“Some,” she said. “He said he had a rough first couple of years.”
“That’s an understatement,” Cass said dryly. “He got on the wrong side of some bad people right away, and every time new boys arrived, he’d get in a fight over how they were treated. Took a beating for me my first night.”
“Is that how he made friends? By taking their initiation licks?” Sage tried to sound disdainful, but in truth she found it admirable. And unsurprising.
“Pretty much, though I don’t think making friends was his goal. He was only doing what he saw as right. After a while he had a whole lot of us standing up for the new boys. Strength in numbers.” Cass smiled. “Picking on anyone involves finding their weak point. For some of us it’s more obvious than others.”
“So what was yours?” He was thin now, and Sage had little trouble imagining a young Casseck as all elbows and knees capped with a mop of blond hair. “Were you skinny?”
“I was, but my biggest sore spot was my first name.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Sage suddenly realized she didn’t know it. “It must be awful.”
“Alex is the only one I won’t punch for saying it,” Cass said. He turned his face to gaze down the gentle slope of the valley to their left. “Bit surprised he never told you, though.”
Sage didn’t want to think about things Alex left out. “You can tell me. I won’t laugh or tease you.”
He didn’t look back. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Now I feel challenged.” It felt good to smile.
He sighed, his expression settling into something she couldn’t decipher. Finally he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Ethelreldregon.”
“Merciful Spirit!” She looked away, putting a hand over her mouth.
He waited several seconds as her shoulders twitched. “You can laugh already.”
“I … don’t … want … to,” Sage managed in a strangled voice. A few titters escaped.
“Yes, you do.”
She shook her head, looking at the trees and the mountain peaks to the west, then down to the ground. Everywhere but at him. “Did your parents hate you? Is that why you ran away and joined the army?”
“Well, even a traveling circus wouldn’t have me with that name.”
That did it; she burst out laughing. “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I promised I wouldn’t!”
“Don’t fret, I knew you were doomed to fail.”
Sage wiped her eyes and yanked Shadow back onto the road before she could get to the patch of grass she’d been aiming for. “So how did that happen?”
“My older brother was named after our father, and it was another eleven years before I came along,” he said. “My parents assumed there would be no more opportunities, so I was saddled with a combination of both grandfathers: Ethelred and Aldregon.”
“Well, they had to be honored. Understandable.”
“And ironically unnecessary. I have three younger brothers, remember?”
“Oh, no!” Sage put her hand to her face and giggled.
Casseck shrugged. “I’m over it now, but it was hell to live with as a kid until I met Alex. Anyone who tried to make fun of me caught his fist. My weakness became his own, and he conquered it.” Cass paused and looked out over the columns of marching soldiers. “And that’s the way he is with everyone.”
Sage glanced ahead. Alex rode stiffly, like he couldn’t relax. Had he heard them laughing? He didn’t have to be jealous; she’d rather talk to him than Casseck. She reached up to brush hair away from her face and remembered with a jolt how much of it was gone. Her stomach rolled over. “What’s his weakness, Cass? Is it me?”
His blue eyes followed her gaze to Alex’s back. “You are his greatest source of strength.” Cass smiled sadly. “But yes, that also makes you his weakness.”
*
It was an odd mixture of memories to travel as they did. Being in the woods and sleeping outdoors reminded Sage of her father’s work as a fowler. Often the pair of them had gone for days without seeing another person, but that was the way Father liked it. He said animals were more predictable when they weren’t around humans.
In riding on horseback with a company of soldiers on a road, however, it was more like the journey to Tennegol with the Concordium brides last spring. Except this time Alex wasn’t at her side. Back then, the man she’d thought was the captain had kept his distance as Alex did now.
So much the same, and so different.
Alex pushed to get at least thirty-five miles per day at first, often marching the men till it was nearly dark. Without stopping long enough to hunt, they relied on their food supplies, but the pace would slow once they left the main road. The weather was fair, so in the evenings they slept under the stars, not bothering to set up tents. Sage puzzled over Casmuni pronunciations while sitting by the fire late into the night. Her list of translated words and phrases grew steadily, and she wondered how much progress Clare was making.
Spirit above, she missed her. Why couldn’t she have thought of a reason for Clare to come along, too?
Most of the time Sage rode with Nicholas. She didn’t know him well, so the first few days were spent getting past his haughty attitude. When she finally resorted to the threat of an unsatisfactory progress report getting him sent back to Tennegol—which she was sure Alex would approve, if it got rid of her, too—the prince shaped up. A little.
It wasn’t long before she understood why his Kimisar language instructor and other tutors had made so little progress. The majority of his lessons had been based on written material, and as she’d suspected, things became muddled between reading and remembering, just like with his sister Carinthia. Fortunately, after almost a year of working with the princess, Sage had a good idea of how to reach Nicholas.
“What’s the point of learning a language no one on this side of the mountains speaks?” he complained at first. “It’s not like I can use it.”
“That’s been the problem,” she snapped. Alex’s cold shoulder and the prince’s whining made her short-tempered. “You can’t remember anything because you’ve never spoken it. Besides,” she continued a little more calmly. “It often falls to the younger royals to meet with other nations. You could be negotiating treaties in a few years.” Sage decided not to mention that often included marriage.
“Really?” He sat a little straighter in the saddle.
“Of course,” said Sage. “But only if you’ve mastered the language.”
Nicholas made much quicker progress after that. It felt good to succeed at something.
The Norsari left the Jovan Road on the eleventh day and headed south, toward the Kaz River. Two mornings later, Alex skipped exercises at dawn and let everyone rest. After breakfast he called Ash Carter and two officers to saddle up to ride ahead with him.
“Why?” she asked Cass, since Alex never looked at her.
To her surprise, Alex answered, “There’s someone out there.” He nodded to a thin line of smoke in the distance.
Sage frowned. “And you need to investigate?”
Alex shook his head. “Should be Rangers.” He exchanged a knowing look with Ash Carter.
Men stationed on the border with Casmun. “May I come?” asked Sage. “Please?”
She expected him to say no, but he instead he paused in preparing his horse to look at her, as if really seeing her for the first time in days. Sage was suddenly conscious of her short, messy hair and how long it had been since she’d bathed.
His face softened a little. “All right. You have ten minutes to be ready.”
23