Chapter 25
Kiera
The next two days were a blur of training and preparations for the journey to Calimber.
Any time I wasn’t gathering food or stocking the camp with fresh wood and water, I was training with Nikella and Ruru. She had shifted to yet another tactic—fighting on horseback. She said that was likely how we’d face the border patrol, and we needed to have absolute control of our horses.
Ozlow and I were . . . doing our best. My palms still sweat every time I had to jerk him to a halt and wheel him in the opposite direction or urge him into a gallop. I’d only fallen off once, but it’d been enough to make me nervous.
I rarely saw Aiden as he helped with other preparations. He hunted with the others to supply the Yargoths with enough food to make up for their warriors’ absence. He also rode to where Skelly was anchored off the coast and told him where we were going and to wait for word from us.
But unlike the last time we were in the camp, Aiden always sought me out when he was passing through. Even if it was just a glance or standing by to watch me train for a few moments.
We’d only spoken a few words in passing. But those words had been polite. Awkward. Like gentle fingers tapping around a sore spot to see if it still hurt.
What was I supposed to say to the man I’d half fallen in love with, only to realize he’d killed my mother . . . but for a good reason?
I was a mess of impatience. I wanted to mount Ozlow and gallop to Calimber. Hunt down our enemies like Renwell had hunted down my mother. I wanted to rain fire down on his camp in retribution.
It still wouldn’t be enough. It never would be.
When Aiden told me to join everyone after dinner in Frieda’s lodge, I wolfed down my rabbit stew and dry biscuit so fast I barely chewed.
I handed off my dirty dishes and hurried to Frieda’s lodge. It was no larger than the rest, painted with a dozen Dag symbols, including the Yargoth mountain one. The same that Korvin had sliced off Maz’s back.
Aiden and Nikella had already beaten me there and were sitting on two of the cushions strewn about the fur-covered floor.
Aiden was in a tense discussion with Frieda, who sat hunched in a chair of twisted branches.
“—more runners. They might send—”
“No,” Frieda cut off Aiden. “We have sent enough. We have lost enough. I can barely afford to let you take the four I promised.”
I shuffled in the doorway, not sure if they’d noticed me.
Aiden’s jaw clenched. “They’ll be back before Arduen’s Night.”
Frieda sighed, rubbing her wrinkled forehead as if she could erase the worry inside. “I trust your word, Aiden. I know you are simply trying to save your people. But I have my own people to protect. A winter to survive. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Aiden murmured, but his shoulders remained taut.
“Good. Come in, Kiera. Take a seat.”
I hurried forward and sat near Aiden on a green cushion stitched with an image of wolves chasing a deer. I heard the dog-like creatures howling most nights.
“How’s training coming along?” Frieda asked with a strained smile.
I answered her, hardly knowing what words I used. I kept glancing at Aiden. Why did he want to send out runners? To ask the other clans for help?
Frieda kept up a steady stream of polite questions about training, chores, and the weather until everyone else had arrived. Ruru darted to the purple cushion next to me.
Nikella lit a few more lanterns until the whole lodge was bathed in a sleepy glow.
“Let’s hear the plan, Aiden,” Frieda said.
Aiden cleared his throat. “Before I begin, I want to make something very clear.” His sharp gaze pierced each of us. “Renwell is not just my enemy. Or even our enemy. He is Lancora’s enemy. He’s a murderous madman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, as we have all experienced.”
The scar on my cheek throbbed in time with my racing heartbeat.
He will not have me.
“I don’t know his plans,” Aiden continued.
“And I doubt he wrote them down and left them lying around Calimber for us to snatch up. But if Renwell is building more of those warships and forging more indestructible weapons and armor to clad his Wolves and bloodthirsty army, then we must destroy him before we can’t stop him. ”
The horror that filled me was swift and vivid. Burning villages. Massacred rebels. Executions in the square. Shadow-Wolves devouring the world.
“Destroy his resources,” I whispered. “Then destroy him.”
Aiden nodded, his face grim.
“I thought that’s what we all bloody signed up for?” Maz growled, his muscular arms folded over his chest.
Jek dipped his head, his silver hair gleaming like snow at night. “We know the risks, Aiden.”
Aiden shared a glance with Frieda. Her brow was still puckered with worry, but she nodded once.
“You’ve made your point,” she said. “Now state your plan.”
Aiden relaxed infinitesimally. “It takes five days to reach Calimber. We’ll likely run into border patrols before then, which may add time to our journey. We’ll scout ahead and avoid them the best we can, but—”
“Sometimes the quickest way is through them,” Sigrid declared. She wore a dark brown fur cowl, the creature’s claws still attached and draped over her shoulders like it was caressing her.
I hadn’t been thrilled when Maz told me she was coming, too, but I supposed it made sense. Yarina was joining as well.
Aiden’s lips thinned. “Yes, but we want to avoid that, as I said. I want everyone getting in and out in one piece.”
Sigrid snorted as if there wasn’t an alternative.
“We’ll have to keep moving camps,” Jek spoke up. “Those patrols are always on the move, even if they stick to designated patterns.”
Aiden nodded. “Yes. It will be difficult, but we’ll only be in Calimber long enough to assess what Renwell is doing there. Then we’ll regroup somewhere safe.”
“Regroup? Are we splitting up?” Yarina called out. She’d brought her dinner with her, balancing soup and bread in her lap.
Aiden took a deep breath, as if gathering strength. His gaze flicked to me for a heartbeat. My stomach sank. I wasn’t going to like this answer.
“Maz and I will infiltrate the mine,” he said finally.
“Absolutely not,” Sigrid growled.
Yarina nearly upended her soup, shifting forward to glare at Aiden. “I’m coming, too.”
Maz shook his head. “Not happening, little sisters.”
They instantly argued back, talking over each other.
“Enough, you three!” Frieda clapped her hands once. “By the Four, you all still act like a pack of wolf pups. Listen before you howl.”
The siblings faded to grumpy silence.
“Why you two?” I asked Aiden. “If they find your prisoner scars and that you covered them with tattoos—”
“We’re already lost if it comes to that,” Aiden interrupted gently. “But we know the layout as no one else does.”
I shook my head stubbornly. “You really think you can just walk in? That they won’t question you? Let me go. I could pose as a messenger or a servant. Someone no one would notice.”
“They notice everyone,” Nikella said, speaking for the first time.
“It took me over a year to communicate with Aiden in that prison. My messengers—water carriers from the town—kept dying due to discovery or the dangers of the mine.” She and Jek shared an intense glance across the room.
I supposed he understood more than most what she went through during that time, as I’d heard he helped her.
“And besides, we won’t look like ourselves,” Maz added, nudging Aiden with his elbow. “Show them.”
A muscle in Aiden’s jaw twitched, but he slowly reached behind him and pulled out a bulging sack.
He dumped out a wad of familiar black cloth, glittering sunstone weapons and armor, and with a decisive clunk, two black metal Wolf masks.
Sigrid recoiled as if they were on fire, her one blue eye flaring with hatred.
Yarina picked up a sunstone cuff. “I can’t believe you stole this shit after you forced me to return mine.” She tossed it back on the pile.
Maz smirked. “It was Aiden’s idea.”
I quirked an eyebrow at Aiden. “Who’s the dirty little thief now? You’ve used this trick before.”
A glint of humor appeared in his eyes. “Let’s hope it works better this time.”
It gods-damned better. Last time he’d stolen a Shadow-Wolf uniform and infiltrated a dangerous place, he’d wound up captured in the Den.
Now I realized how lucky it was that Renwell had put me in that cell with him. If he hadn’t, Aiden would’ve been tortured and executed, or perhaps even sent to the one place I knew he still feared—the mine.
I wanted to ask him if he’d considered this carefully. If being back in the mine would be too difficult for him.
But those were questions to ask in private.
Instead, Ruru voiced a possibility I didn’t want to think about. “What should we do if you don’t come back out?”
Tension cloaked the room like a burial shroud.
“That won’t happen,” Aiden said firmly, but I noticed the way his knuckles whitened as he clenched a Wolf mask. “This will be the perfect disguise. No one questions Shadow-Wolves.”
“What if there are no Shadow-Wolves?” I asked. “Ruru said they’re crawling Aquinon day and night. Why not disguise yourself as a soldier?”
“The longer we can hide our faces, the better,” Aiden replied. “And even if it’s just soldiers living in Calimber, they’re at least used to seeing Wolves venture in and out with prisoners and weapon shipments.”
“I still think I should be a Wolf,” Yarina announced.
“As should I,” Sigrid said quickly.
“Yes, that way, if we get discovered, at least we’ll be with our imprisoned brothers and sisters and can stir up a rebellion from the inside, and Rellmira won’t lose its true prince . . . king . . . whatever,” she added, gesturing to Aiden.
He scowled at her. “They won’t lose me. They don’t even know they have me. And there’s a much better chance of the infiltrators getting out of the mine if they know where they’re going.”
“And if they’re men,” Maz pointed out.
Immediately, Sigrid and Yarina raised a ruckus, and he held up his hands. “Fucking Four, I didn’t make the gods-damned rules! Bring it up with the bastard who’s in charge of hiring!”
I sighed, slumping on my cushion as they bickered.
“I don’t like waiting off to the side,” Ruru grumbled.
“Me either.”
For some reason, I’d pictured me and Aiden sneaking into the mine. I’d thought of disguises and lies to tell. But all along, he had the Shadow-Wolf gear and the plan.
I conceded his plan made sense. But I wished he’d told me before this meeting. Perhaps he just hadn’t had the time. Or he was worried that I would argue.
He’d been this way in Aquinon, too. Always secretive. Always wanting to be a step ahead.
It wasn’t like I’d proven very trustworthy.
I pushed aside the sinking feeling just as Frieda intervened between the siblings again.
Aiden ignored them, focusing on me. “In the unlikely event that we don’t return, you are all to leave immediately and come back here. No rescues.”
This time Nikella and Jek added their voices to the loud dissent. I merely folded my arms across my chest and shook my head.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned closer so his next words were only for me. “What would it take for you to obey that command?”
A delicate shiver trickled down my spine. From the moment I’d heard his deep, alluring voice in the darkness of our cell, I’d felt a tug at the very center of my being. Inexorably drawing me to him.
Then. Now. And every moment in between, his pull on me never faded.
I tried to steady my breathing. “You once said I was stronger for the commands I didn’t follow. This is one of them. If you and Maz get captured, then we’ll liberate you when we free the other prisoners.”
His jaw clenched, his gaze turning molten. “So I’ve become a dirty little thief, and you’ve transformed into a reckless rebel. How does it feel to swap roles with me?”
“Dangerous.” My lips quirked. “But even if you add ‘king’ to that list of roles, I would still refuse to follow your command.”
“Pity. That was the only perk of being your king.”
My cheeks burned. I lifted my chin. “Rebels don’t follow a king’s orders. It’s the most crucial part of the job.”
His smile was slow and dangerous and full of things I didn’t understand that my body seemed to understand all too well.
I squirmed as he whispered in my ear, “And the most crucial part of mine is fighting my way back to you.”