I leapt onto Malie’s back and kicked off the saddle, launching myself into the air. My outstretched foot landed on an unsteady rock on the cliff’s side, but I pushed myself off of it and landed on another higher up. I continued leaping from rock to rock, often missing and scraping my shins. My documentation plaque bounced against my chest with each jump. But I made progress up the almost-vertical cliff side and eventually landed on the crest. The strange, inexplicable energy that coursed through my body kept me from collapsing despite the blood soaking the front of my blouse. I snatched the long blade from my thigh strap and ran after the archer.
I must have been breathing like a bull because the archer heard my approach. He spun around, notched an arrow, and let it fly. The metal head of the arrow blinked at me as it came. I swung my blade, intercepting the arrow before it could pierce my forehead and cleaving it in two. I swung and diverted three more arrows before I threw my blade. It sank between the archer’s eyes. The power behind the throw tossed him back a few feet before he hit the earth. Now that my mission was accomplished, my vision faded and I joined the stranger on the ground.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke to the sound of grumbling.
“Curse him!”
“She’ll live, Viggo,” Bryn said. “And she managed to kill her assailant. Rejoice in that.”
“Hang the archer,” Viggo hissed. “I curse Dotharr! What kind of a god chooses a woman to be a human shield? I disown him. I disown them all!”
“Keep your voice down,” Bryn said. “You’ll wake her.”
I peeled my eyes open to see that I was in my room. Bryn sat in one of the plush chairs by the tea table, dressed in the same medical student’s garb I had seen him in yesterday. Viggo was dressed like a gentleman with a navy blue vest, white shirt, black trousers, and riding boots. His hair was combed. Hands clasped behind his back, face twisted in a scowl, copper eyes burning with fierce anger but worry as well… He was handsome. Of course, he always had been, but this was a different kind of handsome. He cast a shadow across the wall as he paced from one side of my room to the other. Dagmar sat on the stool by my vanity table, watching the men with squinting eyes and a thin frown.
“What are you two doing here?” I rasped, making them all jump.
Bryn and Viggo hurried to my side.
“They wouldn’t let Bryn look at you,” Viggo snapped as if it were somehow my fault. “The king dragged you through the lower ward, screaming for the doctor, and I was suddenly thankful I had asked Bryn to come with me to this damned job interview you recommended me for, but then the ‘real’ doctor came and pushed us aside because how could Bryn possibly have experience dealing with Dotharr’s anointed?” He let out a choked sound of outrage. “He is one of Dotharr’s anointed!”
Bryn gripped my hand. “How are you feeling, Asta?” he asked before Viggo could continue his rant.
“Better now that my friends are here.” I turned to Dagmar. “Thank you for letting them stay with me.”
Dagmar hmmphed. “They said they were your brothers.”
I laughed, which sent pain across my chest and shoulder. I noticed my right arm was in a sling. “They’re as good as. What’s the verdict?”
“Dotharr was watching over you,” Dagmar said, causing both men to frown. “The arrow pierced nothing vital.”
“If the arrow had struck any lower, you would have been in mortal danger,” Bryn said. “Instead it only separated your shoulder from your collarbone. If you spend the rest of today and tomorrow in bed, you should be healed by the day after.”
I sat up. “I’ll mend better at the king’s side. Where is he?”
“He’s having lunch with his grandfather in the jade building,” Viggo said. “His other Defenders and half of the guards in his employment are marching around the upper ward. He’ll survive without you for a day.”
I relaxed back into my pillows. “So he’s all right.”
“The master is worried about you, and upset about the attack, but he is physically well, yes,” Dagmar said, rising to tuck the comforter around me. “You need not stress over him. Just focus on resting. Can I get you anything?”
My stomach snarled. “Some lunch would be great. Could you arrange for two courses to be brought here for me and my brothers?”
Dagmar bowed her head, shot the men a harsh look, and proceeded to leave the room.
“Charming woman,” Viggo muttered once the door had been shut behind her.
“What was this I heard about you disowning your precious Heavenly Masters?” I asked.
Viggo cleared his throat and tugged at his cravat. “I said nothing of the sort.”
I pursed my lips to keep from smiling. I might not have been his ‘responsibility’ anymore but it seemed he still cared about me. It warmed my heart. “How was your interview? Dressed like that I’m sure you were hired on the spot.”
Viggo put his hands in his pockets and frowned at the fire. “Yes, I was hired, but I think it had more to do with my acquaintance with you than my credentials.”
Bryn elbowed his friend in the ribs. “Don’t think on it any longer. You’ll do well here. Master Philo will witness your skills in time and come to respect you for them, not only for your friendship with Asta.”
“It’s Lady Isa on the royal hill,” Viggo said with a smirk in my direction. “Master Philo spoke very highly of you.”
My face burned. “Oh?”
“He said you’re the quickest learner and most dedicated warrior he has ever seen. Apparently, you killed a foreign assassin on your first day here.”
I cringed back into my pillows, wishing I could sink into them and disappear. “The king was never in real danger. General Halvar sent that man to test my ability to kill. It was a sailor from his ship, The Great Disaster.” I swallowed against the lump of shame in my throat.
Bryn’s face softened. “I’m sorry, Asta.”
“He was a good for nothing, no doubt,” Viggo said gruffly. “You did the world a favor.”
“Yes, he was, but it still felt wrong. It’s not what I thought, taking the life of another. It’s unnatural.” I wrapped my good arm around my queasy stomach. “No one is meant for it. I don’t understand why it exists.”
“Because ours is an imperfect world,” Bryn said, sitting beside me on the bed, “where evil runs rampant.”
Viggo walked around the bed to sit on my other side. “And because without death we would overpopulate the earth and have to live under the sea.”
I laughed, only to double over in pain.
Bryn reached over my bent shape to slap his friend’s shoulder. “You mustn’t say things like that! You’ll make her reopen her wound.”
“Laughter is the best medicine,” Viggo said, unapologetic.
“In all seriousness, Asta, Isa, Lady Warrior of the Royal Hill,” Bryn said, “You have aptly and courageously applied your training, and saved the king’s life twice within a twenty-four-hour span. I’m proud to call you my friend.”
I beamed at him despite the tears in my eyes. “Where would I be without you, Behnam?”
“Dead in a ditch somewhere, I’d wager,” Viggo said, earning a glare from Bryn.
“That’s not even remotely funny.”
“I had a death wish when I first came to Dotharr’s Academy,” I explained when Viggo gave his friend a puzzled look. “Bryn is a firm believer in the sanctity of life and scolded me for even considering—”
“As well he should!” Viggo sputtered. “I understand you must have been devastated by the death of your family, but to consider joining them before your time is… is…”