Chapter 11
The squeak of the saddle crooned in a rhythm with the constant clipping of hooves, our bodies swaying in measure.
We stayed off the main road, keeping to the trails, making for a rougher ride.
The sunset relocated around the horizon as the hours passed.
We hadn’t said a word since we left the tower.
The distress of what had happened got lost in the urgency to put distance between us and Beggar’s Hole.
What the Northerner told me about the old military base, my father’s keep, wound in my mind like a tapestry. I had seen the raven marker still positioned at the top of the tower, the Day Raven’s symbol. It was hard to dispute that the land used to be owned by my father.
Why would he lie to me? Why did no one talk about what had happened there? Or the implication that the Day Realm was losing territory to the Shadow Rift, land that could no longer grow nutrients?
Food.
The word burrowed through the hollowness of my stomach, the emptiness aching along with my bones. The Northerner grunted in my ear, his hand pressed into my abdomen, keeping me locked against him, feeling every time it screamed out in anger.
“Do you have a name?” Chalk it up to boredom, trying to get my mind off the hunger in my belly, the weariness in my bones and the need to pee.
He didn’t respond, the groan of the saddle ticking the seconds by.
“Unless you want me to keep calling you thrall.” My tone ticked with irritation, his stoic silence grating on my nerves. “You know mine.”
“Not willingly.”
“Don’t you think I deserve to know? I did save your life, after all.”
A huff blew from his nose, skating down the back of my neck.
“You don’t need to know my name.”
His response only heightened my annoyance. I felt defensive, as if he rejected me in some way. Which was stupid. We were still enemies.
“Embarrassed?” I taunted. “Is it something really bad, like Gerri, or Keith?”
“What is wrong with those names?”
“Did I hit a nerve? Is your name Keith?” I nibbled on my lip. “No, you look more like a Gerri.”
A rumble came from his throat. Yanking on the reins, he swung off the horse.
“Oh, did I offend you, Gerri?”
“What offends me is your voice.” He glared at me. “And your need to continuously yammer.”
“Yammer?” I laughed. “This is the first time I’ve spoken in hours.”
“And it’s still too much.” He huffed, swinging around and strolling down to a trickling stream. He crouched down, cupping the water into his mouth.
Glowering at his back, I slipped off the horse. The beast nipped at me the moment my feet hit the ground.
“What the fuck?” I scrambled back, shooting my glare at the animal.
The Northerner chuckled, grinning smugly as he drank more water.
“He feels the same.”
Scowling at both, I made my way to the stream, scooping up the liquid and pouring it into my mouth.
The cool water soothed the back of my dry throat, the bitter tang of dirt coating my tongue.
It tasted awful, but I was desperate to relieve my parched throat and fill my belly with something else besides acid.
“We’ll make it to the township of Blackwater in a few hours,” he muttered, like telling me anything went against his code. “There we can rest, get a meal.” His gaze flicked to my growling stomach.
“Blackwater.” I’d heard of it before. It was a place where the worst of criminals and outlaws ended up. A place that excited me as a child with its long history of villainy and debauchery. To me it was so far away and made-up, I’d forgotten it was a real place.
“It’s the center of Shadow Rift, the main settlement between the Day and Night realms.”
“I know.” I swallowed down more water with a scowl.
“Right.” He snorted, standing up. “That amazing schooling you got.”
“Are you belittling me for having an education?” I rose up after him.
“I’m criticizing the fact your education is only what they want you to know, that you have no understanding of what is happening outside your castle walls.”
“They told me Night Ravens are soulless fiends. And that has proven true.”
He stared at me as if I was an impudent child. “And I was shown that Day Ravens are entitled, arrogant, selfish fittes. That seems on point as well.”
“Selfish?” I gaped. “I literally saved your life today!”
A smirk twitched his mouth, his head tilting down to me.
“I benefited from you needing to save your own. But let’s not forget the part you somehow escaped the bindings and were running off.
My life is inconsequential to you. I am a thrall in your eyes.
Less than.” He had the power to completely engulf me, to cause me to feel strangled by his presence without him touching me.
“And I’m not worthless in yours?” I spat. “You keep me alive because you have to.”
“True.”
“Because your king ordered you to? That’s where you are taking me, right? To Ravenshadow?”
His mouth thinned.
“No questions asked. You just did what you were told?” I provoked him. “Letting yourself get captured by my father’s guards, to work in our household, to get closer to me?”
Crossing his arms, the muscles strained the seams of his tunic, showing more of the tattoo on his neck. Fresh blood leaked from his shoulder.
I didn’t stop. “How does that make you anything other than a thrall under your own king as well?”
“You have no idea what is really going on.”
“Don’t I?” I seethed back. “I know you need the White Raven to heal the land. That’s why the Night King wants me. For power? To unite the realms with me at his side? I’m nothing more than a foretelling to you. An object to use.”
“You are so out of your depth, kanin.” His jaw snapped, his torso leaning into me, his teeth gritting. “Do yourself, and me, a favor. Keep your fucking hood up and your mouth closed and do what I say when we get to Blackwater.”
A howl pierced the air, the melancholy wail shuddering up my spine, turning my head toward the woods. His awareness went to the forest when another yowl followed from a different direction nearby.
“We better get going. The wolves here love Raven flesh.”
“Goody, something else that wants to eat me.”
His gaze shot to me, the nerve in his jaw twitching. For a second his attention glided down to my mouth, but then he pivoted, stomping to the horse, climbing back on.
The urge to run, to get away from him, twitched my legs and deflected my attention to the east. The flash of hope that I could elude him, make it home, quickly perished when the draugrhest neighed, stomping its hoof behind me, almost daring me to run.
The beast would gleefully run me down before I could even cross the stream, using my bones to pick its teeth.
Sighing heavily, I made my way back to the monster and the thing he was riding. That sinking sensation pitted my stomach again, the fear that I crossed some imaginary line.
And there was no turning back for me.
The township of Silvervale had always seemed like the perfect place to me.
The white castle, with its dramatic turrets and snowcapped roofs, nestled high in the mountains slightly above the idyllic town, surrounded by nature.
As the capital of our realm, it boasted shops, hothouses, markets, tradespeople, and homes expanding out around the castle grounds, with the beautiful Silver Feather lake and river glinting behind like diamonds.
Sarina and I had walked daily around the village, or as children played games in its streets, and never once did I feel unsafe. It never occurred to me. My handmaidens and I were protected and revered. People moved out of our way and bowed.
I grew up hearing stories of other realms, how dangerous and scary life was outside the Day borders, but my brain never fully comprehended the reality.
The dissolution and licentiousness.
The stench of piss and feces had me pulling my hood over my mouth when the horse sauntered us down the main dirt lane of Blackwater.
The street teemed with activity. The dense, multilevel dark wood buildings closed in around us and loomed over, causing my chest to tighten with anxiety.
Loud booming voices and music thundered from various buildings, men and women loitering outside the establishments, shouting at us to join them.
I pressed back into the Northerner’s body, overwhelmed by my senses being pulled in multiple directions.
Two men tumbled out into the lane, almost crashing into us as they punched and wrestled, while moans came from the shadows.
A couple fucking against the building, her tits out of her bodice, bouncing as he rammed her into the wall.
She wailed loudly and freely, not caring to hide her pleasure.
A few figures stood on boxes next to the road, calling out to those passing by, peddling supplies, cures for any ailment, and selling thralls.
My fingers wrapped around the Northerner’s wrist, a sharp inhale sticking in my throat.
A handful of men and women were on their knees, their arms bound, heads bowed. The two in the middle pulled my focus: a man and a woman, their white hair reflecting under the torch the salesman was holding.
Day Ravens.
“Get two for the price of one. For your business, home, or bed! They serve all your needs on their knees!”
Disgust and rage stiffened my back, my eyes landing on one of the girls, she appeared around my age.
“Don’t.” A growl vibrated against my ear, his arm constricting around my waist. “You keep your head down and mouth closed.”
“But—”
“No.” He was implacable, drawing me against his solid chest. “You can’t help them. The only thing you will do is cause me to shed blood, and call attention to us. The last thing you want here, kanin, is attention. I promise you that.”
“You’ll do nothing? Let them be sold?” I bristled, my gaze trailing the Day Ravens as we passed. “They’re adolescents.”
“Yes,” he replied. “You mind your own fucking business here.”
“You really are cruel.”