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I saw Callon disappear behind the camouflaged stable while Ada and Farris remained with the horses still milling out in the open, methodically removing their saddlebags and piling them up to the side.
I headed for Ada and the cluster of horses, nodding to her before gathering a couple of sets of reins and leading two of the animals toward the end of the stable, following Callon’s trail. I found a wide, open doorway on the backside of the long building, near one end, and could hear Callon’s voice within. The horses plodded along behind me amiably as I guided them into the enclosure.
Within, sunlight filtered through the broken windows, revealing a long line of stalls, most of which were already occupied by horses. I found Callon within the third stall from the door, unsaddling a palomino mare. Mikail and Sacha fed the horses in stalls farther in.
“Glad for the help, princess,” Callon said, exhaustion only mildly tempering his good humor.
I released the reins on one of my charges and lured the other into the first vacant stall, glancing past Callon to Mikail and Sacha. Despite Sacha’s kindness to Liam, they were strangers to me, and I was uneasy about them learning who I really was.
Callon peeked over his shoulder. “Ah. Sorry.” He mimed zipping his lips. “I’ll be more careful.”
The corners of my mouth twitched. “I thought your lips were zipped?” I set to work on the saddle cinches.
Callon grinned at me over the mare. “Like that would ever hold.”
Laughing under my breath, I shook my head.
Mikail made his way down the stable aisle, nodding to me as he passed.
I watched him leave, gripping the horn and seat of the saddle, prepared to haul it off the horse’s back, then looked at Callon. “They really respect Fin, don’t they?”
“Of course they do,” Callon said offhand. “He’s our leader. It would be weird if they didn’t respect him.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. The bulky saddle slid off the horse, heavy in my grip as I took a staggering step backward. “Do you mean, like,theleader of your people?” I shook my head, heaving the saddle over the rail.
I had seen how the others acted around him, but I had thought his role among his people was more of leadership in the general sense, not that he wasthe leader. I removed the saddle blanket from the horse’s back and draped it over the saddle, then stepped out to the aisle, shut the stall door, and approached Callon’s stall. “What do you mean?”
Callon’s ever-present smile slipped, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “What do you mean,what do I mean?”
“I mean...what, exactly, do you mean?”
Callon frowned. “You don’t know?”
Again, I shook my head, rolling my eyes. “Knowwhat, exactly?”
Callon lifted the saddle off the mare much more smoothly than I had and carried it out of the stall. “You’ve heard of the Ghost King?” He set the saddle down on the floor. “You must have. The name is whispered all over the Seven Kingdoms.”
I scoffed a laugh and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yeah, but the Ghost King is just a rumor.” There was always the name of some mythical foreign ruler on the lips of the people, either sowing fear in their blood or hope in their hearts. The Ghost King was only the latest, around for four or five years, rumored to be amassing a vast army of renegades and outlaws.
“Is he a rumor?” Callon said, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head to the side. “Is he really?”
I studied Callon’s features, reading his implied meaning. “You’re sayingFinis the Ghost King?” My brow furrowed. “But I didn’t see anything about that in his mind.”
That gave Callon pause, and I realized how that might’ve sounded to him. “Well,” he continued, “Fin doesn’t think of himself as a king, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend calling him theGhost Kingto his face.”
“But—but—” Again, I shook my head. “Are yousure?”
Callon flashed me an apologetic smile and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Maybe you should be having this conversation with Fin,” he said and stepped past me. “Seems to me you two have a lot to talk about.”
I turned, watching him leave. And then I followed him out and marched straight for Fin.
37
Fin
“They came just a few hours ago,” Joya explained, nodding to the ten newcomers passed out on the cots inside. “They didn’t eat or anything but went directly to sleep. When they wake up, they’ll be ravenous.” She sighed sadly and crossed her arms over her chest. Her slightly graying brown hair was pulled into a ponytail at the base of her neck. “They said they lost two people on the way here from Zenia. Two run-ins with bandits between here and there.”
“How many soldier sightings?” I asked, wondering if there were any signs of Eduart mobilizing his army to invade our lands yet.
