Page 52 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

“We know what you did,” one of them hissed at me as he ran past.

“Mucking out the stables isn’t punishment enough for endangering a brother,” another said, hitting me hard and sending me stumbling.

“Thought you were toonoblefor the Guard and didn’t bother with the rules?” Mikel sneered, shouldering me out of his way.

My toe caught on the uneven ground and I lost my balance. My shin hit a sharp rock jutting out of the ground at the edge of the path and I tumbled forward, the impact sending agony shooting through my bruised chest as I slid face-first the rest of the way down the path.

“Oh, sorry,my lord,” Durand snickered, and he and Ambrose ran past chuckling.

The rest of the fae and all of the other humans ran past me as well shooting me disgusted or angry looks as I shoved up tomy knees, my body throbbing from Edred’s beating and a whole morning of shoveling and scrubbing.

The younger of the two heavy-set guys shot me an apologetic look but didn’t stop to help me, and so did a couple of the farmers, and it was clear I was on my own. I’d endangered guardsmen last night by using the ring after dark and they didn’t feel my current punishment was enough. The question was, would they stop at just knocking me down a rocky hill or was I going to need to sleep with my dagger under my pillow tonight?

CHAPTER 33

Sage

The fall rippeda hole in my pantleg, cut my shin — with a thankfully shallow cut — and scraped both my palms and my chin. The last of the novices ran around the outcropping and into the trees without stopping to help which stung more than the scrape on my chin.

I knew it shouldn’t have. I was a nobleman and if most nobles were like Edred then it made perfect sense for everyone else to want to put me in my place. This was their only chance because we were now equals.

But even with the dirty looks I’d gotten in the great hall at the morning and midday meal, I hadn’t expected the fae to start it. I’d expected them to be cold and distant, not wanting to bother themselves with a lowly human, and I didn’t know if their involvement meant my sin of accidentally endangering theirbrotherswas more serious than I first thought or if they were just being petty.

Whatever the reason, it meant my plan to go unnoticed had failed before I’d even started.

I pushed myself to my feet and ran after them. I wasn’t the fastest runner and didn’t have the stamina of the fae or thosemen who’d already been training to be warriors, but I managed to catch up to a few of the others and push past them.

The course twisted around the scraggly tree trunks and past more jagged outcroppings. Then the trees thinned, and the path followed the top of a narrow ridge with a sharp drop on either side. One wrong step and someone would end up tumbling down a steep slope of sharp shale into more scraggly, half-dead bushes on one side or a fast-moving river on the other.

I glanced behind me to confirm the men I’d passed weren’t close enough to push me off then hurried forward before they were.

The scrubby side of the ridge rose, and the path plunged back into the trees, but the side with the river remained steep and dangerous to my right and I kept to the left, thankful that the men I’d passed were falling farther and farther behind.

Except I didn’t know how long that would last. My body was starting to burn with the effort to keep running and I had no idea how much farther I had to go.

Ahead, the path made another sharp turn, and I ran out of the trees into a clearing as one of the novices ahead of me tried to run across a log bridge spanning a stream and fell the good five feet into the water below. A few other novices — none of them fae or the five trained humans — were wading through the hip-deep water or climbing the almost sheer bank on the other side to get out.

Which meant I was going to have to run across the log and hope I didn’t fall, or jump down and then figure out how to climb up without help, since I doubted anyone was going to give me a hand up. Maybe if I got lucky I’d find a foothold?—

One of the men braced his toe in a crack in the rocks but couldn’t get a good enough foothold to lift himself up.

“Hey, give me a hand,” he called up to a taller guy who’d managed to climb out by himself.

The man reached down and offered him a hand then glanced up and gave me a dark look.

“Me, too,” said the man who’d fallen in the water when I’d rounded the curve as he waded toward them.

“Sure, but notthe lord,” the taller guy replied, as if his look hadn’t been clear enough.

Swell. If I jumped down, I could get stuck in the ravine until someone came to help me or I’d have to risk going up or down the stream to find an easier way out. What were the odds that the easier way out was still within the path’s magical protection?

All right. The log bridge then. It was narrow. I could probably straddle it and inch my way along. I’d be ridiculed if the guys on the other side saw what I was doing, but it was the best option since it was going to be impossible to climb the bank on the other side without help.

Straddling meant I wouldn’t fall, but it would also leave me vulnerable… which meant I was going to have to wait for the men on the other side to run out of sight before attempting to cross.

Except I could hear the footsteps of the men behind me drawing closer and if they jumped into the stream while I was straddling the log, they could pull me down and I’d be back to the problem on being too short to get out.

Running and praying I didn’t fall was my only option… and then praying I could dodge the guys on the other side before they shoved me off the ledge and into the stream.

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