A swarm of bats flew overhead, their loud flapping wings and cacophony of chirps deafening, making me jerk a little in the prince’s arms. I’d heard plenty of bats before but never such a large flock and never so close to our heads. I couldn’t help ducking slightly.
“We have lots of bats around here. They thrive in this area with all the mountain caves. They never bother with us, though. You’ll get accustomed to them.”
I bit my lip to stop from saying that no, I wouldn’t be getting accustomed to them because I wouldn’t be staying.
“How did you come to meet Fowler?” he asked, his voice close to my ear.
I shrugged, gasping when the hard band of his arms circled my waist and pulled me back against him.
“Come now. Don’t pout simply because I uncovered your secret.”
“I’m not pouting,” I retorted, almost tempted to fling at him that he wasn’t as perceptive as he claimed. He hadn’t figured out that I was blind yet.
“Then don’t be reticent. It’s a few hours to reach the palace. Must we journey in silence? That would be needlessly dull. Regale me with your adventures with the prince of Relhok.”
“I’m not here for your entertainment.”
“Interesting. Most people are, you know.”
I leaned away from his mouth. “I’m certain that’s not true.”
“It is. Most people exist for my amusement.”
I snorted. “You’re serious. Is that a requirement of princehood? Spoiled arrogance? I’m glad Fowler is nothing like you.”
I wondered if I would be like this, too, had my parents lived. If the eclipse hadn’t happened.
“Indeed he’s not.” His voice turned to flint at my insult. Apparently I’d hit a nerve. “For starters, he’s lucky if he will live out the day. We might be bringing him to the physician too late. You should consider that, girl . . . consider where that will leave you once your precious prince is dead.”
I knew exactly where that would leave me. It would leave me at the mercy of him.
He understood that well enough, too. His voice felt like a cold winter wind near my cheek. “It would not hurt you to make a friend of me.”
Apparently no longer interested in talking to me, Prince Chasan dug in his heels, and the horse broke into a run under us. I buried my hands in the coarse mane, and held on.
It was all I could do.
EIGHT
Fowler
I FADED IN and out. I knew it was happening, but that didn’t make fighting the thick press of unconsciousness any easier. The pain pushed me into it with a hard, two-handed shove. I tumbled in, the pull of numbing darkness too strong. It continually dragged me back under into nightmares with dwellers chasing me—and worse, chasing Luna, capturing her, grabbing her up in their clawed hands and tearing her apart. Her screams rang in my ears and I wasn’t sure what was real or a nightmare.
I did know that every time I emerged into consciousness, my arm burned with a deep, unholy fire. All movement jarred me and sent agony shooting to every nerve in my body.
At one point, I opened my eyes and it was midlight. I blinked at the milky air as I swayed in the saddle, the soldier behind me the only thing keeping me from falling. A great castle of rock rose up before us, the pale-milk stone etched against the feeble light like something from a dream. A ghost of yesterday when this world was once prosperous and made up of towns and villages and castles that looked out over countryside of fertile fields.
The stench greeted me with all the force of a fist to the face. The reek of urine and cooking meat, unwashed bodies and livestock, mingled into one great maelstrom of stink. In short, it smelled of life.
Our party stood before the gate, waiting as a great drawbridge lowered with a groan. Archers wearing tunics emblazoned with the Lagonian hawks stood along the top of the parapets, smudged shapes staring down through slits in their helmets, their arrows at the ready. The drawbridge struck the ground with a reverberating thud that I felt to my very bones. If possible, the vibration made my head ache harder.
I’d never been to Ainswind before but I knew I was staring at it now, passing through the shadow of the barbican, the horses’ hooves clattering over the bridge that led through the gatehouse and opened into a vast courtyard bustling with people and soldiers. A slapdash assortment of buildings dotted the wide space, some squat and single storied, but most were several levels high. Stalls with vendors hawking wares and pens of animals lined narrow lanes. It was almost normal. A normal that I scarcely remembered.
And there at the far end of the courtyard a castle jutted out of the craggy limestone mountainside, home to Tebald and his offspring.
I’d heard that the city was built right out of the side of a mountain, impenetrable to dwellers, but thought such tales exaggerations. It was impossible to identify where the mountain ended and the castle began. It looked like one enormous white-skinned fortress as big as the sky, stretching so high into the air that my neck had to drop back to take it all in.