CHAPTER 20
Keenan
Having Oliver back was a blessing. Knowing that Queen Arisa might be connected to the bandits was…
Not a curse, because he appreciated the warning. But when he was already suspicious of her motives, it increased his uneasiness. Especially now that he had her daughter tagging along on this ridiculous quest. To help.
Keenan resisted the urge to scoff. The idea that the princess knew her way through these mountains was ludicrous.
Her determination to push her pampered self through the trip was admirable, but he needed to reach the plains in the center of Ryuni.
She wasn’t going to persuade him of her usefulness by sending him toward Daraigh.
He snorted. Unless this was her attempt to send him back where he came from, despite the embrace earlier. After all, her mother couldn’t force him down her throat if he wasn’t around.
Tough luck, Princess. He couldn’t go home until he freed Liesl from whatever trouble she was in.
As the day passed, the downhill slope became steeper. Eventually, they reached a point where Princess Sakura called for a halt. Keenan wanted to ignore her, but he forced a smile onto his face instead. “Tired already, Your Highness?”
She lifted her chin. If she’d been a young Daric woman in the markets of Hartford, he would have expected her to roll her eyes.
But the perfect princess never did anything so ill-bred.
“I can ride all day. But it is not safe for either Aya or me to traverse this slope mounted. Therefore, if you would help me down, I will lead her.”
Keenan tried to keep his eyebrows from rising. He had gathered that she was fond of her pets, but he hadn’t expected her to consider their well-being over her own comfort. Somehow, he didn’t think Queen Arisa would have cared.
Knowing what she wanted this time, he stepped forward and reached his hands toward her waist. A few feet away, Mori provided the same service for Kasumi, while Oliver stood back and watched calmly.
The princess glanced over at Keenan, then fixed her eyes straight ahead again. “It would be faster to alter our course now. You can see the path only worsens ahead of us.”
She might be too perfect to roll her eyes, but Keenan wasn’t. “Perhaps if you hadn’t brought a horse, it wouldn’t matter. Or you could just return to the castle where you belong. I certainly won’t stop you.”
Her pretty lips pinched. “You are unlikely to reach your goal without my assistance. So I will be staying.”
“That eager for my hand?” he asked sarcastically.
The loose rocks shifted under her foot. Keenan caught her flailing arm, and she latched onto him, leaning against his support as she regained her balance.
“Can you deny its usefulness?” she calmly replied, adjusting her grip to his hand. “Thank you for the offer.”
Keenan stared at her as she continued down the slope, using him to steady herself. Was she being deliberately obtuse? Surely she understood that he’d been talking about the proposed marriage.
He decided not to press her on it. After all, he didn’t believe she was any more interested in the idea than he was. Best to just let the subject be and hope she dropped the act. This journey would be frustrating enough without her throwing herself at him constantly.
The princess didn’t release him when they reached the bottom of the incline. Keenan tried to pull away, but her grip was stronger than he had expected.
“May I have my hand back?” he sighed. Not that her small, soft hand was unpleasant. “It’s much easier to walk with it free.”
She raised one perfect eyebrow. “Did you not offer it to me a short while ago?”
Mori’s chuckle sounded somewhere to the right, but Keenan ignored it. “Not really. And wouldn’t you rather ride since the ground isn’t as steep now?”
Closing her eyes, she tilted her head as if listening, then turned so that she was almost facing back the way they had come. “There’s no point. It won’t be long before we have to turn around, and I should let Aya rest before she has to climb back up.”
He shook his head. She was dedicated to selling her story, he’d give her that. Hopefully, she was less dedicated to the Princess Sakura is in love with Keenan line that everyone at the winter castle seemed to support.
Good thing the queen had only offered Liesl’s location as a reward for retrieving the tinderbox. He didn’t want to argue his way out of a wedding.
“My hand?”
Princess Sakura flicked her eyes over him before releasing him as if burned. “Of course. Your hand should be free to protect whomever you choose.”
Increasing the length of his stride, Keenan hurried to put some distance between himself and his unasked-for companion. When he heard the clip-clop of approaching hooves, he glanced over his shoulder with a frown. But it was only Oliver.
“I have not seen the princess in several years, but she does not seem quite herself,” Oliver quietly observed. “I overheard a strange conversation before inviting myself on this journey.”
Keenan motioned for him to continue.
“You agreed that the queen is untrustworthy. What about her daughter?”
“Everyone in the castle treated me like a prince and acted like she and I were an item.” He shook his head. “Everyone except the princess. But it seems to have infected her as well now.”
Oliver’s brow furrowed. “Everyone? And the princess is altered?”
“It felt like it. As for the princess…” He looked back, watching Princess Sakura pick her way across an old rock-slide.
She paused to lift the end of her skirt, lamenting over some dirt while Kasumi listened patiently and Mori walked alongside with a stiff expression.
“I don’t know what she’s up to, but she doesn’t like me and never has. ”
The memory of their hour reading in the library drifted through his mind, but he shoved it aside. She must have misunderstood the librarian. She wouldn’t have let him stay if she knew he could leave.
The older man frowned. “Then be wary. The treasure you seek may be more valuable than the queen would have you believe.”
“What do you mean?”
“Later.” Oliver’s eyes darted back to the rest of their group, who were closer than before. “The fewer who know, the better. And if the princess knows, she should not know that we do.”
Well, that wasn’t cryptic at all.
Since Oliver wasn’t the type to give in to badgering, Keenan let the subject drop. The ground leveled out, making hiking easier for about half an hour. But then it dropped off in a wide, deep gorge with no clear points of descent.
“As I said. This way is impassable.”
Turning from his perusal of the landscape, Keenan restrained his irritation at the faintly triumphant expression on the princess’s face. He was stuck and she knew it.
Ignoring her, he peered down the gorge’s course to the right. It angled northwest as far as he could see, which would take them in the wrong direction. Or they could go—
“I would suggest east,” Oliver murmured. “It’s just as likely to delay us, but the princess suggested it some time ago.” His eyes narrowed a fraction as he examined her. “Perhaps she knows something we don’t.”
Keenan pulled the map out of his pocket and handed it to Oliver. “Maybe you should lead. I clearly don’t know what I’m doing.”
The guard quickly examined the piece of leather. Rolling it back up, he stuffed it into his saddlebag and bowed politely to the princess. “After you, Your Highness.”