by Elise Kova
“You’re sick, remember?” Jayme mumbled.
“I’m sick, not mute.” Vi rolled her eyes.
Ellene gave them a small wave, then settled further into her saddle. She looked like a proper racer. Everything Vi would expect for someone who’d grown up in the North. It was almost comical to imagine her sitting on a saddle even half as confidently.
“Get ready.” The man who had outlined the rules lifted a small green flag. “Mark… Go!”
He dropped the flag, and they all moved at once.
There was a unified rallying cry from all the riders. Some yelled the word “go” at their massive cats. Others cried out their own, unique words. Most said nothing at all, a wordless shout that could easily be interpreted as a mix of excitement and exhilaration filling the air.
The noru lunged forward; dust kicked up off their hind legs, pluming in the air like smoke. They charged forward, alight with the crackle of magic. Vi realized, then, that the leader had never specified any rules about magic for the race.
Beneath Gormon’s feet, two large pillars of stone emerged at a forward angle. Vi was forced to give all the credit to the animal that he was not unnerved by it, and merely adapted to the new terrain. Gormon crouched, and the noru leapt forward, capitalizing on the momentum Ellene’s magic had bought him.
He soared through the air in a massive leap, gaining a lead on the pack quickly.
“Go, go!” Vi couldn’t help but cheer, even though Ellene likely couldn’t hear.
Ellene was making headway, a solid lead. Perhaps Gormon was faster than Vi had given him credit for and she just didn’t know how best to ride the animal. But he was pulling ahead with nothing but open track before him.
Vi began to run alongside, hoping for a vantage to see the finish.
“You’re supposed to be sick!” Jayme repeated.
“I want a better view!” Vi retorted.
“Do you think you can keep up with the noru?” The question was a half laugh as Jayme was already running behind her.
Vi knew she couldn’t. The track was long, and she could only see the noru for just a bit longer, even with the time running would buy her. But she wanted to see Ellene for as long as she could.
And see she did, as the straps on Gormon’s saddle broke all at once; as the leathers flapped limply in the wind; as the small silhouette of her friend was airborne. Time seemed to suspend. Leather and girl alike hovered mid-air.
If Vi had been a Windwalker like her mother, she could’ve caught Ellene before she even neared the ground. But she was useless as a Firebearer and as a Lightspinner. All Vi could do was watch in horror as Ellene’s body met the ground with a sickening bounce.
“Get up!” Vi screamed. “Ellene!” Excitement turned to panic. “Stop, stop!” The other noru were coming in fast. Surely they’d seen what had happened? Surely they’d see Ellene on the ground through the dust cloud?
The riders were struggling to swerve. The heat had too many noru, and the pack was confused between riders who saw and those who didn’t, bunched together with shoulders bumping—no one could coordinate who was going left and who was going right.
Ellene was going to be trampled.
Vi lifted a hand, debating with the precious few seconds she had. Did she try to make a fire and spook the giant cats, divert them into the woods? Could she trust herself not to burn Ellene and everyone else alive? She hadn’t learned enough of Yargen’s magic yet to use that confidently.
At the last second, Ellene raised her head.
There was a scream before Ellene curled in on herself, face to the ground, hands over her head; once again, her magic reacted on instinct. Large curls of stone rose from the ground, creating a cocoon of rock around Ellene.
The other noru bounded over top of it. Vi watched as they leapt off of it, continuing forward until their momentum was spent and the riders could get a better handle on the beasts. Vi ran, crossing the distance.
“Ellene! Ellene!” Vi cried out, even though she knew, logically, that her friend was all right. If she could survive the inferno Vi had made in the jungle, her rocks could hold up against some noru weight.
The rocks retreated, like an egg cracking, revealing the precious girl within. Vi only ran faster toward her dazed friend as Ellene straightened. She slid to a stop, wrapping her arms around the girl’s shoulders.
“Ellene, are you all right?” Vi held her fiercely.
“I’m fine…” she muttered. “Not so loud… I think I hit a rock… or something. My head feels funny.”
Vi straightened away. Sure enough, a river of blood ran down the side of Ellene’s face. Vi looked over her shoulder in a panic. Jayme was on her way, but slower in her military garb. She turned in the opposite direction, to the riders that stared on in shock and horror.
“Darrus!” Vi stood and called. He was there in a second. “Take Ellene back to the stronghold. Summon Sehra and Ginger. And try not to jostle her too much.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine…” Ellene’s mutterings faded when she was solidly in Darrus’s arms.
“She’s not. Don’t let her say otherwise and avoid being checked out,” Vi commanded.
“Yes, princess.” There was not one mention of the mysterious disappearance of Vi’s aforementioned sickness. Darrus shifted his weight in his saddle, making sure Ellene was situated. In a tone that he clearly only meant for the girl to hear, he whispered, “I’ll take care of you, I swear.”
With that, the noru was off.
“What, what happened?” Jayme panted.
“I sent Ellene back.” Vi turned to Gormon. He was off walking as though nothing had happened. Then, she looked down to the saddle. “What in the Mother’s name happened here?”
“A terrible or brilliant stroke of luck.” Jayme frowned at it. “If you had been on that saddle, as we’d said was the intent… then you would’ve been the one trampled.”
It was true.
If the riders couldn’t stop for the daughter of the Chieftain, Vi didn’t think they could’ve for her. Even if Vi technically outranked Ellene, in the eyes of most Northerners, she was merely the daughter of the man and woman who had brought them to heel. Disliked in the North, disliked in the South, the day’s realizations compounded. Knowledge she’d always had, on some level, of her position made real.
No… if she’d been astride Gormon when the saddle straps broke, her only hope would have been for Ellene to have made a shell to protect her.
But Vi had seen what had happened with the other noru bounding above the stone with such ferocity that the ground itself rumbled. And she knew Ellene’s control of her magic was not mature enough to be relied on beyond the instinct of her own self-preservation.
“We’ll see if it’s brilliant luck… if Ellene is all right,” Vi muttered, picking up the saddle. “Now, to bring this back and have a word with the leather master… let him know there’s something faulty in his design.” Jayme’s expression darkened as she stared at the saddle. “What?”
Jayme crossed over, holding up the girth. Right where the leather curved into the buckle was a straight line—impossible to see once the saddle was in place, but now undeniably sinister. Vi stared at it, knowing what she was seeing. But she couldn’t process it. It didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t make sense.
“Someone, I think was hoping you were on that saddle…” Jayme said. “Because this has been cut nearly all the way through.”
“What?” Vi whispered. But what she really meant was why?
“Someone wants you dead, princess.”
Chapter Twenty-One
On some level, Vi had always known she’d lived a sheltered life.
When she was less than a year old, she’d been transported to the North and placed under the care of Sehra’s mother. When that Chieftain died, Vi’s protection fell to Sehra herself, the same woman who had struck the deal for her life. While both relationships had never been particularly warm and the people’s opinion overall reflected
their leader’s, Vi had always felt safe.
Now, staring at the tampered saddle leather, she wasn’t so sure. Yet another time in a terribly short period, her world felt different, inexorably shifted. Vi swallowed hard. Staring at the saddle would do her no good. There were no more answers to be had here, for now, and staring at them would only rouse suspicion from the others.
“We’ll bring it up with Jax when we get back. Tell no one else.”
“Understood.” Jayme slung the saddle over her shoulder. The cut pieces swung harmlessly, no doubt unassuming to anyone who didn’t know to look for the betrayal. Her eyes drifted over to Andru, who was still staring at the tree line. “Not even him?”
“Not even him.”
“Is the Chieftain’s daughter all right?” The man who had gone over the rules finally ran over. The racers still perched on their noru were finally becoming brave enough to venture forward as well.
“Ellene was dazed, but she seems all right, thank the Mother. I sent her to be looked over by Chieftain Sehra and my personal cleric,” Vi reported, putting on an air of authority.
Suddenly, everyone looked suspicious through Vi’s eyes. Every eye trained on her was one looking for her death. She forced herself to quell the feeling; these were the men and women she’d grown up alongside. She couldn’t see them as lurking enemies now… But she also couldn’t stop herself from wondering how many had access to the castle, to her noru?
The old wars had left deep scars, even on the children of those who had fought. How many of them would want her dead for the crimes her parents committed against theirs? How many knew she was supposed to be the one in the race?
Vi glanced back to Andru. He had known she was intended to ride… and he had pressed for it.
“Praise Yargen.” The man gave a small bow. “And thanks to her that it wasn’t you on that saddle.”
“Yes, well… If you’ll excuse us, I’m going to return and check on your future Chieftain.”
“Take care, your highness.”
Vi gave a small nod, and began to lead the way back toward the main road. She gave a shrill whistle and Gormon trotted over, falling into step behind them. Lumbering along, getting distracted by the birds flitting in the trees, he seemed a gentle giant; Vi felt silly for ever being nervous around him. Especially when she had something far more tangible to worry about.
“Who do you think it could be?” Jayme asked only when they were far out of earshot of anyone else.
“I don’t know.”
“Truly?”
“Why does that surprise you?”
Jayme paused, thinking to herself. “You’re in the North, the granddaughter of the man who conquered this land and put it under the heel of the Empire. There are many, I’m sure, who remember seeing their loved ones die at the hands of a man bearing your name. I would have thought someone might have been exceptionally cruel, enough to be a suspect, at some point.”
“The North has been good to me,” Vi defended. She didn’t know why, however. Hadn’t she followed the same line of thinking in her own mind? But she still wanted to reject the notion that she’d been sleeping alongside enemies all along.
“Certainly… But the North is wide, and full of people. Sehra has been good to you, surprisingly so, all things considered. Ellene is like your sister. And that goes far with many. But…” Jayme paused, picking at the saddle straps. “There are many who cannot forgive the sins of the father. Some would argue that perhaps those sins shouldn’t be forgiven until justice is exacted… regardless if that justice falls to the children to bear.”
Jayme’s voice took on a hard, protective edge—one that nearly surprised Vi. She glanced over, but decided it best to leave the woman to her thoughts for a moment.
“It’s impossible to say for certain it’s a Northerner.” Vi remembered keenly the old, Western woman in the market. “The solstice has brought a flood of strangers to the North.”
“But the East and West see you as their own, given your parents.”
Vi couldn’t argue that. Her mother was born and bred Eastern. Her father was the grandson of the last great king in the West. And given how the woman in the market had claimed she’d come all this way just to lay eyes on Vi…
She shook her head and heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Everyone seems as likely and unlikely as the next. Perhaps we’re making something from nothing and it was an accident?”
“This—” Jayme held up the straps again. “—is not an accident. Not knowing who to suspect is one thing. But don’t be ignorant, princess. Someone is out to get you—someone with access to the fortress. I’m going to find out who.”
As if on cue, Andru strolled over to them. He had a small frown on his face, but his overall lack of urgency made any concern he laid on seem insincere.
“Is everything all right?”
“Everything is fine,” Vi answered quickly.
“Those beasts, the riders could not even get them to stop for their future chieftain.” Andru looked back at Gormon. “Wild things.” Vi wanted to argue and explain that it was a deadly combination of momentum, the shroud of a dust cloud, and the overall excitement of the race. But he continued before she could. “If you had been on that saddle, you would have been dead.”
“Yes, I am aware.”
The road dipped down, heading back into the city proper.
They came up to the stables and Vi directed her noru into the pen. Gormon leapt over the fence, heading to a back corner of sun, and stretched out with a massive yawn. He rolled half on his side and promptly forgot about Vi’s existence, distracted by a low-hanging branch he batted at like a kitten with a ball of yarn.
“Vi, thank goodness you’re all right.” Jax’s voice cut through the heavy silence that had been hanging over them like a cloud. He crossed over quickly, resting his hands on her shoulders.
“We can agree on that.” Vi turned to Andru. “If you will excuse us now, please. I would like a word alone with Lord Jax.”
“Yes, of course.” Andru gave a small bow of his head, starting in for the fortress. Now he takes the hint. They all watched him go. When he was far enough out of hearing range, Jax turned back to her, a frown on his face.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened? I can see it on your faces.”
Jayme held up the saddle straps. Jax walked over and, judging from his deepening scowl, saw what Jayme had before she spoke. “They were cut.”
Jax held out his hands and Jayme passed him the saddle. He flipped it over, placing it on the ground, and knelt to get a better look. Vi wasn’t surprised when his investigation didn’t yield more than theirs had. There weren’t really clues to speak of.
“I’ll have a word with the stable master,” he said grimly, standing. “Find out who has access to this area.”
“Do you think there’s any way it could’ve been an accident?” Vi asked, ignoring the look from Jayme. So she was hopeful that someone wasn’t trying to kill her—that should hardly be surprising.
“I pray it is. But I’m forced to act like it’s not. You are not to leave the fortress again, even with guards, until we get to the bottom of this.”
She felt as though the remark should upset her, but Vi was too focused on the notion that someone was trying to kill her. She’d never had that much freedom to begin with, and she was leaving the North soon enough. The idea of further confinement was more palatable than Vi thought it should be. If anything, it felt normal.
“Are you going to raise an alarm?”
“Not yet. Whoever did this, I want them to think they got away with something. Perhaps that way, we can catch them in the act.”
Vi gave a small nod, ignoring the feeling that she was so much bait on a hook.
“How is Ellene?” Jayme asked, unintentionally making Vi feel terrible for not asking sooner.
“She’s fine, up and about. It was just a small bump, a bit of daze, a potion to help clear her head and a salve to mend the spot. But you did right
sending her back.”
They both gave a small nod.
“Now, try to put this from your mind and allow me and Sehra to worry about it. Focus on your studies and stay in the fortress. You’ll be safe so long as you stay here and take no unnecessary risks.”
Vi felt odd about the notion that someone was lurking in the shadows, searching for a chance to kill her, and she was doing nothing about it. But for now, Jax was right. With no leads, it was all she could do. She had to wait until they made their next move… And hope it wasn’t the move that killed her.
“I’m going to return to my quarters.”
“Jayme, would you stay and help me investigate?” Jax asked her friend.
“Yes, sir. It’s my duty as guard.”
Vi gave them a wave goodbye and headed in.
She had just started up the stairs when she realized she wasn’t alone. Slowly, Vi turned, seeing Andru standing two steps behind her where he previously hadn’t been. There were no alcoves he could’ve hidden in, or doorways to emerge from. That meant he had to have come up from the first landing area. But she hadn’t seen him there either.
It was like the man appeared in mid-air.
“What is it now?” Vi asked, ignoring the tingling feeling creeping up her spine.
“I wanted to stress caution to you, princess.”
“I think I have had that stressed to me enough.” It was all she’d heard for the majority of her life. Be careful. Stay in line. Don’t venture too far.
“I know Prince Romulin has stressed it to you, but I am not convinced his warnings were heeded.”
“And why is that?” There was something about his whole demeanor that had her hair standing on end. Vi shifted her feet on the step, trying not to let her discomfort show.
“Someone who fully understands the danger they could be in would not go wandering at night.”
Her blood ran cold. Vi suppressed a shiver. He’d known she’d been out.
“Was it you?” Vi whispered, remembering the feeling of someone following her. Darrus mentioning possibly seeing someone on her tail. Andru had a knack for fading away even when he was in plain sight. What could he accomplish if he tried to sneak?