CHAPTER 30
Keenan
It was all part of the queen’s unfathomable plan. It had to be. The princess wasn’t interested in a common weapon-smith from Daraigh; she was just getting better at pretending.
Much, much better.
Keenan didn’t take a deep breath or slow his steps until he was safely out of sight of his companions.
Running a hand through his hair, he flopped against a tree and groaned.
How had his life become so complicated? All he wanted to do was craft beautiful weapons, but somehow he’d ended up in a foreign kingdom on a strange quest to let him rescue a prince’s sister-in-law while a princess made eyes at him and he tried desperately not to fall for it.
And he was failing miserably.
“Why couldn’t she be as arrogant as she seemed at the castle?” he asked the gently waving branches. “It would be easier if she were.”
Except even at the castle, she hadn’t been completely aloof. She’d been amused when he spit tea all over her. Her veiled comments had hinted at a sharp wit. She’d let him stay in the library after gaining permission for him to leave.
“Maybe she’s a more nuanced actress than I give her credit for,” Keenan mused. “She could have been letting me glimpse fake moments of vulnerability to appeal to my protective reflexes without putting me on my guard by being obvious about it.”
But in that case, why had the queen been so blunt in her intentions? Talk about putting him on his guard…
His mind drifted back to Princess Sakura’s revelations after their dip by the waterfall. The queen’s actions made even less sense in light of Ryuni’s laws and her response to the princess’s prophecy. Keenan wasn’t a soldier, but he was still common.
So he couldn’t be more than a friend to the princess, even if the ardor in her black eyes had been real.
Shoving off the tree trunk, he walked toward a lower-hanging branch and snapped a twig with two large blossoms. He slowly twirled it between his fingers, studying the delicate petals.
A friend could give a flower to a friend, couldn’t he? Especially during a celebration of said flowers?
He looked over his shoulder, gazing toward the spot where he’d left her. Then he tucked the twig into the back of his belt where his arm wouldn’t damage the flowers and strolled back through the trees.
He flexed his hand, resisting the urge to pull at the bottom of his jerkin. It was a gesture of friendship, nothing more. Offering her some of the blooms she’d been admiring so strongly that she hadn’t heard him calling her.
Keenan couldn’t even remember what he’d asked her.
It hadn’t been important, just something passing in the conversation.
He should have let it drop rather than getting sucked into that little encounter.
The sweetness of her name on his lips, the soft strands of her hair under his fingers as he removed the bits of grass he’d dropped on her head.
His whispered name, and then her soft black eyes over her parted lips.
Burying a hand in his hair, he spun on his heel and strode off to the side. The whole point of the walk had been to get his head on straight again. Reliving those few moments wouldn’t help him face the princess with an appropriate mindset.
Once his heart was beating a normal rate for the speed of his stride, he returned to the picnic site.
The few things Kasumi had gotten out were already packed away, and Mori leaned against a tree with the puzzle book in his hands.
Kasumi was bent forward, fiddling with the back of her hair.
Oliver slowly stroked his horse’s neck, but his eyes were fixed on something deeper in the orchard.
“Where’s the princess?” Keenan asked, glancing around the area. Her horse was still there, but he didn’t see her fox.
“Exploring.” Oliver nodded ahead without looking at him. “Seems to think we’re close.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?” Striding forward, Keenan reached for the princess’s horse before pulling back. The large animals had seemed fairly docile during their journey, but he didn’t want to get too close on his own. “The sooner we find it, the sooner we can go back.”
The sooner he could help Liesl and get a much-needed break from Princess Sakura while he mulled over a solution to her problem.
“She didn’t wish it until she was more certain. But I agree.” The older guard gathered his horse’s reins. “Mori, please bring Princess Sakura’s horse. Let’s go.”
Oliver led them swiftly through the trees.
Before long, they found the princess standing in front of an old, dead tree.
The orchard was clean and well-kept, but long strands of green moss hung from this tree’s gray branches.
They waved in the light breeze like the stockings Miss Beatrice pinned to the line to dry, but the tree stood firm, its twisted limbs covered in rough bark, unlike the smooth trees surrounding it.
Nothing about it fit with the purple flowers covering the ground or the lively pink blossoms crowding it above. It was like it had been transplanted from some other location, but the nobs of roots barely visible through the grass gave evidence to a long life in this exact spot.
Princess Sakura gazed up at the tree, a tiny wrinkle between her eyebrows. “It should be…here. More or less.”
“In the tree? Or hidden in the grass?” Keenan stepped closer, lifting his face to examine the gnarled branches. A tinderbox could conceivably rest in the crook between the larger ones and the trunk, but the wind would have knocked it down by now.
“I’m not sure.” The wrinkle deepened as she stepped around the massive girth, trailing her fingers over the bark. She squeezed her eyes closed. “It’s—I don’t understand.”
Rubbing his jaw, Keenan studied the princess instead of the tree.
The memory of her evasive answers when he mentioned a magical means of navigation danced around the back of his mind.
She’d regularly closed her eyes during their travels, and they had often changed course not long after.
But if she was using magic, shouldn’t she know where to go now?
Mori joined them, the puzzle book tapping against his left shoulder while his free hand traced the pattern of the bark as he circled the trunk in the opposite direction to the princess. He paused, backed up, and stuffed the book into his belt, peering intently at a spot above his head.
“There’s no way down,” Princess Sakura murmured. “Unless…Oliver, you’re the tallest. Can you tell if the trunk is sound higher up?”
While the older guard tied his horse’s reins to a nearby cherry tree, Mori pressed both hands against the trunk, his mouth stretching into the excited grin he wore when working out a puzzle. “It’s a sequence. One slash, one hole. Two slashes, three holes.”
Curious, Keenan followed him, noting the neat organization of the marks as Mori pointed them out. The princess appeared around the side of the trunk, watching as well.
Mori’s fingers slid across the bark as he eagerly followed the mysterious symbols. “Then five, eight, thirteen…”
Oliver’s head jerked around. “Mori, be care—”
“Huh, it changes. There are too many, but if I keep following the pattern, I would choose thirty-four slashes, fifty-five holes—”
“Don’t touch it!”
A strange sensation swept over Keenan as the boy reached for a group of slashes farther down the trunk. Oliver lunged toward them, a look of panic crossing his emotionless face, and Keenan reacted on instinct.
Leaping sideways, he wrapped an arm around Princess Sakura and spun, putting his back between her and Mori and whatever Oliver feared. A loud groaning shook the air behind him as the ground shuddered under his feet. He staggered before bracing his free arm against a nearby cherry tree.
But nothing struck him. The ground settled, and the grove fell silent. For half a moment.
“Fortunate fool,” Oliver growled, a surprising amount of anger in his voice. “The wrong choice would have been disastrous. Do you have any idea of the magic that was building the further you followed the sequence?”
Keenan twisted, peeking over his shoulder at the pair.
His jaw dropped. Where once a solid, massive trunk had stood, a crack big enough for even his shoulders to squeeze through had appeared at the base.
Dust stirred up by the transformation swirled in the sunlight that shone through the gap into the hole beneath.
“What?” Mori yelped. “Who would set a trap on a tree?”
“The same someone who would use magic to hide this entrance – or create it,” the older guard replied grimly. “They didn’t want just anyone finding it.”
Based on Oliver’s reaction, not to mention the change in the tree and the ground, the amount of magic invested hadn’t been paltry. Keenan’s eyes drifted back to Princess Sakura, whose hands were still pressed into his chest. Her own eyes were wide as she gaped at the results of Mori’s puzzling.
What tinderbox had magical gates and protections? What exactly was the princess making sure he retrieved for the queen?
And what did the queen want to do with it?
Princess Sakura glanced up at him, then gently pushed him back. He let his arm fall away, but his eyes followed her as she took a deep breath, folded her hands at her waist, and minced up to Mori and Oliver with a placid expression. Did she know what he sought?
“Stay back, Your Highness,” Oliver warned. “That’s not shallow.” Striding back to his horse, he dug a candle out of his saddlebags. After lighting it, he bent over and dropped it through the fresh crack in the old tree.
Curious, Keenan joined them. He set a hand on the trunk and carefully leaned forward until he could see the tiny gleam of light. It flickered over gray stone on one side, but it failed to illuminate anything beyond.
“Forty feet if it’s an inch,” Oliver grumbled next to him. “We might have enough rope, but it will be tight.”