing deep in the ground. He explained to me that I was to crawl inside the trunk and remain in the tree until Sébastien returned. Looking at him, I scoffed, “You want me to sit in an old tree trunk that has a hole in it for the next few hours, as though I am a young child playing in the forest? No thank you, I can stay out here with the five of you.”
At this point, Sébastien’s third-in-command, Geoffroi, approached. Painfully yanking my arm, he pulled me close as he held me against him, towering over me. He looked me straight in the eye as he growled. “Sébastien may listen to your pitiful excuses, but I will not. The hollowed tree is where you will be most protected, so that is where you will wait. No discussion, it’s an order.”
He hauled me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he finished speaking and proceeded to unceremoniously dump me inside the hollowed base. I shrieked before a rough, darkened hand was placed over my mouth, ordering me to be silent.
I freaked slightly at being dumped in the base of an ancient tree. Thoughts flooded my mind. What type of animals live here? What if I get bitten by a poisonous spider? Or a snake? How long do I have to be here? Why aren’t they hiding? A dark shadow scared me out of my thoughts as, to my horror, I discovered they’d placed one of the larger rocks at the base of the tree trunk. Wonderful. Now I’m in the dark too. And what if no one ever finds me? I sat like this for a time, trying to calm down, a prayer falling from my lips.
I awoke, unaware that I had let myself fall asleep to begin with, the smooth interior of the tree firm against my back. My concept of time had completely vanished and as I peered out from behind the moss-covered rock, I could slightly discern hints of golden hues peeking through the trees, indicating sunset. We had arrived mid-morning, which began to worry me, because it should not have taken that long to retrieve a pendant. Even though Sébastien had mentioned the village had recently been occupied by Nordak, I couldn’t imagine what was taking that long.
As soon as these thoughts began to cross my mind, a shout sounded out from the forest. The shout was not the victoriously triumphant shout I had been waiting to hear since I’d been placed in hiding. It was a disgruntled, pained shout that rang with a warning of danger. The ground began to tremble under the hooves of battle stallions while metallic clashing filled the previous silence of the forest. I trembled and pressed myself further back into the hollowed tree for the first time since I’d been thrown in. I was grateful that I was relatively hidden as the sounds grew closer to my hiding place.
Groans and cries of pain filled the air as the fighting seemed to progress, covering more and more ground in the forest, the overwhelming stench of iron seeping into every pore of the tree trunk. I knew Sébastien had placed his five most trusted men in charge of protecting me, but I was not exactly sure where they were at the moment, the fighting not yet in front of me based on the sounds of it. I grasped the leather handle of the dagger attached to my side, holding it in front of me, even as my body flattened itself further into the shadows.
Suddenly, the stone that had been covering my hiding spot was pushed away with a grunt. Geoffroi peered down at me, sweat dripping from his curls. He urged with a heaving voice, “Go! Run! As fast as you can. Run far away and don’t stop running until you hear nothing behind you!”
I looked at him, no doubt with questions written across my face. “Sébastien specifically said not to leave here until he himself told me it was okay. Are you certain? I think staying here might be a better idea.” As the last word left my mouth, an angry shout came rushing toward him.
I watched as he shifted in front of me to fight off the attacker. His brown fur trembled with rage, a furious snarl released from within him as he mauled the soldier in front of me, blood splattering across his fur and dripping down his fanged teeth. I pushed myself back against the other side of the trunk hard, shocked as I watched him dash off, leaping onto another enemy, blood matting his fur as yet another soldier went down.
A foreign noise sounded from further up the tree. Then another. A whistle followed by a thud, like arrows hitting their target on the tree trunk. One struck the edge of the hollow, and I checked, praying to see the black and crimson color of the Capetians, but no, I was met with dark blue-ish gray feathers at the tip. I understood now that Sébastien’s directions hadn’t necessarily covered terms of an all-out battle happening where I was hidden.
I peeked out of the hollowed trunk and bit my lip hard to keep the bile from rising up. The scent of blood and death filled my nose as grunts, snarls, and cries of pain reached my ears. Bodies littered the forest ground, mauled into pieces. I searched the area, trying to find where to go. I heard orders being shouted to men on both sides throughout the forest, clangs of metal meeting metal, and a voice yelling, “Run! Run NOW! Fast and hard! Don’t stop!” And I went, fleeing for my life as adrenaline coursed through my body, urging me on.
I ran toward an area in the forest that seemed clear of fighting. I could hear shouts and horses galloping in the distance as I made my way through the thickets. I pushed myself, willing my legs to carry me far away from this scene, branches slapping at my face and arms, arrows whizzing through the trees. The trees began thinning as I continued sprinting, my lungs heaving as I prayed that nobody was following me. That I would make it to safety. Branches and brambles clawed at me as I pushed my way out of the deepest parts of the forest, distancing myself as much as possible from the sounds of battle.
At this moment, I wished more than anything to be back home in Estaire, cooking in the kitchen with Mum or laughing at the bar with my sister, yet here I was, running for my life. There were just a few scrawny oaks in front of me now, before I cleared the forest, so I pushed on. My lungs protested my movements as I began to break free of the forest, my head searching my surroundings for shelter.
The fighting still sounded as loud as before, indicating there was no end in sight. My feet stumbled over a grass-covered rock, forcing me to regain focus and continue sprinting. I had just passed the last line of trees, breaking free of the forest when sharp pain seared through my upper arm, causing me to fall to my knees. Spots bled into my vision as I curled over, a shout screaming from my lips as warmth flowed down my arm, coating my skin in crimson.
Glancing back at my arm, I saw the dark blue-gray fletching of an arrow protruding from my right tricep. The pain had me on the verge of collapsing. I tried touching the arrow embedded deep in my arm, knowing from what Father taught me growing up that it was best to break the shaft, so it was shorter in length, but not remove it without help.
