“Everything is wet,” Paige complained after ten minutes of fruitless searching. “It’s so shaded here the dew stays on everything. Nothing is dry, look…” She snagged a branch in passing and attempted to split it—revealing a fresh-looking center that did not want to break. “I hope the others are having better luck.”
“There’s some light over there.” Ian pointed to some brush in the distance that looked more aged than the rest of the forest. “Come on.”
The two of us trudged after him, pushing past an assault of dense bramble to reach it. By the time we emerged on the other side I had small red lines all across my arms.
They itched like crazy.
Lovely, just lovely. I scratched my bare skin and made a face at nothing in particular. Service in Ferren’s Keep Regiment was nothing like what I imagined. After an action-packed apprenticeship I had expected danger; so far this forest plant was the closest enemy I had encountered.
I kicked out at the nearest shrub with a vengeance and then swore as my foot collided against a large rock beneath.
“Ryiah?”
I looked up to catch Ian watching me with a cautious expression. A couple feet away Paige was pointedly ignoring us both, breaking off branches one at a time.
I made my face blank as I held the sack open for my guard. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Ian stopped what he was doing. “You’ve been acting as though something has been bothering you all day.”
Why deny it? He already knew something was wrong. “The others were talking about me.”
Silence.
I picked up a piece of wood from the ground and yelped as my finger caught on its splintered bark. I yanked my hand away and plucked the infinitely small shard from my skin, watching as a small bead of red settled onto the surface. “Everyone thinks Nyx only offered me the position here because of my new status,” I added.
Ian didn’t look surprised. “I heard.”
Thanks for sticking up for me. “Why didn’t you correct them?” I swallowed and forced myself to ask the question I’d been secretly wondering since I arrived. “Are we… are you mad at me?”
“Ryiah.” Ian folded his arms across his chest. “This has nothing to do with our past. Me saying something wouldn’t change the facts. You are a lowborn who received second-rank status on the same night the prince told his father he was to marry you instead.” The boy took the now-brimming sack from my hands and set his own empty one in its place. “What is everyone supposed to think?”
“Darren didn’t ask Byron to do that.” I felt frustration working its way to the surface and swallowed hard, forcing the anger back. “I earned my rank, Ian, you know that!”
“Yes,” the boy said with a sigh, “and how convenient it was that Master Byron decided to have a change of heart the year of your ascension.”
“It’s not my fault Marius finally talked some sense into the old man!” I felt as if I had taken a punch to the gut. This was Ian. Ian. My former friend, or so I had thought. Maybe he was still mad. Maybe he hadn’t forgiven me after all.
“Why am I being punished for impressing the Black Mage? Why am I being put down for catching Nyx’s eye after I saved her regiment? Why does my new status have to mean anything here? I have proven myself time and time again!”
“You can’t just pick and choose when to play the victim, Ry.” Ian stopped ducking his head to look at me, really look at me. “Yes, people are going to speculate. That’s what they do. But forgive me for saying you received plenty of privileges from your friendship with the prince, too. Or did you already forget how Darren got you a spot on that mission in Port Langli? Or how about the time you woke up our entire camp to yell at him—and were it anyone else Byron would have sent you packing in a minute?” He exhaled slowly. “And do you think the Black Mage would have been quite so eager to point out Byron’s obvious bias unless Darren had drawn attention to it?”
“Ian, I…” My cheeks were in flames. I had received privileges. And here Ian was reminding me how silly I looked complaining over the prospect of one disadvantage when he would have killed to have any one of those. The boy whose heart I had trampled for another. “I’m sorry, I… I didn’t realize—”
The young man held up his hand quickly to show me it wasn’t what I thought. “I know you deserve your rank, Ry, but...” He swallowed loudly. “But the others are going to need a bit more convincing. And in the meantime don’t bite their heads off for talking. Because their beliefs aren’t entirely unfounded.”
I wiped a strand of sticky hair back from my forehead. “Well, now I feel just terrible.”
“As you should.”
I opened my mouth and shut it as I caught his smile.
“I’m kidding, Ryiah.”
I gave an embarrassed shrug. “I guess I’ve forgotten your humor. This has to be the longest conversation the two of us have had in years.”
The boy chuckled. “It is a bit awkward, isn’t it?”
“It was awkward for me.” Paige's voice cut through my delayed response. I gave the knight a half-hearted glare. She was never very subtle.
“So…” Ian said.
“So.”
“You and Darren.”
“Oh…” I paused. “That.”