“You’ve calmed down,” I noted, pressing my shoulder against his even though there was still a little bit of room left. “You’re in a much better mood.”
“I am still beyond angry,” he admitted, “but you have worn me down. Besides that, my mind is unfortunately elsewhere,” his hands caressed one of the books, setting it on top of the others.
“You would have to have a brain for it to go anywhere,” I said as he withdrew another volume, setting it atop the bed. It fell with a heavy thump, its black leather binding falling against another similar one. “It’s so interesting here,” I said, having been bored to tears as I absentmindedly watched him pack. “Where is your mind right now?” I questioned.
At last, the final book was pulled and stacked on top of the rest. Luka turned, catching my eyes in a meaningful gaze before turning back to the bed. Apparently, he didn’t feel like joking.
“I said, ‘where is your mind right now?’” I repeated.
He responded in a quick, clipped manner of speaking. “In the capital, where I have not been in quite some time, and you have never been. In the forest, which grows thick around the palace even though they continually try to fight it back. In the Pig’s Trotter Tavern, where it is rumored that a monk with a broken hand drinks his sorrows. Choose any one of them, really.”
My eyebrows furrowed.
“But mainly, I am thinking of danger, and how very short a human life seems in the scope of things.”
“As always, you’ve filled your head full of too much to make any sense, Kinsley.”
“Rest assured, it is anything but that,” he sighed. “The King will keep you as long as he can, you know that? A human life is so short, but look at how long he’s lived and tell me that he understands that. When Adam’s father grew old and grey, he simply tossed him aside and turned his attention to Adam, not so much as thinking of the other man. He’ll run you into the ground.”
“So, you are thinking of something utterly stupid then?”
“I am thinking of you and what you proposed once again, when I was far too foolish to keep running.”
Ah. That again. I looked over to him, his jaw set tightly with nerves and that strange, determined look in his eyes, knowing fully well that he regretted it. But as much as he did, I did not. My fingers reached for him, tucking an errant lock of hair out of his face as he might have done for me, letting my fingers run over the ridge of his ear that was marred with scars. “I have so many grievances with you, Kinsley, but this is not one of them,” I whispered before adding, “If you do not get packed, however…”
His frown only deepened. I had not settled him. His mind was still in alternate universes, in missed chances and opportunities.
“I am not looking to run, Luka,” I informed him. “Whynne is my home and I will stay here, no matter what challenges he gives me,” my thoughts traveled once again to a creature so long gone, the one that Camden’s guards had told me they had hunted. The troll in the woods. I was not afraid of it, not if it was truly violent and a threat to Whynne as I tried to tell myself. “We can’t just turn our backs on Whynne…”
His hands reached down, tangling in the chain around my neck, his eyes meeting mine. In his fist, the lantern he gave me sat.
I swallowed, reaching to cover his hands with mine. “To think, it is all because some time, long ago, one man made a mistake and gave in to selfishness.”
“As we are all prone to do,” Luka said. “You’ll find that I can be quite selfish as well.”
“I believe I’ve told you that a few times before.” I smiled, letting go of him as I fell back, laying against his sleeping roll and almost grimacing as the tall stack of books beside me toppled onto me. I tossed the books to the side. “Come on. You need to pack. Any longer and they will find even more people here to take with. Then they will have no more beds to sleep in at the outpost—you’ll be forced to sleep in the same one as me. Then people might start to talk.”
“Oh yes,” Luka agreed, turning back to his work. “They might think us to be strangers no more, and what an awful misunderstanding that would be.”
I grinned, stretching out on his bedroll, the books slowly sliding into my side. “They might think us to be lovers,” I said, and received a murmured chuckle in response. Slowly turning to face him, I was confronted not with his face but something else entirely. The spines of his books.
The Unseelie and Whynne, the Forest of Night, and The Great Fire. History books, reminders whose titles were embossed with gold on their spines. The story of how Whynne was founded and how, once, it fell apart.
“Are you done packing yet?” Adam called from outside. “I hate to interrupt you two, but if we don’t get a move on, we won’t make camp before nightfall!”
Chapter Five
The fortunate thing about the palace was that, when it came to distance, it was not far. In fact, much of Whynne was that way, it would take seven days at the most to travel from one side of Whynne to the other. Perhaps even less if one were to use an automobile.
If the terrain were flat.
Which, unfortunately, it was not, thus stretching out our journey.
Luka and I were from Greenable, the second largest city. It only became that because it was the largest stretch of flat, unforested land. The rest of the country was, quite simply, awful. Wherever there was not forest to block one’s path, there was surely a hill to climb up or a deep ravine like in the northern parts of the kingdom. I had not had any complaints with that, until we began to move.
The new party member Adam introduced, however, did. She was there when we entered the automobile, a petite young thing with tan skin and tight braids pulled behind her ears, donning the same outfit as me but with a heavy, fur coat in her lap. Lindy.
I don’t know if I would call her pleasant.
She had a constant look to her, like she was either hunting something or smelling something vile, and every so often she would make a sound of disgust. But I did like how fond she seemed of using the word stupid, and how nearly everyone who she called it was either a member of the royal elite or a guard she was tasked with dealing with. I also liked the fact that she thought to bring with food, though she did not care to share whatever dried meat she had.
I think the noise of her ripping and chewing really characterized the trip for me—it took it from borderline awful to most definitely terrible.
She complained nearly the whole way there and said very little else. Which somehow made the journey even longer than it should have been.
Eventually, however, the path became narrow and steep. It was decided that one automobile would go up the road, and the other would stay behind. But since the King did not have the patience to wait for the other automobile to arrive…
“I’m going to die here,” I declared, already beginning the process of doing so from the hike alone.
“You’ve said that a thousand times.”
“Yes, well, this time I actually mean it!” I proclaimed, hauling another foot up high if only to make it another measly two feet forward. “If it’s not this stupid mountain, it will be the fumes from that automobile,” I proclaimed, grabbing onto Adam’s arm as I tried and failed to keep my balance.
“You could always ride with him,” Adam said as he pulled me on a little bit further.
“I’d rather choke on the fumes.”
The trek to the palace was a dangerous one. One that was steep and unforgiveable, surrounded by forest on both sides. We’d ridden comfortably for days, but all of that was forgotten in mere hours as we attempted the climb. It was narrow and far too vertically inclined in its slope, only one automobile was allowed on the road at a time in case it slipped. Being the King, it was naturally decided that vehicle was Theo’s.
The path was tight enough that the tree limbs brushed against us and snagged on our clothing as we trudged up, the forest so close that it was deadly sometimes. The path was only four feet wide at the most the other half of the time, and we were
expected to split in half and stand at either side, staying close the edge even where it widened, so that if a stray Unseelie were to wander out then we could take care of it immediately. Adam and I were on one side with Nikolas; Luka, a guard, and the girl from the automobile named Lindy walked on the other side. Every so often I heard Lindy swear. She had a mouth that could rival a sailor’s, I was almost jealous.
Adam had said that it was imperative to split to either side, that it allowed us the opportunity to catch any and all dangers. I believed that the real reason was that the King’s vehicle would stall, as if it couldn’t go much further, every half an hour or so. I was sure it would slip at some point, and this was the best way to make sure he didn’t barrel any of us over.
He’d probably run over guards before, but I doubted Adam would admit that.
I cast Luka a look from across the road once it widened further. He was doing worse than me. At least I had Nikolas behind me to push my back every so often and keep me from falling backwards, not that that pleased Luka at all. All Luka had behind him was one small young woman with a fierce temper and indeterminate use. His guard was already stomping far ahead of him, as if the thought of walking with him was too insulting.
“I think I should be on the other side,” I reiterated with a huff as I caught Luka stumbling just as I turned away. Lindy scoffed at his messy footing.
“I think you should not,” Adam replied. “You’ll cause trouble.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
Adam turned around, his expression said everything.
He’d have to be a mad man to trust me.
“The King said the outpost is just down the mountain from the palace, can’t we go to that?” I asked. “That’s where we’ll be staying anyway.” The air was cold, but I was drenched in sweat. I desperately wanted any sort of break I could get.
“Camden wants you at the palace first,” Adam said, reminding me of the she-witch.
“I didn’t know that Camden gave the King orders.”
“You’d be surprised,” Adam sighed.
I really wouldn’t, not after my experience with her. There was no doubt in my mind that she was sitting on the throne while the King was away, playing at being monarch already. Never mind that there wasn’t a ring on her finger, there would be some day, and she knew it. Everyone knew it. As optimistic as I tried to be, there didn’t seem to be another option.
At least not one that the King seemed interested enough to take.
“So, the scar on the back of your neck, that’s your mark, isn’t it?” I asked Adam. Walking behind him, I had begun to take in the details, one of them being a small assortment of deep purple stars etched into his skin just below his hairline. A fae mark if I’d ever seen one. “Strange place to kiss.” It was almost invisible there.
“Kiss?” Adam snorted. “Did Luka tell you that’s how it has to be done? Most fae can place a mark with just a brush of their fingertip. It doesn’t even have to be where they touch if they put enough power into it.” He flashed a lopsided grin, waggling his eyebrows, “of course there are other, far more fun ways as well,”
I frowned, my eyes sliding over to Luka speculatively as I ignored Adam’s lewd statement. “What deal did you make?” I asked, refocusing on Adam. “It was with the King, right?”
“Correct,” Adam said, his eyes still trained forward but his hand reaching back to run a fingertip over the mark. “Loyalty to the crown, protection, all of that. It used to be a bit simpler, but then magic happened and we had to make some modifications. I’m meant to protect him. I take my job seriously.”
“And what does he give you in exchange?”
“Continual friendship,” Adam provided with a wink.
Right, that was shorthand for saying, ‘he gave me nothing and I agreed.’ Not surprising, appeasing the King had its benefits, but it was disappointing all the same. I wanted to believe Adam was a little better than that.
“What about you? Any marks since the last one was removed?” Adam asked.
“No,” I said coldly, “no marks.” I could feel Nikolas’s eyes from behind me, surveying to see if that were actually true.
“A shame,” Adam said with a slight laugh as he turned across the road and called to Luka, “you should change that!”
Luka merely scowled.
“He’ll lighten up soon,” Adam said in reassurance. I didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise, so I only nodded.
In the distance, I could see the palace, but it was no closer than it had been hours before. I didn’t think anyone would be in good spirits until we got there. Not while we travelled through the forest. It would take an idiot to not notice how tightly Nikolas’s hand gripped the gun in his holster.
Adam was only distracting me.
I looked away when I heard rustling in the trees, swallowing heavily. I knew there was something in there, something very near, something watching-- I was from Whynne, I’d been raised with the stories. Even though the forest stood far away from the Laurent Estate’s grounds, I knew. Humans who strayed too close to the edge of the forest didn’t come back. I’d caught a few glimpses of scales and greyed, misshapen bodies running alongside me; so close, yet so far—the Unseelie. Thankfully, they were keeping their distance… for now.
Soon I would be living in the forest.
That wasn’t a decision that normal humans made. Even the ones at the camp, the ones who knew what the Unseelie were like. Not a single person I knew would dare live amongst those trees. It was through sheer stupidity that I once ran through the forest and made it back—sheer stupidity and the luck of living in Greenable, where the poorest amongst the townspeople had tried their best to win the King’s bounty and had tamed most of the forest surrounding the city as a result, their pockets full of gold and silver and nearly all of the Unseelie in the area eradicated.
However, this was part of the kingdom they could never tame. The part that grew back thick and quick, encouraged by the throne at its center. Whether it was a Seelie or Unseelie king, the forest would flourish around the palace.
Making it the most dangerous place in the country.
“You hear something?” Nikolas whispered from behind, prompting an immediate warning from Adam.
“Nikolas.”
Nikolas didn’t heed the warning. “It’s clearer now, louder than before,” he countered, and I strained my ears to hear what he was talking about. “Footsteps. Big ones.”
“Stop talking,” Adam hissed.
Nikolas frowned, but nodded all the same, his hand tightening around his gun. He had magic, but it was useless away from the water. That pistol probably felt like his best chance. At that moment, it felt like my best chance too.
“Have you ever seen an Unseelie, Nikolas?” I asked, forcing myself to stare forward rather than look back. Adam shot me a glare.
“A full one? Once,” he said. “When I was very young.” His voice was low, lower than before, as if he wasn’t trying to draw attention. “Far more monstrous than I’d imagined. They all are. Of course I faced it without any fear, I’ve always been made for this sort of thing, facing down those vile beasts.”
“They can’t all be monstrous,” I said quietly. “Some of them have to be a little human.” I knew they were. Proof of that was walking just feet away from me.
“Then you’d be surprised,” Nikolas said darkly. “But you’re a little biased to begin with.”
“You know very little about me,” I informed him, because he did. What could he tell others of me? Of my life, of who I was?
“Will you play the same game, Wren? The one where he pretends to have nothing to do with you,” Nikolas asked, referring to the charade I had put on at the camp with Luka. His voice treaded the border between anger and concern. “You know you deserve a lot more than that, Wren. It killed me to see you walking around that camp and still holding him so highly as he ignored the simplest brush of your shoulder.” He leaned toward me, I didn’t know when he’d got
ten so close, but his voice was in my ear, “especially when I’d die for it.”
And that was enough. I turned, shoving him back as hard as I could and watching with satisfaction as he laid sprawled out on the ground. Adam immediately rushed to my side at the sound of Nikolas hitting the dirt.
“Hey, hey, hey—Let’s not knock down the guards,” Adam chastised. “Not now, not here. This isn’t exactly the dueling ring, Wren.”
“He tried my patience,” I growled. “I want a different guard. A capable one. Or give me Lindy.” I didn’t know what she did, but at least she was quiet. Even if every time I looked at her, she was glaring like she wanted to burn down the forest beside her and take down everyone with it.
“When you get up there,” Adam promised, but I felt like he didn’t mean it. “We’re so close.”
“No, I want one now.”
“Because this one cares about your wellbeing?” Nikolas shot back, angrily brushing away the dirt as he lifted himself off the ground. “I’m sorry that I want to take care of you.”
“No,” I replied, “because this one thinks that he’s entitled to my time for being nice to me.” I huffed, turning back to Adam with an expectant gaze. “In case you were wondering, Nikolas, this is the reason I avoid you.”
But Nikolas just didn’t know when to quit. “At least I am kind to you,” he hollered, “what does Luka do for you?”
Idiot. I spun around to inform him just what exactly Luka did.
I didn’t get to.
The ground trembled, at first almost inconceivably, but then it shuddered, stealing the words out of my mouth. But that wasn’t enough. No.
Another sudden shudder knocked me off my feet. I fell to the ground in a heap.
Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2) Page 5