The Beauty of Darkness (7 page)

I finally reached a crest where I had an open view of the trail behind us. I waited, studying the landscape. How many more excuses could I conjure for Lia? This time I claimed I was scouting for the ridge that led to the valley we would reach today. I didn't want her to worry needlessly, but now there was reason to worry. I spotted what I suspected all along and rode back to tell the others.

“Go,” I whispered to Tavish. “Less than a quarter mile back. Circle around to the south. There's good cover, and you'll be downwind in case the horses make noise. I couldn't see how many through the trees. I'll stay here with her.”

Tavish nodded, and they rode off.

I loosened the strap on my sheath and gripped my hilt just as Lia limped back from a brief trip behind some brambles. She saw them riding away, and an annoyed crease furrowed her brow. “Now, where are
they
going?”

I shrugged. “I spotted a flock of geese, and they're all craving a juicy goose for dinner tonight.”

“I don't understand. I thought we were in a hurry to get to the valley floor.”

“We're making good time, and we do need to eat tonight.”

Her eyes narrowed. “
All
of them needed to go?”

I turned away, using the premise of searching for something in my saddlebag. “Why not?” I said. “Orrin's not the only one who likes to hunt.”

I felt the silence at my back, and I pictured her with her hands on her hips. I didn't think she'd buy it again.

When I turned, her head was angled with accusation.

“I spotted something through the trees when I was out,” I explained. “It was a long way off. I'm certain it was only a herd of deer, but they're going to go check just to be sure.”

 

CHAPTE
R
TWELVE

I knew it wasn't deer.

Fifteen minutes passed.

Then an hour.

“Should we go look for them?” I asked.

“No,” Rafe insisted, but I saw him circling. Positioning the horses. His hand returning to his hilt again and again.

Finally we heard the ruffled nicker of a horse through the trees, and we both spun toward the sound.

Tavish emerged from the forest, leading two horses behind him. “Well, well, well,” he crowed. “You were right. Look what we found.”

The others followed behind him, and when Sven and his horse moved aside, I gasped.

By the gods.
It couldn't be.

I hobbled forward, but Rafe stretched his hand out to stop me.

Orrin and Jeb had their bows drawn, arrows aimed with razor-sharp concentration at Kaden's and Griz's hearts as they walked them into our camp. It was as if they didn't trust a sword to bring down Griz and a safe distance was their best strategy. Sven had already relieved them of their weapons.

Rafe approached them, eyeing Kaden. Kaden returned his frigid stare. My breath froze in my chest. Nothing had changed between them. Their gazes were heavy with threat, though Kaden was in no position to threaten anyone.

“So we meet again, Prince Jaxon.”

“So we do,” Rafe replied, his voice as brittle as the air. “But it looks as if you've traveled a long way for nothing.
Stupid sot.
”

Kaden's nostrils flared. He hadn't missed the irony of his own long-ago words being thrown back into his face.

“What should we do with them?” Tavish asked.

Rafe stared at Kaden for what seemed an eternity, then shrugged as if it was of little matter. “Kill them,” he said.

I jumped forward grabbing his arm. “Rafe! You can't kill them!”

“What am I supposed to do, Lia? Take them prisoner? Look at the size of that one!” he said, pointing at Griz. “I don't even have enough rope to go around him.”

“There's rope in their gear,” I countered, waving my hand at a coil hanging from the back of Griz's horse.

“And then what? Tie them up so they can wait for the opportunity to slit all our throats and take you back to Venda again? What do you think they're here for? Just to say hello?”

Kaden stepped forward, and both Orrin and Jeb yelled at him to hold his position, pulling their bows taut with threat. He stopped. “We don't want to take her back,” he said. “We're only here to escort and protect her. A squad of Rahtan and First Guard are charged with hunting her down. They could be here any time.”

Rafe laughed. “You, escort and protect her? Do you take me for a fool?”

A smile lit Kaden's eyes. “That's beside the point, isn't it? What's more important, your pride or Lia's life?”

“And that's why you were stalking us? To protect her?”

“We were watching for the Vendan riders, hoping to intercept them before they reached her.”

“And yet, the only Vendan riders I see are
you.
”

I didn't blame Rafe for balking at Kaden's claim. I questioned his motivations as well. Escort me? When he had claimed that I belonged in Venda with him? When he had assured me at every turn that there was no way for me to escape? There clearly had been. He had found another way across the river. My distrust simmered.

I limped forward, sidestepping Rafe's efforts to stop me. I kept a safe distance but looked sternly at Griz. “Put your hands behind your back. Now.”

He eyed me uncertainly, but then slowly did as I instructed. “Good,” I said. “Now, after they tie you up, you must give me your word you won't try to escape, and if Kaden should try, you must promise that you'll strike him down.”

“How would I do that with my hands tied?” he asked.

“I don't care how you do it. Fall on him. That should stop him. Do I have your word?”

He nodded.

Rafe grabbed my arm and began to drag me away. “Lia, we're not going to—”

I twisted my arm free. “Rafe! We are not going to kill them!” I looked accusingly back at Kaden. “Yet,” I added. I ordered him to put his hands behind his back too. He didn't move, only stared, his eyes drilling into me, trying to thrust guilt back on me for deceiving him. “I'm not going to ask you a second time, Kaden. Do it.”

He slowly put his hands behind his back too. “You're making a mistake,” he said. “You're going to need me.”

“Tie them up,” I said to Tavish and Sven. Neither one moved, deferring instead to Rafe for an answer.

Rafe's jaw was rigid with anger.

“Rafe,” I whispered between gritted teeth.

He relented and signaled to Sven and Tavish, then pulled me over behind the horses, his fury mounting. “What's the matter with you? Griz's word is worth nothing, and Kaden's even less. How are we going to travel with them? Griz will break his word the first time we—”

“He won't break his word.”

Exasperation flashed across Rafe's face. “And how would you know
that
?”

“Because I commanded it, and he believes that I'm his queen.”

 

CHAPTE
R
THIRTEE
N

The Valley of the Giants wasn't what I expected. In the lush basin below us, enormous boxy temples covered in green and gold snaked for miles in neat rows, like a giant's stash of moss-covered trunks. Sven said legend claimed it to be a marketplace of the Ancients. What treasures had been so grand and immense that structures of equal stature had been required? They lined a path that wound through the valley and finally disappeared behind low hills. Trees with golden leaves sprouted between them, and emerald moss and vines covered their walls. Even though some had fallen into rubble, many were eerily intact, just like in the City of Dark Magic, almost as if the Ancients still roamed there. Even from afar, I could see the remnants of signposts that had once marked the way. Why had this city been spared the ravages of the devastation and time?

It made me wonder if this was another place that Griz and his cohorts had avoided, fearing that the dark spirits of the Ancients held up the walls. He and Kaden walked ahead of us, traversing the twisting trail down the side of the mountain. Rafe wouldn't let them ride. He said it was safer to have them walk just ahead of Jeb and Orrin, who still had their bows at the ready, even though Kaden's and Griz's hands were firmly tied behind their backs.

“Would you really have killed them in cold blood?” I asked.

“It's no less than what he ordered for me.”

“Tit for tat? Is that how this soldiering stuff works?”

An annoyed hiss escaped through Rafe's teeth. “No, I wouldn't have killed them on the spot. I probably would have waited for Kaden to do something stupid in the heat of the moment—which he surely will—and then I would have killed him. Oh, wait, excuse me! I forgot. We're all in good hands. Griz promised to
fall
on him if he got out of line. Do I have that right?”

I returned his sarcasm with a steely glare. “Next I'm going to order him to fall on
you.
Save your cynicism. All I needed to know was that you wouldn't kill them in cold blood.”

Rafe sighed. “But it doesn't hurt for them to think that I would. I don't trust either of them, and we still have a long way until we reach the safety of the outpost.”

“How long have you known they were following us?”

“I've suspected for a few days now. I saw white smoke early one morning. A campfire being doused, I guessed. What I can't figure out is how they caught up with us so fast.”

“I know.” As soon as the last knot was tied on his hands, Kaden's long-ago explanation,
no other way
, pinched inside me. It was another of his lies. At the very least, he had deliberately painted a picture that made me assume things.

“Kaden led me to believe that the bridge into Venda had replaced the old footbridge that used to span the river. I'm guessing, dangerous or not, somewhere not too far from the Sanctum, it still exists. Which means if Griz and Kaden got across, others probably did too. He may not have been lying about the squad.”

Rafe reached up and raked his fingers through his hair. This was news he didn't want to hear. If we had a lead at all now, it was only because the snow had covered our tracks.

Commotion broke out in front of us. The scrape of gravel, the whinny of horses, and startled shouts exploded across the air.

Whoa!

Back up!

Watch out!

The trail was suddenly bedlam as horses stumbled into one another. Rafe's sword flashed from its scabbard. I instinctively drew mine too, though I didn't know what I was defending myself from.

Orrin's horse was rearing back, and the others were trying to control their skittering horses on the narrow trail. For a few seconds, confusion reigned and then we saw what had happened. Griz had fallen, blocking the path. Kaden knelt beside him, yelling for someone to untie him so he could help Griz.

Rafe ordered everyone to hold their positions, as if he suspected a trick. He dismounted to investigate, but we quickly saw where Griz's cloak had fallen away, revealing bloody, wet fabric on his side. His face was waxy and damp, and I knew it was no trick. The wound Jorik had inflicted days ago was still bleeding.

“What happened?” Rafe asked.

“It's nothing,” Griz growled. “Just give me a hand—”

“Shut up,” Kaden told him. He looked up at Rafe. “It's from the battle on the terrace. He took a sword in his side. I tried to bandage it, but it keeps opening back up.”

Griz snarled at Kaden and tried to rise on his own, but Rafe held him down with his boot. “Don't move,” he ordered, then yelled over his shoulder for Tavish. “Come take a look at this.”

Kaden was escorted several feet away by Orrin and directed to sit while Tavish examined Griz. The rest of us hovered, watching as Tavish pulled up Griz's filthy vest and shirt, and then cut away the sodden bandages.

Sven groaned when he saw the wound, and I stifled a shudder. The eight-inch gash was caked with dried black blood, and the skin around it was red and inflamed. Yellow pus oozed from the wound.

Tavish shook his head, saying he couldn't do anything about it here on the trail. It needed hot water and cleaning before he could stitch anything. “It's going to take some work.”

The way he said
work
, I knew even he was doubtful about how much he'd be able to do. I knelt down beside Griz. “Do you have any thannis with you?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“I have some,” Kaden called from his guarded position several feet away.

“I'm not drinking any thannis,” Griz groaned.

“Quiet!” I said. “If I command you to drink, you'll drink.” But what I had in mind was a poultice once we got down to the valley to help draw out some of the poison.

They untied his hands, and it took Rafe, Jeb, and Sven working together to get Griz to his feet. Several curses later, they finally loaded him onto his horse. They were no longer worried about him making sudden moves. Kaden was still forced to walk ahead of us. His status hadn't changed.

Sven rode close to Griz, and when he teetered in his saddle, Sven reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him.

Because of the delays with Griz and Kaden joining our caravan, we didn't reach the valley floor until dusk. Kaden had been walking for five hours now with his hands tied behind his back. I saw the fatigue in his steps, but strangely, instead of sympathy, my own anger and fears resurfaced. How many months had I been in that same position, a half-starved prisoner, humiliated and afraid, uncertain if I'd live another day? He hadn't suffered half as much as I had. Yet. The unsettling difference was, he had come looking for this trouble. Why was he really here?

We rode down the main avenue, surrounded by the eerie boxy giants. Many of the ancient walls and roofs were still intact. There was a quick scramble to choose a suitable shelter, which meant one that could be defended—just in case.