Reign of Shadows (7 page)

As we hastened back to the tower, I peered where the branches hung the thickest. Rumors of a curse in the Black Woods didn't keep everyone out. It hadn't kept me out.

We were making good time when suddenly I realized it felt too quiet.

I glanced at Luna and saw that she had paused.

Her head was bowed, and she had a look of concentration on her face.

“Luna? What is—”

She held up a hand, hushing me with the barest shake of her head.

I waited, my pulse throbbing in my neck in the suddenly weighted air. My hand drifted up, went for an arrow in the quiver behind my shoulder.

“There,” she murmured. “Do you hear that?”

I shook my head as if she could see me. “No. It's quiet—”

“Under the quiet.” She turned her face in the direction we came from. The tower. “It's there—”

I listened longer, and then shook my head again. “I don't—”

“No! Sivo, Perla . . .” A stricken look passed over her face. She sprang into a sprint.

“Wait!” I took off after her, cursing as she flew down the steep incline we had climbed. She was remarkably quick, taking the same path that brought us to the nisan weed—almost as if her feet had somehow recorded the route and now pulled it out from memory.

I was fast, but I had to push my legs just to stay behind her.

“Luna,” I growled, acutely conscious of the fact that the forest was deathly still. It was the type of silence that happened when dwellers emerged. A quick glance up showed a sliver of sun peeking out around the moon. It couldn't be them. We had more time.

Luna raced ahead. I finally caught up with her before the ground sloped down toward the tower. I closed the distance between us, stretching my fingers for her shoulder, catching hold of her. I dragged her down, stopping her from running full speed into whatever lay ahead. Together we toppled to the ground, rolling.

I splayed my body over her, using my larger size to pin her down. She struggled. She was giving me little choice except to let
her go and walk into whatever danger waited over that hill.

I should let her go. She wanted to go. I should get to my feet, hand her the bag of nisan weed, and leave her to it. If she wanted to race headlong into danger, then so be it.

I would have done this yesterday, but today . . . somehow I couldn't. Today, with this girl pinned under me, my hardness aligned to her softness, I wasn't going anywhere.

“L
ET ME GO
,”
Luna said, trying to buck me off. “You don't understand. The tower has been discovered.”

I tightened my grip on her shoulders. “Then shouldn't we proceed with caution? If someone found your home, we should—”

I was rewarded with a swift kick of her boot directly to my shin. I grunted. She might be small, but she packed some force. That's all it took. She wiggled out from under me. I pushed to my feet after her.

She was almost to the hilltop when I caught her. She released a startled cry, and I covered her mouth with my hand, cutting off the noise.

Dragging her down, I draped my body over her squirming one. I peeked over the hill above her head. The familiar tower loomed tall in the murky air—surrounded by an entire company of soldiers, a hundred strong garbed in the blue and black colors of Relhok. I knew the colors well. I scanned the faces. It had been two years since I last mingled with the Relhok cavalry, but I had grown up with some of those boys.

I pressed my mouth near her ear. “At least a hundred men surround the tower.”

She stilled, tensing beneath me.

Convinced she wouldn't flee or make any sudden sound, I adjusted my weight so that I was no longer atop her. She angled her head in that way of hers, listening.

“They're on horseback,” she whispered, her voice a raspy breath.

I looked at her, surprised. The horses were quiet. Not the slightest neigh. They'd been bred for stealth. The soldiers covered ground silently, moving almost like ghosts over the land, creating as little noise as possible so they didn't alert nearby dwellers. They rode hard only during midlight. That must be how Luna heard them originally.

“What do they want?” she asked, as if I would know. I was her only connection to the outside world. A girl who's spent a lifetime stuck in a tower wouldn't have any idea what these soldiers wanted. “How did they find us?” she added, the faintest trace of accusation in her voice.

Did she think I led them here? If soldiers from Relhok were
after me, they probably would have found me long before now.

Several soldiers had dismounted, including the company commander. His dark blue cavalry tunic swayed around his knees as he moved, the kingdom of Relhok's coat of arms emblazoned on the center of his chest. The sight of it was an ugly reminder of all I left behind.

A dweller I could outrun or dispatch. My memories of Relhok were harder to shake.

The commander turned so that I had a better view of his face. I inhaled, recognizing him. Henley. He was only a few years older than me. He'd risen through the ranks quickly, but then, he had a vicious nature. Viciousness was rewarded. Especially under Cullan's reign.

“Are they here because of you?” The words escaped her in a puff of breath.

“No.”

“Then what brought them here?”

“I don't know. I can't imagine why a force this size is so far east, but they're not after me.” At least I didn't think so.

“You know something though,” she whispered.

“I don't know what they want,” I muttered, annoyed that she could read me so well without even seeing me. What was it that gave me away?

“You're tense,” she whispered as though I had asked the question out loud.

I shook my head. “There's an army below us. That might have something to do with how tense I am.”

I turned my attention back to the scene below. The tower door stood open. We had only ever used the secret door that led to the tunnel beneath the tower. I didn't even realize there was another door. Sivo stood in the threshold, facing the commander.

I marveled that he had opened the door to greet the soldiers, but then there was little choice. A group this size . . . if they wanted inside the tower, they would eventually find a way. Better for Sivo to open the door and behave as though he had nothing to hide. He eyed them neutrally. Gone were the days of armor and chain mail. The clink of steel on the air was a song dwellers responded to like a bell ringing them to supper.

“Sivo's outside,” she announced softly, a tremor in her voice as she started to lift up.

I pushed her back down with a hand on her shoulder.

“I have to go. Let me go,” she choked out hoarsely.

“To do what? Let Sivo handle this.”

She nodded slowly, clearly uncertain, but I wasn't letting her charge down that hill. Dark flyaway strands of hair surrounded her face. She looked even paler than usual with worry and concern. Something pricked at my chest, loosening memories buried there of when I had cared that much for someone else.

I watched as Sivo and the commander spoke.

“What's he doing?” The fear in her voice pulled at me.

“He's talking to them. It looks . . .” I was about to say “friendly,” but she would know that for a lie.

Sivo talked, his lips moving quickly, his movements anxious. Henley seemed impatient. He glanced to the sky and the waning
midlight. I followed his gaze, assessing that sliver of sun. The ground beneath us would wake soon.

That shard of sun peeping out around the moon robbed Henley of the last of his patience. He flicked his fingers to several of the soldiers and they moved swiftly at the unspoken command, shoving past Sivo and disappearing inside the tower.

Luna's shoulders surged up slightly, lifting her head higher. Her voice took on a panicked edge. “What's happening now? Is Sivo—”

“They haven't harmed him.” Yet.

I tugged her back down again. She strained against my touch. “Why are they here? No one has ever bothered us before.”

“A company that large, coming into these woods—” Woods that even a hired soldier wouldn't want to brave. “They're looking for something.”

I arrived at the realization the moment the words passed my lips. They were seeking someone. Hunting. The king wouldn't risk losing a force of cavalrymen this size without cause.

“They can't be here,” she insisted in a small voice.

Again, the thought entered my mind: they are here for me. Then I dismissed it. Perhaps once the king would have sent men after me, but he had greater concerns now. A kingdom to oversee and an alliance with Lagonia to secure.

She tensed the instant Perla stepped from the tower. Maybe it was the soft curse that left my lips or something more innate. Maybe she felt a connection between herself and her surrogate mother and sensed she had emerged from the tower. I tightened
my grip on her, predicting her surge of movement.

“It's Perla! Let me go—”

I covered her mouth and flattened her to the ground again, heedless of my roughness. If they found us, any treatment Luna suffered at their hands would be far worse. The king's men weren't known for their gentleness with commoners. Especially with the fairer sex.

“I can't let you go.” I told myself it wasn't just to protect her, but to protect me. If they discovered her, they discovered me. “Understand?”

A quick peek over the hill again had me ducking down. A soldier was headed up the hill, his expression drawn tight. He'd heard us. I dragged her down, rushing us into a thick shrub of prickly bramble that surrounded an old gnarled oak tree.

“What are you—”

“Quiet,” I growled into her ear. “A soldier.”

I forced us into the stabbing vines, ignoring the gouging thorns tearing at every exposed inch of skin. She sucked in a pained breath. I pushed her deeper into the hedge, girding myself against a thick thorn carving a hole in my neck. Blood trickled down my throat beneath my collar, but I uttered no sound.

I folded my body around her, shielding her as much as I could. We felt as one, no part of us not connected. She trembled, but thankfully held silent. Her breath fanned hotly against my neck in violent little puffs, and then her fingers were there, finding my cut, lightly pressing at the wound as though she could slow the flow of blood.

I stared, unblinking, through a gap in the viny gorse, watching as the soldier crested the hill and took guarded steps down it, his sword drawn and ready. He studied our tracks on the ground.

I felt her heart pounding against her ribs and directly into me. Or maybe it was my heart. Curled against each other like two locked pieces of a puzzle, I could not tell where I ended and she began. There was just this. Us. One shared heart. And, if things continued to deteriorate, our joint death.

The soldier turned in our direction. I loosened a dagger from my boot. He neared our hiding spot, his steps easing cautiously closer. I could no longer see his face, just the scuffed cavalry boots encasing his calves so close now I could see the film of dirt coating them. I adjusted my grip on my dagger, preparing to jump out and thrust it in his heart. From there my only plan was to run—to take Luna and run.

Something exploded from the tree behind us, arcing through the air and landing on the soldier in a spitting, hissing ball of fury. He fought off the tree monkey that lunged at him, crying out as its sharp nails scored his face. Flinging the creature to the ground, he stabbed the reddish brown ball of fur repeatedly with his sword. He didn't stop there either. His bloodied face twisted wrathfully as he stomped on it, his curses flying.

“Sangar!” a soldier called from the top of the hill.

“Coming.” With a final kick for the pulverized carcass, he turned away.

I watched him stomp away before looking down at Luna. I winced at the sight of her. She was a mess of oozing scratches, the
wet crimson an obscenity on her skin.

“He's gone.” I barely spoke the words. They were more like a breath against the side of her face.

She nodded.

Awareness swelled inside of me as I eyed her. Felt her curled under me. It had been a long time since I held anyone. Since I felt a girl's body wrapped up in mine. She felt so small and soft—so very breakable.

A jarring reminder that everyone broke under the cruelty of this world.

I pulled back and was rewarded with a fresh thorn to the base of my neck.

“What's happening now?” she whispered.

“Let's find out.” We extricated ourselves from the gorse, earning new scratches for our trouble, and crawled side by side back up the hill.

I inched high enough to glimpse down at the tower. “Sivo is talking to them. They've forced Perla outside,” I whispered. “Dagne and Madoc, too. Two soldiers are supporting Madoc.”

A shiver rippled through her, and she bit her lip before saying, “Perla hates the Outside.” Her voice sounded small—almost childlike in its helplessness. “She must be terrified.”

I watched the scene unfold. The commander pointed at Dagne. Sivo shook his head and waved his hands in the air as though he was trying to pacify Henley. He wasn't going to succeed. I had a flash of memory then, a fractured image of when I was a boy and happened on Henley in the royal kennels, torturing
one of the dogs with a riding crop.

I blinked, chasing the image away, and focused on the present reality.

Madoc was clearly still in the grips of fever. His head lolled on his shoulders. He could hardly keep his gaze fastened on the group of soldiers. Dagne, on the other hand, looked wholly aware and alert. She stuck close to Perla as if that made her less visible to the eyes of all the men in the company.

Henley finally had enough. He shook his head as if finished listening to Sivo. He snapped something at his men and one of them stepped forward, grabbing hold of Dagne and pulling her away from Perla. She looked around wildly, crying out when Henley pulled the sword from the scabbard at his waist in one smooth move. She struggled, but the soldier held fast, pushing her forward. The freed blade sang on the wind as it cut through air and swiped down. Blood sprayed, spattering Henley in the face. It happened so quickly, the man's actions mild and effortless as though he were scratching an itch and not snuffing out a life. As though he was not slicing into a young girl.

Luna jerked against me as though the sharp edge of steel was cutting into her—leaving me no doubt she was aware of the violence taking place below.

Dagne dropped to the ground, limp and lifeless. Perla tried to grab her. Madoc cried out. He struggled against the soldiers holding him. It was a weak attempt that didn't last long. Drained, he bowed his head low and hung between them, shoulders shaking with sobs.

Air hissed out of my lips. She had done nothing to provoke them. It was an execution. Plain and simple.

“Is it—”

“Dagne,” I supplied.

Luna choked back a sob, her fingers digging into my arm. “Why?” A shudder passed through her. “Why did they kill her?”

A cold familiar numbness stole over me. “I don't know.”

There was no reason to kill the girl, but Henley had. He'd struck her down like she was some disease to be cut out and removed with swift excision.

Henley pulled a handkerchief out from beneath his tunic and cleaned his face, his movements almost elegant as he wiped away Dagne's blood. As though it were no more than grime from a day's travel.

Luna's voice escaped a fraction too loud: “What of Sivo and Perla? Are they unharmed?”

One of the soldiers at the edge of the group shifted in his saddle and turned to face the hill where we crouched.

I dropped flat, shoving Luna several feet down the rise with me. “At the moment, they're fine,” I growled, “but we won't be if you don't lower your voice.”

She didn't care. She strained against me, fighting to get up. She was ready to launch herself down the hill.

I seized her shoulders and turned her, pinning her to the spot. “Stop trying to get yourself killed. They killed Dagne. They won't hesitate to slaughter us, too. Now wait here and I'll see what's happening.”

I crawled back up and looked down the hill again. Henley pointed a finger in Madoc's face, questioning him. Madoc gazed at his slain sister, a crumpled and broken life on the ground. His sobs tore through the wood, loud and ugly. As if midlight wasn't fast fading and this wasn't the time for silent breaths and swallowed words.