Page 14 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

The ground started to slope, but not enough to make it difficult for the horse, and then the underbrush opened up, revealing a narrow, rocky bank and a small stream. Sunlight sparkled in its quick-moving water and birds chittered at us, telling us we’d disturbed their peace.

We were a good couple hundred yards from the road and with thick bushes crowding behind us, along with the rise at our backs, we were well out of sight. There was still a chance someone would come to the stream to fish — or in the case of children, to play — but we were as out of the way as we could get without actually crawling into a cave.

“How did you know this was here?” I asked, as he loosely wrapped the horse’s reins around a thick branch, giving it enough slack that it could munch on the leaves in front of it or drink from the stream.

“It’s on the Caldensian maps,” he said, still struggling to breathe from our wild escape but thankfully not coughing as much. He sat on the bank and took his cloak from me. “We should eat something.”

I stared at him. “You looked at that map at least four years ago.”

He quirked an eyebrow and gave me his driest look, reminding me that he remembered the strangest things despite however long ago he learned them.

“Here.” He picked up the half-eaten loaf of bread, ripped off a chunk, and handed it to me.

“They’ll feed me at the Black Tower.” I sat beside him, setting the rucksack and weapons on the ground beneath my feet, andstared at the stream. “You won’t know the next time you’ll be able to eat.”

“They might not feed you if they find out you’re a girl.”

Now it was my turn to give him a dry look.

“All right, probably not,” he replied and he, too, turned his attention to the stream.

We stared at the water, an awkward silence filling the air around us.

In the blink of an eye, everything had changed. Life hadn’t been easy for us at the castle, but we’d known what to expect, knew that Edred would lose his temper over the smallest things, or that Udara would keep two tarts in the kitchen for us instead of sending all of them to Edred and his men. We knew the heat of Herstind in the summer and the wet cold in the winter.

It was all we’d really known. I’d had a few more glimpses of the rest of the kingdom, travelling with our mother and father and then just our mother a little bit, mostly to the capital, but Sawyer had only had a handful of years when he’d been old enough to remember leaving Herstind and had only been to the capital once before mother married Edred.

And while Sawyer had read about the world outside of Herstind March and probably remembered every little detail, there was a huge difference between what was in a book and real life.

The memory of Pylos’s scream as he fell to his death sent a shudder racing through me. I’d dreamed of becoming a Sayorian Shieldmaiden, first when I was younger and then as a wild plan in the event Sawyer’s attempt to get Herstind from Edred failed.

But shieldmaidens were warrior women. They fought in battles, protected the people and the Queen of Sayoria. They killed people. I hadn’t really known what that meant until now. Could I really survive as a member of the Black Guard? If the Shadow Gate opened, I’d be expected to fight and kill, and nowthat I was sitting still, with time to think, the fear and shock of what happened trembled within me.

I’d killed someone.

And I’d do it again if it meant protecting Sawyer.

CHAPTER 10

Sage

“How long doyou honestly think you’ll be able to hide who you really are?” Sawyer asked, his voice barely audible over the stream’s soft burbling as if he, too, was finally realizing everything that had just happened.

“I don’t know.” But I needed to hold out as long as I could for Sawyer’s sake. “I’ll keep it up for as long as I can, but you need to get as far away from Erellod and the other kingdoms as fast as you can.”

I sucked in a steadying breath. I couldn’t turn back and there was no point in avoiding the inevitable. This was the path I’d been thrown onto and I would face it head on.

I unsheathed Sawyer’s old dagger. It wasn’t particularly sharp or as long as his new one since it belonged to the set he’d had as a child, but it would do. I could put a proper edge on it and his old sword when I got to the Black Tower. Right now, I needed it to cut my dress into strips. I liked the dress, but I was going to need to flatten my thankfully small breasts, and the dress was the only thing available that I could sacrifice.

Sawyer held out his new dagger before I could cut into the fabric. “It’ll be easier with this.”

“Thanks.” I took the offered blade and worked on cutting a wide strip from the bottom of my dress, shortening it from my ankles to mid-calf.

“If you’re going to be me, you should have my weapons.” He unbuckled his sword belt and set it, with his sheathed sword and the empty dagger sheath, on the ground beside me. “I’d make you wear my most recent pair of boots as well, but I suspect the old pair will fit you better. If that fae lord was paying even the slightest attention, he’d know by where I stood behind Edred and from my clothes that I wasn’t just a servant.”

“I’m sure he just saw the red hair. That’s all anyone sees.” Except a part of me was afraid he’d remember more than just our red hair, that he’d remember me and the things I’d said to him.

“Anyonehuman,” Sawyer said. “We’ve never met a fae before. For all we know, his magic might have something to do with remembering everything.”

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