“Save it, Sage,” he said coldly.
There was a long pause while she studied her hands in her lap.
“Guess who else I found with us?” he said finally.
Nicholas. She wondered if he had been discovered or if he’d given himself up.
“He swears he acted on his own,” Alex continued. “But I find that hard to believe, given how the pair of you worked together to hide for so long. I wonder if the Casmuni would’ve abandoned their hostage had it been him.”
Alex didn’t know she and the prince were responsible for their escape. Yet.
His next words were so low she could barely hear them. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Well, thank the Spirit for that.” The relief in his voice threatened to break her.
Sage took a deep breath to stay in control. “Have you found them?”
“No, they’re gone. They took their weapons and your knife.” Alex rose to his feet. “And now that you’re awake, we need to leave before their friends come looking for revenge.” He reached for the tent flap. “Get your things together.”
“Alex.” He stopped and looked back at her. “I really am sorry,” she said.
There were so many emotions in his eyes, she couldn’t begin to separate them.
“So am I.”
44
HUZAR WAS READY. The moon was waning, but every day increased the risk of being caught. They couldn’t wait for a fully dark night, just the next time part of the Norsari went on patrol. He would divide his men and attack the group when they were a few miles away from the camp, forcing the rest of the soldiers to come to their assistance, and take the prince while he was relatively unguarded.
A diplomatic party was traveling down the Jovan Road, and was no threat, but it caused a delay when part of the group left the road to visit the Norsari camp. Another company of soldiers was coming south from Tennegol as well, but Huzar suspected they were headed into Tasmet. When the diplomat stayed only a day and camp activity immediately picked up, indicating a patrol, Huzar told his men to be ready. Quinn himself led the expedition, and it was larger than all the others before. Perfect. It was astonishing how quickly everything fell apart.
First, the Demoran prince disappeared. He’d never been known to go on a patrol, but the morning after Quinn left, the boy wasn’t seen going to the river as he did every morning and evening. Huzar decided to wait a day, on the off chance the prince had gone along. If so, the Kimisar could attack just them, and it was better to let them get farther away in that case.
Then Quinn went into the desert. Huzar wasn’t willing to follow him where there was nowhere to hide. Plans changed to attack the regular roaming detachment when it approached instead, but the prince still did not appear. By the third day, Huzar concluded the boy had gone with Quinn.
Shit.
The delay wasn’t a disaster, but the Kimisar were getting anxious. Many grumbled at how the lives they’d built in Demora the past year were preferable to returning home. If Huzar dispersed them temporarily, he wasn’t sure he’d get everyone back. Far be it from him to force men who had been otherwise abandoned to return, but it risked exposing them all.
Then the army company on the road turned east rather than going through the Jovan Pass. Whether it was on the way to the Norsari camp or following the diplomat didn’t matter. It was close enough to change the numbers that were already against the Kimisar. The regular roaming detachment came and went. Dispersing was rapidly becoming the better option.
Huzar was one hour from giving the order when an observer from the far side of the river came running. Quinn had returned.
The roaming squad was still within reach, and the company on the road was at least two days out. The prince was spotted among the returning platoon, which looked exhausted. The night would be solidly dark with the new moon.
Now.
45
THE NORSARI GROUP made it to the river as the sun sank behind the mountains. Sentries from camp met them at the tree line and walked with them to the water, giving Alex a few updates on what had happened in his absence. It was a short list.
Colonel Traysden hadn’t arrived yet, which gave Alex at least a day to explain everything to his officers and piece together what exactly had happened in the desert.
Lieutenant Casseck waited on the riverbank. Alex stepped off the rowboat and wearily returned his friend’s salute. “Sergeant Carter passed through two days ago, and he’ll be back probably tomorrow,” Cass informed him as they walked up the hill together. “He said to tell you ‘Not a ripple.’”
Ash had found nothing. Alex kept it to himself that there might be waves coming soon. He took time to clean himself up, shave, and get a bite to eat before summoning Sage, Nicholas, and the officers to the command tent. He hadn’t discussed the events in the desert with anyone yet, but now he’d bring Casseck and the other lieutenants into the loop. Gramwell came in last, his shaggy bronze hair dripping onto his fresh shirt.
Sage and the prince stood at attention. Cass raised his eyebrows when Alex put them at parade rest rather than direct them to sit when the officers did. Sage was silent, her face blank. She’d also washed up and was now wearing breeches and a clean, light-brown overshirt that came to her knees. Her remaining dagger was hooked to her belt on the right side. The thought of her being dragged across the sand with her own knife to her throat made Alex sick. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if she’d been hurt or kept as a hostage. Or maybe he did know, and he just didn’t want to think about it.
Full explanation of the situation could wait until Sage and Nicholas had told their stories and were dismissed. The prince started, once again insisting Sage had nothing to do with his sneaking into the desert mission. He also asked that Harold not be punished, as the other squire had been afraid of disobeying a royal. Alex believed him but still considered Sage to be his inspiration. However, as the prince had so rarely accepted responsibility for his mistakes before now, perhaps not all her influence had been bad. Sage said little other than that she’d also acted on her own in coming along.
Alex took over the conversation then, telling Cass and the others how they stumbled across the lost Casmuni pair and held them after a brief fight. “They acted compliant until last night, when the wind blew a lantern over and set a bunch of tents and bedrolls on fire, and the Casmuni took advantage of the chaos. Mistress Fowler happened to be near them, and they managed to get her knife and free themselves—”
“That’s not what happened,” Sage said abruptly.
Something in her tone—or rather what it lacked—frightened him. There was no trace of emotion whatsoever. Alex frowned and sat back in his chair. “Then by all means, please describe what happened, Mistress Sage.”
She raised her gray eyes to look straight at him, fully meeting his gaze for the first time in weeks.
“I cut their bonds and set them free.”
46
FOR A MOMENT he was sure he hadn’t heard her correctly. She couldn’t have said what he heard, but then Casseck’s and Gramwell’s jaws dropped in shock. Tanner, Hatfield, and Nadira glanced at one another in confusion. The prince didn’t look surprised at all.
Alex jumped to his feet. “YOU WHAT?”
“She wasn’t alone,” said Nicholas. “I set the fire as a distraction.”
Alex was around the table and towering over her before he knew it. “Why in the name of everything holy would you do that?”
Defiance sparked in her pale eyes. “Because holding them was wrong.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Alex stormed back and forth in front of her, throwing his arms out and trying to keep his voice down. “You don’t have half the information I have.”
“Half of your information is wrong.”