Page 106 of Unrivaled
If only Daniel hadn’t taken all his knowledge into his early grave with him, just his vitriol.
Rather than search the extent of the keep, I asked everyone as I went by if they saw my companions to send them to the stables.Thomas was training up new recruits, Isolde was attempting to source a bundle of feathers to rebuild our arrow supply, and Chay hadn’t told mewherehe’d gone.
It felt strange to think of that brief time we’d been so inseparable during the final weeks of the plague and the winter that followed.
I’d had such hopes for him.
Beneath my hands, Storm butted me, and I laughed at her excitement.“We can go out, girl.You’ve been so bored, haven’t you?”She nudged me again and I scratched her in the hard-to-reach places she loved, breathing in the smell of her.
I still didn’t know what had gone wrong with Chay or what I’d done that had been so terrible.I tried not to think about it.It wasn’t useful.
“I hear we’re going riding.”
I glanced up at Isolde, my heart swelling with joy.“We are.Sandra’s got my chores covered for the day.”
“May her drinks be cool and her meat hot,” Isolde said, fervently.“Have you got her saddle yet?”She clucked her tongue, already knowing the answer.
Together we readied the horses.I’d already decided if neither Thomas nor Chay arrived before it was time to leave, we’d go without them.I’dtriedto stick to my father’s rules, but we were so short-handed.It just wasn’t feasible to have three people sitting around watching me.
Also, it was irritating.
But Chay arrived.We waited for him to ready Bliksem, though it made less sense for the two people who were moving about the keep to have been found first.
“I could just go and fetch Thomas,” I acknowledged, knowing the older man didn’t enjoy time in the saddle and would be content with his role helping the up-and-coming guards.
“He’s headed in,” Chay told me.“They wrapped up training already.He mentioned he needed to go to the cobbler today.”
That was the justification I needed to head off.Thomas would no doubt find Sandra, who’d update him.Hopefully, they’d have time to discuss her options, and they’d both be happy with the choices they had and whatever her path forward was.It wasn’t like she wasshirkingher duties.She was still learning the basics.But she’d started so late.I understood the social rules and requirements before I was even bleeding, and here she was, almost a woman grown, well and truly of age where she could be booking in her wedding and making vows before the One.
To think, I’d be a married woman had it not been for the brutal end of my betrothal.
Married.ToLuca.
The thought of being tied to that man didn’t make me want to weep, as it once had.Something had changed since the plague.Mayhap it was just that I was no longer pledged to him, and he no longer treated me like a child.
The workers hailed me on the way past the marketplace.“Come look!”they cried, waving to me.“Look!The seats are ready to go in!”
I detoured to admire their work and their energy.Considering few had any stonemason experience before this, they’d done a phenomenal job.
We were going to look far more prosperous than we really were come the tourney.Even as I thought it, I spotted a small family group looking around, their faces unfamiliar, their clothes cut in the conservative styles of the eastern provinces.They were already gaping at the height of the walls and the density of the buildings, so I left them to find their own way, knowing someone would catch them and send them to a community center.
Out in the orchard, it was still cool in the shade, though the wind had the hot promise of summer.We rode deep into the dappled light between the old trunks of the apple trees.I kept track of our location in my mind, marking each beehive and the few landmarks we passed, until we reached a lively stream.
“Hunt and track,” Isolde told me, waving a hand at the river.“You’ve got until I’ve cared for the horses.”I leapt down and tossed her my reins, already taking off.“You, too,” she told Chay.“Let’s see how long you last, hiding from me.”Then, to my surprise, she added, “I’d recommend the stream, myself.It’ll muddy your prints.”I paused for a moment, glancing over my shoulder, but Isolde was watching me, not Chay.“Well?”she asked, raising her brows.
“Turn your back,” I told her.
She snorted.“And lose you for the day?Not likely.Your knight I won’t watch.”
Poor Chay made such noise as he moved, clamoring along pathetically.I took off, leaping from rock to rock, half-hoping he’d do poorly enough to get a decent lesson out of Isolde, but not so poorly that she laughed at him.Meanwhile, I had a route plotted in my mind.Up the stream, then make as if I’d climbed a big old apple.One partial print near the tree, or mayhap just a broken twig, and a little bark knocked somewhat awry, would be all it’d need.Any more and she’d know I’d faked it.Then I’d backtrack, hoping Chay was keeping her busy, and cross the stream.
I spied a likely spot where I could make a jump and made sure I splashed a little water over a rock on the false trail I was laying.It might dry before she made it here, but I doubted it.
I’d made it to the gnarled old apple when I heard Chay jangling and the sound of wading.I wanted to groan, but then I heard Isolde say, “See, here?Small splash mark on the rocks.”
“So, shedidcome this way.”
“She must have.There’s nowhere else she could’ve left the stream without leaving prints.But that sort of sudden sloppiness in quarry that isn’t injured, exhausted, or panicked?Strategy.She’s got a plan.”
