The guard outside jumped from where he leaned against the wall, but Alex was already down the corridor, going back the way he remembered arriving from. They wouldn’t understand him, but speaking in Demoran might get their attention. “I need to speak with the king!” he shouted.
Something low to the ground snapped out and caught the chain linking his feet, and he crashed shoulder first onto the stone floor. Three men were on him in a second, punching and pinning him down. He saw the blow coming and knew what it would do. Alex opened his mouth to scream his last hope of getting them to listen: her name.
“SA—”
82
THERE WERE NO good choices.
Huzar could surrender to the Norsari and the force that had joined them, he could attempt to push his way through Jovan and then Tasmet and back to Kimisara, or he could try to make his way through Casmun to the southernmost pass.
His men were broken and lost, and the Demorans might have treated them with mercy if Huzar hadn’t just tried to kidnap their prince. The Norsari returned without the boy, and it didn’t matter if he was now in Casmuni hands, the Kimisar would be blamed for his loss. Even the option of returning to the places and employments that sheltered the scattered Kimisar in the past year was gone.
As for Jovan—Shovan, he reminded himself, as he was no longer hiding among Demorans—it would be sealed even tighter now that the Demorans knew the Kimisar were here. If by some miracle they made it through, the last he’d heard, the Demoran army’s headquarters were based in the fortress on the other side. He’d be leading his men straight into the hornet’s nest.
That left Casmun.
Huzar ordered everyone to disperse and make their way nondirectly to the area south of the Kaz River’s first major fork by the full moon. The tactic worked—the Norsari were left chasing so many ghosts that the Kimisar were able to stay one step ahead. Then Huzar led the remaining 141 men into the foothills of the Catrix and followed the mountain range south. The terrain made for slow going, but the Demorans didn’t pursue them.
By the tenth day, Huzar had forgotten what it felt like to walk on level ground, to take a step without wondering if the earth would slide away. Water was scarce in this Spirit-forsaken place. In a few spots, melted snow trickled down the mountainside but most had dried up for the year, and only small rodents and scrubby bushes survived the arid steppes. The starving and bedraggled lot behind him had been further reduced by a tenth. His lost were buried in the shifting slopes of the Catrix, several by nature itself. The most recent rockslide had covered its victims, which was a relief at the time; he’d noted their names and moved on. One hundred and twenty-five remained of the original company, but he’d fought shorter battles with greater casualties.
That’s what this was: a battle.
And every footstep he heard behind him was a victory.
83
ALEX PUSHED THE boat into the water as Kimisar closed in from behind. When he tried to climb in, she pushed him away. I don’t need you to protect me.
Alex shook his head. Let me in, there’s room for all of us.
I can do this myself. She shoved him again, and he stood with his hands up in surrender as the boat slipped away. To her horror, she realized she had a bow in her hands and an arrow aimed at his heart.
I love you, he whispered.
She let the arrow fly.
*
Sage woke screaming, seeing only darkness. Then, remembering where she was, she crawled off the low, wide bed without fully untangling from the blankets. Once free, she stumbled to the door open to the outside. The cool air hit her sweat-drenched nightshirt, refreshing her a little but not enough, and she ran across the patio and was sick in the decorative plants at the bottom of the steps.
She sat back and wiped her face with her sleeve. So much for Banneth’s garden. Sage rested her cheek on the cool stone of the knee-high wall. Was there protocol for vomiting in your host’s flowers?
“Saizsch?”
Her eyes flew open. “Palachessa?”
Lani stepped out of the shadows, pulling a silk dressing gown around her. “Are you well?”
Sage lurched to her feet and found her knees were too shaky to hold her. An arm slipped around her for support. “I’m sorry to wake you,” she mumbled, turning her face away. “I had a bad sleep.”
“I was already awake. Come, I will take you to the fountain.”
Sage let herself be half carried to the center of the courtyard, where a six-foot-high fountain bubbled. Lani set her down on the wide marble edge of the pool and produced a metal cup from somewhere. “Rinse your mouth.”
Sage gratefully accepted and obeyed, spitting into the grass off to the side, then drank what remained in the cup.
“I thank you, My Princess.”
“I need no thanks. It is what friends do.”
A day of shopping and pleasant conversation—under orders—did not a friendship make. Even a few hours in the training arena later did not, especially when one was with a princess. Sage trailed her fingers in the fountain, afraid to ask if Lani meant the word.
“Who is Ah’lecks?” Lani asked.
Sage froze. “How do you know that name?”
“You were saying it in your sleep. Then you screamed it.”
Sage pulled her hand back from the water and fiddled with her cup.
“Is he your lover?”
“No,” said Sage. “Not anymore. And we never…” He’d wanted to wait. There was to be no doubt that he married her because he wanted to, not because he had to.
Lani glanced over her shoulder in the direction of her rooms. “I think I would cry and scream, too, if I lost someone I loved.” There was a long pause. “Why did you part?”
Sage had resisted saying it until now. “He is dead.”
“I am very sorry.” Lani reached across and put a hand on Sage’s knee. “How did it happen?”
When Charlie had died, Alex blamed himself, and Sage had never understood why until now. Even if the duke had been the one to cut Charlie’s throat, it was Alex’s decisions that had put his brother in that room. Sage looked down at her hands. “I killed him.”
“You what?”
“He died escaping Nicholas and me to Casmun.”
Lani shook her head. “That does not mean you killed him, Saizsch.”
Maybe not physically. “I lied to him. Right before the battle, I admitted my betrayal.” Why couldn’t she cry? “I killed his heart,” she whispered.
“No,” Lani said firmly. “He gave his life for yours. How can you doubt his love?”
“I don’t doubt,” Sage said. “But he knew not I loved him still. He knew not I was sorry.”
Lani was silent for a few moments, then she scooted closer to Sage. “Do you know who Tamosa was?”
“Was she Banneth’s queen?”
“Yes,” said Lani. “It was an arrangement neither wanted.”
“Then why married him to her, or not call for a wait?”
“You made marriages in your own country; you know why such unions are made.” Lani folded her hands on her lap. “I think he was afraid to act against the council. I was only six years, so I saw this through the eyes of a child, but looking back, I understand better what that time was like. Our father and two older brothers died in the year before, and our mother only a few weeks after his crowning. He was young and frightened and alone.”
Banneth had been third in line for the throne. “He expected never to be king?”
Lani shook her head. “He was to be a scholar, at the school where his son now studies. I barely knew him, but suddenly he was all I had.” In the starlight Sage could see Lani grimace. “I think this is why he still treats me like a child, despite that I am half a mother to Reza.”
The princess shifted uncomfortably. “I do not know the arrangements in your country, but here it is unusual for a king and queen to have separate rooms. They obviously did their duty, but to the council it was another excuse to pressure him. Even after Tamosa’s death, they pushed him around. Sometimes I think he would leave for months at a time, visiting corners of the country, just to get away.”