Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Regret floods my system as my back aches with every movement of my hips atop Merlin’s back.
Gods how I wish I'd made my way to the ground during the night instead of sleeping against a tree for hours. I think Rylan might be wishing I did that too, because when I groan once more, holding my palm against my lower back, his head lulls to the side.
I remember that I have ginger in my new medicine box, but I don’t have any hot water to make a tea to help with the pain.
“So this woman we are going to meet,” Rylan begins, distracting me with conversation, “your brother knew her?”
I nod. “Before I became his apothecary, she was where he got all of his supplies.”
Rylan’s brows furrow as he looks at me. The forest path is wide enough through this section that we can ride side by side. “It’s a long way to go every time you need something.”
I tip my head. “That was likely his sole reason for getting me into it.”
When Rylan doesn’t answer, I glance over at him. “You don’t wonder whether he was coming all this way for something else?”
I instinctively pull on Merlin’s reins, and he slows to a stop. No, I hadn't wondered that. “Like what?”
Rylan’s horse stops on instinct. “I’m not sure.”
I can’t read what’s written on his face, can’t see inside his mind to know what he is thinking. Despite the ruthless hunts plaguing our land, I find myself wishing for a moment that witches really did exist—maybe one of them could tell me what is going on inside his mind.
“The box.” Rylan nods towards the medical box I have fastened to Merlin's saddle. “What is it?”
“You didn’t look last night when you were unsaddling him?” I tease, but Rylan’s jaw tenses and he urges his horse to walk on.
“No, I wouldn’t look through your things, Everleigh.”
I have to kick Merlin in the belly to get him moving again before Rylan leaves us in the dust. He called me by my name. He never calls me by my name.
“It’s a medical box,” I say. “Hazel gave it to me after the shields…” Rylan simply nods in response.
“Were they like that in Zorindale,” I wonder. “Careless?”
He shakes his head slowly. “I can’t remember.”
I hum in response, and then it goes quiet once more.
It seems that whenever we take a step forward, we follow it with a few extra backward steps.
I thought that after this morning, that perhaps things between us might be…
steadier. I trust him. I’m not sure why, but I do.
And I think he trusts me too, enough to tell me about his family, showing me a sliver of where he came from.
So why did he take my jest so personally?
“It’s all I have now,” I whisper, not wanting to sit in the discomfort any longer. “A few mere ingredients.”
He shakes his head ever so slightly. “You say that as if you couldn’t cure an army with a few mere ingredients.” He quirks a brow in my direction.
I huff a laugh. “I couldn’t.”
“You can do a lot more than you think, Everleigh.”
There it is again, my name. And what does he mean? I open my mouth to ask, but I stop myself when I hear a noise in the trees beside me.
My stomach tightens as my senses heighten. My eyes dart between the trees around us, and I try to hear beyond the steady sounds of hooves on the packed dirt. It sounded too loud to be a small animal, but I don’t see anything.
“I think they are conditioned to be that way,” Rylan says quietly, dragging my attention back to him and our earlier conversation. “The shields I mean.”
My brows instinctively pull together as I listen. “I think they are taught as soon as they enter their training that they can execute the king's word by any means. Brutality is simply their favourite form.”
His words soak in, and I allow myself to imagine a world in which Queen Elowen was still alive.
I wonder what it would be like. Would my apothecary be full?
Would Dahlia and Pearl be alive? Would I be travelling through the forest for days with Rylan?
Would I even know him? Would my brother still be here?
I shake off the thoughts as I push my shoulders back. It does no good to wonder—these thoughts are far from the reality we’ve been forced to endure. Nothing can change what has been done, but maybe somehow we could change what is yet to happen.
It’s a dangerous thought, one that leaves me clenching my fingers around the reins a bit tighter.
I can feel him looking at me, and when I glance beside me, I see Rylan watching me, concern and resolve hiding in his mossy green eyes.
“Do you wonder if some people are born that way?” he asks, keeping his eyes on me. “Like the shield who was chasing you through the forest, the one who tore apart your shop. Do you wonder if he was made of evil? If he never had the chance to be good?”
Words slip from my grasp as sorrow shines in the golden flecks of his eyes. I'm not certain that he’s truly talking about the shield, not after what he shared with me about his father mere hours ago.
“I think everyone has the chance to make their own choices,” I say, his gaze watching my lips form each word. “Bad people exist everywhere. Just because you were made from one doesn’t mean it is your fate.”
His lips part like he’s about to respond, but the only noise I hear is the metallic ringing of a sword being drawn.
Merlin rears backwards, and I cling to his mane hoping to stay in the saddle. Rylan’s horse tosses its head and moves back, and when Merlin's front feet hit the ground, my eyes fall to the path in front of us.
Two men, their broadswords unsheathed and levelled at us, block our path.
Rylan reaches over and pulls on Merlin’s reins, dragging me closer to him. He lets go once our horses are as close as they can be with our legs between them, and holds up a wary hand.
“We mean you no harm,” he says, his voice steady. “We are simply passing through.”
I can’t help but notice the way that the man on the left’s sword shakes, like he’s never held the weapon in his life.
“We can’t let you do that,” the man on the right yells.
“We have silver,” Rylan says. “Let us pass, and we won’t mention it.”
The two of them exchange a glance, as if debating whether to take the coin and go, but the decisive shake of one's head has them facing us again, both of their eyes set on me.
“The healer is coming with us.”