Chapter 3
Roark
With so many Dark Watchers, it was not so difficult to follow through the trees. I knew the Draven woods like I knew how to pull on my boots each sunrise. Days spent traipsing about with Gunter and Auki served me well.
The Dark Watch kept a grueling pace, but their steps were calculated, soft and sure. They moved across the forest paths like shadows in the night.
Nivek took the lead. As heir to the throne, he would stand with our Watchers; he’d fight beside them. He’d guide them.
I blew out a rough breath and ducked beneath a broken aspen branch. My insides twisted in apprehension. No mistake, my brother would want to send me to one of the two hells when he discovered I’d abandoned the royal house.
Then, when I returned, Gunter and Auki would curse me for not taking them.
If my mother ever let me free of my chamber again, of course.
Perhaps it would be the Jorvans who got the drop on me. Chatter during small respite pauses for the Dark Watch gave up the truth—this was less a raid and more a battle. Blood would spill on all sides, no doubt.
The other kingdoms did not even know the second son of the Draven royal house existed.
“We’ll hide the truth a little longer, my boy,” my father once said when I’d questioned why my title was kept hidden. “I plan to wait until it is in our favor to unleash my feral second son upon our enemies.”
That was before the king fell into the dark haze of his own mind. My own father became one of those truths Mother never told me fully. I didn’t understand why. I wasn’t some brainless young one, I knew something dark and dangerous had happened to the king.
Because no one knew the king and queen had a second heir, if enemies struck me down this night, a fiercer war than one hunting the melder woman would ignite. Dravens would take warships to Jorvan shores to avenge a fallen prince. Our clan would be damn near obligated to do it.
I swallowed tightly and forced my steps forward instead of turning back.
Doubtless, either way I was not escaping this night unscathed. Either by Nivek, my mother, my friends, or my enemies, I would hear all about my decision to join the Dark Watch by sunrise.
Focus. It would be worth any punishment, for one less melder would be in the world after this night.
My body ached from keeping such a vigorous pace through the wood. But when shouts rolled down the ranks, my blood heated my limbs. The Dark Watch’s camp was set at the knolls just ahead of the border village.
The melder was hiding down there somewhere.
The back of my throat had long gone dry from keeping the pace with the Dark Watch. My stomach rumbled. Stupid of me not to pack bread or nuts before fleeing the royal house. I released a heavy breath and stepped onto the path that would lead me down toward the armies.
The Dark Watch was as formidable as its name. Shadows, killers, my clan knew well enough how to use their blades in ways Jorvans wouldn’t even see them coming. But tonight, the camp echoed in noise, their fires crackled, billows of white smoke painted the night sky.
It seemed the Dark Watch wanted to be known.
Men and women lined their eyes in kohl and dipped their fingers in deep basins of raven blood, dragging the tips down their cheeks and chins. Huddles of Watchers lined makeshift tables, mumbling over tattered maps about routes and strategies.
Head down, I maneuvered around the tables, avoiding notice. For a time, I thought myself rather clever. A proper Dark Watcher. Until my careless steps slammed me into a rough, leather jerkin with the double-headed raven of my clan pressed to my cheek.
“Well, I’d wager this is one of your most foolish ideas. If Gunter has joined you, I fear I will no longer have a son come dawn. His mother will need to forgive me.”
I tilted my head.
Yanson Embercreek, Gunter’s father and a trusted advisor of the royal house, peered down at me from beneath his cowl.
Damn the gods. Yanson was fierce but as protective of me as he was to his own son. No mistake, he’d send me back before I even had a chance to lift a blade.
“What are you doing here, My Prince?” Yanson folded his arms over his chest.
“I-I-I…well…” Words would not form and I sounded like a fumbling sod.
Hardly the formidable Dark Watcher I craved to be.
Yanson’s jaw tightened and he clapped a hand on my shoulder, guiding me to take the place in front of him. “Come on, then. You better be thinking how you’re going to explain yourself.”