Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Rankor
She was warm.
I had grown so accustomed to the chill in the air during our journey that it was strange to now have the warmth of a body pressed against mine.
A very small body that smelt far too much like vanilla.
She’d been about as thrilled by this arrangement as I had been.
When she’d led the princesses to us, Myla screaming in excitement before throwing herself into Kent’s arms and Ezmie already complaining about getting dirty, Ayanna had scanned over the horses and immediately deduced where her place was.
Then she planted her feet, crossed her arms, and opened her mouth to start protesting.
Kent had thrown the young girls onto their horses, hiding his grin as he did, and started moving the party towards the road before Ayanna could get out a single word.
For a moment, we stood staring at each other. She’d leveled those green eyes on mine and sneered while I’d crossed my arms firmly across my chest, silently daring her to say something.
Our standoff seemed to last for an eternity, but eventually she’d sighed, thrown herself onto the horse and waited silently for me to mount behind her. Her back had stiffened as I did, and I don’t think she’d relaxed an inch in the hours that followed as we rode towards Eagirton.
“You’re holding the reins too tightly,” she criticized suddenly, her voice haughty.
I jolted at the sound of her voice after so long spent in silence.
“I am not.”
“You actually are, though.”
“Would you like to take over?” I snapped.
She shifted, the motion rounding her hips against mine and—
Gods. It had been too long since I’d bedded anyone, and the last thing I needed was this self-righteous wisp of a woman grinding against me.
“Sit still,” I hissed into her ear, her dark hair brushing against my jawline.
“Perhaps you should allow me to take over. I would probably ride better than you,” she mused aloud.
She was a walking, talking headache.
Elaijah trotted up beside us, leaning over to look at the reins grasped within my fingertips.
“Your knuckles are turning white,” he observed, dryly.
Ayanna grinned at him before glancing wickedly over her shoulder at me, as if to say, See?
“Oh, piss off, the both of you!”
Elaijah laughed, looking towards Ayanna. “I apologize on behalf of my brother for his gruffness. I wish I could offer you an explanation, but it’s essentially a character flaw of his.”
Behind me, I could hear Kent’s sigh of exasperation as Ezmie began questioning him about whether we were almost there, how much longer this would take, if we were going to be staying at a tavern, and how it was unreasonable to demand a princess sleep on the ground.
Good.
If I had to endure the know-it-all in front of me, then it was only fair that he should have to suffer the spoiled princess behind me.
“Your brother is exactly what I expected him to be,” Ayanna answered, before her hand smacked down on my left thigh, leaving behind a sharp sting. “Although, I thought he would, at least, have better riding posture. He rides unevenly and leans to the left.”
“I do not.”
“You do.”
A growl was building in my chest. “What does a woman who has spent her life with her nose between the pages of a book know about riding?”
She snapped her head towards me, black hair slapping against my neck as she did and flooding my senses with vanilla. “Apparently, more than a soldier in the king’s army.”
“General,” I bit out. Usually that distinction wouldn’t matter so much to me.
She trailed her eyes down my frame. “If you say so.”
That hair smacked against me once more as she turned back to the front.
I shifted my weight, desperate to avoid being slapped with its feathery touch a third time and she snorted.
“There you go again, leaning too heavily to the left.”
Gods help me. “Stop talking.”
She moved once more, her thigh brushing against mine and this time I smacked my hand down over the top of her thigh, pressing down to hold her in place.
“And for the love of all that is good in the world, stop moving.”
“If a bird were to fly down from the sky right now and pluck my ears out I would thank it,” I complained to Antoni, before shoving another piece of overcooked rabbit into my mouth.
He grunted in agreement, his eyes watching the argument between Ezmie and Kent with undeniable disdain.
Elaijah shifted on my other side, shoving a stick towards the fire to keep the flames alive. “She is...”
I chuckled at his voice trailing off. “I warned you.”
He glared at me from the corner of his eye. “You did not.”
Ezmie stomped her foot, bending to pick up a log and awkwardly chuck it at Kent’s head. It fell to the ground two feet in front of her. The two of them just stared at it for a moment.
“That was not very mature,” he commented.
“I am a princess!” she shrieked, her child-like voice dangerously close to a wail. “I will not sleep on the ground like a common pauper!”
“For Gods sake,” Michone groaned, massaging her temples. “Why doesn’t he just use his powers to calm her down?”
I snickered. Dragons were temperamental at best, but worse during the years when they weren’t quite children but not yet teenagers.
The last time Kent had tried to calm her magically, she’d shifted in an instant and uncontrollably started spewing dragonfire at us.
Then she’d tried to fly off only to fall asleep mid-flight and come crashing down onto a building.
The repairs had taken months.
For such a small girl, she shifts into a surprisingly large monster.
“Trust me,” I mumbled, picking at the dirt under my nails. “It wouldn’t help.”
“What are you four whispering about?” Ayanna demanded, approaching from the left.
She’d found a stream to rinse off in some time ago. Her black hair hung damply, and she twisted it around her fist, wringing it out so tightly that a stream of water trailed down her forearm. I watched those tiny droplets travel, noticing the way dampness stained her clothes.
Elaijah jerked his chin towards the argument before offering Myla a bite of his rabbit. She grinned and took it happily. The smaller of the princesses, at least, found this all to be a great adventure.
“Ezmie isn’t happy with our lodging for the night,” he explained.
Ayanna’s expression darkened, her eyes rolling impatiently. She faced the twins, pointing towards the hill that led to where she had bathed. “You two go wash up now. The sun will be setting shortly.”
There was no room for negotiation in her tone. Kent’s sisters only looked at each other before nodding and jumping to their feet, hurriedly making their way to the water while Ayanna turned her attention to Ezmie.
“I’m not sleeping on the ground,” the princess insisted to her instructor, crossing her arms petulantly over her chest.
Ayanna only mirrored the stance. “Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not—”
“Young lady!” Ayanna’s voice snapped out, so firm and unyielding that Ezmie’s jaw snapped shut.
“I do not recall asking. This is the situation at hand and a princess should know how to be a leader during even the most difficult of circumstances. Would your brother be throwing a childish fit like this?”
Ezmie’s chest rose and fell, but she pressed her lips together even as her eyes flashed golden.
“I didn’t think so. Now, if you do not wish for this night to be made any more difficult, I suggest you thank Kent for helping you set up your bedroll, sit down, and eat your dinner quietly.”
Everyone in our group stilled. A chunk of rabbit meat hung from my hand inches away from my open and waiting mouth. I’d never seen anyone talk to Ezmie like that.
Surely, the princess was going to shift...
“Thank you, Kent,” Ezmie muttered before marching to sit herself down on her bedroll. Patrek tentatively reached over to offer her some meat, his fingers shaking as if he thought she might bite them off, but she only accepted the offering and began eating without another word of complaint.
Kent watched it all wide-eyed, hands on his hips and brows lifted appreciatively.
“Damn,” Antoni whistled, when Ayanna turned that heavy stare back towards us. “How did you do that, and will you teach me?”
Ayanna turned her narrowed gaze to him, and he muttered out an apology, suddenly becoming incredibly interested in the laces on his boots.
When she turned her icy stare on me, I did not turn away or tremble under it like the others had. She held my gaze for a long moment, before turning away with a flick of her hair and a disappointed sigh.
The twins, Myla, and even Ezmie all fell asleep soon after the sun went down.
Michone and Patrek sat close to them, watching for trouble while Antoni laid in his bedroll trying to force himself to sleep so that he could take a later guard shift.
Elaijah lingered beside me, tracing circles in he dirt with a misshapen stick.
Kent remained on my right, sharpening his blade with a haunted look in his eyes.
And that damned instructor was still glaring at me from across the fire.
She was seriously starting to annoy me.
She was firm with the princesses, but kind enough to Elaijah, Kent and the others. She seemed entirely single-minded in her dislike of me, and I hadn’t the slightest idea of what I had done to offend her so.
“We will meet with the king tomorrow?” she asked.
Kent shook his head. “We have one more town we’d like to travel through before we return.”
She tilted her head at him. “Why?”
I tossed the rest of my unwanted meat into the flames. “We’ve been stopping at towns along our travels, searching for any Descendants willing to join the army.”
Next to me, Kent’s head jerked up as his focus narrowed in on the instructor. He scanned over her, lips pursing. “Why does that make you so angry?”
She turned her glare from me to him, twisting her hair into a knot and securing it with a hairpin. “You are asking them to join you or demanding it?”