Chapter 10
LAKONIA
At midday, Sonah and Lerek spotted a small village where the coin Sonah had pilfered from Jenos was enough to secure them two horses.
Lerek had hidden beneath his hooded cloak while Sonah negotiated, the stable master nodding enthusiastically at the sum, even throwing in a dagger after Sonah had asked where she might procure one.
She was still uncomfortable around the beasts, but at least this one listened to her, and it seemed docile enough.
When they’d reached the main road outside the village, they’d continued west, sticking to the less populated paths.
“Wouldn’t it be quicker using the Greek roads?”
“Aye,” Sonah called back. “Quicker getting caught. We stick to these paths and shelter in the woods as much as we can. If we keep going west, there’s a forest we can hide in for days. The woods are dense enough to keep us well hidden.”
“West?” Lerek looked around as they rode on. “We’re going east.”
“What?” Sonah pulled on the reins and the horse slowed to a stop. Resting one hand on her hip, she frowned at her surroundings. “Are you certain?”
“Aye,” Lerek said with a sardonic lift of his lips. “Can you not tell?”
“I’m not good with that stuff,” she grumbled.
“Well, now that we’ve determined we are, in fact, going east,” Lerek said with exaggerated patience, “where do you suggest we go from here?”
Chewing on her lip, Sonah thought for a few seconds before she brightened, snapping her fingers and pointing at Lerek with a huge grin. “We’ll be in Ibros soon, if we’re not already. We head north until we get to Thuria. I have a friend up there.”
Lerek looked at her warily. “You have a friend in Thuria? When have you been to Thuria?”
Sonah shrugged, a coy smile on her lips. She made a clicking noise and her mare started walking. “I’ve been many places, Lerek. And my friend owes me a favor. Now, which way is north?”
Lerek pointed, and Sonah moved her horse in that direction.
They traveled in silence for the better part of an hour, and Sonah was glad of it. She’d learned a lot more about the prince in these last few hours on the run together than the last seven years in the White Palace combined.
What a difference being a fugitive made in one’s character.
Dusk turned the sky into a kaleidoscope of pinks, oranges, and deep blues. To the left, the sun sank beyond the mountains and Sonah glanced over at Lerek.
“We should start looking for a place to rest for the night.”
He looked over at her with a slow nod. His eyes had deep, dark circles beneath them and his shoulders were slumped. When he shifted in his saddle, she caught him wincing.
“Look,” she said with a nod, “up ahead, you see that? We’ll head for that copse of pine.”
Sonah didn’t bother to wait for his acknowledgment. She kicked her mare gently as she whispered soothing nonsense to her, and they surged forward.
As they neared the woods, the terrain sloped up, and she slowed her mount to walk uphill.
Darkness descended quickly and she shivered as she looked up and around at the thick trees.
It was unnaturally quiet, and Sonah braced herself as she brought her hand down to the dagger she’d strapped to her side.
“It’s so quiet,” Lerek said, his voice obscenely loud.
Sonah shot him a glare over her shoulder but didn’t respond. Of the two of them, she was the only one with experience in the fugitive lifestyle, which is why he’d deferred to her suggestions to this point. But she wished he would step up a bit. Her insides quaked and her nerves were shot.
“This is as good a place as any to stop,” she said softly.
Sonah waited a moment before dismounting.
Her backside was so sore, she winced with every step.
There was no stream nearby to water the horses, so she walked her grey mare for a few minutes until she heard the trickle of water.
Sonah called out to Lerek, then headed toward it.
Once the horses were drinking, Sonah unbuckled the saddle and pulled it off, struggling against the weight. Lerek rushed over and took it from her but was unsure what to do with it.
“Set it over there,” she said with a lift of her chin. “We’ll use them to lean against while we eat. I’ll go gather some wood for a fire.”
She set off, not bothering to look back at Lerek. Luckily, finding enough wood to burn was a quick endeavor.
Lerek came close to the fire, his face wet from the creek, and handed her his waterskin.
Taking deep gulps of the refreshing liquid, Sonah groaned. Mumbling her thanks, she handed it back to him. Crouching with a grimace, Sonah leaned back against her saddle.
A moment later, she rummaged in her saddlebags for some food. Tossing half a loaf of bread to Lerek, she grabbed a couple of apples and a stem of grapes to share between them.
“Sonah,” Lerek said in a low voice. “Tell me what happened after…”
Sonah looked at Lerek a long time before she dropped her chin. Twisting the half eaten apple in her hands, she frowned, knowing this conversation was coming, but wishing it wouldn’t.
“It’s a long story,” she said with a sigh. Glancing over at him, she shrugged. “I’ll tell you some of it, but we should really sleep as much as we can, Lerek. Our journey north will be long, and there’ll be times when we won’t be able to sleep much, if at all.”
“All right,” Lerek nodded. He shifted until he faced her. The firelight cast his face in shadows and she was thankful for it. She hoped her own countenance was hidden thus.
With a sigh, Sonah lifted her head, looking at the stars peeking through the trees.
“General Peleon’s men had Terena arrested.
She was on the terrace, when… well, you know that part.
Anyway, Captain Cortis put me in the dungeons.
They thought I was part of the… assassination plot.
They sent word to Duke Ovenno of my arrest, but what they didn’t know is he’s not my father.
So of course, I was left to rot in the dungeons. With Ren.”
Lerek hung his head. “How did you get out?”
“Croak. He and two mercenaries he’d hired helped us escape. But…”
“But what?”
How much to say? Gods, she wished Terena was with her.
“Look, there are many things I can tell you, but I think it best we wait until we’re all together. With Terena and the others, I mean. Much of this is not my story to tell and I don’t want to say anything she’ll—”
Sonah stopped and shook her head roughly. Lerek was silent as he watched her.
When she didn’t continue, he shifted and settled back against his saddle.
After a while, he asked, “How is she? I mean, how was she, when you last saw her?”
Sonah laughed darkly. “When I last saw her, she was screaming and shooting arrows at the Liodari when they carried me away.”
That was the truth, at least. To say more would mean she’d have to talk about Daris, and there was no way she was going there. That was Terena territory for sure.
“I’m glad you were together,” he said at length.
“Me too.”
“How did you all end up in Sparta? I tried to get to you before, when I knew Terena was there as well, but I was well guarded after my failed attempt to reach you.”
Sonah rubbed her eyes. Again, not something she wanted to get into.
“Terena saw the oracle in Messene. She told her to go to King Altos because he had something of hers.”
“You saw the oracle?”
“Not me. Just Terena.”
“How is that possible? The oracle only speaks to monarchs.”
Another subject she didn’t want to get into. If Lerek didn’t know Terena was a god, she was certainly not going to open that bag of turnips.
She responded with a shrug.
“What was it she had to get from Altos?”
“A pair of swords.”
“And then she left?”
Sonah opened her mouth to tell him no, she’d stayed behind while Terena had gone to Ibros and gotten the fangs from a mythical serpent, but that would lead to more questions, and she was tired.
“How ‘bout we get some sleep, and I tell you more tomorrow night?”
He was silent for so long, Sonah took that as assent and settled down on the ground, tugging her cloak to cover herself as best she could.
“I don’t know what happened to you these many months, Sonah. But you are not the same girl I knew at the palace.”
She didn’t know why, but Sonah felt the sting of tears and shut her eyes tight.
“No,” she whispered. “No, I am not.”
IbrOS
They’d been traveling north for a week when they ran out of food. Sonah had not thought to bring anything to hunt with—she was no good with a bow, despite the hours Terena had spent teaching her.
All she had was a dagger.
And Lerek.
The situation was bleak.
Sighing, Sonah pulled her horse off the trail, and they walked until they found a stream.
After watering the horses and filling up their waterskins, Sonah tasked Lerek with finding wood for a fire while she tried to fish.
She’d tied her dagger to the end of a long branch and spent the next five minutes shivering in ankle-deep water, hoping to spear a fish for their dinner.
When her attempts did nothing but soak her boots and pants, she screamed her frustration to the sky.
“If you wanted to fish, you could’ve just asked me,” Lerek said, hands on hips. Sonah cast him a mutinous look as she trudged out of the water.
“I suppose you think you can do better?”
“I know I can,” Lerek boasted, grabbing the spear from her hands. “You forget, I spent much of my childhood with Terena and Croak. Their father taught us how to fish.”
“Taught you to fish but didn’t teach you how to use a sword?”
Lerek gave her a sour look and held out his hand for the makeshift spear. He gestured for her to move behind him, and Sonah rolled her eyes. Watching him from a safe distance, she crossed her arms and frowned as she waited.
And waited.
He stood as still as one of the marble statues in the gardens at the White Palace. She admired the concentration it must take to be so focused, arm raised as he kept his eyes trained on the water.
As she watched, he hurled the spear, the end wobbling as it stuck in the stream bed. He strode toward it, dropping to his haunches as he yanked back on the spear and she cried out, pointing at the fish on the end of it.
With a hand clapped over her mouth, she stared at Lerek, who grinned back at her as if he’d captured the moon. Smothering a giggle, she gave him a mock bow.
“Very good, Your Highness. Tonight, we feast!”
“Well, we’ll need more than just the one,” Lerek said with a crooked grin. She grinned back.
“I’ll go start the fire, then.” Sonah turned with a spring in her step.
It was still dark out when Sonah woke. The fire had died down and the last of the embers had long since turned cold. The woods were quiet.
Unsure of what had caused her to rouse, Sonah shifted up to her elbow and looked around. A prickle of awareness made her skin rise like gooseflesh.
Then she heard it.
The soft snap of a twig behind her made Sonah scramble to her feet, her dagger out as she stood defensively. She kicked at Lerek’s shoulder and hissed at him to get up as her eyes darted around the darkness.
A shadow materialized into the shape of a man and Sonah’s eyes widened.
“Lerek! Get up! Get up, now!”
As soon as she’d yelled, the man rushed her. Sonah flung her dagger and was rewarded with the man’s yelp.
Turning, Sonah looked for another weapon when she heard a snarl behind her and turned in time to see a man grab Lerek. Two more ran toward her.
“Grab her, dammit!”
The man in front of her clutched at his arm, her dagger embedded in his shoulder. His face was hidden beneath a mask covering everything below his eyes, his clothes so dark she couldn’t tell if he was a Spartan soldier or a brigand. Either way, she couldn’t let them take her.
As Lerek struggled against his captor, and the other two men circled closer to her, Sonah opened her mouth and screamed.
The man holding Lerek immediately released his hold and Lerek dropped like a stone. He covered his ears, his eyes wild as he looked up at Sonah.
The others were similarly incapacitated, and Sonah grabbed Lerek by his tunic and tried to haul him up.
Turning, Sonah crashed into the chest of one of their assailants. The man grabbed her by the tunic and slammed his forehead against hers.