This thought sustained me as weariness penetrated me to the bone.I felt the wetness of fresh blood under my armour, reminding me of the wound in my back, courtesy of the now-dead, backstabbingGoodwin.Using the Darkness took a lot of energy.Rest and food would help me to heal, but for that, we needed to get to Danu.
The sun came up, and we continued to ride throughout the day.Rhett and Tomas were keeping up, but they were quiet, and Rhett was getting paler by the hour.Would Lord Warwick be in Danu already?I dreaded telling him of Bethel’s betrayal and the queen’s death.
We arrived in Danu just as the sun set on a tough day.I removed my far-too-conspicuous armour as soon as we arrived at the public stables.
Finn and I left the old woman to help Tomas with Rhett, who needed rest and water more than the rest of us, and promised to bring back food when we returned.
The shirt I had borrowed from Torgrin was wet with my blood, but because it was black, it stayed hidden.Torgrin’s preference for black clothing was advantageous.
I headed to the inn we had stayed in last time we were here, which felt like a lifetime ago.This was where Lord Warwick was supposed to be staying in Danu, but I quickly confirmed he hadn’t arrived yet.I left a message for him that Bethel had told everyone about the surprise and that he must return to Murus and prepare for many guests.I hoped he would understand.
Meanwhile Finn had found a bread-and-cheese vendor and somehow managed to return to the stables with a bottle of spiced wine in his pocket.
The old woman tended to Rhett’s back as best she could.Afterwards, he lay pale and motionless, his head resting in Tomas’s lap.Tomas watched over Rhett with a grim expression.
Finn handed out the food, and we ate and drank in silence.When we finished our humble meal, the older lady asked me to lift my shirt.Nothing escaped her sharp eyes.
‘What is your name?’I finally asked as she cleaned my wound.
‘My name is Mable, but Yaris called me Mae.’She dabbed my wound dry with a clean rag.
‘What would you like me to call you?’
‘Mae will do.’
‘How long did you know Queen Yaris for?’
‘Since she was a little girl.I was older than her, and when my family came to visit Capita Castle, she would follow me around everywhere.’I could hear the smile in her voice.
‘You are from Ephemeros, aren’t you?’She sounded just like Torgrin’s father.
‘Yes.I guess I’ve held on to my accent all these years,’ Mae replied quietly.
‘How did you come to live in Capita Castle?’I asked as Mae washed her hands in a bucket of water.
She removed her veil, and I was surprised to see a head of auburn hair streaked with only a little grey.Mae was younger than I had first thought.She bent her head and cupped the water to her face.It ran down the grooves lining her narrow face.
‘I did not wish to marry, which made me useless to my family,’ she said simply.‘Yaris and I shared a certain bond, and when she was expecting a child for the first time, she asked if I would come and stay with her.’
‘Queen Yaris never recovered, did she?From the loss?’I whispered, not sure if I was overstepping.
‘She was stronger than anyone gave her credit for.’Mae covered her head with her veil again.
Everyone else spoke of the queen as being sad and frail.I remembered how Queen Yaris had sat very composed in that horrid cell despite the torture she’d endured.Yes, she was strong.I had seen that for myself.
We couldn’t stay in Danu any longer.It would be the first place the Capita soldiers would look for us.We would follow Torgrin’s plan: hide in Danu Forest and wait for him.
It was slow going for the next few hours.Riding in the dark was challenging – it was hard to see the ground, and the frosty night air stung our cheeks and noses.We hadn’t gotten far when Tomas called out.Rhett had fallen off their horse.
Finn helped Tomas carry Rhett to a clearing inside a circle of trees.It was not a good place for us to stop, but Rhett couldn’t go any further.
I watched as the others gathered kindling to build a fire and set up a camp to wait out the rest of the night.I anxiously stood watch on the camp’s edge while they huddled around the fire.I had seen a lone wolf marking us and our horses for the last hour.The flames glowed over Tomas, who was rocking Rhett in his arms.Rhett’s desperate gasps for air echoed through the stillness, his lungs struggling to replenish the oxygen they craved.The silence between Rhett’s gasps became more extended, and tears began rolling down my cheeks unchecked.There was nothing more we could do for him.
Tomas’s cry of pain echoed into the night as Rhett took his last breath.Grief flooded me, and the nearness of death amplified my fear of losing Torgrin and Cillian.
Finn came to stand next to me, giving Tomas some privacy.My eyes remained scanning the dark woods but my tears had turned the trees into blurry smudges.Something moved between them.No wolf I knew would come this close to a fire.
‘Did you see that?’I wiped my eyes and waited for something to move in the darkness again.
