by Cait Ashwood
He’s bought it! I can’t believe it. “Well... okay.” She dragged the word out, making it obvious she was reluctant to concede to his request. “Just don’t come too early?”
Dylan snickered. “No worries. I don’t have a break until mid-morning, anyway.”
Lily smiled at him, playing up her part. “His parents don’t exactly know who I am, or they’d be horrified. Can the horse still come? That way, it looks like I rode in.”
“Yeah, sure.” He was fidgeting, edgy. “Let’s just get this over with. And Lil?”
She paused, looking at him.
“This buys your silence about Summer. Like, forever.” He brushed his hair out of his face to meet her eye to eye.
“Deal.”
He spit in his palm and extended it to her.
“Ugh, really?”
Dylan nodded, shaking his hand at her a bit.
Lily grimaced, but spat in her hand and shook on the deal. As soon as it was over, she wiped her hand on her pants, grossed out. “Okay. Phase me over to the stables, now? I don’t want to risk getting caught in the no-man’s land.”
In no time at all, she was mounted on her favorite horse, a blue roan gelding named Thunder. Dylan had helped her transfer her belongings from her pack to saddle bags. Thank heavens its dark and he couldn’t see what all I have packed. As it was, he seemed eager to get out of here, and Lily was on board with that plan.
He stood beside them, one hand on the horse’s neck and another on her calf. “Ready?”
Lily nodded and took a deep breath. In seconds, they were standing in the knee-high grasses outside of Calanon, a small farmhouse visible in the distance.
“That’s where you’re going?” Dylan sounded skeptical; there were no lights on in the house.
“Yeah. He’s waiting for me in the stables. Didn’t want to have to explain why he was leaving a lantern lit.” Lily prayed he bought the excuse.
He hesitated, squinting at the building. “I’ll be back mid-morning. Better be ready, because I won’t have much time.”
Lily smiled down at him, patting Thunder’s neck. “I’ll be here.”
“Right. I’ll just see you off, then.”
I should have known he’d want to stick around. Damned Seekers always being overprotective. I swear they breed it into them.
She forced a smile and kicked Thunder into a trot. He snorted, tossing his head as he took off, heading for the back of the structure. Dylan phased every so often, keeping pace with them. When she was within a hundred meters of the barn, she saw him wave. She waved back and he vanished, for good this time. Lily turned Thunder away from the barn just as a dog started barking. She kept him at a trot a bit longer until she put some distance between herself and the barn house, then slowed him to a walk. He couldn’t see that well at night, and she didn’t need him hurting himself.
I actually did it. I can’t believe it! Euphoria coursed through her as the wind tousled her hair. Freedom. I can actually taste it. Keeping it was likely going to be harder than attaining it had been, but Lily was sure she and Thunder could do it. They wouldn’t expect her to stray far from Calanon or the farm house, and they certainly wouldn’t expect her to take the ferry across the strait to Ebonwallowe. She grinned in the night, content with her plan. She had enough coin saved up to pay for the ferry and lodgings for at least a month.
She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but for the first time in her life, she had a choice.
Chapter Five
Hound walked the walls as he did every morning. While he was no mason by trade, he inspected all the defensive constructions at least once a week for any signs of disrepair. As Audrey’s husband, he should have been the First Seeker by rights, but it was a job he’d preferred not to take on. Instead, he commanded the forces guarding the Order, a position that suited him just fine.
The Order’s compound was so compact that there wasn’t that much to do. After completing his inspection of the walls, Hound checked the stables. He inspected all the animals, picking up their feet and checking shoes on the ones that were shod. Lily spent much of her free time down here, so it was normally a waste to double-check her, but Hound liked to keep busy.
He saddled his favorite mare and headed out for the pasture. There hadn’t been one initially, but now there were several set up around the outer wall of the Tower, and they rotated through them as growth and muddiness demanded.
Fourteen, fifteen... fifteen. Hound frowned, mentally counting how many horses had been in the stables. He counted the ones in the pasture again, being sure to count his mare. He came up one short a second time. It took a bit before he identified the missing animal; it was Thunder, Lily’s preferred horse. He had a bad habit of jumping fences and likely wasn’t far. Hound squinted up at the wall, hoping to catch the attention of a guard. With the glare of the sun behind them, he couldn’t tell if they waved back at him or not.
Well, I should inspect the outer wall anyway. May as well see if he turns up. Lily was going to be heartbroken if anything happened to Thunder.
Hound completed his inspection of the defensive side of the wall, identifying a few spots where animals had been digging that he’d send the guards out to fill and repair. There was still no sign of Thunder. The horse was gelded and had no real reason to go wandering far from home. Troubled, Hound rode back through the gates. He did not want to be the one to tell Lily. She had a temper like a banshee. Somehow, she’d end up blaming him. Hound couldn’t tell precisely how he’d be the one at fault, but he was sure she wouldn’t disappoint.
We spoiled her too much after Rowan was taken. It was a sentiment he had often, but even looking back in hindsight, he couldn’t see how it could have been avoided.
He dismounted the mare outside of the stable and walked her in, stopping off at the tack station to get her ready to turn out to pasture. That’s odd. I didn’t see anyone else out riding. Another set of tack was gone. Suspicious, Hound cast about for Lily’s saddle. She’d had one custom made, claiming that she needed one with extra padding. There it was, in its proper place on the wall. He blew out a sigh of relief. The only thing worse than telling Lily her horse was gone would be Lily being gone with the horse.
She wouldn’t have made it past the gates, even in the dead of night. Reassured, he gave the mare a quick brush down and handed her off to one of the stable hands.
He didn’t think much more about Thunder or Lily the rest of the day. He was running a massive inspection of the guard, and while things were in relatively good shape, someone had been slacking off on equipment repair. Yelling at the bunch of layabouts was the highlight of his day, and he enjoyed verbally flaying them. The men couldn’t jump to work quick enough but Hound stayed to supervise, just to prove his point.
He didn’t make it back inside until nearly dinner time. He gave the dining hall a cursory glance, not seeing Audrey anywhere. She’s spending too much time alone, these days. Something else had happened recently. She hadn’t told him what, but he knew that all was not right in his mate’s world. Hound gave a heavy sigh and headed back for the kitchens. Someone had to make sure she ate, after all.
“Oy, Hound. Amelina already grabbed the First’s tray. Just cut up a new roast, though. Want some?”
Hound shrugged, wondering if time had somehow slipped away from him. At least Lina looks after her now. I would never have predicted that, seeing how they started out. “Yeah, I’ll take a slice.” Hound waited as the cook loaded his plate full of meat, potatoes, and carrots.
“Thanks,” he called, waving over his shoulder as he took his plate out to the dining hall. Though he normally ate with Audrey, everyone was cordial as he sat down to eat.
He was on his second cup of ale when he saw Nya looking for someone from the entrance of the hall. Hound waved, not sure who she needed, but he knew where most everyone should be at this time of day. She hurried over, wringing her hands in front of her.
Uh oh. “Nya, what’s wrong?” He pushed his plat
e away as she approached and turned on the bench to better see her.
“It’s, well, it’s probably nothing. I wasn’t sure if I should bother Audrey with it, you see.”
His second-favorite job: keeping things away from Audrey that she didn’t need to stress about. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Well, Lily didn’t show up for classes today. I know she had an audience with Audrey yesterday, but normally she sends word if there’s to be any absences.” Nya glanced away quickly, like she was embarrassed for making a fuss.
Pieces of the puzzle started sliding together neatly in Hound’s mind. Thunder was missing. Lily’s saddle was still here, but it wasn’t suited for long trips. She was missing from classes, and she and Audrey had argued horribly last night. It had taken Hound hours and a dose of poppy to get Audrey calm enough to sleep last night. She’s gone. He knew it with certainty, but there were steps to be taken.
“You’ve checked her rooms?”
“Yes. Nothing seemed missing, but... none of the girls have seen her all day.” Nya’s anxiety at overstepping her bounds was overturned. The woman now stood straight and had a kick-ass attitude. It took one hell of a woman to whip a bunch of teenage girls into shape, and from the expression on the woman’s face now, that was exactly what she had planned.
“Turn out the entire barracks. Check the laundry. I want all items accounted for. We need to know what she took. Check her funds allotment as well. I’m going to check with the guard roster from last night.”
Nya nodded sharply, not questioning the severity of his response. “I’ll question all of the girls as well, find out when she was last seen.”
“Good.” Hound stood and stepped over the bench, his meal forgotten. If one of those guards had been dumb enough or lax in their duties to let Lily slip past them, there would be hell to pay.
“This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have been so hard on her.” Audrey stood at the window of her sitting room, eyes raking the plains beyond the Tower despite the darkness.
Hound opened his mouth to reassure her, but a curt knock at the door curtailed that thought. He strode over to it, tugging it open. The master of the hounds stood outside the door, and he didn’t look pleased.
“There’s no trail to be found, Seeker. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing at all?” For some reason, Hound wasn’t surprised. The only hoof prints leaving the gates were the ones his mare had left behind that morning. The stallion was considerably heavier and was shod. There was no comparison in the prints.
“Thank you, Charles. Tell the kitchens the dogs are to get whatever bones they have tonight.”
Charles nodded, expression severe. “You find anything else, let me know. The dogs will be ready.”
Hound nodded, distracted as he closed the door behind the man.
“What does this mean?” Audrey’s voice was high, even more panicked than before.
Ace cleared his throat. He’d spent most of the evening pacing. This was his daughter that was missing, and Hound was having a hard enough time dealing with Audrey’s pain to wonder what must be going through Ace’s mind. “It means she was phased out.”
Hound stopped, nodding slowly. No one on the guard had seen anything. There was a zero-tolerance policy for being drunk on duty, but even all of the proper amounts of ale and wine added up. No one had been intoxicated, and they’d been as vigilant as always. Phasing was the only explanation.
“You want help with this?”
Ace was already grabbing his cloak in preparation to leave. He glanced at Audrey staring out the window; she looked more like a specter than a woman. “I’ll let you know if I do.” He was almost out the door before he turned. “Let Gwyn know I won’t be back tonight?”
Hound nodded, and Ace couldn’t be gone from the room fast enough. Hound didn’t envy him. What he’d put the guard through would be nothing compared to what the Seeker trainees were about to deal with. If Ace had one weak spot aside from Gwyn, it was Lily. While Audrey had distanced herself from her children after Rowan’s abduction, Ace had become a real family man. He’d gotten better at delegating duties instead of personally overseeing every little detail. Lily and Jasper were two of the most loved children in the Tower, and neither knew how lucky they were.
Hound let his eyes drift over Audrey. Whereas Ace looked like a wreck, everything about Audrey was carefully controlled. Her hair was loose but combed, her gown straight and clean. Control had become Audrey’s coping mechanism, along with keeping herself too busy to feel. She’d never recovered from Rowan’s loss. She lived for her work, now.
She couldn’t fool him, though. Her agony roared through his chest like a forest fire, consuming everything in its path. Guilt and pain tugged on opposite ends of a rope, fighting for dominance in her soul. While on the outside she was calm, controlled, and the picture of perfect leadership, on the inside she howled.
She didn’t turn as he walked up behind her. He pulled her long blond hair over her shoulder, letting it hang down her back. Strands of silver shone in the moonlight, but to him, they made her more beautiful.
“We’ll find her, Audrey.”
She didn’t turn when she spoke her next words. “Have you ever considered that it may be better for her if we don’t?”
Hound had no reply.
A tear rolled slowly down her cheek and he reached for it, brushing it away with his thumb. “We at least need to know she’s safe. We can decide what to do once we’ve found her.”
Morning brought no further answers, and the Tower was quieter than Hound had ever known it, as if a cloud of despair had fallen here. There was no giggling in the halls today, and no screeching of teenage girls arguing, either. Brana arrived first thing in the morning to relieve Hound. Audrey hadn’t slept all night. The best he’d been able to convince her to do was sit in her chair, which he moved by the window. He’d wrapped her in blankets, but she refused to budge.
As much as he wanted to be out there doing something, Hound knew that his place was here. If any information came in, he needed to be the first one to know about it. He went to the guard’s post and collapsed on a cot in the back. He may as well try and get some sleep until there was something he could do.
Early afternoon thunderstorms woke him. It was a devil of a storm, lightning striking all over the plains. A few fires started, doused quickly by the torrential rain. Please don’t let Lily be out in this. Hound was soaked to the bone within seconds of leaving the guard post. He ran across the no-man’s land and darted into the tower, stomach growling.
It was as if he was a dead man walking when he got to the dining hall. People moved quietly out of his way, some murmuring condolences. If Lily was caught out in this storm, it wasn’t going to be good. He’d gotten the report during the night of missing supplies. A tent wasn’t among them. Hound ate quickly, unable to stand the silence.
He returned to Audrey, hugging Brana before she left. The trays that had been brought up for Audrey were untouched and she was still in her chair, gazing out the window. Even Amelina was absent, though she was likely seeing to the daily tasks of running the Order in Audrey’s absence. The roaring fire of grief was gone, replaced by something even worse: complete emptiness. Hound placed the back of his hand on her cheek to reassure himself that she hadn’t simply expired from a broken heart. Her skin, though clammy, was warm beneath his hand. She glanced at him, a brief flicker of movement from her gray eyes, before they returned to their vigil.
I’ve got to do something. Anything. Hound pinged Ace’s token but got no response. He was sorely tempted to go to the Institute himself, and it only took another hour of sitting in the room with a living corpse before he decided to go.
He hadn’t been to the Institute in years, but he knew the building like the back of his hand. When he arrived, he was immediately challenged at the gate until they realized who he was. Guards ushered him in quickly after that, and the scene before him was damned near disturbing.
Every Seeker curre
ntly in service was in that courtyard in the pouring rain, lined up in neat columns, and looked like they had been for hours. Several were blue around the lips, shivering violently. Ace paced in front of them, just as cold, just as soaked, but warmed by fury.
“One of you bastards took my daughter. Tell me where, and this ends.”
Hound approached, hands clasped behind his back. It wasn’t really his place to interfere, but Ace had to see that he was dangerously close to having a few men fall out, especially among the teens and older men.
There was movement at the end of one of the lines, and Hound’s heart skipped a beat. Had someone collapsed? A blond-haired teen stepped forward, shivering so violently his teeth chattered.
“I-I-I took h-her to C-c-cal-a-non.”
Ace rounded on him, his booted footsteps ringing off the cobblestones. “What did you say?” Ace grabbed the boy by his collar, dragging him up so that only his tip toes were on the ground.
This isn’t working. “The rest of you are dismissed.” The men didn’t ask any questions and took off, desperate to get dry and warm.
Ace didn’t react to Hound’s order, his attention fully on the teen before him.
“Ace, you’ll get the information out of him faster if he’s not stuttering. Bring him inside.”
Brilliant green eyes glared at him, but Ace slowly lowered the boy back to the ground. “My chambers. Now.”
The boy leapt as quickly as he could, stumbling with limbs long gone numb. Ace prowled after him and Hound stared at him, a little surprised. He knew Ace was a family man, but he was also generally well-loved among his men. To see him treat them this poorly was disturbing. I suppose it speaks to their loyalty that they all stood out in this mess, though. It wasn’t like there was a secondary guard system in place at the Institute. It was literally one man against nearly a hundred; they could have turned around and walked inside at any moment and Ace wouldn’t have been able to do a damn thing to stop them. If Hound had ever felt guilty at not accepting this duty, those doubts washed away with the rest of the rain.