Robyn shook his head slightly, his frown deepening as his concentration drew away from Britta’s words. “We have to take action,” Robyn whispered as if he were speaking to no one but himself. “We need to make a statement before our own people start to turn away from our cause.”
Robyn dropped his head to look back down at the map before him, his hair bobbing along with the movement. His eyes scanned the Kingdom Rogue territory, every inch of land familiar to him. He knew which trees were the best and worst for climbing practice. Robyn knew which bushes sprouted poisonous berries and which ones wielded thorns to protect their precious fruits.
“There’s only one other person who knows these lands like I do,” Robyn Thorn commented, his eyes sliding to look up at Britta. The young woman noted the mischief roiling within his stormy eyes, and she was unable to hide the worry that lined her frown.
“You may not want to risk losing the twins, but this rebellion can’t afford to lose you,” Britta exclaimed. Her skirts brushed against Robyn’s legs as she pushed closer to him. Britta’s fingers gripped his chin, forcing the rebel leader to look into her furious eyes. “I don’t know how to get this through your thick skull, but there is no way that this will be approved.”
“I’m Second in Command,” Robyn commented, wrenching his chin from Britta’s grasp. “I don’t need approval.”
“So you’re just going to traipse through the forest with Red, praying to the Maker that my information isn’t outdated, to make a statement about what exactly?”
“The people of Perancis are terrified of the Kingdom Rogues. No, the people of Cathal are terrified of them,” Robyn challenged. His eyes were alight with excitement, and Britta knew that she would lose him to his planning if she could not get her point across soon. “What better way to show our hand than by taking out some of their followers?”
“You forget that the people of Cathal are even more terrified of Red,” Britta Lozano argued with a wave of her hand. “What will people think when they find out we are working with a notorious killer who has wreaked havoc throughout the entire continent and across the bay on Seadell’s sister islands?”
“At this point, Red is only marked by her cloak,” Robyn Thorn countered. The thoughts were streaming through his head, his mind already traveling away from their conversation. “She’ll agree to going on a covert mission. If anything, she’ll be glad to find a distraction from that box Eliseo gave her. And the Maker knows that our troops will need a break from her training.”
“She started training them today,” Britta objected. She stepped away from the table, continuing where she left off in her pacing. Her hands immediately fell into their habit of knotting up her hair as her frustration grew. “There is no way that the troops have learned anything valuable from her yet.”
“You’ve never trained with Red. She is a ruthless and impossible student, and she’s even worse as a teacher. I’d be surprised if Jezamon didn’t have to pull her out of a fight this morning.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“The twins said it themselves. We won’t last if new rebels are joining us one lost soul at a time. We need to feed into the people’s rage. We need to get their hearts pumping and blood boiling. They need to come rushing through these tunnels in a storm of fury.”
Britta was stunned at the conviction that spewed out of Robyn’s mouth. She had never seen the young leader so worked up over any of the matters that were mentioned within the rebel meetings. She had always seen Robyn looking like a bored schoolboy—ready to fall asleep at a moment's notice.
Britta unwrapped the strand of hair that was ready to cut off the circulation in her finger. She blew out a heavy sigh, “Is there no one else that you can send with her? What about Jezamon?”
Robyn Thorn shook his head, the storm in his eyes calming. “The only two people who know these lands are me and her. Jezamon would only slow Red down.”
“I know I can’t stop you, but don’t start thinking that I agree with your decisions,” Britta retorted. She strode to the door as she spoke, only turning back once her hand clasped the cool iron handle that did very little to hold the door in place. Her smirk was playful, but her eyes could stop a monster in its tracks as she added, “You better not die. Because I’ll have to bring you back to life and kill you again if you do.”
“Always a pleasure, Britta,” Robyn acknowledged with a wave and an eye roll.
Before she could even close the door behind her, Robyn was already turning away to plan his mission. Britta Lozano demanded that the Destroyer did not make it his last.
Chapter 19
Red breathed in the crisp early morning air, relishing the fresh scents of the woods filling her lungs. She was amazed that it had been more than a month since she had fully stepped outside. She was even more amazed that the trees had already started to turn in the early weeks of autumn.
“It’s easy to get used to the stuffy tunnels,” Robyn commented with a soft sigh. “But this”—he motioned to the trees and bushes around them—“is something that I always miss while I’m down there.”
Red could only nod in agreement as she swept her gaze across the massive oak trees that filtered the light of the morning sun through their dense canopy. Her eyes caught on the few flowers that still managed to survive with the little light that they could manage to capture. But the beauty could not distract Red from the bright crimson that would soon coat the forest floor.
Robyn Thorn signaled for Red to slow their pace, their footsteps growing even more careful as they stepped around fallen branches. Their leather boots silently crept around the remnants of the once thriving leaves that would soon be coated with a new layer of their fallen brethren in the coming weeks that would bring autumn into full swing.
Red stepped up to Robyn’s side, her hands an easy distance from the daggers strapped to her waist and thighs. Alpha was strapped across her back, the hilt of the blade shining against her plain black tunic. “We should be close,” Red whispered. “They must have sent the older trainees because I can’t hear them yet.”
“The group that Arthur sent to kill me was full of untested trainees, and I had no idea you were upon us until that arrow almost killed me,” Robyn commented dryly. “I would not underestimate them as much as you do.”
“Clearly you lost some of your touch because those fools were making a huge ruckus the entire trek to your little camp. And you’re not dead, so their aim was definitely not refined enough.”
“No. Your magic saved me. I have never seen a burst of black fire shoot through the forest, so I’m assuming, and hoping, that that was not something that naturally occurs in these woods.”
Red felt heat rise in her cheeks as she remembered the blast of power that had shot out of her during that mission. She had no control of her body as her hand reached out, her power stealing the breath out of her lungs as it lunged out at that arrow. Red only remembered when Robyn had tripped over her, screaming for her to get up. The rest of that mission was a blur of punches and spraying blood.
“Thank you,” Robyn Thorn stated as he ducked under a fallen tree trunk. When he emerged on the other side he added, “You know, for saving my life.”
“I couldn’t just let them kill you,” Red replied with a shrug as she followed him. “And I never got the chance to ask, but why were you camped out in these woods anyway?”
“Some of the children ate some poisonous berries during our hike through the forest. Not enough to kill them once they got a taste, but enough to make them sick. Their mothers demanded that I set up camp because they refused to make their kids hike whilst vomiting every few steps.”
“And because you are a true gentleman, you had to oblige,” Red laughed.
“Actually, they forced their husbands to start building their tents before they even confronted me,” Robyn confided with a sheepish grin. “And they completely ignored my pleas to keep moving.”
“And when they were attacked?”
“They blamed my reckless decisions because I put their lives at risk,” Robyn recalled with a pointed glance toward Red that she knew all too well.
“That is the only correct reaction, you know,” Red joked. Her smile faded as the sound of a breaking branch underfoot echoed throughout the otherwise silent forest.
Robyn whirled at the crack, his hands immediately palming two sturdy hunting knives. He did not look back at Red as he nodded at her to circle around their position. He crept forward on steady feet, glancing around the woods before every step.
Red did not hesitate. She dashed a few yards ahead, her steps copying the sounds of the little creatures that roamed about. She could hear no other sounds than the sharp beating of her heart, but Red could feel the forest holding still in anticipation for who would make the first move.
Red came upon a small clearing no more than a few yards from where she had left Robyn. She bit down on her tongue, praying that none of the Kingdom Rogues had heard the conversation shared between her and her companion. By the looks of their calm faces and laid-back stances, the half dozen Kingdom Rogues had been paying no attention to their surroundings.
“Fools,” Red whispered, watching the little group set up a space to stop for lunch. She recognized two out of the whole group, but they had no more experience than the new trainees around them. That did not stop them from acting like they owned the entire forest as they strutted about, their boots stomping across the leaves and twigs.
A blue jay’s whistle filtered past Red’s ears, signaling that Robyn was ready. The poor trainees did not even look toward the foreign birdcall. Red almost pitied them as she leapt out of the bushes, striking down the two Kingdom Rogues nearest her.
Robyn Thorn was her perfect twin, copying her exact movements until only two trainees remained.
Red smiled as she stalked toward the two remaining Kingdom Rogues cowering against a rotting log. She took the time to reclaim her missing daggers, not bothering to wipe the blood away as she flipped them in her open palms.
Robyn was the steadfast force at the backs of the Kingdom Rogues, a silent promise that they would be torn apart if they tried to run.
Red stopped before the pair, her fingers twirling and flipping the daggers around in a miniature windmill splattered with crimson.
The older trainee was a girl, only a few years older than Red. And while she shrank away from Red, she did not let go of the glare that made her eyes shine with fury. The other was a pale boy, his chapped lips whispering a final prayer to the Maker. His prayers turned to desperate begging when a splotch of blood from Red’s spinning daggers splashed against his cheek.
“What do we have here?” Red purred. She glanced at Robyn who gave her a wicked, yet more subdued, grin.
“Go to the Destroyer’s layer,” the girl snarled. She spit in disgust, the glob of saliva landing perfectly on Red’s boots. The other boy whimpered as he watched Red’s smile fall away into a glare of lethal calm.
“I would kill you for ruining my favorite pair of boots, but I like your spunk,” Red sneered. She tapped the toe of her boot against the ground. The glob of spit slid off the tip of her boot into a shallow hole where Red had dug her toe into the ground.
The boy watched as the spit made a pasty mud as it mixed with the dirt. The girl continued to glare up at Red.
Robyn cleared his throat to break the tense silence. Red broke away from the stare first, but only to glare at Robyn Thorn for his rude interruption.
“What shall we do with them?” Red asked him in a mock question. She cocked her head to the side in a most unnatural way, making even Robyn look as though he wanted to retreat back into the woods.
“We can’t kill them,” Robyn stated plainly. The boy sagged in relief until Robyn added, “At least not right now.” The girl pulled the boy closer to her body as his own defied him with tremors of terror.
“They’re barely trained,” Red commented with a smirk. “They won’t have the information that we want. It’d be pointless torturing them.” Her stare was cold—unforgiving—as she looked at the pair before her. Neither were very old, and yet the hollowness of their eyes whispered about the past lives that had made them wise beyond their years.
“You’ll never learn anything from us,” the girl whispered ferociously, the power of her words not lessened by their lack of volume. “Torture us. Kill us. It doesn’t matt—”
A black arrow shot clean through the girl’s throat, grazing the hairs atop Red’s head. The boy was shot down just as quickly, but his fear was forever held in his eyes as his life magic was severed. Robyn Thorn lunged for Red before a third arrow could pierce her back.
Red screamed out in pain as the arrowhead dug into the skin of her upper arm, cutting cleanly through muscle. She did not have time to register the damage, though, as her body was slammed to the ground. Robyn shielded her with his body, but it would do Red no good if he was injured in the ambush.
Red gritted her teeth—jaw aching with the pressure, as she held in her scream. She pushed Robyn off of her with her right arm, her left hanging limp at her side, the pain stopping her brain from commanding it to move.
“The tree line,” Robyn shouted. He scrambled up, pulling Red along with him as arrows fired from the trees around them.
Unlike the first three shots, the rest of the arrows were fired with wild abandon, the Kingdom Rogues panicking at the sight of their still living victims. More often than not, the arrows clashed together, the shooters not realizing that they could not all fire at the same time—with the same target in mind—and expect to hit their mark.
Red could feel her magic tingling in her veins, the feeling disconnected in her left arm at first. She told her mind to ignore the danger around her, but the instincts inside her pushed and shoved against that command. She could feel black fire choking off her air.
Her body burned from the inside out.
Robyn Thorn dragged Red through the underbrush. He dodged over fallen tree limbs and zigzagged through the untended bushes. He paid no heed to Red as she stumbled over roots and tufts of grass, his hand only tightening its hold on her wrist with every slowed step. He was only focused on getting them out of the line of fire.
Some of the more skilled Kingdom Rogues managed to follow their path across the forest floor. But their untried hands still let arrows fly loose in every direction as they tried to keep up. Grunts of pain found Red’s ears as the Kingdom Rogues misfired and hit their own companions.
Red’s sight fell in and out of focus. The night sky and its glimmering stars crept along the edges of her vision. She did not know when her mind found and lost consciousness, but the scenes in the woods were never familiar as her mind wove between dimensions of reality.
The pain, mingling with the need for release, was enough to make anyone go mad. The pressure in her bones threatened their structures to the point of breaking. Her heart could not pump blood fast enough. Her lungs all out refused to take in enough air.
“Almost there. Almost there,” Robyn shouted over the din.
Red did not understand where ‘there’ was located. She barely believed that they were close to it. But Robyn’s chant kept her unfeeling body from giving up on its fight toward freedom.
I will not die like this, Red thought as she scrambled after Robyn’s ever-growing strides. I will not go down with an arrow to the arm. I will not let you take me down.
The dark creature that roiled under her skin seemed to agree to her thoughts because some of the shards of darkness that coated her throat and lungs shrank back to let her body take care of itself in more natural ways. That dark magic clearly did not understand that she was better off without its interference, but Red knew that it was only trying to keep its protective vessel alive.
She used the newfound knowledge to continue to push the darkness back into a cage in the far breeches of her mind. The darkness bucked against her demands, but the intensity of the pressure within her body subsided as her focus became more ce
ntered.
Her lungs cleared.
The burning fell away until there was only a warm tingle in her left arm. Red was pleased that she held onto that invisible leash once again, yet the tether was still on the verge of snapping.
“Get ready!” Robyn shouted over the chaos in the forest. He whipped his head from side-to-side, his eyes darting every which way as he looked for something hidden within the vast expanse of the forest around them.
Red did not know what she was to ready herself for, but she braced herself as best as she could. Her vision grappled for as much focus as her panicked body would allow. Her muscles tensed and relaxed as they waited for an impact that was not ready to hit.
Robyn Thorn’s grip never slackened on Red’s wrist, even as she caught her footing to match his pace. His eyes never stopped their wild search across the forest floor ahead of them.
Some of the Kingdom Rogues slowed down as they became lost in the vast woods, their confusion getting the better of them. But Robyn did not falter, his steps only growing more confident the farther he ran.
“By the Maker, you better be there, Ryker,” Robyn whispered under his breath as he charged through the forest. With one hand, Robyn yanked the chain of a gold pocket watch from his belt, holding the shaking trinket in front of his face to look at the hands.
Red knew that the blood loss was going to her head as she watched the two hands meet each other. She almost let go of Robyn’s hand when they began to turn counterclockwise until they were pointing in a random direction.
She could not contain the breath of hysterical laughter that escaped from her burning lungs as she watched a human-sized rabbit hole sink into the ground no more than two dozen yards away.
Robyn pulled Red forwards, his eyes watching the hands on the watch begin to turn in the correct direction—counting down the minute they had to reach the rabbit hole before it disappeared again.
The Kingdom Rogues were shouting behind them, trying to find a way to cut them off, but they were too far behind. Fewer and fewer arrows were reaching the area where Red and Robyn were running. It would only take one perfectly timed arrow, though, for the Kingdom Rogues to return to Arthur Welin triumphantly.
Cloak of Darkness (The Destroyer-Blessed Saga Book 1) Page 29