"It is when you are making the girl I love cry." Ian lowered his voice. "I thought I respected you, Darren, for what you did back at the palace… Do you even know what Ryiah went through out there? Did you even stop to ask? Or did you just assume she traded the information for an easy surrender?"
He took another step so that he was in Darren's face, forcing the prince to take an uncomfortable step back. "She was tortured, Darren. I let…" He swallowed. "I let Merrick strike her with an axe four times before she finally gave up the information! The healers spent three days attending to her – or did you fail to notice she was in the infirmary? She's not a coward – and you are certainly not the friend you claim to be if you punish her for what any Combat apprentice would have succumbed to." His voice thundered across the hall as he asked his next question: "Or do we need to see how long you would last under an axe?"
****
I didn't wait to hear what Darren had to say. I didn't wait for Ian to come find me. I left the room not caring that the others could see me crying. I heard Ella call after me, and Alex shortly after. But I kept running. Past the barracks, past the village and its busy merchant-laden streets, I kept running until I was sure they had given up following me.
I continued on four miles up the winding hillside trail until I was back at the lookout Alex and I had been stationed during the mock battle. There was two guards actively serving as sentries inside but I chose to ignore them as I sat down a couple feet away, dangling my feet over the edge of the high cliff.
Then I cried. I let the angry tears waste away until there was nothing let but a crippled set of lungs – too hoarse and too dry to do anything but breathe in and out the night sea air.
CHAPTER NINE
It was our third night camped out on the King's Road on our way back to the Academy. I was supposed to be sleeping but instead I was wide-awake listening to two hushed voices outside of Ella's and my tent. At first I hadn't minded. Ella and Alex deserved their privacy… But then the conversation had turned to me.
"She has barely talked to anyone in days."
"Didn't the prince apologize? I thought Ian said that he was right there when Darren found Ryiah and apologized in front of your entire faction the next morning?"
"He did. But she's still upset."
"What does she still have to be upset about?" was my brother's incredulous response. "Darren made a mistake. Honestly, most princes never even admit that much."
Ella was quiet. Then, "I think Darren hurt her more than she is letting on to the rest of us."
"But why?"
"Do you remember our first year during the hazing? How upset she was?"
"So?"
"Well, I've never told you this but Darren kissed her shortly before-"
"He did WHAT?"
"Sshhhhhh. You don't want to wake her!"
"But she – he - I'll kill him!"
"Alex," my friend said sternly. "You will do no such thing."
"Does Ian know?"
"He does. It's why he took so long to court your sister – but I'm afraid he might not have waited long enough."
"Why?"
"I think she might be in love with Darren."
There was a strangled yelp on my brother's part, and then Ella continued quietly. "It would explain why she hasn't been acting like herself. If she didn't care for him I believe she would have already forgave him for what happened at the feast…"
I couldn't take it anymore. I hauled the tent flap open and glowered at the two who had nothing better to do than gossip. "I am not in love with Darren!" I told them angrily. "And I will prove it!"
Before they could stop me I had crossed the divide to the boy's camp and started ripping open tent flaps. "Where's Darren?" I whisper-shouted.
"Ryiah?" Ray croaked. He was in the third tent I had awoken in my rampage. "What is happening…?"
"Where's Darren?" I repeated. My voice was deceptively calm.
"H-he's two tents down." The third-year yawned.
I released Ray's flap and marched right over to the prince's, not caring that I had woken up half the camp in the process. When I finally reached it I yanked the fold across and snapped, "Darren, wake up!"
I had the pleasure of seeing the dark-haired prince jump out of his roll, clutching a dagger against his chest. He was half-dressed – in loose-fitted breeches and no shirt, so that my eyes were unable to escape the rapid heaving of his well-toned chest. A strange chill ran through me and I squelched it immediately, reaching in to grab the prince's arm and drag him out of his bed.
Half the camp was standing or peering out of their tents by the time I had pulled him into the center of the meadow to face them.
"What are you doing?" Darren hissed.
"Is everyone awake?" I shouted to my audience, ignoring him.
A series of curses answered me. The non-heir looked down at me in shock. His eyes said it all: What is this crazy girl doing?
"Good, I-"
"Apprentice Ryiah!" Master Byron roared, emerging from his tent, furious. "Go to bed at once!"
"I just need to say one thing first, everyone needs to hear this."
"NOW! Or I will have you dismissed from this apprenticeship for disobeying the Code of Conduct!"