Chapter 6
Iwas up early the next morning to meet with the guards. I knew damned well Esylle and the girl knew how to hide. I was also pretty sure Belisarus had terrorized the kid into it and that was the real reason she didn’t want to sleep inside the palace. I knew we needed the guards, but I had my reservations about putting five soldiers around that girl.
Esylle was widely considered one of the most beautiful women on the mainland. I agreed with them, but that wasn’t the reason I’d been secretly in love with her this long. Sorcha looked exactly like Esylle and she’d never been around men before. Well, she had, but Belisarus and Frog didn’t think about her like that. I certainly didn’t because Esylle was it for me and Sorcha was way too young. Joron lost his wife when Esylle was born, but he looked at the girl like she might be his granddaughter. And she honestly might be.
Any soldiers we brought would be respectful of Esylle because of her station. Even if they secretly lusted for her, they’d never slip and let their future queen see that. Sorcha would just be some strange girl from Idric Island until Belisarus told us for sure she was or wasn’t Lisana.
A good soldier would do their duty and get us there and back with minimal questions. Men joined the military for a variety of reasons in Nestran. Sometimes, it was to feed their family, others because they wanted to keep the peace and not have another war, and some joined because they wanted to hurt people and not end up in the jails.
The five guards were lined up to meet us and I knew all of them. Mafir, Kibal, Alirak, and Bastan were good men. They were loyal and I could count on them to possibly not comment on Frog and do the job they were assigned to do. They came from poverty and didn’t give a shit about the tensions between the humans and the tribes. They were just trying to survive in the world the Barons had created.
It was the fifth guard, Tollam, that I worried about. Joron didn’t pick this one. Tollam was one of Folcard’s men. Joron asked me to look into it and I could never prove it, but we suspected he was manipulating things on his lands so the humans living there would end up desperate. He could swoop in and promise relief if families promised him their sons he had handpicked for his swords.
Folcard had the most land out of all the Barons and he also commanded the largest number of men. He didn’t let just anyone join like the other Barons. He wanted them massive, or he wanted them mean. Tollam wasn’t big, so he made up for it in cruelness.
Sorcha had a mouth on her like a Guttertown pickpocket, but she didn’t actually have much experience with men. I didn’t even know where the kid picked up any of those words because Belisarus never used them the entire time I’d known him. That didn’t mean she was prepared to be around a man like Tollam. I didn’t even want him around Esylle, I disliked him that much.
I wasn’t sure how much they knew. I knew Folcard had ambitions to see himself and his line on the throne. Tollam could just be here to spy or he could be here to make sure none of us made it back. He’d return with some story about how we were attacked by the tribes. Folcard would try to make himself king and he’d use the lie to start another war to try to wipe out the tribes.
I sighed because there wasn’t much I could do about Tollam coming except watch him and possibly slit his throat in his sleep if I thought he was dangerous.
“Some of you may know that a girl arrived here yesterday. It’s possible she may be the Princess Lisana. She has a message from Esylle’s old tutor. Esylle’s tutor is too old to travel and wants her to come to Idric Island so that he may give her a message in person. We don’t know if this has to do with Lisana and where she has been for so long. The girl doesn’t think she’s Lisana, but she’s related to the royal family somehow. You’ll see when you meet her.
“The girl has a strange traveling companion she’s very protective of. Please don’t approach or talk to him. Your job is to protect both of them until we get to Idric. The girl says she doesn’t want to make the journey back with us, but may change her mind if she finds out she is Lisana. Since we don’t know very much about this girl, protect her, but please don’t approach or talk to her.
“She’s never left Idric Island, and this place makes her uncomfortable. Please don’t add to her discomfort. Please do not discuss this mission with anyone, nor who this girl may be.”
I may have screwed up whatever Joron had told the Barons, but it needed to be said for everyone’s safety. Mafir, Kibal, Alirak, and Bastan were Joron’s men. They were loyal to him and Esylle because they had given them reason to be. If they thought Sorcha was Lisana, they would protect her.
The Barons thought it was this big secret they intended to breed Tempris powers out and put a human on the throne, but everyone knew. The joke was on them. All the humans lived on their lands and had to deal with everything that came with that. I saw how bad things were and what people really thought when I got banished to Guttertown. A lot of the humans thought things would be better if the Tempris had more power and the Barons had less. Not all humans, but a good bit of them. Mafir, Kibal, Alirak, and Bastan felt that way and if they thought Sorcha might be Lisana, they’d watch her when I couldn’t.
When I went to fetch Esylle, Sorcha, and Frog, I walked into something. It was tense and a little warm in Esylle’s chambers. Sorcha didn’t want to do something again. And since she reminded me a good bit of Esylle, even though she hadn’t been raised here, I was guessing it was going to be difficult to get her to do it unless we gave her a logical reason for doing it.
“I just asked her to put one of my dresses on and pack a few for the trip. We’re the same size and she can’t be seen in those robes.”
“You’ve seen me make my own clothes. Why can’t I make something I’m comfortable in? Your clothes look like I wouldn’t be able to breathe in them.”
“Do you still not understand? You need to look like a regular human girl, which means dressing like Esylle. You can’t go making clothes out of nowhere in front of these soldiers.”
“Why can’t I make clothes like I saw on Idric when I was leaving and just say I want to change without an audience?” she snapped.
“You think Esylle changes with an audience? You can’t make clothes while we are leaving. You need to pick out dresses and pack. Stop arguing and stop being a child. Surely, you knew things would be different when you left Idric. You’re an isolated island, and you grew up never able to leave the house.”
I honestly hated snapping at her. She would have already known all of this if Belisarus had taught it to her. I could see she was angry with me, but she never once lost control and let her hair or eyes slip. Her jaw tightened, and she followed Esylle to look at dresses. She had only lost control and let herself slip when I threatened to hurt Frog. That wasn’t really a slip. She revealed herself deliberately. That boded well for this long trip we were about to take.
Esylle and Sorcha came back out with a sack packed with the dresses she had chosen and Sorcha had changed into one of Esylle’s gowns. Seeing her now in Esylle’s clothes, the girl reminded me even more of Esylle. Esylle had chosen simple house shifts that were appropriate for a princess, but didn’t have corsets and would be easy to travel in.
I led Esylle, Sorcha, and Frog down to the stables, where the guards were waiting with horses. I could see them all staring at Sorcha. It wasn’t just that she was just as beautiful as Esylle. They were practically identical. Everyone took in Frog and then looked away. Except Tollam. Tollam looked like he could barely contain himself from bullying the strange frog man. I didn’t know if I felt much better when he fixated back on Sorcha.
I could tell from how he was looking at her that he was attracted to her. He looked like he was undressing her with his eyes and she didn’t even seem to get what that meant. Did Belisarus not even explain that to her? He wasn’t even looking at me and I was very much a man, and it was making me uncomfortable. Sorcha seemed more worried about the horses than how this foul man was looking at her.
“You can’t take horses to Idric,” Sorcha said. “They won’t fit in any of the boats that go back and forth.”
“Are you suggesting we make the princess walk, little girl?” Tollam sneered.
He was full on leering at this point and I really just wanted to hit him in the face. Some boy had treated my younger sister this way, and I wanted to beat him, too. My parents tried to tell both of us he was only treating my sister badly because he liked her, but I was also a stupid boy. He treated her like that because he didn’t respect her and thought women were just for babies and bedding.
And if she actually understood what was happening right now, she didn’t show it. If Tollam had ever set foot in Guttertown, it was to visit a brothel where they were going to kiss his arse because he had money. I don’t think he’d ever been cursed out by a woman in his life. She didn’t have to make a big show of magic. She just had to unleash that mouth again. She didn’t. She seemed more concerned about getting back to Idric.
“I walked here from Idric,” she said, calmly. “It’s not logical to bring horses because you have nowhere to leave them when we take the boats and you’re just going to lose them. You’re wasting perfectly good horses.”
“Someone will keep them for us when we tell them who we are.”
“No one lives out by where the boats run on your side. Idric and Nestran don’t really trade. The boats carry people who want to leave Nestran or people who want to leave Idric. There is only one house where the boats run and the boatman lives there. Trust me, he doesn’t give a shit about Nestran royalty or military enough to care for your horses and he’s not going to have anything to feed them. You’re going to come back to half-starved horses who can’t make the journey back. You shouldn’t risk the horses.”
“That’s what horses are for,” Tollam snapped. “They exist to push themselves so we don’t have to.”
“Sorry you’re a lazy bastard who can’t walk himself, but the boatman is also from Idric. They eat horses on Idric. You’d basically be bringing him enough meat to last through the winter. And it’s fucking weird a soldier is whining about a little walking more than a princess.”
Esylle hid it, but I fell out laughing and so did the rest of the soldiers with us. I still thought she didn’t understand how he was looking at her or what he wanted to do with her, but at least I could count on that mouth, anyway.
The stable hands came to get the horses to bring them back, and we all started walking. We were mostly following her since she knew where the boat was and how to get there without running into one of the tribes.
“What I want to know is what you said to get everyone to agree to this journey. Or did you just use your face and the fact that you happen to look like the princess to get your way? How do we know we can trust you?” Tollam sneered.
I wasn’t sure where he was going with this. He would have known what my family did. The Barony passed to my sister and men were salivating for her hand and title. My family had a decent amount of gold and lands, but we made our money studying the tribes. I didn’t just refuse to carry on the trade. I destroyed any of the journals to teach anyone else what we had done so it stayed dead when I refused.
I’m pretty sure everyone thought my refusal was just some phase until I destroyed everything. That was when I was banished to Guttertown with nothing but the shirt on my back. They’d never admit it, but Barons had very few real world skills since their servants did everything for them and the taxes they collected kept them comfortable.
I’d still be figuring out how to survive if not for Joron. Everyone knew my story. Joron earned my loyalty and even if someone thought I was a traitor to my own kind for that loyalty. Tollam knew damned well that if I was involved in this and Joron let his only child leave, then the girl with us was safe. Joron needed his heir and if anything happened to Joron and Esylle, I’d be back in Guttertown in an instant. What game was he playing?
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. “You’re a soldier and you aren’t acting like it.”
When we finally stopped for lunch, all the guards except Kibal set off to hunt and Sorcha left to gather things to eat. Kibal stayed with Esylle. I warned her to be careful while we were out there with their bows. This girl and her mouth.
“I’m wearing a bright-purple dress. If you assholes get me confused with a deer, you should probably learn to forage like I do because you’re terrible hunters.”
I smiled when she disappeared. I was starting to like this kid. She had spunk. I lost track of her. We were all tracking a rabbit into the brush. All of our arrows seemed to miss the rabbit. Sorcha might be onto something about some of us needing to forage instead of hunting. Tollam was enraged about the whole thing and went charging after it. He ran straight into a bear and fell down. The bear was towering over him and Tollam was lying on his sword. The bear let out this fearsome roar, and I was certain he was able to kill Tollam.
While we were fumbling with our arrows, a giant black cat nearly knocked me over jumping into the fray and tackled the bear.
“Fucking shit,” I swore.
I knew it was Sorcha, and she thought she was doing good saving us. The bear and the cat tumbled into the brush and I could hear howling and animalistic screams of pain. When they stopped, I thought Sorcha would know better to go back into the woods and hide, but wanted to make sure she was okay.
I told everyone to stay back as I went into the brush. The bear lay dead and Sorcha lay passed out, intertwined with the bear. I went to pick her up and intended to carry her further into the woods until she could wake up and heal herself. Could she even heal this? The arrow wound was minor, but she was covered in blood and had deep, clawed wounds across her chest. This would kill anyone else. I didn’t know enough about her.
I noticed the brush stir and all five men were behind me staring shocked at the small girl wrapped up with the bear and covered in blood.
“What is this?” Alirak asked.
“Did she save him?” Bastan asked. “What is she?”
I sighed as I picked her up and carried her into the clearing since they knew about her now. I laid her down and got a good look at her wounds. I was shocked she was still alive, they were that bad. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain this. All five men looked down at her and only Tollam seemed suspicious and afraid. The rest just seemed curious. Bastan thought we should keep her warm and said he was going to collect wood and get Kibal and Esylle.
I didn’t know what was said to Kibal and Esylle, but they came quickly and Esylle fell to her knees and pulled Sorcha’s head into her lap. Esylle was crying, looking down at the gashes on the girl’s chest.
“You were supposed to be protecting her! How did this happen?” she asked, looking to me for answers.
“Princess, we don’t know what she is yet, but she saved Tollam’s life. He ran right into that bear, and we couldn’t get to our arrows in time. The bear would have killed him. We don’t know how she is still alive right now or what she is, but she’s a hero.”
“How could you let her do that?” Esylle hissed at me. “You know what’s at risk!”
“I couldn’t stop her. She must have been near us and seen what was happening. She nearly knocked me over and it was already too late.”
“What is she?” Alirak asked. “She looks like the Princess, but we just watched her transform. She saved Tollam and risked her life doing so, so she doesn’t want to hurt us.”
“I made sure she wasn’t here to hurt anyone when she first showed up. Just know, she is a very special girl. She is probably stronger than the five of you combined, but I asked you here to protect her because she needs it. She knew she wasn’t supposed to reveal herself like this, but she did it anyway and got herself hurt because she saw one of you was in danger.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Alirak asked, kneeling by her and feeling Sorcha’s forehead. “We should do something before this gets infected and really does kill her.”
“We should just let her die,” Tollam finally said. “Nothing about her is natural and she shouldn’t exist.”
Mafir, who rarely spoke, drew his sword, shoved Tollam into a tree, and held his sword at his neck. “You would be dead if it weren’t for her! Your life was saved by a small girl. She could have easily let you die instead of exposing herself, especially the way you’ve been speaking to her.”
“I could have handled it myself. I didn’t need some freak to involve herself.”
“How were you going to handle it?” Mafir yelled, jabbing his sword into Tollam’s chin. “You were laying on your sword. I don’t know what she is, but we are not going to kill her if she makes it through this!”
“She’s dead, anyway. Just look at her. We should just find lunch and leave her. I’m hungry.”
I wound up pulling Mafir away from Tollam because I was sure he was about to drive his sword through his throat. Before any of them could say anything, Bastan came back with wood and knelt by Sorcha and Esylle, who still had her head in her lap. He started building a fire and Esylle kept crying and telling me that she felt cold. I was starting to worry. She was able to survive the arrow and heal herself, but it had only pierced her arm. It was nothing like the deep claw marks across her chest and on her arms now. I didn’t know what would happen to Esylle if she died and Belisarus’s message was that she was, indeed, Lisana.
I didn’t want the kid hurt either. I was growing fond of her. I didn’t know what she was, but I liked her a lot better than Tollam and I knew damned well he was human. Why couldn’t she have just let the bear kill him?
I knelt by Sorcha and couldn’t feel her heartbeat through her chest because of the deep gashes. I put my head on her stomach and could feel her breathing. Her breathing was heavy, as if she was asleep, not that she would slip away from them at any moment.
Tollam stalked off and told everyone if we weren’t going to find food, he would find it himself. I knew bringing him was a mistake and his rashness while they were hunting had caused this. It was too late to send him back because he already knew about Sorcha. I knew he wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. Mafir and Kibal came and sat by the fire Bastan had started next to Sorcha. Bastan told them he knew of herbs that may prevent infection if she pulled through and disappeared. I still didn’t know if we would need them and if this was something she could heal from. There was still so much we didn’t know about her.
I finally remembered Frog and thought to ask. Frog hadn’t said anything since he appeared with Esylle. He was sitting next to Esylle with his small arm on Sorcha, looking despondent.
“Can she heal this?” I asked. I didn’t know why I didn’t think to ask Frog earlier.
At first, I thought Frog wasn’t going to answer. He looked down at her, depressed.
“I’ve never seen her injured this badly before.”
“Did Belisarus say anything about her healing ability?”
“We’ve already answered that question.”
Bastan showed up and began to make a poultice. I didn’t know if it would harm or hurt her and initially stopped him from applying it to her wounds.
“I don’t know if she’s going to wake up. You don’t know anything about her. If she does wake up, she’s going to need this if she can’t heal. We may have to stay here and take care of her,” Bastan said, applying the poultice.
I looked down at Sorcha, even more worried that she never stirred as it was being applied.
Just then, Tollam appeared with several rabbits and set to skinning them without speaking to any of us. He refused to look at Sorcha at all.
I was fairly certain Tollam was going to have to have an accident, and everyone would have my back on the lie.