The boy cleared his throat uncomfortably. “The non-heir turned out to be full of good intentions in the end. I can’t say I saw that coming.”
I shifted my feet guiltily. “I did… and then I didn’t. He’s…” I didn’t know how to say it without making the conversation worse. “He’s complicated.”
“You could say that.”
I cringed and hastened to explain. “But he wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t always do it the right way, but he has good intentions.” I cringed at the use of the same phrase as Ian. It made Darren sound so… complicated. Complicated? I had already used that word too. I was floundering here.
“I think you will be good for him.”
My gaze shot up to meet Ian’s. “T-thank you?”
“I’m not just saying that to be nice.” The mage’s eyes bore into mine. “You didn’t grow up at the palace and spend your days wasting away in a convent. You will be able to advocate for others, affect policy…”
I laughed nervously. “You obviously have not spent much time with the royal family.” King Lucius couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as me, and I wasn’t so sure his eldest didn’t want me dead, despite whatever his brother claimed.
“Ryiah.” Ian shut his eyes. “You convinced Darren to marry you. You have influence whether you want to believe it or not.”
“He’s not the heir. He can’t—”
“Won’t you at least try?” My friend’s voice became increasingly strained. “Or does the lowborns’ cause no longer concern you now that you are not one of us?”
That hurt. Ian knew full well that neither of us had been “lowborn” since our apprenticeship. “O-of course it does!”
There must have been something in my voice because Ian immediately looked guilty. “I’m sorry, Ry, I didn’t mean—I know you are a good person. I just don’t want this new life of yours to change you.”
“It won’t.” I made myself smile as I reached out to touch his arm. “Believe me, it would take a lot more than pretty dresses—” A foul odor rose up and I wrinkled my nose, peering down at my boots. Horse droppings. I had managed to step into a mound of them, half-hidden by the dense forest floor. “Great, just…” I froze.
Droppings. Fresh—only a couple days old. Ten minutes past the brush where the bandits had supposedly turned around.
I glanced up sharply and took a quick examination of the surroundings, trying to locate any trampled foliage that had not come from Paige, Ian’s, or my tracks.
There. I squinted. There. My eyes locked on some crushed ivy: and there. The bandits had come this way!
I drew a baited breath. “Lord Waldyn’s envoys said their regiment couldn’t find the bandits after two full days’ search. But didn’t their report state they went north, like Sir Gavin’s group? Everyone thought the tracks leading south were too obvious. What if they weren’t? What if it was a ploy?” I pointed to the mound at my feet.
Ian whistled. “The bandits wanted us to assume they took the stream.”
I felt my excitement building. “It’s why the southern trail looked so trampled. Because it was! They didn’t just send a couple men to give it that appearance and turn around at our camp—they kept going: here!”
I was practically dancing in place. Finally. Something to show the others I was more than the girl the prince favored. “If the bandits had circled back they wouldn’t have had reason to create false tracks this far south. My guess is they missed this or ran out of magic and figured they were too far south for us to search.”
Paige groaned. “You mages make everything so complicated.”
Ian gave the knight a victorious grin and hauled both wood sacks onto his back. “Things would be too easy otherwise, my dear.”
The guard scowled and snatched back her sack. “I am nobody’s ‘dear.’”
I waved us forward. “Come on, let’s go see where these tracks lead…”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Paige grabbed Ian’s and my wrists and yanked us back with a heavy tug. “You two will report back to the rest of your camp and let them decide whether to pursue the search now or in the morning. You know Sir Gavin will have my head if I let the both of you recklessly wander off to hunt the bandits on your own.”
I made a face. We were already three days behind the bandits’ progress. “It’s not reckless. Lief said we could go in pairs and we’d only be scouting—”
“But Sir Gavin said you mages shouldn’t be doing anything the soldiers can handle on their own.”
“They sent us for firewood,” Ian offered. “We are short-handed, we’d be doing the rest of them a favor.”
“I am sure your leader will have a different priority for tracking criminals.”
The two of us gave loud sighs as we followed Paige back to camp. She was right, of course, but I was itching to prove myself to the rest of our party. I chanced a glance at Ian and his expression mirrored my own.
“Feels like the old times, doesn’t it, Ry?”
I smiled. Not yet. But I expected it was about to.