Chapter Five
How can I have been so stupid?
The question circled endlessly in Aelys’s mind as she walked between Vil and the gelding whose bridle she held. The horse exhaled gustily, his breath puffing out in a warm cloud against the cooling night. Temperatures dropped quickly in the mountains, even in summertime.
Aelys pulled the folds of her cloak around herself and frowned as her fingers encountered its distinctive embroidery. So stupid, she thought again. I’ve been running around Mageford and the local villages as if I didn’t have a care in the world. As if I didn’t know that someone named Gadren has already put a price on my capture! As if I hadn’t burned all of my bridges at home and walked away from my family. I don’t have the weight of the Brionne name behind me anymore. How stupid of me to forget that!
“Mageford is just around this bend,” Daen said, his voice filtering back to her through the gloom up ahead. “But we need to hurry. They close this gate a few hours after sundown, and I don’t want to have to backtrack and go around to the main imperial road.”
Aelys swallowed hard and clicked her tongue to urge the exhausted gelding forward. She stepped forward too, but her foot caught one of the myriad deep ruts in the road, and she rolled her ankle, lurching into the hapless horse’s flank.
Vil’s arm snaked out and grabbed her by the waist, supporting her weight until she could untangle her feet. Fortunately for her, the poor gelding was so brokenspirited, he didn’t even startle at her clumsiness.
“Are you all right, Bella?” Vil asked quietly.
“Y-yes.” Aelys gritted her teeth at the unsure tone of her voice. Vil hated it when she let her weakness come to the forefront like that. “I just stumbled. It’s getting harder to see.”
“All the more reason to pick up the pace,” Daen snapped. Aelys glanced up, startled at the nearness of his voice. He had been several cart lengths ahead of them but had apparently backtracked to see what the problem was.
Me. The problem is me. Naturally.
“You’re right,” Aelys said, forcing herself to pull her shoulders back. “I just stepped unwisely. I am fine. Please, let’s push on.” She tried to meet Daen’s gaze, but he turned away from her without another word and continued walking.
Aelys sucked in a breath, tamped down hard on the stab of pain in her chest from Daen’s dismissal, and resolutely stepped forward out of Vil’s hold.
“We have plenty of time,” Vil murmured, his voice pitched low enough that it barely reached Aelys’s ears. “Don’t rush and hurt yourself.”
“I will be careful,” she promised, her eyes raking the ground in front of her. “And given…what just happened, it makes sense to go quickly. Daen is right.”
“Is he?” Vil asked. Aelys opened her mouth to reply, but Vil pulled his hood up and dropped back as if he would speak with Romik, so Aelys let it go.
She pulled her own hood up and reached to carefully stroke the gelding’s nose.
“Of course Daen’s right, isn’t he, poor boy,” she murmured to the horse. He flicked an ear in her direction, but didn’t otherwise react, content to follow where she led by virtue of her hand on his bridle. “I’ve been incredibly unwise and put everyone in danger. I should have left weeks ago, as soon as I could travel.”
And, in truth, I know they say they want me to stay, but I know they could be making more money without me, she thought as she continued to stroke the gelding’s nose. He let out another soft sigh, which drew a tiny smile to her lips.
“My old groom said that horses only make noise like that when they’re relaxed. Are you relaxed, friend? I hope so. That terrible man won’t bother you again.”
“You should mount him.”
Aelys looked up to meet Daen’s green-eyed, hard gaze. “I should?” she asked, her belly clenching at his cold expression.
“Yes. We’re coming to the gate, and the guards aren’t likely to wonder at a woman dressed like you riding a horse, even a broken-down nag like this one. But if you’re leading him by the bridle…that’s unusual, and worth asking about.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Do you need help?”
“N-no,” Aelys said. “I can manage.”
She pulled the gelding to a stop and stroked his nose once more. “I’m going to ride you for a few minutes, all right?” she whispered. “We’re going to go to a nice place, a good stable, with lots of sweet hay and kind people who won’t hurt you ever again—”
“Just get up on the horse, Bella.”
Aelys jumped at Daen’s clipped words and swallowed hard. She nodded and moved to put her foot in the stirrup, then hauled herself up into place on his back.
Thank goodness I’ve been riding since I was small, she thought as she settled into the poorly made saddle. She took the reins in hand and bent to shorten up her stirrups.
“Green Lady’s rut,” Daen muttered, rolling his eyes. But he stepped forward and slung his bow long enough to help her with deft, quick fingers. Aelys ignored the way his hands brushed against her calf just above her boot and concentrated on fixing the other side.
“Ready, finally?” he asked when he was done. Aelys straightened and, despite knowing that she deserved his anger, shot him a glare.
“Yes,” she said. “Thank you. I suspect I would slow us down quite a bit if I came out of the saddle in town. Especially if he startles at one of the unfamiliar noises or scents inside the walls.”
Daen snorted. “That broken nag’s had the life beaten out of him. I doubt he’s got enough spirit left to startle at anything. You’d have been fine.”
“Enough, Daen,” Romik growled. Aelys gathered the reins and twisted to see Romik and Vil approaching from the rear. “You know she’s right. That saddle’s in bad enough shape. If you want her to ride, she needs her stirrups to fit.”
Daen glared at Romik, a muscle in his cheek jumping. Then he shrugged and turned, unslinging his bow as he retook his place in front of Aelys and her broken-down mount.
“What did you say to him?” Romik asked Aelys as she made a clicking sound and gently touched her heels to the gelding’s flanks. “I know he’s been touchy lately, but he was fine in the village. Do you have any idea why he’s surlier than a wounded bearcat now?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Aelys said quietly as the gelding shuffled forward into a walk. Romik stayed beside her, which meant that Vil had the rearguard. “But yes, I have an idea.”
Romik turned to her, his eyebrows lifted. “Care to share with the rest of us?”
Aelys swallowed hard and shook her head. “I don’t think he’d appreciate me discussing him behind his back,” she said. “You are brothers. Perhaps he will talk to you if you ask.”
Romik looked over his shoulder, and Aelys turned in her saddle to see Vil offer a subtle shrug. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked quickly and refused to let them fall. Instead, she turned back around and focused on the road ahead. A stone gatehouse, smaller than the one on the imperial road, but still impressively large, loomed in the darkness, and as she watched, two brilliant flames bloomed against the stone on either side of the arched opening.
The guard standing to the left of the arch nodded at Daen and Romik, and murmured a soft “Bella,” as she urged the gelding through the open gate and into the short stone passageway beyond. The horse’s heavy steps clattered on the cobbles as he plodded forward, his head held low. Behind them, a soft clang echoed off the stones.
“Made it just in time,” Vil said, his velvet voice drifting forward in the darkness. “Look at that.”
Daen didn’t answer or even look back in their direction. Instead, he picked up the pace, winding through the streets toward the central marketplace, and then beyond, to Gormren and Sabetha’s trading offices.
And a conversation Aelys was certain she didn’t want to have.