Chapter 34
Aiden
Kiera had disappeared into a cozy yellow room before I’d found a bed in the same room as Maz.
I stalked through the manor, staying away from the windows, as Caddik instructed. He’d gone out with his workers to take care of the horses, cows, chickens, and whatever other animals roamed his land.
The sun was setting, and I seemed to be the only one awake in the house. I carefully opened the bedroom door and shut it behind me without a sound.
The fluffy curtains were drawn. Kiera was nothing but a lump under a pile of embroidered blankets in the four-poster bed.
Smiling, I eased onto the bed next to her. The wooden frame creaked under my weight.
She cried out and flipped over, aiming a knife straight for my chest.
I caught her wrist. “It’s me, Kiera! You’re safe. It’s just me.”
Her eyes focused on mine, and her arm went limp. I guided her knife hand to lie between us.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. She rubbed her eyes. A pillow crease dented her cheek just below her new scar. Rage flickered in my veins at the thought of Renwell leaning over her to cut into her skin.
“Although,” she continued in the same husky voice that made me forget all about my rage, “if you’re here to drag me out of the first bed I’ve slept in since Yargoth, perhaps I should’ve stabbed you.”
I grinned. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Then why are you here?”
I leaned back on the pillow to stare at the ceiling. Swathes of yellow silk draped over the exposed beams.
“I couldn’t sleep anymore,” I admitted. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I simply wanted the company.”
“Maz isn’t good company when he’s snoring?” she teased.
“Not unless I’m tossing him into an icy river.”
She chuckled.
For one bright, ludicrous moment, I imagined it was sunrise instead of sunset. That Kiera and I had just woken up together in our bedroom after a heated night in each other’s arms. Teasing, laughing, content to stay in our warm seclusion.
That life blinked out in my mind. Replaced by Korvin and Renwell hunting us, an army devouring us, a mine collapsing on us, and ships destroying us.
I meant what I said to Helene, that I would keep fighting for a better Rellmira until my last breath.
But there were also moments like this where I wished for a quiet life. One of love and laughter.
It wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t even sure that was the life Kiera wanted. Even if Kiera was the only one I’d ever envisioned that life with.
“We’ll find a way,” she whispered.
I turned my head to find her watching me. My heart leaped, then sank when she added, “We’ll destroy the mine and free the prisoners. It’s what my mother would have wanted.”
“Yes, we will,” I promised.
Her eyes flicked to my mouth. I remembered our tentative kiss in the bathroom. Triumph had exploded in my chest when she’d closed the distance between us.
I wanted to give her so much more than one kiss. But if that was all she wanted from me, I would get back down on my knees and give her the best one I could.
Her stomach growled, easing the tense moment. She smiled and slid away from me. “Do you think Caddik will have some food around?”
I rose from the bed, trying not to show my disappointment. “Sun’s almost down. I imagine dinner will be soon.”
“Excellent, I’m already starving again,” she said, sheathing her knife and pulling on her boots.
We headed back to the kitchen. The scent of roasting meat and vegetables reached us first.
Kiera groaned with excitement and hurried ahead of me, but then hesitated at the threshold.
I was surprised to see Helene and Caddik already seated at the table. Isabel sat with the dog on the stone floor near the hearth.
Caddik looked up at us, his dirty fingers clutching another cup of tea. “I thought the smell of food might wake you. My staff has already eaten, so it’s your turn.”
I nodded. “Thank you. No sign of Korvin or soldiers?”
He shook his head. “You’ve got a couple of real nice horses, though. Any chance you’d be willing to sell?”
“Not even a small one,” I said with a smile.
Kiera and I took our seats at the table. Tense silence simmered as the cooks scurried about the kitchen. Helene’s eyes looked red, and Caddik seemed lost in thought.
Kiera drummed her fingertips on the table for a few moments before she shot off the bench and joined Isabel at the sooty hearth.
“What’s his name?” she asked the girl, holding out her hand for the dog to sniff. Which he did, thumping his tail in approval.
Isabel darted a look at her mother. “Pax. Caddik says he’s part wolf because of his long legs and yellow eyes.”
Kiera smiled. “He’s the nicest wolf I’ve ever seen.”
Isabel’s eyes rounded. “Have you seen other wolves?”
They kept talking in low tones, both gradually relaxing. But the crease never left Helene’s forehead.
Ruru stumbled into the kitchen, his hair sticking out in every direction. He collapsed onto the bench next to me.
“Sleep well?” I asked.
He nodded and stretched, his back bones popping. His bruises from the soldiers looked worse than ever, but he didn’t complain.
Instead, he fixed me with his serious brown eyes. “I wanted to ask this morning . . . when you found Bruna, did you see a man a few years older than me? Looks like me, but with a birthmark just here?” He tapped his neck by his throat.
“No, Ruru,” I said softly. “I didn’t look too closely at the prisoners. But it’s been years since Daire went missing. You don’t even know if the Wolves took him to the mine.”
Ruru set his jaw stubbornly. “The mine is where they take most of the strong, healthy prisoners, right? He could be there.”
I swallowed back the words I didn’t want to say. That I’d barely survived two years there. Most didn’t survive one. Daire had been missing for three.
I clasped his shoulder. “If he’s there, we’ll find him.”
Ruru nodded, my simple promise good enough for him.
The others wandered in one by one, Maz last of all. He thumped my back as he sat on my other side.
“Gods, it felt good to sleep in a bed. Eh, Nikella?” he said, yawning like a bear coming out of hibernation.
Nikella had taken a seat across from us and immediately pulled out scraps of paper that she was poring over. When he said her name, she looked up, gray shadows under her eyes.
“Couldn’t sleep, so I worked,” she said, her voice dazed.
I frowned. Was she worried about Korvin? Or was it something else?
Yarina peered over Nikella’s shoulder. “How can you read any of that? What’s that a drawing of?” She poked one of the sketches, smudging it.
Nikella whisked it away from her. “Ideas I had. For collapsing the mine.” She looked at me, a grim certainty in her eyes. “But we need to go to Twaryn for the materials.”
I grimaced. “It will take at least a week of hard riding to get to Twaryn, assuming we don’t run into any patrols. Or Korvin. The Shadow-Wolf ship is due to arrive in three.”
“Soldiers also created checkpoints along the river you’ll need to avoid as well,” Caddik added. “They make it bloody difficult to drive my livestock across for the markets. I wondered what they needed so much wood for. Warships,” he grumbled, draining the rest of his tea.
Nikella scribbled something else in her notes, her charcoal pencil worn almost to a nub.
Jek reached into his pocket and pulled out a fresh one. He handed it to her. “Here you go, love. Sharpened it this afternoon.”
She took it with a murmur of thanks and kept drawing.
Caddik seemed unsurprised by the interaction, like most of us, but Helene raised her eyebrows. She was probably used to the Teachers in Aquinon who kept to a strict code of behavior.
The cook—who seemed to be in a much more pleasant mood—placed a jug of water and a stack of cups on the table. His young assistant added a few bottles of wine. Smiling, Kiera and Isabel joined us. Nikella kept working while the rest of us poured our drinks.
Suddenly, she whipped around to Caddik. “How big are the log floats? How many workers?”
He blinked and rubbed his dirty hand over his balding head. “Ah, the logs are three times a man’s height, perhaps ten at a time lashed into a raft. One or two guards and four or five poor sods who look like prisoners. Shackles and whatnot, probably to keep them from jumping into the river.”
I scowled. Of course, they would use more prisoners to raft their timber.
“Wait,” I told Nikella. “You aren’t suggesting . . .”
She nodded. “I’ll need some way to smuggle in the explosives once I’ve created them. I can hollow out a log, like I did for my spear, and hide them inside. Then we just float them to the mine.”
“But we’d have to overtake a raft—”
“And what of Skelly?” Sigrid interrupted. “Who’s alerting him to the plan?”
“We’ll have to split up,” Kiera said quietly.
Silence fell over the table. No one liked that idea, judging by their various grimaces. But Twaryn was in the opposite direction from Yargoth and Mynastra’s Wings.
“We should split up anyway,” Nikella said, putting down her pencil. “Make it harder for Korvin to find us.”
Yarina scowled. “And make either party easier prey. I don’t like it.”
Jek shook his head. “Me either. We’re stronger together.”
“I go where Kiera and Aiden go,” Ruru announced, folding his arms over his chest.
We continued to argue as the cooks laid dishes of seared beef, fried peppers and onions, and potato bread in front of us. Eating slowed the conversation. We still hadn’t reached an agreement by the end.
Idea after idea was thrown out. Hunting down Korvin ourselves. Sending one messenger to Skelly. And on and on.
Gods, it was much easier to make plans when I was working mostly alone.
Had my father dealt with situations like this as king?
Forever arguing with his High Council or settling disputes in the People’s Council.
It was strange to imagine that I might have grown up learning how to handle those situations.
What would he think of me now?
I shook the thought loose. I’d never known my father. I’d never been a prince. I would not be king.
Making risky plans while on the run in a stranger’s kitchen with a mixed group of rebels? That I could do.
Eventually, the cooks lit the lamps and candles and left the clean kitchen. Helene took Isabel to bed, and Caddik excused himself with Pax to check on the animals.
Nikella leaned back in her seat, rubbing her eyes. “We can’t stay with Caddik much longer. We’re putting him at risk.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“You should get some rest first, Nikella,” Jek said gently.
“No.” She bowed over her papers. “First, we need to—”
Caddik burst in through the back door, breathing heavily. “He’s back. Korvin came back.”