Fel and Syla might have lacked his magically keen hearing, butthe noises were now loud enough that they turned in that direction.
Syla looked at Vorik and opened her mouth, calculation in her eyes. Was she going to scream for help? For her troops to rush forward and try to kill or capture him?
Vorik lifted his chin, ready to fight if need be.
But she made an exasperated sound and pointed again for him to go in the direction of the lagoon.
“This way, Your Highness.” Fel gripped her wrist and led her toward the voices.
She went willingly with him. Vorik hadn’t expected anything different but found himself calling softly, “If you change your mind about wanting my protection, I’ll wait for you until dawn at the lighthouse along the coast beyond your castle.”
The frown that Syla cast over her shoulder suggested she thought he was stupid for believing she would have anything further to do with him. Or stupid for giving her his future location. Perhaps some of both. But if she sent troops after Vorik, Agrevlari could easily leap into the air so they could fly away.
Vorik backed out of the light of the intersection, letting himself watch her for a moment before turning away. The curves he’d noticed earlier were quite appealing from the rear perspective, the fabric of her dress hugging her hips and buttocks, and he caught himself wishing she would look back at him.
She did not, merely walking away with determination. Sighing, Vorik turned and trotted in the opposite direction.
“Princess Syla,” came a relieved cry, the male voice of a soldier or castle staff, Vorik assumed. “Are you all right?”
Vorik paused to listen, certain he could outrun the soldiers if Syla sent them after him—keen hearing wasn’t the only superior attribute his bond with Agrevlari gave him—and that he might learn something from eavesdropping.
“No,” she said grimly. “But I have a plan.”
Vorik blinked. What plan had she been thinking up during the chaos of the evening?
“Take me to your superior officer, Lieutenant,” she added. “Whoever is in charge now.”
“General Tox was unfortunately slain, Your Highness, and General Dolok was badly injured, but I’ll take you to Colonel Mosworth.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Wait,” Fel said. “There’s a dragon rider down here in the tunnels, Lieutenant. Captain Vorik. We saw him only a moment ago, and he went that way.”
Vorik had expected them to send the soldiers after him and nodded to himself as he departed. Thanks to Mavus’s intelligence reports, he knew the princess had sent him in the right direction and that the tunnel did indeed lead to an underground lagoon through which he could escape.
Given her opinion of what she believed to be a ruse, it was surprising that she hadn’t tried to trick Vorik and send him down a true dead-end. And what if the bodyguard hadn’t told the troops about Vorik? Would Syla have?
It had sounded like she wanted to leave and carry on with her next steps, not that she’d longed for his death. Maybe, even though they were enemies, she’d felt beholden to him for rushing in to save her from Mavus and Anok. If that was true, there might be hope that Vorik could eventually win her trust.
As shouts followed him toward the lagoon, he nodded to himself again. For the sake of his people, and because the general had commanded it, he would find a way to succeed.
9
“We’re sorelieved to find you, Your Highness,” Lieutenant Lonx said, more than a few tearstains marking his soot-streaked face.
With torn and burned uniforms, bruises, gashes, and limps to rival those of her bodyguard, the entire squad accompanying Syla and Fel out of the tunnels was so battered and beleaguered that they didn’t look like they should be upright.
“So far, we’ve only found…” Lonx glanced at Fel, as if to ask if he should give Syla his bad news.
Fel only grunted and glanced back again. He’d told the lieutenant about Captain Vorik, prompting the less injured half of the squad to take off to hunt the rider down, but Fel looked like he wished he could have accompanied them, that he felt he’d failed by not finding a way to kill Vorik.
Syla was too tired to care that the rider had escaped. She wasn’t even sure… Oh, she didn’t believe his story about being part of some obscure faction that wanted an alliance with her people, but since Vorik had helped them in the shielder chamber, she had conflicted feelings about longing for his death. If he got away and didn’t pester her or the kingdom again, she wouldn’t mind. Of course, what were the odds that hewouldn’tpester her people again? Maybe she should have schemed with Fel to help her bodyguard kill him. Her healer’s heart shied away from the notion though. She struggled to want death for anyone, no matter how vile they were.
“The rest of my family… They didn’t make it, did they?” Syla asked the lieutenant when he didn’t continue on his own.
Even with the direct question, he winced instead of answering right away.
“I already know about Venia. We… Her body is in…” Syla caught herself from sayingthe shielder chamber, reminded that its location was still a secret to most of the world, and she’d vowed to keep it that way. She would have to return later with a small group of trusted people to assist in opening the hidden passageway so that the body could be removed. Her gut churned at the thought, and she longed to foist the duty off on someone else. “She died in the tunnels. I’ll help someone find her body later.”
