Chapter 26 Urgent News
Urgent News
Caramyn
The next day’s session was spent on the ground, where Asterious showed her how to cue the horses for things like rearing and trotting in circles and patterns around them with no more direction than a movement of her fingers.
At the end of the session, he tapped the ground and his magnificent stallion lay down like a playful puppy by his side.
“Want to ride Alofreise?” he asked, patting the horse’s rump.
“With no saddle or reins?” Caramyn raised an eyebrow with a chuff.
“The best way. Remember, if you know what you’re doing, you don’t need any of that. We’ll just keep it at a walk.” Asterious reassured.
Caramyn hesitated. She feared Alofreise might not listen to her the same way Frasya did, but she wanted to try, if for no greater reason than to test herself.
She walked to the horse lying down, and with an encouraging nod from Asterious, swung a leg over his back.
Asterious gave a cue, and the horse tucked his hooves beneath him to stand.
The motion of the horse rising from beneath her felt like getting caught in a wave.
She grabbed a handful of thick mane to steady herself on the way up.
Asterious pointed and gave a voice command that sent the horse plodding along slowly in a circle around him.
“I can’t believe you haven’t ridden much in your life. You’ve taken to it quite well,” Asterious said, his eyes fixated on Caramyn.
“Well,” Caramyn took a deep breath, carefully weighing her words before speaking. “There’s a lot I haven’t done in my life. Growing up, my village was small. And I didn’t leave the house much. I’ve...been on my own a lot since.”
Asterious looked down at his boots. The horse’s steady walk became even slower as he continued the circle, and Caramyn watched on to see what the prince would do next.
“It seems we have something in common. My father kept me locked away, too. In a place where the only company I had were the damned souls he sent me to kill.”
Alofreise lazily halted in front of him and stomped a hoof. The prince glanced up at Caramyn, squinting from the sun that made even his duller grey eye look starlit silver.
She felt her heart quicken. She knew all too well what it felt like to be alone and forced to kill. “But you broke free of your father. How did you do it?”
“Someone let me out.” Asterious brushed back a few stray locks of black hair that had fallen across his eyes. Then he looked back at the ground, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Someone?” Caramyn repeated softly. “Do you know who it was?”
“Wyran.” Asterious shook his head ever so slightly, almost with an edge of disbelief. “I know he can be an asshole, but in some ways, I owe him my life. I am only free—only here—because of him.”
She couldn’t fault him for thinking that way, for feeling some loyalty was owed to someone who helped save him.
She couldn’t deny that she felt indebted to the Shadows in much the same way.
Perhaps there was more to Wyran beneath that cobblestone exterior, she thought, though she still wasn’t convinced.
So, she simply said, “No wonder you tolerate him and that grating voice of his.”
“Someone has to.” Asterious said, almost joking, but with a dullness in his voice.
“Where did you go once you escaped?” Caramyn said, trying to move on.
“I didn’t want to go far, because I still needed to stay close in hopes to find my mother.
So I posed as a soldier at the training camps outside Felhold at the base of the Silver Spine mountains.
They’re cold, harsh, and isolated, and the perfect place for me to go unnoticed.
It was originally Wyran’s idea—to keep me disciplined and focused.
I think it did me good. I’d been treated like a monster so long it helped me unlearn how to be one…
mostly. If there were any who recognized me, they likely feared me far more than they feared my father.
And as I trained with them, some became close friends. ”
“Gariel, Riven, and Tyrios.” She smiled, almost wishing she could indulge him in her past the way he opened his to her. “So that’s how you were able to convince some of them to follow you when you fled?”
“Yes. When I heard the king was assassinated, I returned to Blackwynd Court to confirm it and to make sure Sinevia was safe. That’s when I noticed she was…
different…and then she gifted me that thoughtful ‘welcome home’ cursed dagger.
Thankfully I didn’t have time to tell her where I’d been hiding the past year.
So, I returned to the camps to garner support.
Most of those in Daemar’s army were there long before he betrayed the rest of the realm, and not all of them agreed with what had become of the kingdom.
Some of them were forced into his army during the purge, either to protect loved ones or themselves.
So, I suppose that was reason enough for some of them to see me as the better option. ”
“That’s all very truly impressive.” Caramyn nodded with a teasing sneer. “Now you just have to convince me that you’re the better option.”
“For whatever reason, I can’t seem to stop trying.” Asterious purred, and for a moment, everything seemed…terrifyingly, suspiciously…safe.
Almost safe enough to indulge him in the full truth of what she knew about his mother’s ring.
It was clear he still tortured himself with his search for her.
She could put his searching to an end if she simply told him she’d overheard the bandits say they stole it from a royal grave—no doubt his mother’s grave.
Or she could spare him the pain by guarding that secret as fiercely as her own.
After all, it was a weighty claim to make without being absolutely sure his mother was dead.
And it would only raise more questions about her…
questions she wasn’t ready to answer in case they cost her life.
A cool wind blew. The horse shook its mane. Light grey clouds shifted and blocked the sun’s warmth. Caramyn shuddered against the sudden chill, and Asterious reached a hand upward. “I can help you down if you’d like, and we can go inside.”
Just as Caramyn reached for his hand and leaned over to slide off the horse, another gust of wind burst through the air, carrying a torrent of crisp yellow leaves that whipped up near the stallion’s head. He snorted with a startle and side-stepped, sending Caramyn toppling down onto Asterious.
They tumbled to the ground together, the prince catching her on the way down and taking the brunt of the fall. She looked up, realizing she was nestled between his arms, her body on his, pressed against muscular chest, where she could feel the beating of his heart.
She failed to stifle an awkward laugh, trying not to acknowledge the way some part of her wanted to stay there forever, lying against him.
But she noticed when he didn’t laugh back, and suddenly found herself caught in his gaze.
He studied her, and she returned the favor, lingering on the subtle tiredness in those steel eyes and the alluring curve of his lips.
She only then realized that she was clutching his shirt with one hand, the other pressed against his tan skin peeking through the unbuttoned collar.
She blinked in surprise when he reached up to sweep her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “It’s a pity you had to hide those eyes away all this time. They’re actually rather...beautiful. Like blazing amethysts, hiding the mystery you are.”
Beautiful.
She used to think they were beautiful, too, when she was a child.
Before she learned to hate them. The prince breathed against her, and she felt herself melting into the feeling of her body against his as he stared at her with some kind of look in his eye she hadn’t seen before.
For a moment, she almost felt free enough to tell him everything.
To tell him she was a shadow-marked magicless witch bound to the Woods and a life among the Shadows.
And she almost started to…but then a screeching call from Nocthar above reminded her to keep her head.
So instead, she simply smiled as though it was all just a joke.
The sound of the arena gate opening startled her, and she scrambled to her feet at the thought of someone seeing her lying on the ground with the prince. She dusted herself off and Asterious did the same, a sly smirk briefly flickering across his face.
It was Wyran. He walked with purpose in his steps, tossing a glance at Caramyn that made her uneasy, and then refocused Asterious. Something was wrong.
“Your Highness, the scouts you sent to Felhold have returned. With urgent news.”
A moment of tension lingered in the air before Asterious responded, as if he feared saying too much. “Where are they?”
“In the meeting hall. They’ve brought something.”
Asterious exchanged a quick glance with Caramyn, before addressing Wryan. “I’ll have Terrin take care of Alofreise. Tell them we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“We?” Wryan’s eyes shifted to Caramyn, thick copper brows raised over his hazel-green eyes.
“Yes, if she wants to come.” He turned to Caramyn. “You don’t have to. It’s up to you. But you are welcome if you decide to.”
Caramyn fiddled with her fingers at her side. Did she want to enter a meeting room full of former Blackwynd soldiers and spies? It was enough for her to be here with the prince, alone, but to face his inner court at his side...what would they think?
“All right.” A disgruntled Wryan shifted his shoulders and turned away. “I’ll tell them you’re on your way.”
As they watched him leave, Asterious turned to face Caramyn. “The choice is yours. That was our second lesson. If you want, you’ll never have to see my face again. But just as much, if you choose to accompany me, I’ll take it to mean the opposite.”