Chapter 5
Robin pulled Ian through the undergrowth for several steps. She could not see where she was going, but she knew the feeling of the ferns wrapping around her hips, and she kept a hand in front of her to avoid running into the solid trunks of trees.
Behind them, she could still hear the sounds of the fight—metal scraping against metal, the twang of bowstrings, and the grunting of focused combatants. But a heavy curtain of darkness blocked the scene from view. Rigelt had reacted perfectly.
“Erich!” Ian hissed behind her, pulling his hand free and turning back to the fight.
Robin threw herself after him, wrapping her arms around his chest to hold him back. “Ulli will keep him safe,” she said. “We need to get you out of here. Now.”
Ian still pulled away from her, likely too concerned with his brother’s safety to listen to her.
“Trust me.” Robin tightened her arms around him. He was tall and strong, and he could overpower her by size alone. But she was also tall, strong, and lithe from constant physical activity. She could hold her own and she knew it.
“I’ve gone blind!” a voice called out from the fray.
“Keep attacking!” another voice ordered. “It is just a trick.”
Robin felt a new body slam into them. Even in the darkness, she could tell from the way the person moved that it was Nele. “Go, go, go,” Nele cried. She pushed Ian toward Robin, away from the fight.
Finally swayed, Ian turned back to Robin.
She grabbed his hand, pulling him once again through the forest. After a few more steps weaving through the ferns, the unnatural darkness lifted.
The dim light from the moon was more than enough for her now-accustomed eyes, and she could easily see the shapes of trees ahead.
Nele stepped around them and split off to the right, running into the forest.
“Where is she going?” Ian asked, his deep voice a low and breathless rumble behind Robin.
“She is creating a distraction to make us harder to track,” Robin explained.
Ian did not respond.
Robin dropped his hand, needing both of her own to plow through the thick bushes and stay balanced at the fastest speed they could manage.
She instantly felt his absence, however, as the cold night air wrapped around her fingers where the warmth and pressure of his grasp had just recently been.
She closed her fist, rubbing her fingers against her own palm to create her own warmth.
The movement also dulled the sensation his touch had elicited.
Taking a moment to orient herself to the road they had left behind and plot a path forward, Robin adjusted their course and then took off into the forest again. She moved quickly, but at a more manageable pace.
Ian fell into step behind her. He moved quietly enough, but she was still very aware of the sound of his footfalls. The heaviness of his breath.
She reminded herself that she was listening to those subtle sounds to ensure he had not fallen behind. The racing of her heart was a natural reaction to the lengthened exertion she was putting her body through.
She had seen Ian, of course, several times over the years. He often spent time in the streets of Iseldis, or even in Chendas. But her glimpses had always been from a place of hiding, catching sight of his passing face on a crowded street as she ducked her head to avoid recognition.
Her chest burned. She was barely moving faster than a walk, yet her lungs were struggling for air.
She had not truly seen him. Had not met his eye until that moment in the torchlight on the road. She had not been fully prepared to take in the hard set of his jaw, or the heavy weight of his creased brow. The breadth of his shoulders supporting the fabric of his dark cloak.
That man—this man, the one running behind her—was not the same boy she had known.
She lifted her hand over her heart, willing it to calm.
This man was someone she did not know.
She did not know what he believed.
She knew that some members of the royal family had learned the Majis were not a true threat, but that did not mean they all believed it.
She trusted Erich now, after their adventure together in Chendas.
And Meena, who was currently carrying out a very dangerous mission to destroy Gareth’s stored chaos magic.
Aden, too, had learned more about harmony magic when it was used to break the chaos magic that had transformed him into a beast.
But she did not know what Ian knew or what he believed. And she realized, with the next burning inhale, that she desperately wanted to know.
After several more minutes, Robin saw the muted glow of a covered lantern up ahead. Lifting the back of her tongue up into her throat, she tilted her head back and made the deep hoot of an owl, adding her own special undertone of trill beneath it.
The sound was immediately repeated from up ahead, though the tone was higher and the trill less pronounced. Jette.
“How did you do that?” Ian asked, his voice still a whisper though there had been no sound of pursuit.
Robin pushed forward toward the light. “I’ve been mimicking bird sounds since I was a child,” she said. “I never thought the skill would prove to be quite as useful as it has.”
“No, not that,” Ian replied, still following her quite closely, as though afraid of losing her should they get too far apart. Robin noticed that she did not mind this. “I meant,” Ian continued, “how did you lead us here in the darkness? I lost all sense of direction after we left the road.”
“Oh,” Robin replied. “This forest is my home.” She could see the cloaked figure of Jette holding a lantern in the small clearing up ahead.
“But we are so far from Lockwood Manor,” Ian countered.
Robin shrugged. She had always felt most at home among the trees. “Lockwood is my home, but I travel more often than not.”
They stepped into the clearing, a small grassy opening beneath an ancient sprawling oak.
Jette set the coated lantern on the ground, giving the area a subtle glow. She stepped toward Robin before they had fully materialized from the bushes.
“You saved the prince?” Jette asked, looking over Robin’s shoulder.
Robin gave a quick nod, not needing to waste her speech on an obvious reply. “No injuries?”
Jette shook her head. “I led a few of them on a quick chase going south from the road but lost them several minutes ago and backtracked here.”
“Did you know about this attack?” Ian asked, an edge to his voice.
“No,” Robin said emphatically, turning to include him in the conversation.
“Then how were you so prepared to react?” Ian asked.
“We always have a plan, and a backup plan, and a backup for the backup plan,” Robin replied. She looked beyond Ian, her eyes and ears focused on the forest behind him, the direction from which most everyone should be coming.
She was never the first to leave a fight, but instinct had driven her to act when Ian was clearly in danger. Only now she had to endure the uncomfortable wait to see who else would make it out alive.
All of them.
They would be fine.
She was sure of it.
They had done this before. They had done worse.
She trusted them.
An owl hooted in the darkness from the southeast. Lane. Robin exhaled in relief, then quickly drew in a breath to respond in kind.
Moments later, the energetic form of her friend broke into the circle of light. He was followed by one of Ian’s guards. The man looked pale, and his cloak was wrapped tightly around one arm.
Ian stepped forward to meet them. “Kiral, are you injured?” he asked.
Robin, stepping forward to greet Lane, said nearly the same thing at the same time. “Lane, are you injured?”
“Just a few scratches,” Lane said, answering Robin’s question but directing his attention to Kiral at his side.
“My arm,” the Iseldan guard answered Ian. He gingerly unwrapped the bunched cloak from his injured arm.
Robin moved past Lane to examine the wound. “Bleeding heavily. Jette!”
Her call was unnecessary, as Jette had already dropped one knee to the ground and was digging through her pack for a poultice and bandages.
Ian eased Kiral to the ground, helping him to sit so Jette could tend to him.
“How far behind are the others?” Robin asked, redirecting her attention to Lane.
Lane looked back into the forest. “I do not know. I saw the dark shield and heard his scream—” He gestured to Kiral. “So I made a run for it.”
Robin stood up on her toes, as if being taller would somehow give her better vision in the darkness. She danced on her toes for a moment, wanting to dash back into the forest and help save the others. She was the leader. They were her responsibility. She was going back in.
“I’m going back in for Erich,” Ian said, his words mimicking her thoughts. He moved past her, stepping into the forest.
“No!” Robin reached out, grabbing his arm. “I trust my band.” He did not need to know that she had been about to do the same thing.
Ian tried to push her hand off his arm, but she kept her grip strong.
“That attack was clearly meant for you,” Robin continued. “The most foolish thing you could do is deliver yourself straight to him.”
At that, Ian stopped struggling and turned fully to face her. “Meant for me? He was clearly after you! He’s been sending us complaints about bandits who harass his soldiers. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Robin felt her face light up, and she wanted to laugh. “Gareth is annoyed enough to complain about me? Nothing could make me happier!”
Ian stepped forward, looking down at her though he was hardly taller than her. “Do you have any idea how foolish it is to underestimate Gareth?” His voice was measured and steady, but Robin could hear an undertone of fear in his words. “He is not the magnanimous king he pretends to be.”
The hoot of another owl sounded from the nearby trees, momentarily distracting Robin. It was deep and long. Ulli. Behind her, Jette replied with another hoot.
Ian either missed or ignored the interaction as he kept talking.
“Gareth has been lying to all of us. He is cruel and heartless to the point of enslaving and torturing innocent people. My father would punish your lawbreaking with a fine, but Gareth would not hesitate to kill you. He nearly executed Erich in the public square of Chendas last goldenreign!”
Robin knew she must look like a fool, but her grin only kept growing. Ian knew. He knew about Gareth. He knew about the Majis.
“And just who do you think is responsible for saving my life?” A new voice sounded in the clearing as Erich stepped up behind Ian.
With Ian’s face so close to hers, Robin saw the precise moment that he registered his brother’s voice and the fear and frustration in his eyes turned to relief.
Ian spun around and threw his arms around Erich. “You are not injured?”
“I am unharmed,” Erich said, smiling down at Robin over Ian’s shoulder. “Or I was until you broke my ribs with your crushing grip.”
Ian stepped out of the hug, but he kept a hand on Erich’s shoulder as he turned back to Robin. “It is a dangerous place to be in the sights of Gareth of Chendas,” he said, finishing his earlier warning.
Robin was still grinning, but several other emotions warred inside her chest. This Ian was an entirely different person than the boy she had known all those years ago. She had liked that boy, and she liked this man. But she would not make the same mistake twice.
Looking away from Ian, she directed her smile at Erich instead. “I am happy to see you are safe and have once again survived an attempt on your life.”
Ian took a step back, looking from Robin to Erich. “You two know each other,” he said.
Apparently Erich had not told everyone in the family what had truly happened back in Chendas. If he had meant to protect her, she was grateful.
Ian turned back to Robin. “You told him to give Aizel your love, earlier on the road. I noted it, but then . . .” He turned back to Erich. “Who was responsible for saving your life from Gareth?”
Erich shrugged, smirking back at his brother while offering no answer.
Ian looked back at Robin, staring intently at her face as he made sense of the various pieces.
Robin stared back.
Ian dropped his gaze down her body and then slowly all the way back up to her face, as if checking to see if she was truly there. “You are part of River’s Talon?” he asked.
Robin bowed.