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“Ludvig, Ludvig,” I sobbed. “We’re here. We found them. We’re safe now.”
Ludvig stirred, and I did my best to help him sit so that Lefric’s friend could help him out of the boat. Whoever the man was, he would have to lift Ludvig out carefully. My friend and mentor no longer had the strength to help himself.
“What happened?” Lefric asked as he reached down for me. “I thought the two of you were way over in the eastern forest, talking to lone wolves and small packs and trying to get them to join us.”
“I was,” I said, struggling to help Ludvig sit up so Lefric’s friend could grasp Ludvig under his arms. “We were. We tried to. The situation is chaotic. There are so many men in the forest. And soldiers. There are soldiers in the forest.”
I knew I wasn’t making any sense, but I didn’t care. I had to get Ludvig to safety. Ludvig had worked so hard to protect me and to save me, and what had I given him in return? Not enough, that much was certain. I couldn’t even give him the affection he deserved.
Even that guilt and the memories of what had led to it were blasted from my mind when I heard Magnus’s call of, “What’s going on here?” from the large boat. “Ludvig?” His voice grew anxious when he saw us.
I’d finally managed to get Ludvig to stand and maneuvered him toward Lefric and his friend as a rush of people came down from the boat to help us. The sight of them all—of Magnus and Peter and Neil, Jace and Sebald, and several more faces of men from Gravlock who I recognized but couldn’t name—had me sobbing like a baby. Lefric grasped Ludvig’s good arm and, with my help, muscled him slowly and awkwardly onto the deck.
I clambered onto the deck behind him, then leapt to help Lefric roll Ludvig to his back. Ludvig needed rest and a healer. He needed comfort and a pup who would love him the way he deserved to be loved. I wished that could be me, but was way too late for that now. I’d tried to be who he wanted me to be for so long, but I couldn’t do it anymore. Not after the things I’d felt and realized in the forest, and not after the promises I’d made to Dmitri.
Lefric’s friend pulled Dmitri from the boat. Dmitri was still reeling from the blows he’d taken from the guards he’d had to kill in order for us to escape. He was exhausted and bruised, but he wasn’t in danger of dying, like Ludvig was. Lefric’s friend wasn’t able to do more than roll Dmitri onto the deck before one of Magnus’s aides rushed forward to help.
“Ludvig, are you alright?” Magnus shouted, hurrying to crouch by Ludvig’s side. “My God, what happened?”
“Magnus,” Ludvig said in an exhausted, pained voice, grasping Magnus’s hand. He tried to say more, but could only manage a series of sounds that made no sense.
“He needs a healer,” I said, trying to force my thoughts to make sense. “He has a sword wound and took a couple of heavy blows. That’s on top of the way we nearly starved.” I focused on Ludvig, but raised my eyes to Lefric, then to Magnus. “Things are completely mad in the eastern forest,” I said, pushing the words out through the cloud of fear I couldn’t shake. “Factions are warring, and the Old Realm is involved. King Julius has soldiers all over the eastern part of the frontier.”
“What?” Neil gasped, looking suddenly panicked. “Soldiers? Does this mean that King Julius has already started his invasion of the frontier?”
I blinked at that. Did my friends already know King Julius’s plans?
Magnus stroked Ludvig’s forehead calmly. “We need to get them onto the boat. Regardless of the situation in the eastern forest, we need to leave Hedeon and get to Good Port as soon as possible. Instinct tells me it isn’t safe for us to stay here a moment longer.”
“Agreed,” Lefric’s friend said. “But as soon as we’re aboard and on our way downriver, I think we need to hear the whole story about what’s going on in the east.”
I couldn’t make sense of everything being said around me, but I latched on to the fact that Magnus and the others were apparently about to set out down the river to Good Port.
“I don’t care what we do or where we go as long as Ludvig gets help,” I wailed. “He…he has been so good to me. He let me…he encouraged me to…do things. I had to…It was the best way I could think of…I didn’t know….”
“Shh.” Magnus shifted from holding Ludvig’s hand to rest a hand on my shoulder. “You can tell us all about it on the boat. You look like you could use a good meal and a scrub yourself.”
I groaned and nodded. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a bath. It shouldn’t sound like paradise to me now. I should be concerned only for Ludvig until he was out of the woods.
I almost laughed maniacally at that turn of phrase, considering what we’d been through.
Lefric and one of Magnus’s men lifted Ludvig and started toward the gangplank of the big boat with him.
Lefric’s friend and another of Magnus’s men helped Dmitri to his feet. But as soon as Dmitri’s hood fell back, revealing his face, things took a turn.
Peter shouted in sheer, wordless panic and backpedaled across the dock, careening into Neil. Neil wrapped his arms around Peter, but Peter kept screaming and trying to get away, no matter how tightly Neil held him. Then he started to shudder as he went white as a sheet.
“My darling, what is it?” Magnus said, rushing to hold Peter along with Neil, deep fear in his eyes.
I knew what it was. I knew the sort of fear and desperation that Dmitri could create in a man, that he lived to create. I knew every shudder that passed through Peter and every conflicted thought Dmitri instilled.
Dmitri was injured and weak, but he still managed a cocky smile for Peter as he said, “Hello again, Peter.”
All Peter managed in return before passing out was, “Dmitri.”
Magnus whipped to face Dmitri with a death glare. If he hadn’t been clasping Peter against him, I was certain he would have leapt at Dmitri and killed him with his bare hands.
Instead, he shouted, “Seize that man and throw him into the river!”
