CHAPTER 34
Keenan
Walking helped. So did the darkness. But Keenan still hadn’t shaken his irritation by the time he rejoined the others.
After a simple meal, he curled up on the most comfortable bit of rock he could find and tried to get some rest. Rest, not sleep.
He wasn’t sure he trusted their visitor to not eat them.
Unfortunately, Oliver was breathing heavily already, and the princess might see things that weren’t there.
So Keenan would have to keep watch by himself, just as he had in the mountains with Liesl.
Liesl. He threw an arm across his eyes and indulged in a low groan. Heavens, he hoped she was all right. He’d been a fool to think that he could protect anyone outside of Hartford.
A sigh and shifting fabric a few feet away drew his mental grumbling back to the cavern. If he’d stayed home where he belonged, he never would have met Princess Sakura.
He scowled into the darkness. In some ways, she was the worst part.
Rejecting his cherry blossoms, then flinging herself at him in the cavern.
Giving him hope by telling him about the guard she’d been fond of.
Fetching ice for a mere guard as if he wasn’t beneath her.
Flirting in her own way – it was flirting, wasn’t it?
– and looking at him as if she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and keep her there forever.
Why couldn’t her brother be a suitable candidate for king? It would make everything so much simpler.
At some point, he drifted off, despite his best efforts. The sun’s absence made it difficult to track the passage of time, but when Oliver stirred, Keenan decided it was as good a time for morning as any. Another simple meal later, and they were ready to follow their mysterious new acquaintance.
And Keenan was ready to be done. He was tired, his head hurt, and he was still unaccountably hot.
What was wrong with this cavern? Wasn’t it supposed to be cool underground?
To distract himself from his discomfort, he gave Oliver another quick visual inspection. The guard had claimed to feel fine and seemed to be moving with his normal agility, but he’d barely been able to stand a few hours ago.
“I’ll not collapse. Save your energy for outside threats.”
Keenan grinned sheepishly. “I know. But you gave us a bit of a scare.”
Oliver raised an eyebrow. “Have I ever misled you regarding my health?”
“Would I know if you had?”
The guard’s eyebrow lifted another fraction. “No. But your concern is unnecessary. I am fine.”
“Then why are your ears still tapered?” Princess Sakura interjected.
Surprised, Keenan switched his attention to the side of Oliver’s head. As the princess had stated, his ears still bore their inhuman appearance. But the guard simply shrugged. “Wasting the magic seemed foolish since you already know.” He looked at her. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable?”
She shook her head, keeping her eyes focused on him as if to prove her point. “I was simply curious. They were visible yesterday because you lacked the magic to keep them hidden.”
Oliver dipped his head in acknowledgment. “There seemed little point after my entrance.”
“Speaking of your entrance…” Keenan eyed the pile of rocks and the remains of their supplies peeking out from underneath. “Could we send the princess back to the surface? It would be safer if just the two of us follow our mysterious friend.”
He expected an argument from the strange creature to accompany Princess Sakura’s glare, but the air above them was as silent as it had been since he awoke.
“The harness is twenty feet up.” Crossing to the trapped packs, Oliver began uncovering the nearest one. “And the path above had closed by the time I cleared the way down.”
Keenan had joined the guard in moving rocks, but he paused, staring at Oliver incredulously. “Are you saying you weren’t trapped? You could have escaped back to the surface?”
The guard pulled a wad of cloth out of the nearest pack and said nothing.
“Then why did you fight so hard to get down here? You had to reveal your secret. And you could have died!”
After digging out a tent stake, Oliver sat back and met Keenan’s eyes. “You’re a protector. So am I. And I couldn’t do my job from up there.”
Keenan wrinkled his forehead. Little as he liked to admit it, he had already needed Oliver’s help a time or two on the journey. And Oliver’s magic might come in handy down here.
But did he really need a babysitter so badly that it was worth the risk that Oliver took to accompany him?
“We are grateful for your assistance,” Princess Sakura added in her perfect diplomat’s voice. And yet, as Keenan peeked over his shoulder at her, he thought there was a hint of relief in her tone. Did she think that he couldn’t handle this on his own?
Her eyes flicked over to him as Oliver replied, “I promised to be right behind you.”
Oh.
Keenan quickly returned his focus to the pack he was unearthing. It was hard to tell in the faint light of the candle, but Princess Sakura’s cheeks might have pinked a little. Keenan’s own face felt a bit warm, and not because of whatever was making him hot.
Should he be offended or flattered that Oliver was also filling the role of a chaperone?
The memory of the previous day’s lunch rose unbidden to his mind. If Mori’s comment was anything to go by, it had looked as intimate as it had felt. It was no wonder the older man thought they should have a third member to their party.
While Keenan assembled another pack from the supplies he had managed to rescue, Oliver wrapped his wad of clothing around the tent stake and dunked it in a broken jar of oil. Then he lit the makeshift torch and looked toward the spot from which the voice had come the night before.
“We’re ready,” Keenan called out when the creature didn’t respond to Oliver’s prompt. “Will you lead us now?”
Silence.
Keenan rubbed his forehead. “We all heard it, so it couldn’t have been a hallucination this time.”
“This time?”
“The princess thinks she saw her dead boyfriend,” Keenan replied distractedly, still trying to relieve the pain at his temples. “Touched his shoulder and everything, but I didn’t see anyone.”
When no one said anything, he opened his eyes. Oliver’s eyebrows were lowered, and Princess Sakura’s face was carefully blank.
“Uh…” What had just fallen out of his mouth? “I mean, she saw something that wasn’t there?”
The princess folded her hands in front of her waist and minced toward the far side of the cavern, knocking into him with her shoulder as she passed. “Since our guide has disappeared, we’ll have to seek our own way. Did you happen to see any exits during your explorations yesterday?”
He could hear Hugh now: Smooth, Keenan. Maybe you should stick to swords and leave the talking to someone else. You may have found a new dumbest thing you’ve ever done!
“No, I didn’t.” Keenan wasn’t sure she’d expected a response, but he answered anyway as he and Oliver fell into step behind her. “But our friend had to have gotten in somehow. Maybe the way out isn’t at ground level.”
Instead of replying, she simply lifted her chin higher and walked faster. Oliver waited until she was about thirty feet away, then leaned toward Keenan.
“I checked her for enchantments several times during our trip,” he said in a low voice that wouldn’t carry. “Every time I touched her shoulder. She was clean.”
“So that means…”
“Her actions were her own,” Oliver replied simply. “As were her words when she was exhausted.”
But if she had been expressing her own mind when her mental filter was spluttering, then…
No. Keenan couldn’t let himself follow that trail.
Without waiting for a further response, Oliver carried his torch to the wall and held it aloft, scanning the surface. Keenan hesitated a moment before following Princess Sakura.
From a distance. He’d promised not to spread her secret, but then part of it had slipped out when he was explaining himself to Oliver. After his mindless comment, his company might be as welcome as a rattlesnake.
When the princess reached the far wall, she turned to follow it toward Oliver. Keenan backed away from her, watching the light from Oliver’s torch play against the wall.
“Wait. Can you move it the other way about a foot?” he called out. A heavier shadow about thirteen feet up had caught his eye, but he couldn’t tell if it was caused by a rock ledge or empty space.
Princess Sakura joined him. “Perhaps if you come this way,” she said primly. “The angle may be too steep to expose any unexpected cavities.”
She shot Keenan a sideways glance as she said it. That statement may have doubled as a jab, but he wasn’t sure.
“That’s it!” Keenan crowed as the torch lit the ceiling of an opening in the wall. “We can get out that way!”
The princess frowned. “It appears so. But what if it does not continue? And how are we supposed to get up there?”
“Climb.” Keenan shrugged. “Oliver or I can give you a boost to get you up.”
“And that will help me scale a wall?” She looked horrified.
“We have a little rope. And if I remember correctly,” he added, unable to resist giving her a pointed look, “I suggested you stay on the surface.”
The princess glared at him, but he ignored her, striding forward to help Oliver figure out how to make it work. He’d seen no sign of monsters near the princess, and he would surely hear if anything approached. Every sound was magnified in the cavern.
“I’ll go first.” Oliver dropped his eyes from the bit of rock jutting out from the wall. “You’ve improved, but I have more experience.”
Keenan wanted to argue, but he knew the older man was right. If something nasty was waiting for them up there, Oliver was better suited to respond to it.
“Can you reach if you stand on my shoulders?” Keenan asked, peering up at the ledge. It looked much higher from close up. “Or do you have some magical means of getting up there?”
“Some might, but I do not. Not with my strength and no stream at hand.”