A skirmish was still underway on the main deck. The high pitch of clanking steel echoed in the crisp air as Aiden volleyed with one of the raiders who obviously was unaware he was outnumbered and now separated from his ship. Kathryn held her breath as Aiden dodged and then lunged, knocking the man’s sword from his hand. He backed away from her. She backed him against the thick timber of the main mast and held him pinned there, her sword point pressing against his chest. Aiden turned her head and Kathryn captured her gaze. They held each other for a moment with their eyes. Aiden was glistening with sweat and breathing hard, but she appeared otherwise unharmed. Kathryn let out the breath she’d been holding and stepped over a fallen raider while Gareth and Venn heaved another dead one over the railing.
“I want him alive.” Nilah moved past Kathryn to where Aiden held her raider captive. “Put him below deck in irons and get this ship moving. Bend every sail. I want distance between us and anyone else who might be following!”
A couple of Nilah’s men roughly grabbed the man Aiden had captured and dragged him below deck.
Rowan rushed to Kathryn. “Are you hurt? Is anyone hurt?”
“I think we’re all okay.” But there were three more bodies lying motionless on the deck in the debris of smashed crates and broken vats.
Gareth walked among the fallen. He stepped over the first two and then stopped at the third. He searched the man and found nothing. But in the next jacket he pilfered, he found something. He stood up with the folded parchment in his hand. Kathryn’s gut clenched when she saw the flash of red where the Roth wax seal had been broken.
Gareth opened the document. He studied it for a moment and then handed it to Kathryn. “I hope she’s worth it.” He stepped over the prone body, leaving Kathryn and Rowan to read the note.
“Don’t listen to him.” Rowan touched Kathryn’s arm.
Kathryn nodded to Rowan and then read the message. Suspected heir traveling east. Wind ship, central region. Mark on shoulder. Reward, dead or living.
Kathryn handed the paper to Rowan and then waited for her to read it.
“How could they know we’re on this route?” Kathryn was beginning to feel as if she’d been set up. This was the third attack if she counted the initial skirmish at the jail, but she’d chalked that up to random bad luck. Maybe there was no such thing on this journey.
The ship tilted as their speed picked up. She reached for the railing to steady herself. Rowan held the paper out to Kathryn.
“What does it say?” Aiden walked up just as Kathryn was reaching for the parchment. The look on her face told Kathryn that she already had a pretty good idea what the note said.
“Somehow, someone knew you were on this ship.” Kathryn felt tired. She wanted to get all of them back to Olmstead and under the safe care of her imperial guard. Maybe she’d been wrong not to accept Frost’s directive to bring guards along with them. Maybe she’d been naïve.
Aiden took the paper and studied it for a moment, then handed it to Kathryn. “I’m sorry. All of this is my fault.”
“No, it’s Balak’s fault.” Venn wiped her blade and slid it into the sheath strapped between her shoulders. “And don’t forget that, Aiden. This is all Balak. You couldn’t have stopped this. He’d have found you one way or the other, sooner or later.”
Aiden seemed a bit crestfallen. Strands of hair clung to her sweaty forehead. Her shirt wafted in the wind, still untucked and rumpled from sleep. Aiden nodded in agreement, but she sheathed her sword with a heavy, discouraged sigh.
Kathryn wanted to reach for Aiden and pull her into a hug, but not in front of everyone who’d gathered. For some reason, she wanted to give the appearance of distance between them in front of Nilah’s crew and in front of Venn, and especially in front of Gareth, although he’d gone below deck and hadn’t resurfaced.
“Venn is right, Aiden. This isn’t your fault.” She waited for Aiden to meet her gaze. “I chose this. I chose to be here.”
Aiden smiled weakly at Kathryn. She probably owed Kathryn her life. First Venn and now Kathryn. If Kathryn hadn’t come for her, she suspected she’d have died in that cell. Or been killed the moment she was released. And if it hadn’t been for Kathryn she’d have never even known why.
“Throw these bodies overboard.” Nilah was still shouting orders to her crew. “Get this mess cleaned up.” She stopped when she reached the spot where Kathryn was standing. “I’m going to question the prisoner. Do you want to join me?”
“Yes.” Venn answered even though Nilah had been speaking to Kathryn.
“Only if the queen agrees.” Nilah was clearly still taking her lead from Kathryn.
“It’s fine for Venn to join us. Thank you, Nilah.” Kathryn followed Nilah below deck with Venn close behind them.
Aiden watched as the limp bodies were hoisted over the railing. They thumped to the hard earth with a cloud of dust as the ship left them, speeding onward.
Life and death so close to each other. One person alive, another dead. Was death what they’d expected? If they’d known the risk, would they still have come? To challenge an heir they’d never even met. Balak must be a powerful man to hold such sway over others. How could she possibly defeat such a man as this? She felt a strong desire to understand more fully what was really going on behind his greed so that she could reclaim her throne in order to protect Kathryn from this destructive tyrant.
Aiden had been lost in thought and hadn’t realized Rowan was still standing nearby.
“Kathryn needs you as much as you need her.” Rowan spoke as if she had just read Aiden’s thoughts.
“I doubt that.”
“Maybe not in the same way, but she needs you.” Rowan put her hand on Aiden’s arm. “You’ve given her hope. You’ve fueled her dreams. Trust me. I see it, even if you don’t.”
Aiden stood speechless as she watched Rowan walk away.
Chapter Twenty-one
Kathryn listened as Nilah questioned the prisoner. He was seated in a chair with his hands bound behind his back and his shoes were missing. He didn’t seem particularly tight-lipped. Gareth had punched him twice with his good arm and threatened to set him on foot in the desert without water, and that was all the motivation he needed to spill details of the raid on the ship.
“When did Balak give you this message?” Nilah held the folded parchment inches in front of his bleeding nose.
“Who’s Balak?” He spit blood on the floor and then flinched when Gareth made a move as if he were going to punch him again. “I never talked to Balak!”
Nilah looked in Kathryn’s direction. Kathryn stepped forward. “Who gave you this message?”
“I don’t know a name. Only that they came from Olmstead and said there would be a reward.”
Kathryn’s insides knotted into a fist. “Olmstead? You’re sure?” The man nodded. “How were you to receive this reward if you succeeded?”
His eyes darted from side to side. When Gareth moved toward him, he blurted out his answer. “We was to meet at a spot on the map. That’s all I know, I swear.”
“What map?” asked Venn. She’d been standing in the shadows, but now stepped to Kathryn’s side.
“The cap’n has it on the other ship. I swear I never got a good look at it.”
Kathryn walked away from the group. She rubbed her fingers against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. If this man was telling the truth then this message didn’t come from Balak but from someone in Olmstead, someone from her own kingdom. What about the other messages they’d found? Had those come from Balak? Someone had to be working closely with Balak because the wax seal bore the Roth crest. Only Balak himself or someone in his cabinet would have access to that seal. Was it possible that someone in her own court would betray her, one of the nobles perhaps? She racked her brain in an attempt to identify a likely candidate. No one rose to the surface.
“I don’t think he knows anything else of value.” Venn interrupted her thoughts. She nodded. “You’re think
ing what I’m thinking?”
“I’m thinking that someone in my own cabinet may be working with Balak.”
“I had the same thought, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions. This is just one questionable witness telling us this. It could be that Balak simply wants us to think the message came from Olmstead. It would serve his purposes to undermine your trust in your inner circle.” Venn put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t let him get to you.”
She nodded but didn’t have a chance to say more because Nilah joined them.
“I’m going to keep him in the hold until after you disembark. Then I’ll hand him over to the authorities in Fainsland, near Eveshom.” Nilah’s decision left no room for discussion. Kathryn considered telling Nilah that she feared the magistrate in Eveshom was also in league with Balak in some way. But she had no proof of that either, only a feeling. She decided she’d rather have this man in a cell in Eveshom than anywhere within the territory of Olmstead anyway, so she let it go.
After a few moments, she returned topside. The crew had done a quick job of clean up. Had she not witnessed it herself, she’d have hardly believed they’d been under attack. Except for some splintered crates piled nearby, everything seemed in order and the ship was moving at a good clip heading due east. She squinted to shield her eyes from the sun. She was just barely able to see the dark line of wooded foothills on the horizon.
“Thank you for last night.” Aiden stood beside her looking in the same direction. She hadn’t even seen Aiden walk up. And she’d been so distracted with everything that she hadn’t had a moment to let her thoughts dwell on the previous night.
“You’re welcome, but you don’t need to thank me.” Kathryn turned to face Aiden. Sleeping in the comfort of Aiden’s arms was as much a gift to her as Aiden. She’d slept better than she had in weeks. The sunlight bounced off the polished steel as Aiden shifted her stance, and Kathryn noticed the sword at Aiden’s belt. “The handle of that sword is beautiful.”
Aiden followed Kathryn’s gaze to the ornate carving that encased the brilliant red stone. “Venn gave this to me.” She pulled the sword free so that Kathryn could see it more closely. She held it in front of her, balanced on her outstretched hands.
“It suits you.” Kathryn looked from the sword to Aiden’s face and back again.
“I’ve never owned anything so beautiful.” Aiden focused on the details of the gleaming weapon as if she were seeing it again for the first time.
Kathryn was struck by the irony of that statement. Here was a woman who by birth should have inherited a kingdom but who instead knew nothing of the trappings of wealth. By chance, Aiden had lived the life of a common monk. Maybe she would be the better for it, but Kathryn worried that Aiden might not be prepared for the fight ahead should she decide to lay claim to her throne.
Chapter Twenty-two
Kathryn shifted in the saddle atop Blaez. The day was upon her with a vengeance, voraciously stealing minutes and hours, chasing the sun across the sky. They’d left Nilah’s wind ship in the mid afternoon, disembarking at the edge of the Great Salt Desert into lowland scrub brush. As they began to climb, juniper scented the air. And as the forest around them thickened with each change in elevation, Kathryn’s unease began to ebb.
They’d have to spend one more night on the trail, but by late afternoon the next day they’d be within the walls of Starford Keep in Olmstead. She’d be home and they’d be safe. The prisoner’s words nagged at her thoughts, but she pushed them back.
“I see smoke.” Gareth pulled up next to her. A thin tendril of black rose above the treetops just ahead of them.
“Probably the York homestead. We should be close by now.” They’d stopped at the Yorks’ farm as they traveled to Eveshom in search of Aiden. The Yorks had been generous with both water and food for their horses. It was late enough in the day that they might even be able to camp on the farm for the night.
As they rounded the bend along the rutted road, the thickly wooded forest gave way to an open pasture, and Kathryn immediately had an uneasy feeling. There were no animals about and the place was quiet. Too quiet. Gareth rode ahead and swiveled to look back at her. The look on his face said he, too, felt something was wrong. He signaled for everyone to stop. They dismounted and tied the horses to the fence. If there was trouble ahead, then sitting atop the horses made them easy targets.
“Something doesn’t feel right.” Kathryn untethered her crossbow from her saddle. The others armed themselves and they split up. Kathryn and Gareth followed the fence line toward the dwelling, while Aiden and Venn began winding their way along the edge of the small animal enclosure and around the far side of the barn. Rowan stayed with the horses. The grass was almost waist high in the pasture, and there was ample brush to provide cover as they approached the log house.
The door of the cabin stood ajar, a black rectangle cut through the rough logs of the exterior. Even though dusk was upon them, no lamps were lit. Kathryn raised the crossbow in front of her. Gareth was to her left, a few steps ahead of her.
She almost tripped over the body of a sheep. Kathryn was watching the open door so intently that she hit the animal’s body with her foot. She knelt down and sunk her fingers into its shaggy coat. The sheep’s body had no heat. Two arrows protruded from its side.
Gareth was watching her from just outside the cabin door. Then he slowly eased the door open and peered inside. After hesitating for only a moment, he stepped inside. Kathryn waited, crouched near the body on the ground.
Aiden and Venn eased around the side of the barn. Kathryn stood up as they approached, at the same time Gareth exited the cabin. “No one is home. Everything inside has been ransacked. Furniture smashed. Food gone. I think they ate before they left because the embers in the hearth are still smoking and hot. I think that’s the smoke we saw.”
“It looks as if whoever was here butchered a calf and carried most of it with them. There are no other animals on the place.” Venn knelt and began to examine the staff of the arrow protruding from the sheep. “This is from Belstaff.”
“How can you be so sure?” Kathryn asked.
“These markings here, this arrow definitely came from the armory at Windsheer Castle.” Venn pointed to a pattern just below the fletching, a crescent moon bounded top and bottom by three lines.
“How long do you think it’s been dead?” Kathryn wondered how much they’d missed the attack by. If they’d have gotten here sooner maybe they could have done something.
“Several hours. Maybe since this morning,” said Venn.
“Damn him.” Kathryn ran her fingers through her hair. “Do you think they harmed the Yorks?”
“Either the Yorks left or they were taken, but there’s no sight of them inside.” Gareth put away his sword. “Maybe they had some warning and escaped on foot before the raiders sacked the place.”
The Yorks weren’t in their youth. They were probably past fifty, so the thought of them being routed from their home or worse, taken captive, made Kathryn’s blood boil.
“I don’t understand. Why would someone do this?” Aiden stood next to Venn looking down at the dead animal. “They butchered one animal and left part of the meat. Then they killed this animal for no reason and then ransacked the house. I don’t understand why.”
“Fear is a means of control. He gets his thugs to burn a few farms, and it’s like Balak lights a fire that spreads across Olmstead.” Gareth kicked the dirt with his foot. He sounded angry. “Fear gives him a foothold here before his army even puts boots on the ground.”
“What does he want?” asked Aiden.
“You mean besides your head on a stick?” Gareth stopped pacing and faced Aiden.
“Gareth, enough.” Kathryn was in no mood for his sarcasm.
“No, she should hear this. Balak wants Kathryn’s throne. He wants Olmstead for himself. That’s what this is about. If he claims Olmstead then he’ll control the North River and all commerce between Belstaff and the mines
in the Arranth Mountains. He’s been chipping away at the border lands for months, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants.” Gareth was definitely angry. It was as if Aiden’s question had tipped a pot that had already been set to boil. He pointed his index finger at Aiden but stopped short of making contact.
“Gareth, enough!” Kathryn squared off in front of him.
He exhaled loudly and took a few steps back. “What do you want to do, Your Highness?” He sounded annoyed and impatient. Aiden looked as if she wanted to say something, but she kept quiet. It was just as well. Gareth would turn whatever Aiden said into an argument. He needed some time to cool off.
“I want to get to the castle as soon as possible.”
Gareth nodded but didn’t speak.
Kathryn wanted to keep moving. The sooner they could get to Olmstead the better. Balak clearly saw her as no threat if he was boldly attacking more farms along the boundaries of her kingdom. If the mineral rich mines in the mountains were his goal, then he needed her off the throne and out of the way.
Kathryn walked through the cabin before they left. There were no messages or signs left behind, other than the markings on the arrow. It looked to be a simple act of thievery and violence. What a tragedy. Whether Aiden could reclaim her throne or not, it was becoming apparent that doing nothing in the face of Balak’s aggressions was no longer an option.
She exited the dark interior and stepped outside. Rowan was nearby with the horses. Kathryn leaned her forehead against Blaez’s neck for a moment before she climbed into the saddle.
The mood of the group was somber as they continued east along the roadway. They rode for another half hour before deciding to camp. Kathryn had needed to put some distance between them and the York homestead, although the smoke was still visible even from this distance, rising above the treetops. In another half hour they’d no longer be able to discern the black smoke against the night sky. Nightfall was upon them. They’d pushed as far as they could toward the keep before setting up camp.
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