Guards were set up every few feet within the bailey. I didn’t know if it had always been this way or if it was a new development that came with King Ivan’s ascension to the throne.
I was sure that though he had the support of the aristocrats when it came to the curse, he still dreaded a rebellion from all those he’d trapped in Tempest. There was little the amsirah could do against the king, the aristocrats, and their powerful armies… unless Ryker succeeded in finding a way to bring them down.
Those awful men would never see that coming, and I would do what I could to help him succeed… after some food and sleep.
While Ryker plotted, the amsirah trapped here had no idea that freedom might lay ahead of them. The king probably felt pretty secure in his knowledge the peasants could do little against him.
No, they weren’t even peasants to him. They were toys he played with occasionally, sometimes broke, and tossed aside like a petulant child.
Once outside the inner bailey, we walked down the road for a little while. I hoped Ryker would see us, but either way, I’d talk to him soon.
“I’ll open a portal to take us home,” my mother said.
“That would be fantastic,” I murmured.
I yearned to go home, stuff my face, and crawl into bed, but I still had so much to do before that could happen. Once we returned home, I had to meet Ryker at the place we’d designated before I entered the palace.
Of course, I would also have to tell my mother what I’d agreed to give the king, that I was the Hooded Robber, and everything else. I’d worked hard to keep the truth from her, but it had to come out.
She had to know everything if she was going to stay safe, and she had to understand why I was going to help Ryker, even after everything the duke had done, and would still do, to us. Instead of telling her, I could open a portal and sneak out of the house every night, but I was tired of lies and secrets.
When it came time to abandon the manor, we would have a safe place to go, and I couldn’t tell her we would one day have to leave everything we knew and loved without telling herwhyor where we would go.
The consequences of my poor decisions kept coming. It was one hit after another; by the time this was over, I would deliver more blows than a boxer.
I wanted nothing to do with this anymore and would prefer to bury my head in the sand, but that wasn’t an option. If we were going to be free, then we had to fight for our freedom and steal for it too.
I glanced toward the forest where Ryker was supposedly watching for us. After three days, he might have left, but I doubted it.
When my mother opened a portal home, I followed her into it.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
Ellery
“What didyou offer to the king in exchange for me?” my mother asked as soon as she closed the portal.
“I offered him half the harvest; he took it andthe first choice of three foals. We’ll have to refund what we’ve already been paid for that.”
She closed her eyes, and her shoulders hunched forward. “We’ll never survive that.”
“We will,” I told her. “At least for a little while. We have help.”
“We do?”
“Yes.”
She frowned as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Who?”
I didn’t have time to get into it with her about Ryker, the Hooded Robber, and all the holes I’d dug for myself. It would have to wait until later, especially since I was supposed to meet Ryker soon.
“Did they put you in the dungeon?” I asked instead.
She refused to be deterred. “Who, Ellery?”
“Ryker.”
Her eyes widened. “Ellery?—”
