Chapter 16 #2
The Prince looked too small for his clothes and too small for his features. There was something underdeveloped about him, like he needed a few more years to truly grow into himself.
“Oh, I would have been robbing the cradle,” Bellamy said under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear. A good thing Freya couldn’t, because she could never hide her laugh. We would have ended up in jail for treason.
Elijah turned, stepping away from the older woman—clearly a part of the royal family, if not the Queen herself, turning back to face us.
A second later, as if in a practiced movement, six soldiers stepped out from the line of people surrounding us, with outstretched arms, offering to help us off our own steeds.
That sparked varying levels of compliance.
Bellamy took a hand, turning over her shoulder to shoot at look of warning at Soren, surely intending to preempt a threatening growl from him while he hopped down off Lucky’s back without bothering to look at the person who’d stepped forward.
Arthur accepted help with a smile, showing a steady confidence that I don’t think he fully realized he possessed.
Freya did her best to hide her skittishness, placing her hand in the soldier’s in front of her. Funnily enough, something happened between them that made him look terrified of her.
I didn’t have to look at Ford to know what he’d done. Similar to Soren, he couldn’t resist the urge to slide in a show of dominance, jumping off Shadow’s back. I bet he barely paid the soldier in front of him any mind—not from outright rudeness but because he was turning to me.
There was no mistaking the searing pressure on my back. The Bond would know Ford’s attention without a single sense to inform it, and attention he gave as I reached to take the hand of the soldier in front of me.
Her eyes were wide, unblinking—neutral only from force. She reached down to look at my outstretched hand, finding the snake of my Mark staring up at her. Quickly, enough so that I knew she was acting entirely on instinct, she jerked her hand away from me.
Her eyes flew up to me next, her jaw slack as she waited for me to…what? Why was I getting this reaction when I was but a faceless Vir soldier to these people, no different than the rest of our unit.
Sure, I had a reputation, but this was something different. I never forgot a face, and I knew I’d never met this woman, but it was clear she knew me.
Add that to the increasingly long list of answers we needed to get from this little visit.
Forced to ignore my curiosity and focus on the task ahead, I turned back towards Sky, making sure he was okay surrounded by so many new people.
I had no plans to leave him—a commonly shared resolve, I realized, when I saw each one of us standing in between the crowd and our individual horses, refusing to let someone unfamiliar touch them.
“There is an open field right behind that building,” Elijah said, voice booming over a suddenly silent crowd.
He gestured with his chin to a sliver of grass peeking through the space between two buildings.
One of which was a pristine shade of white limestone and adorned with an intricately carved facade.
That was surely the center of this town, from which everything else flowed.
Despite Elijah’s words, no one moved.
“By the Goddess,” Elijah cursed, “I don’t know the way your people treat animals, but rest assured, no one here would harm them. Lest you forget they are native to Muli.”
There was something bitter around the edges of his tone, clearly residual resentment that animals that were born and bred on Muli had decided to bond with someone from another planet. I’d always thought it was a good thing, further proof that we were all the same at our core.
“Thank you for the assurance, Elijah,” Bellamy said, even as her knuckles grew white from the strength of her grip on Clover’s reins. “I’m sure you’ll understand our desire to see them well before our meeting.”
Elijah paused for a moment, before dropping into a dramatic bow with his hand slung over his chest. It was his horse that took action, trotting right up to Lucky and Clover and jerking his head toward the open field.
Lucky harrumphed, surely not at all pleased to be ordered around, even if they were kin.
A flash of white broke across everyone’s vision—Starlight.
Freya took several steps towards her horse, hands out in a last ditch attempt to grab her reins. Everyone froze, unsure what the massive beast would do.
Little, we all soon realized, besides happily bouncing off in the direction that Elijah’s horse had motioned.
At someone they trusted moving, the rest of our horses bounded off after Starlight, taking our packs with them.
Right.
Well, I sure hoped Elijah included our belongings in the declaration that our horses were not to be harmed.
With them out of the way, that opened up the unavoidable next step—formally meeting the Prince.
Following Bellamy’s lead, with her chin high and shoulders pinched, we all stepped forward to meet the person who would lead this planet for the next generation.
The young prince’s eyes turned shrewd as he took each of us in, though I wasn’t sure if it was pointed observation or arrogance.
His shoulders rolled under a heavy fur draped over them, shining a rich, gleaming brown that made me hope that it was made of synthetic fibers and not skinned off an animal.
Those eyes continued their path over each of us, taking special note where our skin was inked with a black as pure as the day it was pulled out. A little quirk threatened the corner of his mouth, restrained but there.
As observant as he was, I was better.
Eventually, after several drawn out seconds that were certainly intended to assert dominance, the Prince’s eyes drew over to Elijah. “Your descriptions were quite accurate, General,” he said, his accent even posher than the man he addressed. “Particularly the murderous gazes. How exciting!”
Either this near-child was playing up the pompous royal act, or he put the majority of the Vir royals to shame with his attitude. Even Bellamy straightened the barest bit, and she was from a family of some of the worst culprits.
“Prince Caspian,” Bellamy began, her words crisp and clear. I was pretty sure I heard a gasp from the crowd in response. Goodness, I needed to know the messaging these people believed about us. “Thank you for the invitation. I always find conversation to be much more productive than letters.”
“Ah yes,” Caspian responded, “Too much editing in the written word. Can never tell whether it’s the true spirit of the author or something that has been passed through many different hands.”
Ford’s hand brushed mine, and despite the tingling that erupted over my skin, I caught his meaning. This kid is really something.
I smiled despite myself, only managing to stop it before I bared my teeth. Not soon enough, apparently, because the second that grin curved my lips, Caspian’s eyes shot to me.
Looking right over Bellamy’s shoulder, Caspian took a step towards me. “I must say, though I was looking forward to meeting my once-promised bride,” Caspian’s eyes bounced to Bellamy for just a moment, “It is you, dear, that I have been most interested in.”
My mind took off like a racehorse, covering every possibility in his meaning in an attempt to regain my bearings. Even then, my instincts kept me straight, kept my smile in place, as I said, “Why am I here, if not to appease your interest?”
Caspian’s face lit up with an open-mouthed smile full of glee. He clapped his hands together once before tucking them under his chin. “Oh, you’re fun. Come!” He turned away, taking off in a quick stride toward the well-adorned building to our right, with little care to see if we followed.
It was his companions that took on that responsibility, the older woman offering a kind smile and a subtle nod of her chin.
Caspian’s guards took a second to watch us, making sure we weren’t about to launch an arrow into his back in revenge, surely.
When they were satisfied, they followed their prince.
It was Elijah, of course, who hung back the longest, waiting until Bellamy and Soren had begun to follow to join us. I caught Anya whispering something to him as she passed, and Elijah’s only response was to narrow his eyes slightly. Interesting.
“You might want to look a little less excited,” Ford said, his hand hovering over my low back with all the electricity of an exposed wire. His head had dipped to speak into my ear, his nose pushing through my hair to brush over the upper curve of my ear.
Apparently, my ears were highly sensitive and a surefire way to make me lose all sense, because instead of pulling away like I should have, I simply turned my head towards him, our cheeks all but sliding together.
“We’re spies,” I said, my cheek pinching with small smile and brushing against Ford’s growing stubble. “There’s just so much to spy on.”
I felt his answering chuckle down to my very soul, the heady vibration peeling back another layer of the defense I’d so carefully laid. A temple eight years in the making, felled by the tiniest of tremors.
And yet, the Bond or my mind or some combination of the two was pulsing with trust, casting a light on Ford as my solace in this unfamiliar territory. It was survival instinct, surely.
He was still a threat to my livelihood, just less of one. I would do well to remember that.
The Bond’s disbelieving laugh echoed through my head, though it sounded suspiciously like my own.
The crowd parted for Caspian as if he was a ship passing through water, their eyes dropping to the floor in a subtle bow of respect. They softened for the older woman, who’s identity I would be quickly seeking out.
They narrowed on Elijah, some mixture of unease and awe. Expected for a general, the right hand of the Prince himself. I could sense that he felt their attention and didn’t appreciate it, puffing his already well-built chest out even further.