Betrayal's Price (In Deception's Shadow Book 1) (2 page)

Swiftrunner
jerked her head up, grass trailing forgotten from her mouth. Her ears riveted
forward as one hoof dug a furrow in the mud.

“What is it,
girl?”

The mare
flicked an ear in Ashayna’s direction, then snapped it back towards the trail.
A shadow the size of a small horse glided between the trunks of two large
evergreens. Her stomach flipped when another twig snapped much closer to her
position. Snuffling sounds to her left set her heart racing.

She stood and
reached for the reins. Her mare nickered, dancing in the mud as Ashayna settled
into the saddle. At her quiet word, Swiftrunner broke into a trot. There was a
sharp bend in the trail ahead, and then a straight level run. They approached
the bend. Twenty paces, ten paces, less than five and she urged the mare into a
canter. She chanced a glance back. Three lupwyns—reminiscent of giant
wolves—loped into the open, abandoning the shelter of the trees for the better
footing of the path. Ashayna bent low to Swiftrunner’s neck and the mare broke
into a ground-eating gallop.

Swiftrunner
picked her way up the ravine’s rock-strewn eastern slope. The difficult ascent
forced the mare to slow, but there was nothing Ashayna could do but grit her
teeth and call encouragement to her mare while silently praying the lupwyns
didn’t catch up. In a cloud of dust and a cascade of small stone fragments, her
mount scrambled over the summit and onto hard-packed lane once more.

The three
lupwyns had yet to cross the rain-swollen river. With luck, the river would
make the wolf-beasts’ crossing as harsh as her mare’s had been. Veering off the
trail and crossing the ravine had been a risk, but her mare’s surefootedness
shaved a candlemark off their journey.

“Thank you,
Swiftrunner.” Her mare pranced in place, ears flattened and nostrils flared,
flanks heaving with each labored breath. Ashayna patted her war steed’s damp
neck. “What is it, girl?”

Swiftrunner
trembled. Fighting the bit, the mare trotted a few strides, then came to a
stiff-legged halt. Ashayna’s instincts screamed a warning. Following the mare’s
gaze, she turned her attention west.

Pasture land
stretched out before her, green with young spring grass. A small flock of sheep
ran towards her, bleating in terror. Well behind the panicked herd, an endless
tide of lupwyns poured out of a distant tree line. Even over the expanse, she
saw each member of this horde was encased in shining plate armor, wore a helm,
and had pole arms strapped to their sides. They ran on all fours, surging
across the field in a wave.

She turned
Swiftrunner east. Fear overrode guilt, and Ashayna dug her boot heels into her
mount’s sides, urging her into a gallop. “Good girl. Let’s not become some
lupwyn’s next meal.”

The few sparse,
windswept trees lining the road offered little cover. No way could the lupwyns
miss seeing them flee. If the beasts shed their heavy armor and weapons, they
could quickly out run her tired mare...

Her last hope
was the old growth forest. If she could reach shelter before the lupwyns ran
them down, Ashayna hoped to lose the wolf-beasts in the forest. At the very
least, thick trees and dense undergrowth would slow the vast army.

Foam dotted
Swiftrunner’s coat, and only Ashayna’s spurs kept the mare at a gallop. The
forest wasn’t far, but as long moments crawled by, a trace of fear clamped her
jaw tight. Thirty horse lengths ahead, the narrow road entered forest once
again.

“That’s a girl!”
Ashayna called encouragement over the wind as she chanced a glance behind. None
of the lupwyns had broken formation to give chase.

Swiftrunner
raced on, the forest drawing nearer, until at last, cool shadows and the
familiar loamy scent surrounded them as old broad-branched trees embraced the
road. While Ashayna no longer saw the vast horde, she could imagine it well
enough.

* * * *

A candlemark
later Ashayna guided Swiftrunner around a sharp turn. Ahead, the path was
unexpectedly blocked by a company of heavy cavalry and horse archers led by her
father. She buried her surprise an instant later.

“Lupwyns,” she
yelled, drawing nearer. “Hundreds of them.”

At Ashayna’s
urging, Swiftrunner came to a stumbling halt in the mud a few horse lengths
away from the leader, her head hanging low, flanks heaving.

“Light’s mercy!
You shouldn’t be here.” Lines of strain showed around her father’s eyes and the
down-turned corners of his mouth. He looked her up and down, his expression
softening a bit. “You’re unharmed?”

“General
Stonemantle.” Ashayna addressed her father, dread heavy in her middle. “I’m
unharmed, but we’ll all be dead by sunset if you don’t get these men out of
this forest. There’s a meadow a quarter league back, we should be able to make
it before the lupwyns reach us.”

“I know which
one you mean. Not the most favorable land. It’ll have to do.” Her father
signaled a nearby captain. “Make for the meadow.” Her father’s words hadn’t
echoed into silence before the captains were mobilizing the men.

“You need a
fresh horse.” Her father issued a few quick orders and a soldier ran off to do
the general’s bidding.

Ashayna
dismounted, handing Swiftrunner’s reins to a groom; her heart breaking as the
tired mare shuffled off, her heaving, foam-covered flanks a testament to her
loyalty. Ashayna’s father glanced at her, his expression somber. Sixty men
against six hundred lupwyn—he left unsaid the harshness of truth. It would be a
slaughter no matter where they fought.

“Months we’ve
been waiting for some hint the lupwyns were going to do something other than
raid.” His toned sharpened with a bitter helplessness he didn’t try to hide. “Now,
in one day’s time, every scout under my command has reported signs of them. We
were coming to investigate when a patrol with prisoners happened upon us. One
prisoner is the lupwyn queen.”

The lupwyn
queen. Shock emptied her mind of all useful thought. “No wonder there’s an army
snapping at my mare’s tail.”

“I sent the
lupwyn and her two phoenix companions ahead of us with half of the light horse
archers.”

Ashayna held
her tongue as her father glanced behind him, back toward human-held lands. Fury
ripped through her—why hadn’t he gone with the queen? Her knuckles tightened on
the reins—she already knew the answer. The heavy cavalry were slower than the
horse archers. He wouldn’t leave his men behind to face the enemy alone.

Fierce pride
stirred in her heart.

“Messengers
confirmed they made it safely to our encampment.”

“That’s
something, at least.” Ashayna watched as another horse was led towards her
father’s charger.

“Dusk is the
fastest of the geldings. Take him. My men and I will hold the lupwyns back long
enough for you to warn Captain Nurrowford.” His voice held such a note of
finality Ashayna’s stomach churned.

* * * *

Dappled
sunlight glinted off the polished surfaces of soldiers’ helmets and hauberks.
The forest looked almost warm, inviting under the glow of late afternoon light.
It might as well have been midwinter by the chill in her soul. Somber gazes,
downcast eyes, and thin-lipped resignation in every direction. A few men adjusted
harnesses and buckles or needlessly checked their weapons. Her throat
tightened. Many good comrades were going to shed blood to stall the lupwyn
army.

Ashayna
unbuckled packs from her new horse and discarded anything resembling useless
weight. While adjusting the gelding’s tack, she listened to her father.

“Take my
written orders, pendant, and ring to Captain Nurrowford.” He handed each to
her. “He will lead in my absence. Make sure he gets the lupwyn queen and her
phoenix companions to River’s Divide and onto a boat as quickly as possible.
Let the lupwyns attempt to run down a boat under full sail.” He hesitated, and
a muscle in his jaw twitched. “There’s a chance if I’m captured alive, the
lupwyns will try to trade me and the surviving men for their queen. Tell
Nurrowford under no circumstance is he to agree to a hostage trade. The threat
to their queen’s life might be the only thing keeping these beasts from
ravaging River’s Divide.” He fisted his hand and brought it against his heart. “Duty
First.”

Ashayna echoed
his gesture and feared her heart would shatter. “Duty First.”

“Ash.” His
voice broke.

Her vision
blurred with tears at his use of her childhood name.

He cleared his
throat and then barked out in a gruff voice, “Survive. Get your mother and sisters
to safety.”

Ashayna ignored
the lump in her throat and burning eyes. She spurred her gelding into a trot.
Once she was several strides away, she indulged in one last look behind. The
sun sank behind the trees, casting long shadows across the meadow and giving her
father’s grey-streaked hair the gold glow of youth once again. He looked alert,
almost energetic, even after a day in the saddle. Out of loyalty and duty, the
men would follow his strong silhouette into death and beyond. She would have
given almost anything to be one of them. Duty, and her father’s command ringing
in her ears, forced her away from the coming battle.

* * * *

Ashayna
maintained her gelding’s pace for over two candlemarks, until a wooden palisade
became visible in the distance. Even sensing there were no lupwyns following,
she still couldn’t relax. She fidgeted while she waited for the guards to open
the encampment’s gate. Those few moments of inactivity allowed her worry and
guilt to creep in. When the gate swung open, Ashayna spurred her mount through.
They trotted by a half-built barracks and a newly-finished healer’s compound,
then angled towards camp’s center, where the largest cluster of tents stood.

Outside her
father’s command tent, Ashayna dismounted and hailed a nearby guard to walk her
horse. In almost the same motion, she waved over the first messenger she
spotted and ordered him to follow. Inside, Ashayna found several senior
officers gathered around a map strewn table. Captain Nurrowford stood with his
back to her, his head bent over a map while an officer briefed him on events.

“Captain.” She
addressed Nurrowford in a somber tone. “I have your orders from General
Stonemantle.”

When he turned,
his haggard expression was serious, more so than she’d ever seen it. Nurrowford
was a few years younger than her father, but time and battles had been less
kind to him. Time had left his cheeks gaunt, almost wasted, and war had given
him a mass of scar tissue, which knotted the skin along his jaw, drawing one
side of his lip down. Most days she never noticed his scars, but today his
countenance reminded her of a skull. Perhaps it was just her imagination.

“What do you
have to report, scout?” Nurrowford held out his hand for the general’s letter.

She handed him
her message satchel. “It’s too late to send help. The general is captured…or
dead.” Her voice sounded hollow to her own ears. The younger officers murmured
in shock and grief. The oldest ones remained silent—they’d already known what
the general’s delay could mean.

“How?” Captain
Nurrowford asked as he broke the seal on the letter.

Thankful for
the years of training she’d received in a military family, she recited all she
knew. “A small group of lupwyns was chasing me. While fleeing I spotted a much
larger mass flowing out of the woods northwest of the city, six hundred strong,
in full plate armor. I wouldn’t have believed the wolf-beasts possessed such
weaponry if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

Nurrowford
digested the contents of the general’s letter with a grunt. “How fast do they
travel?”

“I can’t say.
It depends on how much of a distraction General Stonemantle and his men
created. Even with full body armor, the lupwyns were traveling fast. If my
father hadn’t slowed them, they would already be swarming this camp.”

He swore. “We
march for River’s Divide. We must get to the port city before the lupwyn beasts
do. Ready the men.” In an abrupt motion, he rolled the map and shoved it in a
travel satchel, then handed it to the messenger. “Take the fastest horse, get
this to River’s Divide. Tell the garrison Ashayna’s news.”

The messenger
nodded, then left at a run.

“Captain
Nurrowford, my father wanted me to give you these.” Ashayna handed him her
father’s pendant and ring of office. “He wants the prisoners on a boat and
sailing out to sea within a candlemark’s time. Perhaps, with their queen out of
reach and still in danger, they will hesitate to attack.”

“Doubtful. They’ll
try to force our hand.” After scooping up his sheathed sword from where it hung
on a folding wooden camp chair, he slung it around his waist. He was still
belting it in place as he made his way from the tent, calling out orders. He
glanced sideways at her. “If they take Stonemantle alive, they’ll want to trade
him and his men for their queen.”

“The general
strictly forbade that.”

“Well, he left
me in charge. Poor judgment on his part. I will not allow my commander to be
consumed by the enemy.” Nurrowford’s lips twisted into a lopsided grin.

Ashayna could
have hugged him. Instead, she gave a half-hearted reminder about her father’s
command. “He gave a direct order.”

“Never could
read his hen scratch.” He held up his hand, palm out, to stop any retort. “While
we make ready to ride for River’s Divide, I want you to meet the prisoners.
They told us their names and titles before claiming they’d only talk to a
woman—some religious custom. Find out what they want.”

“Yes, sir.”
Ashayna wished she was as confident as she sounded.

* * * *

Ashayna’s heart
raced and her fingers trembled. Hesitating outside a nondescript tent, like any
other in the encampment, she rested a hand on the lump of the necklace beneath
her vest. Somehow, the morning’s events and this meeting were connected. But
would it be the doom of her people or the revelations she so desperately sought
awaiting her within the tent? No matter how much she wanted to run away, she
would find out why these strangers were here. Catching a lieutenant’s eye, she
jerked her chin towards the entrance.