Chapter 28
TURSK
Sonah groaned for the millionth time since they’d set out. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to riding a horse. Maybe she wasn’t built for it. Were gods even supposed to ride horses? Not for the first time, she wondered what their world was like when the gods ruled.
She glanced to her right, where Melanos rode with Bethana wrapped in his embrace.
Sonah sighed wistfully as she took in the way the nymph’s head lay against Melanos’s chest, eyes closed and a small smile on her lips.
Here was a woman who’d been cursed to live as a serpent for a millennium, and yet she seemed more comfortable in the saddle than Sonah.
And Sonah had spent much of the past year in one.
Sighing again, she shifted her gaze to Leander. He had a strong profile, emerald eyes narrowed and lips pinched in concentration.
The Spartans were still cautious around Leander, but Melanos seemed to have warmed to him. She’d worried she’d made a mistake including Leander in their numbers, but he’d proven himself useful, especially with his hunting skills.
As if sensing her attention, Leander glanced over at her, smug when he caught Sonah staring. Heat burst over her face and she turned away, cursing the man under her breath when he chuckled.
A hawk circled above, and Sonah lifted her chin, shielding her gaze against the late day’s sun, the bright rays filtering through the trees in a blinding brilliance of power.
The hawk let out a keening cry and dipped, flying dangerously close to their horses, and she startled, her fingers fisting tight on the reins until her mount danced beneath her.
“You’ll make her rear if you keep clutching the reins like that,” Leander said softly beside her. Sonah gasped, her head whipping in his direction, and the horse responded by edging closer to his mount. He reached out, steadying her, and Sonah shivered as his earthy scent invaded her senses.
Gods, he smells good.
He looked up at her sharply and Sonah froze. Had she spoken aloud?
“Are you all right?”
Sonah nodded several times, then realized how ridiculous she must seem. But his voice had dropped, and the huskiness made her belly flip.
“Aye,” she breathed. Big mistake. Inhaling more of his intoxicating scent caused a tiny stream of drool to escape her mouth.
Gods, please open up the ground beneath me and swallow me whole!
Leander’s lips quirked up. “Lady?”
“Aye?”
“Is everything—”
“What’s it say?” Melanos called out, jarring Sonah out of her stupor.
She jerked away from Leander and looked ahead to where Fane sat, his arm extended, the hawk she’d seen now perched on his forearm. Leaning over to Melanos on his other side, Fane handed him something.
Sonah watched Melanos’s face as he read whatever Fane had handed him. Melanos lifted his head, a scowl on his handsome face. He turned to look at her.
“The commander is with Hermes.”
“Who?” Fane asked.
“He’s the Messenger God, an Olympian,” Melanos said in a gruff voice.
“But one of the better Olympians,” Bethana added. “He was always kind to me.”
Sonah frowned. “Another god? How? And what’s he doing with Daris?”
“I don’t know,” Melanos muttered, rubbing his hand across his beard.
“Is Terena with them?” Sonah asked excitedly, straightening in her saddle.
“No,” Melanos grunted. “She’s in Ravos now.”
“Ravos, why?”
“He does not say,” Melanos grunted. “But the commander is still in Ermanel. Looks to be a few days ahead of us. His man, Jason, will stay behind to meet up with us.”
Sonah swallowed, darting a glance at Leander, who watched her through narrowed eyes.
Pressing her hands to her hot cheeks, Sonah ducked her head.
She was acting foolishly. Jason hadn’t bothered to visit her while she’d been at Arestia Castle.
So why should she care whether or not the Liodari was now waiting for them?
Sonah lifted her eyes to find Leander still staring at her. Blood of the gods! Why did she feel so awkward all of a sudden?
“Well, then… let’s start heading east,” Sonah said, flicking the reins and trotting off.
“Wrong way,” Fane called out.
Sonah’s face flamed as she wheeled her mount around and followed after the others.
ERMANEL
At night, Leander transformed into his wolf form to hunt for their dinner, which was convenient and about the only good thing she had to say for his company. Otherwise, she was on edge. And always too warm.
He’d sit too close, or lean in too close, or breathe too close. It was annoying.
She’d objected once when he’d returned with a brace of haddon, leporids with ears larger than Leander’s hands, their thick feet dragging on the ground as he held them at his side.
He’d dumped them in front of a grinning Melanos.
The god had gotten to work skinning the animals while Leander dropped onto a log beside Sonah.
His breath stank, and she’d told him so, which did nothing to the man’s ego.
Instead, he’d thrown his head back and laughed.
“Aye, it usually does after I go hunting.”
Sonah wasn’t pacified. “Well then, don’t sit so close to me!”
Leander had flashed her a wicked grin. “Well then, stop being so beautiful, and I will.”
Sonah groaned, recalling how hot she’d gotten at his words, even now pressing a hand to her overheated skin. Which was ridiculous because it’d been raining all morning and she was soaked and freezing.
“Everything all right back there?”
Sonah glanced at Melanos’s back and twisted her lips. She opened her mouth to retort when something whistled through the air.
“Cover!”
Leander’s roar made her ears ring and Sonah cried out when her horse reared back.
Fane and the Spartans wheeled their mounts around until they encircled her.
Shouts came at them from all sides, and Sonah’s breath caught.
They were quickly overrun; Fane was knocked from his horse while soldiers attacked the Spartans, her protection gone.
Melanos bellowed something she couldn’t understand. Swinging around, Sonah saw Bethana running toward her. Sonah’s horse bucked and she lost her grip on the reins. The horse’s movements made her slip. With a cry, she fell awkwardly from its back.
The ground rushed up to meet her. She grunted as pain lanced up her arm and hip. Hands pulled at her, and she looked up to see Bethana screaming at her, her beautiful face contorted. At last, Sonah shook herself out of her stupor and scrambled to stand.
Sonah screeched when someone tore her away from Bethana, grabbing her braid and yanking hard. She slammed back onto the wet ground.
Fighting for air, Sonah scrabbled on the slick grass when a soldier forced her back down, pinning her with his much larger and heavily armored body.
Myriad shouts and cries filled the clearing, but Sonah saw nothing but stars, the pain in her scalp almost unbearable.
She struggled to breathe as he crushed her ribs with his thighs.
Turning her head, she looked up into the hate-filled eyes of the soldier, his wet and muddied uniform the white and gold of Heylisia but with the eagle emblem of Ovenno stamped on his breastplate.
That thought registered a second before the man raised his hand, his sword aimed at her heart.
Sonah’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to scream as the blade came down. The look of confusion on the man’s face when it bounced off her gave her a chance to recover. Sonah jammed her knee into his groin and rolled away as he tipped over.
Swallowing against the painful tightening of her throat, Sonah slipped in the mud and bit her tongue, her elbow smacking the ground.
As she rose, blood dripped from her mouth and she blinked at the carnage around them.
Looking up, she saw Bethana, a vortex of water funneled around the soldiers near her, sweeping them up and cutting off their cries.
Someone shouted her name, and Sonah looked up to see Leander’s terrified expression, his face contorted as he fought, motioning at something behind her.
Sonah turned as Duke Ovenno came through a crowd of soldiers fighting Melanos and the Spartans. The duke’s face was speckled with blood and dirt, snarling at her as he advanced.
“Finally,” Duke Ovenno seethed, his nostrils flaring as he stalked her. Backing away, Sonah looked around for help. Melanos and Leander were locked in their own battles with Bethana, Fane and the Spartans nowhere in sight.
“I’ve had to trek across this fucking continent to find you. Because of you, I’ve been humiliated and threatened by Emperor Solon, my daughter held captive in his court, and my wife threatened with beheading! But I will redeem myself when I deliver you to him.”
Sonah gaped at the duke, whose face was twisted and blotched with a red so deep she thought he might be possessed by the demons of the underworld.
“I will not go easily,” Sonah said, cursing her shaky voice as she backed away.
“Oh, you think this will be easy? You are an ignorant child, always have been. I knew Altos would do something to stop me from bringing you back. He insisted he didn’t know you’d gone, but I know it was all part of his plan. So I had my own men searching for you. I’ve been onto you since Ibros.”
Sonah swallowed. “If that were true, you’d plenty of chances to capture me.”
“I would’ve if it weren’t for the fucking wolves.” Ovenno stopped and held out his arms, his sword catching the sunlight. The smile on his thin lips made Sonah shiver. “They seem to have abandoned you at last.”
He sprang forward, taking Sonah by surprise. His hand clamped around her wrist and, with the back of his sword hand, struck her across the face.
Sonah stumbled and would’ve fallen if not for the duke’s hold on her. Stars burst behind her eyes and her cheek flared with heat. Blood pooled in her mouth from where her teeth bit into her cheek and she gagged.