Chapter 14
Fourteen
Iwas definitely the one slowing Kilia down as we followed Ottoh through the hip-high shrub that clawed at our thighs like the fingers of the drowned.
“Come on,” Kilia hissed under his breath. I wheezed for air, trying to keep up with his strides while fighting the thick bushes. “There are more of them over there.”
I groaned to myself when long shadows flickered over the forest bed.
He was right. Another group of King Gustief’s enemies was headed our way, these with wooden torches that contorted their features as the flames danced over them.
Their foreign tongue was sharp, their accents thick and menacing as they shattered the heavy silence between the trees.
Their steps amplified the sound, setting my nerves alight.
Wiping sweat from my brow, I pushed myself to move faster, not letting the rope between me and Kilia stretch or allowing Ottoh and his partner out of sight as they wove through the thousand-year-old trees.
We’d fought our way here from the beach.
Enemies had lain in wait at almost every bend of the rocky shore, and by the time we reached the forest line, there were so many of them I hadn’t been able to make out Viljan, Ivren, or Rakkel anymore.
My leathers were damp, not from the sea but from the blood of those Kilia and I had been forced to take down.
By this point I imagined the scent of iron would cling to my skin forever.
“It’s getting harder to see,” Kilia said quietly. “We must be getting quite far inland.”
“Should we stop?” Oscri asked. “Make sure we’re not taking some kind of detour to wherever we’re going?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I replied as muted sounds whipped the air around us: screams that cut off into gurgling, choked sounds, steps crunching leaves, hushed voices coming from every direction. “Just watch out for the roots and keep going.”
Darkness thickened around us like it had with every step we took further inland, and sweat began trickling down my back when the shadows deepened and the trees grew taller, more threatening.
No gentle melody resounded from these woods.
Not like it did at home. The forest here was wild.
Unpredictable. The trunks tightened around us like enemies surrounding a battlefield.
They hummed with hostility, and an eerie howl rose somewhere ahead.
I bit down a cry of pain when the sound caused Kilia to waver, making the rope pull at my battered arm.
“Sorry,” he mouthed.
A growl that vibrated through my blood answered the howl, and I flinched when Oscri slipped, a curse flying from him as he stumbled into a slow run beside us.
“That doesn’t sound good at fucking all,” Oscri snapped. “How do we even know we’re going the right way?” the twin continued in a furious whisper, his head darting from side to side as he carried his partner over his shoulder.
The man tied to him had been struck by a wooden club, and there was a worrying emptiness in his half-closed eyes as his body bounced against the muscled karl.
Kilia let out a shuddering breath before turning away from his brother.
“Since there are more enemies, I think there is a good chance we’re on the right path,” I replied. “I’m sure we’ll be there soon.”
Whether it was the truth or not, I had no idea, but I wasn’t about to have the twins lose hope. I needed them to get out of here.
“Where is there?” Ottoh stopped ahead, and he dragged the sunset-haired boy with him as he turned around. “What are we even looking for?”
“Down,” I hissed as light blasted through thick trunks, revealing just how covered in blood the other heir was as well, his blond hair clumped with drying crimson.
We pulled inward, shoulders locking as we hunched into a mass of bodies. The men’s fast breathing sped up my own pulse, and I almost hopped from foot to foot when another rush of adrenaline flooded my system.
Ottoh’s partner shook so violently the leaves beneath us crackled. “They have us surrounded.”
“Fuck, you’re right,” Ottoh cursed. “They’re behind us too.”
More voices drifted through the trees, and a rhythmic tapping made my heart race. It sounded like someone bouncing their weapon off every tree they passed, moving slowly and deliberately, as if they had all the time in the world.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fight.” Oscri shared a look with his brother. “I don’t even know if it matters anymore.” There was a tremor in his jaw as he adjusted the unconscious man.
Guner’s words echoed in my mind.
If the rope is broken when you return, if Darcke or one of his guards sees you untie it to cheat, or if your partner dies, we’ll view you as a traitor to your people, and punish you thereafter.
Kilia’s swallow made it hard to breathe. Pulling at the rope tethering us, I gave him a warning look before I approached his brother. After licking my finger, I stuck it under the nose of the man he was carrying.
“He’s alive,” I confirmed when his shallow breath cooled my skin.
Pushing his hair aside, I checked the wound. It was deep. But head wounds always bled the worst. That’s what my healer once told me when my brother had slammed a wooden sword so hard into my face that my forehead burst open and my entire tunic was soaked.
There was no bone sticking out, no gray liquid oozing from the wound, like I’d seen before on the battlefield with my father. When that happened, we offered the warrior a quick goodbye, because there was no getting onto a ship again after that kind of injury.
I leaned in to listen to his lips.
The way he breathed—weakly but steadily, without any interruptions…
“I think he’ll survive.” I turned from Oscri to Kilia. “But we should try to rest. Ideally overnight, if we can, so we all have the best chance of living through the next sundown.”
Kilia’s brows drew in, his harsh face softening for the first time since I met him.
I tried for a smile. “I’m not being noble. I want to get out of here as fast as I fucking can. I assume you’re going to be even grumpier if your brother dies, so I intend to avoid that.”
I rolled my shoulders so he wouldn’t see my arms shaking.
It wasn’t purely for Oscri’s sake that I’d suggested we stop.
I was tired. I’d had to put such effort behind each kick and strike and jump today to ensure no one would notice what was missing in my veins, and I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up.
“Where do you suggest we rest?” Ottoh asked. “It’s not like there’s a longhouse waiting for us here with a fire burning and furs laid out.”
“I’m surprised the sun hasn’t broken through the trees at your optimism,” I replied dryly.
Oscri snorted so loudly I smacked his arm, and Kilia stepped closer, slackening our rope.
“There were some fallen trees back there,” I continued. “We can use them as shelter.”
“The captives are everywhere,” Ottoh’s partner said quietly. “They’ll find us.”
“We’ll have to stand guard.” I shrugged. “I said we should rest, not sleep.”
To the east, branches cracked and snapped, and I nudged Kilia before I started walking the way we’d come.
Thankfully I hadn’t hallucinated the circle of trees that lay across the moss-covered forest bed, and I accepted Kilia’s help as he pushed me onto one of the thick trunks.
As I arched my back to allow him to climb up without tautening our rope too much, a shadow moved in the corner of my eye.
Reacting instinctively, I kicked out, and my boot connected with something soft before a hand wrapped around my ankle and tugged hard. Kilia gasped as our arms stretched over the tree, and I twisted my body to get free when a harsh face came into mine.
“This spot is taken,” Darcke snarled as he lifted an axe, elegantly aligning it with Kilia’s neck as the latter heaved himself onto the trunk. “Leave.”
There were three warriors behind Darcke, two of which I recognized: the terrifying one whose scar looked worse than ever in the dim light, and Torden, the somewhat cheerful one with the dark hair. He gave me a grimace as Darcke leaned in closer, until his nose was only an inch from mine.
“What’s happening over there?” Ottoh asked in a whisper-shout. “There’s a group of captives getting closer.”
“Give me a second,” I called back.
“Did you not hear me?” Darcke asked in his thick accent.
“I think the whole forest heard you,” I mumbled.
“What did you say?” His grip on my boot firmed, and I ground my teeth when the bark scratched my arms and back as he dragged me to him.
“We were only trying to find somewhere to rest,” Kilia said worriedly.
“Rest?” Darcke’s eyes didn’t leave mine as he spat the word. “You are not here to rest. You are here to get your silver.”
“We have someone injured in our group,” I explained. “We’ll continue tomorrow.”
Darcke’s tongue dragged across his bottom lip.
“Your… group,” he said slowly. “There are no teams here.”
I tried to wave the wrist that was tied to Kilia. “Clearly there are. And one of my friends is hurt, so we need to share this space.”
“No.” The warrior squeezed my ankle until I thought he might snap it from the force. “Do I need to add stupid to the list of words to describe you?” I was about to protest when he lifted a hand. “There is no group. There are no friends. You’re on your own. Now leave.”
“We can’t,” I snapped. “We won’t make it.”
“They won’t make it.” Darcke released me while swinging his axe so close to Kilia the latter growled in response. “You seem fine.”
“I—”
“Come on,” Kilia said. “Let’s just go.”
“No,” I said. “We can’t!”
“Listen to your friend.” Darcke laughed hollowly. “Leave.”
“Are you just going to stand there?” I asked the men behind Darcke when Kilia started pulling me backward, on top of the trunk again. “There is enough space for all of us. We can share the burden of looking out.”
It wasn’t like King Gustief’s enemies would spare his most feared men if they could get to them.
“Darcke. We’re not supposed—” Torden started softly, but the warrior only needed to turn for his friend’s voice to fade.
“Go. Now,” Darcke snapped without looking our way.
My cheeks burned, but I still shook my head. “No.”
He spun faster than I’d ever seen anyone move, and for the second time that day the sharp edges of his axes lay against my skin at the nape of my neck. “You listen to me, or you’re going to regret it.”
“I’m not scared of you,” I said, lifting my chin and pretending the shiver going through me wasn’t from the viciousness of Darcke’s nearly black eyes.
“Sure you are.” He sliced one of the axes across my skin until warm blood spilled down my chest. Nodding to the blood, he snarled, “I can smell it.”
“Sweengard, let’s—”
“Shut up!”
“Be quiet!”
Darcke and I hissed at Kilia at the same time.
“Fucking heirs,” Darcke snarled when I didn’t move. “You think you’re better than everyone. That you have the right to do and say and be anything you want. That you don’t need to listen. Do I need to be like Guner and beat it into you?”
My blood heated so much I growled at him.
As if I wanted to be this?
As if I had a fucking choice.
As if I hadn’t been forced into this life just like he was.
Darcke lifted his gaze. “You should have killed her when I gave you the chance. I’m sure she’ll stab you in the back when you least expect it. Seems the way of these heirs and those around them.”
Kilia’s face paled, and he mumbled something I didn’t pick up when Darcke moved the axe covered in my blood to our rope.
“It’s so easy to end you. It’s not even funny,” he said with a smile that had my heart halt, then drum against my ribs until it hurt. He teasingly hovered the axe over rope, and I fucking hated him for the laugh that rumbled through the air.
Kilia shook so hard he made the entire tree tremble. “Sweengard,” he begged. “Please.”
I pursed my lips, wiggling my fingers to relieve some of the fierce energy burning through my body.
“Fine,” I got out. “Fine! We’re fucking leaving.”
“Good girl,” Darcke drawled. “I knew you had it in you.”
I kicked him in the face before he could react, savoring the crack of his nose and the blood that splattered over me. Like a crazy person, I dragged a finger through the wetness and brought it to my nose. “Oh. Smells like a fucking bastard.”
Laughter exploded between the trees, and I huffed with rage when Kilia dragged me backward, scraping my skin with his haste and sending me face-first into the forest bed as he threw us off the trunk.
“What the fuck happened?” Ottoh demanded as he whirled to the shadows weaving all around us, flashing through every gap in the wild forest.
“Fuck,” I cursed as I checked my limbs to ensure nothing was broken.
I swore again as Kilia dragged us upright, shoving me until I stood next to his brother.
“That man really fucking hates you,” Kilia said.
“Great observation,” I snarled. “Thank you for informing me.”
“Who hates who?” Oscri asked, and I had to keep my face angled to the ground at the tiredness in his voice.
“Darcke hates the heir,” Kilia said as he jerked at another howl echoing through the woods. “He was about to kill us both for it.”
“What did you do to him?” Ottoh’s partner asked.
“Darcke hates all the heirs,” Ottoh replied before I could. “He always has. He lives for power, and being an heir? We’re second only to the king.” His laugh was cold. “Maybe that’s why he’s here, to try to see if he can take one of our places.”
“Well, he can’t,” I said angrily, picking at the burning scratches on my waist. “He’s not an initiate.”
“Any karl can be someone’s second,” Kilia said.
“Don’t even try,” Ottoh teased. “Everyone knows she’s already chosen hers.”
I was about to smack him when a branch snapped.
They were on us before we could take a breath.