Chapter 37
Aiden
Henry. A message.
For a moment, my mind didn’t grasp her words. Then I felt like a fool. Why had I thought she was going to say something about me? Us?
There was no us. Only in the lie I told.
I sat back in my chair. “I said no in Yargoth. I’m saying no now.”
Her eyebrows pinched together as if I’d hurt her. I looked away.
“We barely made it out of . . .” She glanced around furtively and lowered her voice. “Of Calimber. We can’t do this alone.”
“We’re not doing it alone. Isn’t that why you sent off Jek, Yarina, and Sigrid? To join Skelly and complete their half of the plan?”
Her eyes grew wary. “Yes. But that plan only works if our timing, disguises, and explosives are perfect. Having more allies would be a wise precaution.”
I shoveled some oatmeal into my mouth. Bland mush, more like, but my body needed it. Especially if we couldn’t pick up more supplies.
“Even if we could get him a message, and if he were willing to help us, too much time will have passed for him to march an army to Calimber.” I glared at my soupy oatmeal. “Besides, I want to avoid an all-out war. I’ve seen Dracles cut down enough people to last a lifetime.”
“Then how do you plan to get to Renwell?” she snapped, her eyes like fire and honey.
“You think he’ll just step down from the throne without a fight?
Infiltrating the mine is hard enough. The palace would be impossible.
Even I can admit that my earlier plan of sneaking in to rescue my brother and sister was foolish, with little chance of success.
” She gripped the edges of the table, as if she wanted to throw it.
“Everett, Delysia, Melaena, and thousands of other people in Aquinon are essentially Renwell’s hostages.
Are we going to abandon them after all this? ”
Sparks snapped beneath my skin. My blood had been simmering all night, but Kiera always ignited it further.
“We aren’t abandoning anyone,” I growled, practically nose-to-nose with her over the remains of our breakfast. “I just haven’t planned that far ahead since I might be buried beneath a cliff before Arduen’s Night.”
Her cheeks paled, but she held her ground. “If that happens . . . If we both die in the mine, we need someone to carry on after us. Someone with allies who would risk death for their families and loved ones. Who would save Aquinon.”
I swallowed hard, my gaze skimming over the scar on her cheek. “You truly think Henry would do that?”
The fire in Kiera’s eyes turned silver. “I once thought that betrayal was the blade that cuts the deepest. But now I think it’s love.
Love will make a man face down his worst enemy simply to die in the same place as his wife.
Love will defy birth, status, rules, sides, beliefs .
. . even death,” she whispered. “Love is the strongest weapon of all.”
It will also drive a man to the brink of the Abyss and pull him back again. It will make him set aside those betrayals and lies for a truth that cuts too deep to survive.
It will make him want to sacrifice an entire kingdom for one woman.
You.
I slowly pulled away from her, my thoughts in ashes. “You’re so gods-damned beautiful when you win.”
She blinked, her lips parting. Fucking Four, how I wanted to swoop in and steal them.
“Did I?” she asked. “Win?”
I drained the last of my beer. “Tell him to meet us in Twaryn, wherever the logging camp is. He shouldn’t look suspicious there if he gets caught.”
Kiera nodded, her eyes distant, as if she were writing the letter in her mind. “I’ll add a few words that allude to Delysia so he knows we’re on her side. If he’s as in love with her as I think, he’ll come.”
How easily she believed this soldier’s feelings.
“We don’t have long until midday,” I said. “Let’s win some coins and send your letter.”
Two hours later, we had a pouch full of silver and copper coins. The patrons had surprisingly enjoyed competing with Kiera and her knives. Many congratulated me on such a fine wife. I smiled and enjoyed the role I played. Perhaps a bit too much.
I played a few matches of Death and Four and won easily. My most difficult opponent had been the one everyone in here was calling my wife.
I also asked a few discreet questions about the river checkpoints and the patrols who guarded them. Most of the drivers were only too willing to complain about the recent searches and rough treatment that made their jobs harder.
We left Beards & Barley with flushed smiles and led our horses to the courier’s office. We found Nikella still there, a line of drivers waiting for her to pen or read a letter to them.
Nikella didn’t acknowledge us as Kiera quickly wrote a letter with the quill and paper the officer gave her.
It reminded me of the days when it’d been just me and Nikella wandering the world. Occasionally, she’d have to pretend I wasn’t her ward, to stave off the inevitable questions.
At first, it’d bothered me. She’d made it clear since I was a child that she wasn’t my mother and never would be, but I cared for her like a son might.
Eventually, I realized her protection and guidance were her way of loving me, even if she never said the words aloud.
Sometimes I wondered if she was as scared to love as I was, given how cut off from it we’d been.
Kiera finished her letter and spoke quietly to the courier, likely telling him where to send it. She passed him a few more coppers than necessary. Probably for discretion. The young man nodded and took the letter and the coins.
We headed for the signpost, under which a very dirty and tired-looking Maz and Ruru waited for us. Their horses both wore faded bridles and saddles, with a few more clumped at their feet.
“No coins,” Maz said wearily, all lightness scrubbed from his tone. “Fed nearly a hundred livestock in exchange for gear.”
“Pretty sure I’ve swam in shit by now,” Ruru said glumly.
I tossed him a silver. “You and Maz go get yourself some food and drink at the tavern while we wait for Nikella. Are those for us?” I pointed at the extra saddles.
Maz nodded. “Two saddles, one bridle. We’ll have to buy the rest.”
We split off again. I bartered a fair price for another saddle and two more bridles while Kiera bought some food, a few water canteens and bedrolls, and bags to put everything in.
The journey would be lean, but we’d have to make do. Lingering any longer would put us behind schedule. Or allow Korvin to catch up. Foreboding clouded my thoughts.
Would he track us? Or the Dagriel group? I was surprised we hadn’t seen any sign of him all night. Surely he hadn’t given up. I hated an unpredictable enemy. He’d already sneaked up on me once. It couldn’t happen again.
The sun had slid west by the time we all met back under the signpost. Then we were off again. After we retrieved our weapons, I led us through the woods, riding toward the dying sun as I searched for a safe place to rest.
Eventually, I spotted a shallow cave, and we bedded down for a few hours, taking watches.
Then we continued to ride. And ride. Day and night. Stopping only to water and feed the horses, catch a few winks, and allow Kiera and Ruru to train with Nikella. Maz and I dueled off to the side like we were back at Yargoth.
To break the monotony of the ride, we discussed our plans for Calimber. What followed was essentially a four-day argument over each person’s role in our mission.
Kiera was right when she said the plan had to go perfectly. And it put the people I loved most in danger. No matter how many times I tried to take the most perilous tasks, they shouted me down. They wanted to share the risk equally, and I had to accept that.
If I could destroy the mine single-handedly, I would.
If I could sneak into Aquinon and slit Renwell’s throat while he slept, I would.
Instead, I was adding Henry to our plans. I’d told Nikella about the letter Kiera sent, and she immediately agreed it was a good idea.
Of course she did.
Kiera nudged her horse alongside Wicked as we rode together. “Brooding about the plan again, dear husband?”
Maz snorted behind us. Kiera had told everyone what’d happened at Beards & Barley, and Maz and Ruru seemed to think it was hilarious. I wasn’t sure Nikella had even been listening. She kept glancing at the woods to the east. Behind us.
But Kiera’s teasing title for me still made my stomach dip.
“No,” I said sharply. “I just wish you’d let me be the one to—”
“Did you know my mother used to ask me to come with her to the Temple?” Kiera cut over my protest.
The unforeseen question made my mouth snap shut. What did this have to do with the mine?
I shook my head.
Kiera looked down at her scarred fingers, which were curled around Ozlow’s reins. “She stopped—probably around the time she met you. But also because I always said no. I hated being anywhere near that square.”
“I remember.” Kiera had paled at the thought of going through it and had run away when she’d seen Asher’s head.
“Father forced me to watch some executions there during the Pravaran rebellion,” she whispered. “One of them was the first boy I fell in love with. Julian. His father was a People’s Council member.”
I ground my teeth together. Weylin’s cruelty apparently knew no bounds in punishing his family and his people.
Julian. Julian. Why do I know that name?
“The boy you went to prison for,” I said. “You said his name was Julian.”
Kiera nodded. “That story was partially true. He was a boy whose execution I tried to stop. His death was one of the reasons I hated my father.”
Another truth from a lie. “Thank you for telling me. But why?”
“Because I feel like I could’ve saved their lives if I hadn’t been so afraid,” she said softly, gazing at me with her beautiful soul bared in her eyes.
“If I had gone with Mother to the Temple, maybe she wouldn’t have planned something so reckless.
If I hadn’t run away from my responsibilities, maybe she would’ve confided in me.
If I had fought my father sooner, maybe I could’ve stopped those horrible executions. ”
My chest tightened. I recognized that guilt, that desire to do more and to do it perfectly.
I reached over and squeezed her arm. “It’s easier to pass judgment when we’re on the outside of fear. But that shouldn’t make it any less real.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Every day,” I said without hesitation.
“I am, too. But for the first time, I feel stronger than my fear. And I want to do some good with it.” She gave me a hard look, the fierce determination in it bolstering my meager hope. “Do you understand?”
You want to fight for our people. You want to honor your mother’s and Julian’s and all of Rellmira’s sacrifices. And you don’t want me impeding that.
I dipped my head, then set my gaze on the endless road. “I understand. No more brooding.”
“Thank the Four,” Maz grumbled behind us. “You really should listen to your wife more often, brother.”
Ruru laughed. Kiera’s cheeks turned pink, and she refused to look at me.
I dropped back next to Maz and gave him a shove. “For that, you get first watch tonight.”
He shoved me back, the familiar gleam in his eyes. “Worth it.”
“We should rest on the other side of that hill,” Nikella said, pointing to a knoll off the road. “It’ll provide excellent cover from anyone passing by.”
We set up camp by dusk. I grabbed my bow and arrows to hunt for our supper when Nikella stopped me.
“You’re fighting Kiera tonight.”