Chapter 54
“Robin.” Ian breathed her name like he had been waiting his entire life to say it.
She stood in front of him, her hood thrown back and her hands on his upper arms.
He stared at her for a long moment, taking in every detail he could to make up for not having turned around to see her one last time on the shore.
His eyes drifted over her light hair, braided back out of her face but still wildly untamed with a frizzy halo of loose tendrils.
He wanted to get lost in her earnest eyes as they stared back at him with complete confidence, lit up by the soft smile on her lips.
She appeared ready for action in her well-worn, ever-present trousers under her green cloak.
He had never been happier to see someone in his life.
He felt his entire body move toward her, every muscle screaming for her closeness.
Then she was in his arms.
“You are here,” he said, pressing his head into her neck as he crushed her body against his. He arched his back to protect her injured shoulder but pulled her waist against his.
She held him in return, her good arm wrapped around his back, her hand clinging to his shoulder just at the base of his neck.
“I could not let you do this alone,” she said, her mouth at his ear.
“I have spent years fighting for my people outside these walls. And it has never been enough. So I am here to try it your way, from the inside.” She tilted her face into the side of his head, pressing her forehead against the hair above his ear.
“I let you walk away yesterday because Iseldis needs you.” She sighed, relaxing into his hold.
“But I followed you here because I need you, too.”
Ian let the words wash over him. He would have melted into the ground if she were not holding him as tightly as he held her. “Good.” His voice was likely unintelligible because his mouth was still pressed against her neck. “Because I need you. And your best backup plan.”
Lane coughed loudly from behind Robin. “I hate to interrupt whatever is happening here,” he said. “But . . . there is someone else you might want to see.”
Ian felt a small bubble of laughter rise in Robin’s chest. “Right.” She squeezed him a fraction tighter—which he hadn’t thought was possible given how hard she was already holding him—and then she stepped back.
Ian looked over her shoulder.
Sol stood next to Lane and the horses.
“Brother.” Ian felt tears rush to his eyes. “You are alive.” He wanted to ask about Aizel, but he was so overwhelmed with emotion that his throat was closing up.
“As is Aizel,” Sol said, as though reading Ian’s mind.
Ian nodded in relief.
“They made it to the third ship and disarmed the taskers,” Robin explained. “They landed late last night.”
“Good,” Ian said, swallowing the tightness in his throat.
“He brought nearly forty Majis with him,” Robin continued.
“Wait.” Ian looked over Sol’s shoulder, confused. “Why?”
“To aid you,” Sol said, his face tilted forward in determination. “We met together last night, all of us. Lyra, the villagers from Lockwood, everyone from the ships who was well enough to stand. I told them everything we know. Every man and woman who joined me volunteered to come.”
“Why?” Ian repeated, stunned by this unexpected source of support.
“The fight against Gareth is their fight, too,” Robin said. “They saw what you did on the shore. They believe in Sol. And they believe that helping you is their best chance for freedom.”
Ian felt tears burn in his eyes as his lungs expanded. He lifted his shoulders, humbled and heartened by this show of trust. For the first time, the weight of his responsibility did not feel like it was choking him.
“I left them in the forest north of the castle,” Sol said. “Ulli, Jette, and the others are with me as well.” He turned to Robin. “We are in place.”
“In place for what?” Ian asked.
“For the plan to take back the castle,” Robin replied. She was grinning.
“So what is the plan?” Ian asked, knowing that she was already brewing up the answer.
“How many of the castle guard can we count on?” Robin asked.
Ian dropped his eyes, considering for a moment.
The castle guard, under Onric’s leadership, operated separately from the Iseldan army.
As part of daily life at the castle, they could be counted on to be more loyal to the royal family, but the answer still hinged on whether that loyalty would outweigh their fear of the Majis.
But Ian’s family had not been sharing the truths they uncovered fast enough to lay the groundwork for such a decision.
“A solid third of them,” Peter answered.
Ian looked up in surprise. Robin had not been asking him about the guard.
“Onric has been speaking privately with the men he trusted,” Peter explained, seeing Ian’s confusion.
“He’s been sending them to me in secret to learn about the Majis and Gareth’s true motives.
I have recruited several dozen of them to River’s Talon.
They are prepared to follow Onric’s orders when the time comes. ”
“Then we do it now,” Ian said.
“Now?” Peter lifted his eyebrows in doubt.
“Half the city is up on this hill right now,” Ian said.
“They are worried for their safety, and Gareth has shut them out. If I can get inside and open the gate for Sol, Onric can signal the guard, and Gareth will be forced to respond. We need to force his men to use their chaos magic in front of the people of Iseldis.”
Robin nodded. “Now is not the time for secrecy.”
“I will lead my people to the front gate,” Sol said.
“It will not be an easy fight,” Ian said, acknowledging the gravity of what he was asking.
Sol nodded. “It has never been an easy fight. You stand a better chance against Gareth’s magic wielders with us at your back.”
“Find Ashlin first,” Mistress Cedrice said, cutting in. “She said her discovery was urgent. It might help you defend yourselves against the chaos magic.”
Ian nodded. “Start with Ashlin. Find Onric. Open the gate.”
“Get in the castle,” Robin said, reminding him of the actual first step.
“Right.” Ian nodded. “How?”
Robin folded back her cloak, fumbling at the straps of the satchel she wore over her shoulder.
“Ohhhh,” Lane said, looking at Robin. “Do you think that will still work?”
“Why would it not?” Robin replied, flipping open the flap of the satchel. “It has only been four seasons. If anything, the stone is more weathered now.”
Lane looked up at Ian. “She was going to break into the castle on the night of your ball,” he explained.
“Why would she need to break in?” Ian asked. “That ball was open to everyone.” It had been put on as an attempt to find him a wife and secure the future of Iseldis. He had spent the entire night secretly scanning the crowd to see if she had come. “You could have just walked in.”
“And risk you knowing that I was there?” Robin turned back to Ian. “I think not.”
“Were you there?” Ian asked.
Robin heard the wistfulness in Ian’s voice. “No.” She had not attended the ball, though she had seriously considered it.
She had always known that Ian would marry; it was required of him as the crown prince.
And when he had let her walk away from the castle, she had steeled her heart against the future announcement of his one-day marriage.
Yet season after season had passed with not even a hint of tongue wagging that Ian had a found a lady worthy of his attention.
She had tried not to make sense of it, tried not to analyze or wonder what could have been holding him back.
She had thought about it, of course, but she’d told herself she did not care. It did not matter if Ian ever found his queen because she had no desire to be a queen. That life would make her miserable, and she had always known it.
So when she’d heard a year ago that Ian was hosting a ball to find and choose his future queen, she had not been prepared for the waves of livid anger that broke through her buried feelings.
She had lain awake in Lockwood for nights, dreaming of making a grand entrance. She would arrive well after the ball had started, when everyone was already on the dance floor and the wide doors at the front of the hall would be relatively empty.
She would scrounge up some coin to spend irresponsibly on a magnificent dress, and she would sweep into the room, standing in the doorway—like the queen she did not want to be—and wait in stony silence until every eye in the room was on her.
And then she would spend the entire evening chatting effervescently with every man and woman she could except for Ian himself.
It was a dream born entirely out of childish spite, and she had known it then.
So, she had tempered her plan to a more reasonable one. One that felt more like who she truly was. Climb the wall by the eastern tower. Wear her dark, hooded clothing that blended into the shadows. And watch the evening unfold from afar.
Ian would never know she had been there. She could watch him fall in love or miserably choose some other woman—either option was fine. She certainly did not care. But seeing it happen in front of her eyes might help to close the buried “what if?” that she had never been able to fully set aside.
Fortunately, before she could carry out her plan, Nele had gotten word that Gareth was smuggling in two Majis on an incoming ship. So she had spent that night in the port city instead, smuggling the Majis to safety.
“It was not the right time,” she added. Now was also not the right time to share the thoughts and memories that had just surfaced in her mind. There would be time for that later.
Hopefully.
“Now is also not the right time for whatever this is,” Mistress Cedrice said. “We need to get you inside that castle while Zimri has his hands full with this crowd.” The woman’s soft eyes bore into Robin with sharp intensity. “Now tell us what this plan is.”
Robin pulled two wooden blocks from her satchel.
“Biters.” Ian raised his eyebrows in recognition. “But will they work on the castle wall?”
Robin leaned into the group, instinctively keeping her voice low.
Not that their conversation could be heard above the noisy crowd around them.
“I think so, but not the white wall. There is that section at the back of the castle where the old eastern tower is blended with the newer white stone. The old masonry has a rougher texture.”
Ian nodded. “From the top of that wall, we can drop onto the roof of the barracks and into the back courtyard,” he said, catching on to her plan with his intimate knowledge of the castle.
Robin nodded. “And the barracks will be quite empty while Zimri has all hands on the wall here.”
Ian reached out for the biters. “I will get going, then.”
Robin held the wooden blocks possessively. “I am going with you.”
“Not with that arm, you are not,” Ian replied.
“You and I can climb up first,” Lane interjected. “We will throw down a rope for her and drag her up.”
Ian looked from Lane to Robin. He opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it again and nodded. “We do this together.”
“Together.” Robin held out the biters, then turned to Mistress Cedrice. “Keep the crowd busy for another half hour if you can manage it.” Then, to Sol, she asked, “Is that enough time to get your people into formation?”
“Half an hour.” Sol nodded. “Then we march.”
Lane stepped forward, breaking up the small circle as he handed the horse’s reins to Peter. “Can you see to these two?” he asked.
Peter took the reins with a nod. “See that my daughter remains safe,” he said, looking past Lane to Ian.
“I will,” Ian said in response.
Peter bowed to Ian, bending at the waist in a true gesture of respect. “Be safe,” he said.
Ian bowed his head in return.
Robin looked around the circle at each of them in turn, as she did before every raid.
“Half an hour,” Mistress Cedrice said, stepping forward. “I will see you all at the castle gate.” She squeezed Ian’s arm and then melted into the crowd.
Robin settled her hood over her hair, needing the familiar weight of it before they started this new raid. “You heard the woman,” she said. “Let us raid.”