Mckenzie recognized her dismissal with a sour look, got to her feet, and threw her arms around Gandrett before doing so. “Let him help you, Gandrett,” she whispered, but not low enough to keep her words from his Fae hearing. “He might be a grumpy pain in the ass, but he knows what he’s doing.”
With those words, Mckenzie left them in the rising heat of the ascending sun, and Nehelon’s mouth went dry as Gandrett, a ghost of a smile on her lips, turned back to the maps.
He swallowed. Once. Twice. Then took a seat where Mckenzie had been a couple of moments ago.
“I spent the morning arranging for a carriage and escort to Eedwood Forest.” His words sounded dull in his human voice. “You’ll leave at first light in two days.”
Nehelon didn’t need to look up to know Gandrett had feared—anticipated and feared—this moment when the plan would be laid out for her.
It had been Lord Tyrem’s decision to keep her in the dark about details until the very last moment. Now it was on him to tell her.
He had put it off that night when he had found her dancing with Mckenzie and Brax, both twins, even though by far more skilled at it, not even a shadow of the grace with which Gandrett moved.
“The Denderlains always hunt in the same part of the forest. You won’t be able to miss them.”
Gandrett remained silent, her hands in her lap, fiddling with the edge of a scroll.
“Mckenzie agreed to oversee your wardrobe. Brax offered to take you to the forest himself…”
“He can’t.” Gandrett cut him off, eyes fierce, but quickly smoothed over her expression. “I mean… It’s too dangerous for him to go. If anything goes wrong with Joshua…”
“The Brenheran’s need Brax as their heir, I know,” he finished her sentence. But didn’t fail to notice the flicker of light in her eyes. She was anxious for Brax.
Nehelon ignored the surge of anger that accompanied the realization.
“Because his life is too precious, it will be I who escorts you to the edge of the forest. You will take a horse from there.”
Her eyes didn’t flicker with fear for him, and the lack of it smothered the anger with a pang of disappointment.
What had he been hoping for? That she would even hold a shred of warmth for him? Her touch the night before—curiosity. She had been examining a foreign species. That was all.
“I’ll need weapons,” she demanded, and he wanted to tell her that he would lay all the armament he had at her feet when the time came. If the time ever came.
But now was not the time.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brax visited her first thing that morning, hair combed, a fresh jacket protecting him from the cold breeze. Frost had eaten away the blossoms overnight, leaving wrinkled fallen petals all over the palace grounds. He hadn’t found her at her chambers but spied her from the window at the end of the hallway, sending him down the stairs taking two steps at once.
He crossed the courtyard, hands in his pockets, the fingers of one hand playing with the silver chain he’d pulled from the dresser last night, his course set toward the waiting by the stables.
Gandrett was a vision in fir-green, a color that brought out the golden flecks in her eyes. Of course, he could hardly see them in the gray light of dawn. She smiled at him when she noticed him approach in a hurry, probably seeing his casual jog for what it was—an attempt at keeping himself from flying toward her.
“You thought I’d let you leave without saying goodbye?” he said by way of greeting.
Gandrett’s smile widened.
It had been weeks since that first stroll in the park he had taken her on. Back then, she had marveled at the trees, at the lushness of the grass, the colors of the flowers. He had seen it in her eyes, the wonder at all the beauty she’d missed out on during her time in Everrun. And he had noticed how her cheeks had stained when he had caught her staring—not at nature, but at him.
A Child of Vala. He shook his head at himself. With all the women throwing themselves at him—heir or not—it had to be a Child of Vala.
Nehelon had warned him, the night he had brought her back from Everrun, that he was to leave his hands in his pockets with her if he didn’t want to jeopardize his brother’s rescue mission. So he had. Even if the first thing he’d noticed was that the girl was unlike anyone he’d been with. It was like looking into a calm lake, a surface as clear and beautiful as crystal glass, no indication of what lay in the depths beyond.
He normally didn’t care, didn’t want to know what lay in anyone’s depths. But Gandrett Brayton was an enigma he was determined to figure out.
Even if it would have to wait until Josh returned so Nehelon couldn’t make any claims.
“Is there anything you want me to tell Joshua when I find him?” she asked, not saying good morning either. Her lips were like cherry blossoms, pale-pink, and the collar of her dress, lined with soft leather, leaned like tulip petals against the slender column of her neck.
He let his gaze linger for a second before he looked her in the eye. “Tell Josh that if he doesn’t get his ass over here, I’ll personally dig a tunnel into Eedwood castle to go kick it.” He laughed, not at all feeling like it, but he did it because it made her smile. Anything for that smile.
And if it didn’t make her smile, at least it made her cheeks turn pink and her eyes shutter.
Even if she was a Child of Vala, not versatile in flirting and court chit-chat, despite Mckenzie’s countless hours of getting her used to it, there was a different strength in her. A quiet beauty that had crept into his mind and lingered. And her skill with the sword…
Nehelon was a fool if he doubted anything could keep Gandrett from bringing back his brother.
Brax’s fingers curled around the chain in his pocket as he studied her face in the rising daylight. “I won’t tell you to be careful, Gandrett,” he said and reached for her hand, watching her eyes widen slightly with that weird satisfaction of knowing his touch had some small effect on her. “But I’ll ask you not to forget me while you’re gone.” He turned over her hand and pulled the silver necklace from his pocket.
Gandrett’s eyes drifted to her hand, surprise written clearly on her features, as she pulled back her hand to examine the small silver pendant set with splinters of emerald.
“Brax…” How different his name spoken from her lips sounded. Even when she was taunting him. She didn’t know all the mistakes he’d made in the past, all the times he had drowned his moods in the burgundy wines of Ackwood in female company. Yes, she knew that everyone at court saw him as a spoiled brat, as an unworthy replacement for Josh… But he had opened up to her. Even when it had been just mere sentences of truth.
“Take it,” he said and closed her hand around the necklace with his fingers, a smile that was about as confident as a little boy walking on thin ice on his lips. “Take it and think of me when you wear it, Child of Vala.” As I will think of you.
Gandrett’s hand hovered before her, Brax’s gift weighing heavy in her palm as she watched him prowl toward the palace. Uncertainty wove its path down deep inside her chest and took root. Brax.
She was still staring after him when Nehelon’s familiar voice—the emotionless one—tore her from her thoughts. “I chose Lim as your mount, as you are already acquainted.”
Gandrett’s head whipped around to face the Fae male, the black mare and bay gelding at either of his leather-armored shoulders. It was the same armor he’d worn the day she had found him climbing the walls of Everrun, only this time, there was no Brenheran coat of arms decorating his chest. He could have passed as a hired guard for any wealthy carriage-owner. So that was what she was supposed to perform as.
“You never told me his name,” she said and reached her hand for the gelding’s mane.
“He might be your only confidant once I leave you at Eedwood Forest.” His face was tight as he glanced at her hand as if he knew what was hidden inside her fist, and she dropped it to her side, where it vanished betw
een the folds of her skirt.
Nehelon blinked and reached for his mare’s nose, caught looking.
“I am used to being on my own,” was all she said and caught a flicker of emotion crossing his features even if he turned sideways to hide it, fingers petting the side of the mare’s head under the plain leather bridle. “Does she have a name, too?” Gandrett eyed his horse, which seemed to stare her down with black eyes.
“Alvi.” He didn’t turn back to meet Gandrett’s gaze as he offered Gandrett Lim’s reins. “You can ride beside me or take the carriage. It is up to you.”
Of course he wasn’t going to delay their trip. Ever the soldier. That was how she saw him. Even if he was carrying the title of chancellor in this court. But to her, all she saw was someone born to fight, to kill. It was there in his muscled arms, in the powerful lines of his legs and torso as he pushed himself up onto his mount, Lim’s reins still in hand. It had accompanied her every day since the moment she had fought him in the desert. Even if he had let her glimpse the man—the male—hidden beneath that warrior.
“I’ll ride,” she simply said and nodded at the carriage-driver who had jumped down from the seat do open the door for her. A hired carriage, not one of the ornately decorated Brenheran carriages she had spotted coming and going over the weeks.
Gandrett could swear a smile was tugging on Nehelon’s lips as she reached for Lim’s reins with her free hand, but the muscles in his jaw flicked, informing her he was biting back any emotion.
“We rest at noon and make camp at nightfall,” he said and kicked Alvi’s flank, setting the horse in motion.
The carriage followed suit, and Gandrett used the moment to slip Brax’s gift in the pocket of her fine, cotton riding dress before she climbed up on the horse and caught up with Nehelon at the nearby gate.
As they rode out into the city, Gandrett’s eyes saw it like a new world.
The half-timbered houses were still the same as was the calm water of the canal that wound along the road. But Gandrett suddenly noticed varieties of colors and fabrics that indicated the status some of the bearers had in the town. She noticed the smells of fried and baked fish and could distinguish them. She noticed how some of the people stopped to inspect the passing carriage emerging from the palace and how the eyes—especially the women’s—lingered on Nehelon’s powerfully built body. He inclined his head at some of them, and much to Gandrett’s surprise, some giggled.
The music emerging from open windows and doors was a mixture of Sivesian folk songs and foreign tunes that could as well originate from the southern territories.
None of them reminded her of the prayer songs of Everrun, though. Those melodies were for the temples of Vala where the Vala-blessed priests and priestesses served, where one day, Surel may serve.
Automatically, her head turned south-east, and she rode in silence, wondering how her friend was faring while they slowly made their way to the draw bridge out of the city.
Nehelon quietly spoke to her of the details of the plan as the capital of the west disappeared behind them, sun kissing their faces from the east and fresh breeze speaking of the Northern Mountains. He spoke of how he was going to usher the wolf toward her with his magic once the Denderlain hunting party was within reach. In two days’ time, if they kept a steady pace.
After a quick and quiet lunch, they switched to the carriage, giving their mounts some rest, and when night settled, the carriage driver helped Nehelon set up camp while Gandrett found a couple of bushes to see to her needs. When she returned, Nehelon was digging bread and cheese from a box and placing them on small, wooden plates he had perched on a tree trunk nearby where the carriage was parked at the edge of the forest, north of the Ackpenesor River.
“The carriage will take us to the outer edges of Eedwood Forest,” he explained, glancing at her over the plate he was handing her. “Mckenzie packed fresh clothes for you to wear when you go hunting.” The emphasis on the word reminded Gandrett what was expected of her. And her hair stood.
“Why bring a carriage at all?” She asked, ignoring the prospect of enamoring the enemy’s son to be able to find her target. That’s how she had started thinking about her task. A simple mission to retrieve a rich bastard’s heir and use any means necessary in the process. She would go on many missions after this one. And she would do worse than deceive people. That much she knew from those few conversations she’d had with returning members of the Order of Vala. “We could just ride the whole distance.”
Nehelon pulled more bread from the box, turning his back toward her. “Because if you are to arrive exhausted and dirty, no one will believe you are who you claim to be.” He handed one plate to the driver, who nodded in acknowledgment. “Don’t worry about Farlon,” Nehelon added as he noticed Gandrett’s unsure glance at the man. “He is one of my most trusted men.”
Farlon inclined his head at Gandrett. “Pleasure, Miss Brayton.”
Gandrett forced a smile. “And who exactly am I to claim to be?”
“Gandrett Starhaeven.”
Gandrett felt a laugh build up in her throat. A real one. He couldn’t have picked a more stupid name.
“Sounds like a fairy princess,” she commented, a hint of a laugh escaping with her answer.
In response, Nehelon gave her a daunting look.
He didn’t comment. A fairy princess. None of the fairies—the Fae—were alert since they had been sent into dormancy a long, long time ago. Thank the gods none of them were. And that it was him she was speaking to. Any other Fae might have decapitated her for merely joking about Fae royalty. He should scold her for even taking the word in her mouth. If anyone found out just how much he knew about Fae princesses, he would find himself chained up in ribbons of iron in no time. He should—
He watched her eat in silence, his own Fae temper recoiling somewhere to the back of his consciousness at the sight of her eyes in the light of the small fire they had risked. Two nights before he’d drop her off at Eedwood Forest, and with Farlon nearby, he wouldn’t stand a chance to figure out if it was true, that she had magic running in her veins.
“Sleep,” he finally ordered as she set her plate down. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
To his surprise, Gandrett didn’t object but instead curled up on her bedroll and closed her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The first fingers of Eedwood Forest appeared at about the same place where Ackpenesor and Eedpenesor met, where Alencourt laid a day’s ride north. Gandrett reached for the place where her mother’s necklace was sitting together with Brax’s thin silver chain, hidden under the collar of her dress, and leaned out the carriage window.
Alvi and Lim trotted at the back of the carriage like faithful dogs.
The grains had been sown and it wouldn’t take long before the now dark brown soil would disappear under a blanket of pale green. Her family was probably out on the fields, overseeing the development of the seeds they’d planted like they did every year.
A tug on her heart let her sigh into the passing breeze.
“When you return with Joshua,” Nehelon said behind her as if he had read her mind.
She settled back on the leather bench across from him and tried to focus on the task ahead. Tomorrow she would part ways with Nehelon, and she would be on her own.
“How long have you been in Lord Tyrem’s service?” She asked it just so she wouldn’t think of how close her family was right now if she chose to turn north at that moment—if Nehelon let her.
The latter played with the pommel of his sword. “A little over ten years.” He didn’t look up.
“Why him?”
“Because—” Nehelon stopped, nostrils flaring.
“What is it?” Gandrett wanted to know as he leaned forward and directed his eyes at the horizon ahead.
“We are in the borderlands between east and west where most incidents occur,” he explained, eyes intent as he pulled his sword.
Gandrett leaned forward, trying to se
e what was inciting the sudden alarm in his eyes.
It took her a while to make out the tendrils of smoke against the light.
“Denderlain is giving his mercenaries free rein again,” he said through clenched teeth. “We need to get into the forest as fast as possible.”
The smoke became more visible as the wind changed direction. It couldn’t be more than a couple of miles ahead.
“Every other month they roam this region and burn down the houses of people who remain loyal to Lord Tyrem.”
Gandrett stared at him. The Meister had told all details about the conflict. Nehelon had told her some. But seeing the devastating results was something different.
“We need to go help whoever lives in the houses they are destroying,” she demanded, her own hand now clenching her sword.
But Nehelon shook his head. “Lord Tyrem’s men are out there in the villages fighting as we speak. Besides, you have a date with the young Lord Denderlain.” His eyes said something different. It’s too dangerous.
“Farlon,” he called out the window, “into the forest, now.”
It took them an hour until they reached the denser part of Eedwood Forest where the carriage began to slow them down. Nehelon informed her he had planned to enter the forest as late as possible without risking visibility so they wouldn’t lose time. All during that time, Gandrett sat, quietly fuming that the Fae male was preventing her from helping someone in need.
“Vala would have wanted me to go help,” she murmured more to herself, but of course, Nehelon’s Fae ears picked up her words.
“Unless you are Vala-blessed, Vala would want you to stay the hell away from fire,” he retorted, blue-diamond eyes dangerously sparking. “The last time I checked, you weren’t able to manipulate water.”
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