Hardly a few minutes after Ava settled, I felt the first hot drop force itself from my eye. I tried to be strong. I tried to be quiet so as not to disturb her, but a couple minutes more and salty tears were streaming sideways down my face. A sniffle broke through the silence, and I knew Ava hadn’t fallen asleep yet because she shifted at the noise. When it happened again she turned to face me, and she couldn’t see me and she didn’t say anything, but she knew.
Her arm slipped around my waist, she scooted into me, buried her face in the crook of my neck, and held me close. There was no stopping it then. I could do nothing but release every bit of emotion that had been plaguing me all day. My own arms wrapped around her, pulling her flush against me and clinging to her tightly. In the safety of her warmth, I let myself feel everything.
The guilt at not doing a better job of keeping us safe, at having to do what I’d done to put Brande out of his misery. Guilt at how I’d acted under the magic’s influence, at how quickly and easily and without remorse I’d taken the lives of those men, and almost taken Ava’s. The pain in my jaw and back, and the violent throbbing in my shoulder. Most of all, the pain of losing Brande. The sting of losing one of my closest companions, and of knowing how Albus was upset with me because of it, it was torturous. It was a pain I’d never suffered before. A loss I’d never experienced in my life. So I cried until I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and eventually fell asleep.
I woke the next morning still holding Ava, but there was a new warmth at my back as well. Untangling myself from her, I sat up, only to find that it was Albus. He’d come over to lie at my back in the night, and him being there and the fact that he looked at me when I sat up made me sigh with relief.
“Does this mean you forgive me?” I asked him.
He put his head in my lap, but after a moment rose to all fours to press his muzzle beneath my chin. I wrapped my arms over his shoulders in a grateful hug, sticking my face in his fur. As I let him go, Ava woke and sat up, and in my gratefulness to her I let my head fall on her shoulder, and nuzzled my face into her neck.
She set her cheek against me in reception. “How are you feeling?”
Better wasn’t quite the right word, because it still hurt, but I did feel better than I had yesterday. Though physically I was sorer than ever. “I’ll be alright eventually.” I straightened up, stretching my arms before me and wincing at the pain it caused in my injured shoulder. “Are you ready to find your father?” I asked. “And hope we don’t get killed the second we step foot in the city?”
“I’m ready,” she said with a soft smile.
We ate a small breakfast and then packed up our camp, and before long we were traveling again. I still preoccupied myself with practicing magic as I walked alongside Ava’s horse. I was getting better at sustaining the sparks in my hand, and had even learned to make them travel halfway up my arm. Ava must have been able to tell I was in a better mood too, because she asked me questions about what it felt like or gave me challenges about where to direct the current. It wasn’t as frightening for either of us when I was in control.
As we journeyed during the day, it got drastically warmer. It wasn’t hot by any means; being winter still, it could only have been as warm as our summers in the north, which were cool. However, through walking and the exertion of practicing magic, and being so accustomed to the bitter cold of my home, I’d begun to sweat, and eventually shed my outer vest and rolled the sleeves of my tunic up to my elbows.
We’d been traveling for at least fifteen miles when, toward the better part of the afternoon, something caused me to stop in my tracks. When Ava noticed I’d ceased walking, she brought her horse to a halt, but she kept from saying anything at the look of concentration on my face. At first, I didn’t know what had caused me to pause; I couldn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. But then I felt it. It was so much weaker, but I recognized the sensation of feeling someone else’s heartbeat from when I’d sensed Ava’s. This time, however, there were multiple.
“We’re being watched,” I whispered. Each beat was steady, each faint, but every one was distinguishable from another in their distinct rhythms. “There are five.”
Ava’s eyebrows furrowed as she scanned the woods around us. “How do you know?”
“I can feel them.” I grabbed my dagger from my waist with one hand. In the other I prepared a current of sparks, and though I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d attack with it, I’d figure it out. Prepared for our new assailants, I commanded, “Come out!”
For a handful of tense seconds, there wasn’t a single sound. Then came a female voice. “Are you Avarona Gaveston?”
Ava looked at me with shock. “Perhaps,” she called out blindly. “Who wants to know?”
From every direction around us, there was the cracking of footsteps in the foliage, and our five observers emerged from the woods. Two women and three men, all dressed in camouflaged green and brown, but each with the Ronan sigil on their breast. Though none of them had their weapons drawn, I raised my dagger and my other hand to a defensive level at my chest. At my movement, one of the women put her palms out comfortingly. She wasn’t looking at me, however; she was watching Ava.
“Are you Avarona Gaveston?” she asked again.
This time Ava paused for a lengthy second, considering her answer before saying, “Yes.”
The woman dropped her hands, straightening into a more relaxed posture. “King Akhran Ironwood is expecting you.”
Chapter 11
Ava looked at me, and I at her, and the confusion was clear in both of our eyes. After a moment, she glanced back at the woman who’d said the king was expecting her.
“I beg your pardon?” Ava asked.
“The king,” the woman repeated. “He’s expecting you.”
Ava shifted almost uncomfortably in her saddle. “I know, but… how?”
“I’m sorry, my lady,” the woman, who I assumed was a soldier, said. She paused awkwardly, and then corrected herself. “Um… Princess. I don’t know the specifics. All I know is we’ve been out searching for you for days now.”
“We’re supposed to go with you?” Ava asked, to which the woman nodded. “For what purpose?”
The woman’s head cocked. “I’m sorry?”
“What are the king’s intentions?” Ava clarified, clearly not ready to trust them completely. However, Albus hadn’t growled at them once, and for that I was ready to follow, even if we kept our guard up. “Is it in our best interest to go with you?”
“I should hope so, Princess,” the woman said. “His orders were to find you, bring you and any companions no harm, and to take you straight to him at the castle.”
Albus trotted away from me, and I nearly called him back before I realized one of the other soldiers had knelt down and put his hands out, and Albus was comfortable enough to go and get his ears scratched. When Ava looked at me to see if I believed them, I simply shrugged. Whether or not they were telling the whole truth, they hadn’t yet seemed threatening.
“Very well,” Ava agreed. “We’ll follow you.”
We did follow them. Back to the main road, where just off it a sixth soldier was watching out for all of their horses. They all mounted when we got there, and their leader looked at me, hesitating for a moment.
Then her eyes fell on Ava. “I believe the king would appreciate if we made haste,” she said, clearly wanting me to double up with Ava.
Ava hesitated too, but for a different reason. She knew me well enough that I was sure she knew why I hadn’t ridden since yesterday, and I knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t force me. But this is what we’d been after since I found her. Meeting her father was what she wanted more than anything, and we were so near the castle that I couldn’t look her in the eyes and deliberately delay it. Not when we were this close.