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“Are you well, Your Highness?”
“Quite,” Keris said, and then belied his own words by walking a little faster.
Keris leanedagainst the inside of the bridge, watching the flickering flame of a lantern. He was exhausted from a day’s worth of walking, but unlike his snoring entourage, he couldn’t fall asleep on the bedroll the Ithicanians had provided.
Sleep never came easily to him, especially when he wasn’t alone or protected by solid walls and a locked door. He’d been stabbed in the back—literally—too many times forthat.Such was the nature of being a Maridrinian prince, the sheer number of brothers ensuring constant jockeying for position, which often meant eliminating the competition. Keris had survived this long because his brothers hadn’t perceived him as a threat, choosing instead to murder the best warriors and most ambitious politicians among them. It had all worked very well until the last of his elder brothers had been killed, leaving Keris as heir, whether he wanted to be or not. And the heir was always the greatest target of all.
The slight scuff of boots caught his attention, and he looked up to see Raina step into the pool of lantern light from where she’d been standing guard farther up the bridge tunnel. She stopped next to a sleeping Ithicanian, shaking him awake. The man rose without hesitation, buckling his weapons on as he walked to take the place she’d vacated. The other Ithicanians keeping watch did the same—a finely oiled machine that ensured nothing happened in the bridge that Ithicana did not see.
Raina’s eyes landed on him. “You should rest, Your Highness. We’ve many more days of walking, and if you can’t keep the pace, I’ll have to ask you to ride with your friends.”
Keris wrinkled his nose, casting a sideways glance at the unconscious group of men. “They aren’t my friends.” He didn’t have friends.
Unbuckling her sword belt, Raina sat on the ground with her legs crossed, weapon resting on her knees. “Who are they, then?”
“They are what my father deemssuitable company.”
“If the ability to imbibe an immense amount of wine is what it takes to be deemedsuitable,they are excellent choices indeed.”
His entourage had drank and gambled through the entire day, their laughter raucous and grating, although they’d kept to Ithicana’s rules. “I can’t blame them. This is a terrible way to travel. Walking in the damp and the dark, eating cold food, sleeping on the ground. Never mind the cost in gold.”
Raina’s teeth gleamed white in the lantern light as she smiled. “Pay us or pay the tempests, Highness. Every traveler has a choice.”
“Are the storms really so bad?” They were violent and unpredictable enough along the northern coast of Maridrina, but there were dozens of harbors with storm walls and breakwaters to protect ships from the worst of the onslaught.
She made a soft noise of confirmation. “It is said the bottom of the Tempest Seas gleams with the gold spilled by a hundred thousand sunken ships, and that the treasure is guarded by the countless souls sucked beneath the waves, their greedy fingers always reaching up for more.”
“Then I’ll count my good fortune to have solid stone beneath my feet.” He knocked a fist against the bridge floor. “Even if it makes my back ache.”
The Ithicanian who was standing guard nearest to them coughed, and Keris noted how Raina’s shoulders jerked, her head turning toward the man. Not startled but guilty, fraternization between the Ithicanians and those they were escorting being strongly discouraged.
“It’s late.” She moved to the pallet the other Ithicanian had vacated, pulling the blanket over her shoulders. “You should rest.”
Keris didn’t answer, only picked up the book next to him, angling it toward the light. He was close, so painfully close to escape. When he was on Harendellian soil, he’d be away from his father’s influence.
And only then would he sleep easily.
Keris only caughtfits and snatches of sleep through the night, yet again he chose not to ride in the travel wagons but to walk, each step he put between himself and his father like a weight lifted off his chest, each passing hour filling him with more confidence that this wasn’t an elaborate ruse to put him in his place. Another way to bring him low.
To temper his boredom, he examined the interior of the bridge and those who traveled it. The strange stone the structure was made from was smooth and uniform, the only marks the numbers stamped into the floor that appeared to mark distance. Keris counted the paces between them, the consistent number of steps suggesting that they measured distance traveled within the bridge, which snaked and wove between the islands and piers it rested on, rather than the actual linear distance traveled north, making it impossible to determine precisely where in Ithicana they were.
Despite it being the calm season, there was more traffic than he anticipated, the bray of donkeys and the thud of boots rivaling the groaning draft of wind that filled the endless tunnel. Dozens of wagons, some in long convoys, passed by, and while most were loaded with goods being transported from Northwatch to Southwatch by the Ithicanians, there were some with travelers from other nations, predominantly Harendellians. Regardless, the wagons were always escorted by heavily armed Ithicanians, the eyes behind their masks watchful, their hands quick to their weapons at any sudden movements. Only once was his party passed from behind, a group of twelve Ithicanians who eyed Keris’s entourage with interest before jogging ahead, not one of them uttering a single word.
Likely as a result of her comrade’s scrutiny, Raina avoided him for most of the day, but late that night, after she’d returned from watch and curled up on her bedroll, he heard her murmur, “Is it true you’re going to Harendell to study at university?”
Aware that the Ithicanian standing only a dozen paces away could hear the conversation, Keris said, “Yes. It’s long been a dream of mine, though my father only recently agreed to it. We’re both happier to see less of each other, and if I am in Harendell, he need not see me at all.”
“Why?”
“Why do I wish to go to university or why do my father and I not see eye to eye?” Not waiting for a response, he said, “The answer to both is the same: I prefer books to swords.”
Her tone was wistful as she said, “You aren’t alone in that.”
“In having an odious father or in having a fondness for large libraries?”
“Both.” She curled an arm under her head, eyes glinting from behind her mask. “My father was a Watch Commander until recently, so there was never any other option than me picking up a sword.”
“I’m not certain there is any other option for me, in the long run. At some point, I’ll have to come back and take up the fight against Valcotta.”
