The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) (14 page)

I started my hand toward hers, but she retracted.
“I’ll only cooperate when it’s a reasonable request. I’m not going to do everything your vile mind comes up with.”

I nodded, keeping my hand steady in front of her.

She eyed it cautiously, her hand still far from mine. “This is a serious agreement,” she warned. “I’ll see to it that your life is miserable if you break your word.”

“And I’ll do the same for you,” I retorted.

We grabbed hands in a firm shake.

Chapter 14: Horseplay

We ate quickly and quietly, passing the flask of water back and forth. Lisanda looked out over the city beneath us, sometimes sitting as still as a painting for a few breaths before taking another bite of bread. I wondered what she was thinking.

My eyes seemed drawn to her. It was like studying a puzzle, the kind in stories that are deep in forgotten tombs, in rooms of stone decorated with beautiful symbols and levers, where marvelous treasures and deadly traps awaited.

Sometimes, the hero’s choice would unveil both a trap and a treasure at once, forcing him to make a decision of fleeing with nothing or risking his life to get what he came for. I always wanted to scream when they left the treasure behind.

She turned to me. “What?”

I looked away. “Nothing.”

I stood and walked toward the horse, detaching the cart and opening the cage to let out the chickens.

“Have you been on a horse before?” I asked.

“Of course, but I’ve never had to share a saddle with a dirty farm boy.”

I ignored her and hoisted myself onto the saddle.

Lisanda walked over. “Aren’t you going to let the lady up first?”

“So you can take off with the horse? I don’t think so.”

Her mouth opened, offended. “I promised I would cooperate, didn’t I? If you’re not going to trust me, then why should I trust you?”

“I’m trying to trust you. But why would I help you on first? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Because I’m driving.”

I laughed, thinking she was delivering a joke. But her mouth remained as straight as an arrow. Her eyes narrowed to match it.

“No way,” I explained. “We’re trying not to be noticed. Two people on a horse is already strange. Imagine the attention we’d get if the woman was driving.”

Her lips pursed. Her arms folded.

I continued, “It’s a reasonable request.”

“Fine.”

I reached my hand down to offer assistance, but she ignored it. With surprising agility, she jumped onto the horse, supporting herself with her hands and swinging her leg over. She ended up right where she needed to be, just behind me in the saddle.

As accurate as it was, the horse didn’t like it. I could feel him getting ready to buck. He twisted his head back and forth and gave a little jump with his hind legs. Lisanda grabbed my sides fiercely. It was painful and ticklish at the same time, causing me to twist.

“Stop,” I told her.

Her hands didn’t move. “Calm him!”

The horse was growing wilder, probably because I was pulling on the reins awkwardly thanks to her fingers digging into my sides. He bucked harder, lifting his hind legs and snapping them back in a strong kick.

“Steady!” Lisanda yelled in my ear.

The horse bucked again, this time jumping off his front legs first, followed by whipping his hind legs high off the ground. In the air, Lisanda and I separated, her hands coming off my sides.

When the horse landed, the Princess slammed into my back. She grabbed at my shoulder for a blink, but I felt her hands slip off.

Lisanda screamed as she fell. She hit the ground and gave a grunt that was far from ladylike. The horse stopped bucking.

I jumped off. “You tickled me when you grabbed me like that.” I bent down and wrapped my hand around her arm to lift her.

She yanked her arm out of my hand. “Don’t touch me.”

I realized my mistake then. I was so concerned she would blame me for falling, I’d started with an excuse instead of making sure she wasn’t injured.

“I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”

She pushed herself to her knees. “You ask that, but does it even matter if I am?” She looked up at me with glistening eyes. Her face was frustrated but far from sad. I knew she wouldn’t cry. She hadn’t shed one tear since I’d taken her, and I didn’t expect her to start anytime soon.

“I’m still going with you no matter what, aren’t I?” Her voice was shrill.

I took a glance at the horse. He was content eating the grass around him. Lisanda rose to her feet gingerly, brushing dirt from her arms. She found some muck in her hair and grimaced.

“Yeah, from the chickens,” I said. “I’m sorry about that, too.”

A lot of it came off on her hand. Her face clenched when she looked at it, and she quickly bent down to wipe it on the grass.

“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!”

I took out the flask and held it above her hands. After a discouraged look from the sides of her eyes, she opened her palms and I let a splash of water come down. She rubbed them together, then looked for somewhere to wipe them. I offered my shirtsleeve. She accepted.

“I truly am sorry,” I told her again.

She nodded. “I don’t think this horse likes having two people on him.”

“No, he doesn’t,” I agreed. “But we have between five and six miles to the south border and then another five to the farm. We have to try again.”

She exhaled then shook her hair, running her hand through it a couple times and checking her palm after. When she was somewhat satisfied, we walked over to the horse together.

“I can’t have you putting your hands on my sides like that,” I said, getting on the saddle.

“You can’t possibly expect me to wrap my arms around your stomach like we’re a couple?”

“You can reach around and grab the knob on the saddle between my legs instead.” Right as I finished saying it, I realized how it sounded. I shook my head quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

She folded her arms under a scowl. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“No.” I waved her over. “Come on. Around my waist this time.”

She sighed and got ready to jump on, but I stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. “I think you should get on differently.” I lowered my hand with an open palm. “Let me help you up slowly so he doesn’t startle.”

She looked at my hand with disapproval, like I was showing her something disgusting. She turned to my eyes next. I held the sincerest expression I could manage. Her face relaxed. She slapped her hand into mine, and I pulled her up behind me.

“I’m glad you’re so thin,” I said without thinking.

Lisanda didn’t respond. She scooted closer, making sure not to touch me with her hands or body. The horse shook his head a bit but stayed on the ground.

“It seems like he’s steady,” Lisanda said.

“For now. We’ll see once he starts moving. Ready?”

She still wasn’t touching me. “Yes,” she said impatiently.

I looked over my shoulder to find her grabbing the sides of the saddle. “I think you should hold on to me,” I warned her. “I’m not sure what the horse will do.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I nodded, figuring she would grab ahold of me if she needed to. I squeezed my legs to get the horse going. He didn’t move. I adjusted myself in the saddle and tried again. He still didn’t budge.

“Remember, you only have three days,” Lisanda teased.

I tapped my heel this time, and he finally started walking.

Soon, we came to a long hill that led back down to the rest of the city. It wasn’t very steep, but the path twisted between rocks and cracks in the ground. The horse grew nervous as we started down it, even giving a light buck.

Lisanda shot forward and wrapped her arms around my stomach. I could feel her breasts pressing into my back. Even her chin, or it might’ve been her cheek, was pushed against me for a few rapid heartbeats.

“Whoa,” I told the horse, pulling tight on one side of the reins to turn him and keep him under control.

He calmed. Then I straightened him back out, starting down the path again. Lisanda leaned back a bit but kept her hands around me.

A mixture of smells came from her. One was clearly chicken excrement and hay, reminding me of the farm I hoped to reach before it got dark. The other was something harder to determine.

There are some smells that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant. This was that, too far from anything recognizable to describe. I tried to figure out what it reminded me of as we navigated down the hill, but I eventually came to realize that there were no memories attached to this fragrance.

Instead, it evoked an emotion, but what? I felt like my heart was being pulled toward it from within my chest. It was a strange feeling I didn’t understand.

She shifted her weight left and right to adjust herself behind me, sliding her hands into a different position on my midsection. I felt a flutter go through my stomach.

We made great time on the horse. It helped that the farther south we went, the less likely it became for someone to recognize the Princess or me. The people around here tended not to get to the center of the city where the palace was, and they especially didn’t travel farther north where I’d been for the last year with the blacksmith, Drent.

I’m sure everyone here knew of the Takary family and possibly even knew Lisanda or me by name, but recognizing us was extremely unlikely, especially with the dirty green and gray tunic she had on.

I asked the Princess to wear her hood. Although it probably wasn’t necessary, it helped conceal her face even more. A few people gave us long looks, each time making my heart jump, but their expressions never shifted from curiosity to anything more dangerous like excited recognition.

I knew we would run into at least one guard before making it out of The Nest, and I didn’t know how Lisanda would react. She’d promised to cooperate, but I had no idea if she would still work with me when she had an opportunity to ruin everything.

The houses became smaller and the roads became wider during the next few miles. There were more trees around, although many looked to be dying with their broken limbs and nakedness of leaves.

A curse jumped from my mouth when our path twisted between houses and I spotted a guard climbing off his horse and pounding on someone’s door in front of us. I quickly turned the horse away from him.

“Don’t say anything,” I warned Lisanda, glancing over my shoulder.

“I wouldn’t.” She turned to look behind her as well. The guard stepped inside the house. Lisanda looked back at me. “I’m not going to break my promise.”

She sounded sincere, but that didn’t mean much.

While I wished I could trust her enough not to worry, I really knew the only thing keeping her from jumping off the horse and running for the guard was what would happen if she didn’t make it.

The promise between us would be over if I caught her, which meant I’d make her miserable, and I’d no longer have an obligation to let her go after three days. But I figured that if she was absolutely certain she could escape, she would do it in a heartbeat. This just wasn’t her time.

In the next mile, we spotted another guard on horseback. He was stopped in the middle of the road, drinking from a silver flask that shimmered in the afternoon sun. He put his eye under it after two attempts to get its last drops.

We were hundreds of feet from him. The only reason I could tell he was a guard was his chest piece. The Takary family crest was painted across it, two soaring wings of royal blue.

With the Takary Palace in the middle of The Nest, the name of the city was supposed to symbolize family and sanctuary for all its citizens. But really, The Nest was more dangerous than any of the smaller towns in Goldram. A guard would tell you his job was to protect the innocent and deliver justice, but everyone knew better.

Like any other guard, the one in front of us was just as likely to run his sword through me if he
thought
I was Jek Trayden compared to if he
knew
I was Jek Trayden.

He couldn’t have recognized us from his current distance, especially after finishing a flask that I only could assume was full earlier in the day, but all he probably was looking for was a young man and woman on a horse, and now he’d found them.

He made his mount gallop toward us, shouting something that I didn’t understand.

Escaping one drunken guard on a horse would’ve been no trouble. But not with my current horse that was sure to disobey the moment I tried to make him run. Even worse, Lisanda wasn’t bound to me. She could jump off or even throw me off if she was certain it would lead to her escape.

Lisanda clutched my stomach tighter. “What are you going to do?”

We hadn’t moved yet because I still wasn’t sure. The last thing I wanted was the horse bucking us off and running away. Whatever I decided, I needed to keep him calm.

“Go along with me,” I told her.