A Soul for Vengeance (6 page)

“A merchant who’s remained loyal to Ranello and a strong ally.”

She pulled him to his feet so quickly, Kell had no time to engage his muscles. He fell against her, his bones pressing into the soft curves of her body and reviving the heat from his dream. Only this time, it was a gray-eyed beauty that caused his reaction.

Her breath hitched, and her gaze locked with his. A flicker of surprise washed across her face before she seemed to remember why she was there. She propped him up with her arms, adding some much needed inches of breathing room between them. “Come on—we need to get you past the city walls before dawn, Kell.”

His mind remained fuzzy while she helped him out of the cellar.
What had just happened between us? Have I gone so long without being near a woman that I’m ready to jump the first one I see?

“My apologies for crude travel arrangements, Your Highness” a man dressed in clothes befitting a well-to-do merchant said with a bow, “but this is the best I could do without raising the Thallians’ alarm.”

The site of an open coffin sobered him quicker than a plunge in the icy sea. “Please say that’s intended for someone else.”

“I’m afraid not. Please forgive me, but we can’t waste any time.” Zara pushed him facedown into the wooden box.

The lid covered him before he had a chance to scramble out. His heart jumped into this throat, choking him in the dark void as though he’d donned the black hood offered to men right before they were hung. He managed to turn over in the tight space, but it did little to help ease the ever-increasing struggle for air as he battled his most primal fear. Something heavy slid on top of his coffin. A putrid odor invaded his nostrils with each breath he managed to suck in. He was being buried alive. His lungs tried to keep time with the rapid fluttering of his heart, faster and faster until a scream of panic welled up deep inside.

Then, out of the darkness, a small hand squeezed his elbow and smothered his anxiety. He reached up and grabbed it for dear life. His free arm traced the source of his reassurance to a small hole cut from the side of the coffin.

“I’m right here, Kell,” Zara said from the box next to him. “You’ll only have to stay in there for a few hours.”

He doubted she knew how much that comforted him. He wasn’t alone in this hell. “The smell?”

“An unfortunate part of the ruse.”

He closed his eyes and pretended that he was in his own bed, that Zara was lying next to him without the wooden panels between them. His heart quieted, and his breathing slowed. But he didn’t dare release her hand. It steadied his raw nerves when the cart jerked forward and rattled across the cobblestoned streets. And it calmed his frazzled mind enough to where he could hear the exchange between Parros and the Thallian guards at the city gates.

“What do you have there?” one of them asked.

“Just some unfortunately souls that require a burial outside the city wall, as dictated by the law,” Parros replied in the cadence of a simple laborer.

A fist knocked against the coffin on his other side, and the cart tilted down toward the edge as a man grunted. One of the coffins above him shifted, refreshing the odor of decomposing bodies.

Zara hand tightened around his, squeezing it tight enough to staunch the flow of blood to his fingers. Her fear bled into him and stilled his breath until he mimicked the corpses above him.

“You’re welcome to inspect the bodies, but I’m afraid some of them aren’t as fresh as they were a few days ago.” A cry of disgust came from one of the soldiers, followed by Parros’s laughter. “I tried to warn you.”

The coffins shifted again, and the cart shook. “These bodies should’ve been buried days ago.”

“I know, I know, but I wanted to make sure I had a full cart before leaving the city. Too much of a hassle to get in and out, if you know what I mean.”

“Get those vile things out now before their stench kills us all,” the Thallian soldier ordered, his voice muffled as though he’d covered his nose and mouth while he spoke.

Zara’s fingers relaxed, and the blood flowed back into Kell’s fingers again. He released the breath he’d been holding.

“As you wish, sir.”

The cart jerked forward again, and the sharp clatter of cobblestones eventually gave away to the soft whisper of dirt roads. Cold crept into his bones, stiffening his joints and knotting his muscles, but the tight confines kept him from moving to warm them up. His nose burned, both from the stench and the icy air. It would’ve been unbearable had he not held on to the one thing that reminded him he wasn’t alone in all this—Zara’s hand. He laced his fingers through hers and focused on controlling the slow draw and release of each breath.

At last, the cart stopped, and scratch of wood on wood pulled him from the trance-like state he’d gone into since they’d made it past the Thallian guards. Zara jerked her hand away seconds before the blinding sunlight hit him. He held his hand out in front of him, the black dots eventually fading to reveal Parros leaning over him.

“Looks like he’s still alive.”

Zara appeared beside the soldier and helped Kell out of the coffin. “Of course he is.”

He inched toward the edge of the cart, the effort exhausting him. As he sat on the edge to catch his breath, he studied the small band of people who’d rescued him. It was the first time he’d been able to see their faces, but the only ones he recognized were Parros and Zara. “May I have the names of those responsible for saving my life?”

The men exchanged glances with each other before bowing their heads and mumbling their names.

“I thank you all for risking your lives to free me. At the moment, all I can reward you with is my gratitude, but when I’m back in Trivinus, I wish to reward you properly.”

“Getting those Thallians out of Ranello will be thanks enough,” one of the men replied.

“Agreed.” Zara’s face hardened, her eyes becoming steely with hatred. “We are all working toward the same goal.”

“As am I.” He hopped off the cart, his knees buckling on impact. Zara rushed forward to catch him, but he waved her away. If he was going to lead his people, he couldn’t afford to be seen leaning on a woman. After a few seconds, his muscles stopped trembling enough to hold him steady. “What is our plan from here?”

He’d looked to Parros, but it was Zara who answered. “Dump the bodies and continue on to the camp.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“To dump the bodies? Not that long. They were Thallians and deserve to become food for the ravens.” Her grin sent a shiver down his spine. “After that, we’re looking at two to three weeks until we get to the camp, depending on conditions.”

“What conditions?”

“Weather, troop movement.” She paused and stared directly at him as she added, “General health of the group.”

Kell gritted his teeth, his legs already twitching with fatigue. “I have no desire to be the weakest link.”

She looked like she wanted to say something more, but merely nodded. “Perhaps you’d like to wait by the creek while we lighten our load.”

He managed to make it to a boulder beside the water before his body gave out on him. How was he going to lead his people when he couldn’t walk a few feet without collapsing? He dropped to his knees and broke through the ice on the surface to splash some water on his face and over the top of his head. The bitter cold cleared the fogginess from his mind and sharpened his senses. His hair was much shorter than he’d ever remembered. He ran his fingers along his face, frowning at the coarse whiskers along his cheeks.

Zara crouched beside him and offered a knife. “I tried to clean you up as much as possible, but you wouldn’t want me trying to shave you.”

He took the blade and scratched it along his skin, trimming his beard back to stubble. “So you’re the one I have to thank for my haircut?”

“It was much easier than trying to comb it out.” She tugged at one of the curls that had slipped free from her tight braid. “Trust me—I know.”

He waited for the water to still before checking his reflection. With his closely cropped hair and sunken cheeks, he looked more like his eldest brother, Gandor, than he cared to admit. His skin was sallow, and dark circles framed his dull eyes. “I look like the walking dead.”

“You have no idea how close you were to becoming that.” Zara took a deep breath and held it a second, her lips pursed. “I know you have no desire to appear weak, Kell, but don’t make a martyr of yourself. My mission is to bring you back alive, and if that means I need to put you back in one of those coffins for your own safety, I will do it.”

His spine stiffened. “Are you threatening me?”

“No, but I’m letting you know right now that I’m going to do all that I can to make sure we succeed, even if it means using brute force.”

“There will be no need for that. I know my limits.”

“Good to know.” She stood and offered him a hand. “Shall we join the others?”

He refused her help, clinging to the boulder instead as he rose from his knees.

A pile of bloated corpses waited beside the cart, but the coffins remained on board. “Is there a reason why we’re keeping them?” he asked.

“Of course.” Zara hopped on the cart and opened one of the coffins, lifting up the false bottom to reveal a stash of swords and arrows. “We don’t want to lose all our cargo.”

For the first time in weeks, he found a reason to smile. His people may have been beaten, but they were preparing to fight back. “Very clever.”

“I agree.” She closed the lid and sat on top of it. “Why don’t you ride up front with Parros, Your Highness? The rest of us will walk.”

“For the next two weeks?”

She shook her head. “Only until we reach the next checkpoint. We should be able to get horses there.”

Parros pulled him up into the seat beside him and snapped the reins. “You’d be wise to listen to Lady Zara.”

“Oh?”

The old soldier nodded. “You have no idea how stubborn she can be.”

Kell rubbed his cheek, remembering all too clearly how strong her right hook could be. “Warning noted.”

Chapter 5

“Where are you taking me?”
Arden pulled the cloak tighter around her to drive out the heavy snow that seemed intent on invading every opening.
“I can’t stay out much longer in this weather.”

A current of warmth rolled over her skin, ceasing her shivering.
“Is that better, my little Soulbearer?”

“Yes, but you still didn’t answer my question.”

“Keeping moving forward. Once we clear this pass, you’ll see where we’re going
.
”

Loku’s refusal to give her a straight answer irked her as much as when Dev did it. For three days, she’d followed his instructions, evading the Empress’s spies through the streets of the Imperial City before traveling west into the mountains. She did it because she trusted he would keep his word and lead her to the person who had her mother’s necklace. But now that she was cold and weary, she wondered what the chaos god’s real motive was.

The snow became heavier. She stumbled forward, leading her horse with one hand while hanging on to Cinder’s fur with the other so she wouldn’t lose either of them.

“Don’t make a noise for the next mile,”
he whispered in her mind.

Her shoulders tensed.
“Why? Are there more of the Empress’s soldiers ahead?”

“No, but we are in a place that magnifies the slightest of sounds. One small whinny from your horse could set off an avalanche.”

Panic prickled her skin.
“And you decided to lead me here?”

“You wanted to find your mother’s necklace.”

“Yes, but I have no desire to become frozen solid in the process.”

“You complain far more than any of my prior Soulbearers.”
He made a dismissive sound.
“Must be because you’re a woman.”

“You’re the one who chose me, not the other way around.”

“Yes, and it’s been worth every complaint I’ve had to bear so far, especially considering how much you’ve managed to torment Dev.”

At the mention of her Protecter—scratch that,
former
Protector—her chest began to ache. Even after his betrayal, she still could keep him far from her thoughts.
“You’ll have to come up with a way to torment my new Protector if they ever find us.”

Loku snickered.
“Never worry, Arden. I have great plans for you.”

She was scared to ask what. Loku’s plans usually involved her winding up in more trouble than she started in. They almost always resulted in near death experiences, which made her wonder why she agreed to let him lead her into the mountains.
“Let me know when we’re past the avalanche danger.”

“You’ll know,”
he replied in a tone that made her wish she hadn’t asked in the first place.

Cinder leaned against the back of her legs, pushing her forward as though he knew about the potential threat of being buried alive under a wall of snow. But, if worse came to worst, she could always ask him to set himself on fire and melt through it. That was the joy of having a fire wolf beside her.

Of course, if he set himself on fire, she bore the risk of getting burned.

Nothing was perfect.

Arden continued climbing through the narrow pass. Every breath seemed to spark a shower of snow from the ledges above. Her chest tightened. One step in front of the other, she kept plodding through the knee deep snow until she reached the end. And when she did, her breath caught.

A large valley stretched out before her, completely surrounded by the mountains. A small palace sat in the center with smoke pouring out of its chimneys. Soft blue lights glowed from the tops of its spires like welcoming beacons, and warm golden candlelight that came from its windows. Just the sight of it chased the chill away and gave her the strength to continue on. She started down the hill like a child who’d just woken up to a snowy morning.

“Yes, my little Soulbearer, your necklace is there. But first, I need you to wait.”