CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Just remember, we’re meant to be a pair of carefree young nobles out for a ride in the countryside,” Alaric says, as the two of us ride on borrowed horses beyond the city.
We’re dressed in wealthy garb and I’ve used ash to darken my hair, while Alaric has used illusion to turn his blond and slightly alter his features.
“I know the parts we’re playing,” I say, as we ride out through the lands beyond Aetheria.
“Really?” Alaric says, “Because you seem to be having some trouble with the ‘carefree’ part of all this, judging by your expression. Anyone who sees us will assume we’re in the middle of some deep quarrel.”
He’s right, of course. I can feel my face locked into a deep scowl, my anger and worry etched onto my features.
“It’s just… I can’t believe Marcus is going to this meeting. I can’t believe he’s involved in all this,” I say.
Alaric raises an eyebrow. “Can’t you? Or do you just not want to believe that the many you were engaged to marry would do this to you? Are you that willing to ignore his faults, Lyra?”
There’s a sharp edge to his question. Even now, I can hear the jealousy in Alaric’s tone.
“She’s connected to the empire that destroyed his family,” I say. “Marcus used to be the one calling for Selene’s death.”
“Well, maybe you don’t know him as well as you think,” Alaric says. “Maybe he was fooling you from the start.”
That suggestion hurts, because what if it’s true? What if Marcus was only ever using me, only ever manipulating me? I don’t want to believe it. I want to hope that whatever was between us was real, but I have no way of knowing for sure.
Maybe some of my pain shows on my face, because Alaric winces in turn. “I’m sorry, Lyra. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I sigh. “We might not be able to manage playing a carefree couple, but we seem to manage a fighting one easily enough.”
Alaric smiles that beautiful, arrogant smile of his. “Just so long as we’re also on the verge of making up in the most passionate ways we can both think of.”
I have no doubt he fully intends to make good on that suggestion, and the thought of it makes heat rise in me.
“Later,” I say. “We’re out here for a reason, remember.”
The reason being that we need to scout the Salis estates before we can infiltrate them. In the middle of the city, we both already know every twist and turn of the streets, both know the best ways into and out of any situation. Out here in the countryside, we need to be better prepared.
So we ride across the fields beyond the city, watched by the farmers who work them. It’s easy to spot when we reach lands owned by a noble family, because instead of small fields with a few farmers working them, there are plenty of servants working in neat rows to gather grapes in a vineyard.
“These are the Salis estates,” Alaric says, gesturing casually towards a house in the distance.
It’s a large, sprawling villa, with room to host dozens of guests.
Because it’s outside the city, it’s the kind of place that might go untouched by city guards.
The kind of place where Selene can do what she wishes, and where we might be killed without anyone ever realizing if we’re caught.
Alaric and I ride along the tracks near it, finally coming to a halt atop a nearby hill near a couple of standing stones that have almost been worn away to nothing by time. We hobble the horses and lean back against them, looking out at the villa and its estates.
“We won’t be able to approach until it’s dark,” Alaric says. “If we’re bringing enough people with us for a raid, they’ll be spotted in daylight, and that will give Selene enough time to escape.”
“Or plan an ambush to kill us all,” I point out. Alaric looks almost casual, lounging against the stone, but I can see the alert ways his eyes roam over the surrounding countryside, picking out the details along the way.
“Or that,” Alaric admits. “Although I like to think I’d survive any petty attempt through sheer brilliance and wit.”
“Of course,” I say.
“It’s you I’m worried about.” Alaric sounds serious.
“Are you going to try to talk me out of this again?” I ask. Alaric seems to alternate between seeing how vital I am to this mission and wanting me to stay in the city where it’s safe.
“Would it work?” Alaric asks.
I shake my head. “I’m going. And don’t try to tell me how dangerous it is to go near Selene. She hates you as much as me.”
“Hates? Probably,” Alaric says. “But she fears you, Lyra.”
A part of me still finds that difficult to believe, even with all the things I’ve accomplished, the enemies I’ve defeated, the dangerous situations I’ve come through. I have more power than any beast whisperer alive today, but a part of me still doubts the former arch-magistrate is troubled by me.
“I doubt she’s quivering in her sandals at the thought of me,” I say.
“Then you haven’t been paying attention,” Alaric replies.
“From what I hear, Selene was hunting and killing beast whisperers just to prepare for you. She’s tried to recruit you to her side because she thinks you’re the next most powerful magic user in the Republic.
She’s had to run from a fight with you. Selene fears you, and that means she’ll stop at nothing to destroy you. ”
It shouldn’t surprise me. I already know Selene and I are enemies, and that she’ll kill me, given the chance. But it hadn’t occurred to me she might actually be afraid of me.
“We need to focus on how we’re going to get people in there,” I say, trying to bring Alaric’s attention back to the task at hand. “See that stand of trees? Maybe we can use that as a staging point.”
“There are dog kennels not too far away,” Alaric points out. “If the hounds scent us, we could have every private guard the Salis family’s hired after us.”
“I can stop them from reacting,” I say. It’s one of the things that makes me perfectly suited to this raid. “And look, that river is close enough to the villa for us to move along the banks and avoid being seen.”
I start to pick out the route any group will need to take, crossing the fields, making it to the woodland, slipping unnoticed through the river. We’ll have to go up over the walls, because it’s better than trying to fight our way inside through the gate, but I’m sure we can manage that.
“We need to plan for every eventuality,” Alaric says.
Before, he was saying he would rely on his natural brilliance to carry him from danger, but when it comes to the lives of his followers, I suspect he’s determined to be more careful.
Or maybe it’s just because my life is on the line alongside his.
“Such as?” I ask.
“Let’s start with what happens if this goes wrong. How many guards are there in and around the villa?” Alaric asks me.
I reach out with my powers, looking through a dozen sets of eyes at once.
I am the mice in the grain store, the birds flying overhead.
There isn’t the same sense of them avoiding the area I’ve had around Ironhold when Selene is there, but that may just mean she’s elsewhere for now, only planning to show up for the meeting.
“Perhaps a dozen in total,” I say.
“Plus whatever the guests bring with them, but I wouldn’t expect more than one bodyguard a piece,” Alaric muses. “There’s a chance Selene brings more with her, of course.”
“And the guests will have magic of their own, and maybe experience in violence,” I point out. Selene wants to create a version of Aetheria where those with the most magic rule. It makes sense most of those attending her gathering will possess powerful magic.
Is that why Marcus is attending? His control over the weather is impressive, enough to guide a merchant fleet safely to a foreign shore or summon lightning ready to fling at his foes.
That power makes him exactly the kind of person Selene might want to recruit to her cause.
Is this going to be like when she invited me to her gathering in Ironhold, an invitation to join the new order backed by the threat of violence? Will Marcus be in danger?
I’m still pondering that when I hear approaching footsteps and the sight of the birds above lets me see a couple of the Salis family’s guards approaching.
“Guards,” I whisper to Alaric, but he doesn’t respond by readying himself to fight. Instead, he kisses me, pressing me back against the stone I’m sitting against, his hand just starting to reach up for the strap of my dress. Under any other circumstances, I would melt into his touch, but here? Now?
“What are you doing here?” a rough voice demands.
Alaric breaks off his kiss with obvious reluctance, spinning around with a look of annoyed embarrassment spreading across the illusory features of his disguise.
“What does it look like I’m doing, you common born idiot?” Alaric snaps, his arrogance as sharp as any blade. I guess the point of it is to keep the other man off balance, not giving him any time to look at me properly. “Can a man not enjoy himself in the open air without interruptions?”
I don’t have illusions to hide me, so I keep my head down in what I hope is a look of embarrassment, pulling my dress carefully back into place in what I hope is exactly the kind of gesture the noble I’m pretending to be would make.
“You’re on the Salis family’s lands,” the other guard says.
“Well, I was hardly going to do this on my own family’s lands, where anyone could see, was I?” Alaric demands.
He glances at me, obviously hoping I’ll play my part.
“Wait,” I say, trying to make my voice sound like the clipped tones of the nobles. “Is that why you brought me here? You said it would be a nice ride out, but we’re here because you’re embarrassed about me?”
“It’s not that,” Alaric says. I swear he’s enjoying this far too much. “It’s just that my father thinks you’re not suitable, and your father thinks I’m not suitable, so-”
I stand up, stalking back to my horse with such a display of pique neither guard thinks to stop me.
“If you’re not even prepared to stand up to your father, I’m going home,” I say, mounting my horse and kicking it back towards the city.
I glance back to see Alaric running for his own horse, riding after me as if he really is some love struck noble youth, interrupted at just the wrong moment.
I make a point of keeping ahead of him until we’re out of sight of the guards.
He laughs as he catches up to me, leaning over to kiss me in the saddle.
“You were brilliant,” Alaric says.
“And you were… surprisingly restrained,” I reply. I was half expecting him to fight.
“Hurting the guards would have just put the others on alert,” Alaric replies. “This way, they just go back to their friends with an amusing story. Oh, the tale of love they’ll tell their fellows!”
He laughs again, but there’s seriousness underneath it. Tonight, we’ll be returning to the Salis villa. If the guards catch us then, we’ll have to fight for our lives.