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One night won’t kill me.
19
Captain Montgomery
Iwakebeforesunrise,the first few fingers of light brushing through the sky.
A warm weight drapes across one leg, its comforting weight leaving me within the in between of sleep and wakefulness longer than usual. I finally open my eyes, blinking as consciousness sharpens my vision and awareness. Ari lies nestled next me, her head pushing against my thigh and her arms entwined around and beneath my legs. She looks so peaceful, her chest rising and falling with each steady breath, in and out. Her soft brown hair lays sprawled out beneath her while her eyelashes cast the barest hint of a shadow beneath her eyes.
I unwittingly clear my throat. The harsh, gutteral sound rattles through our small space. My inadvertent movement jostles her from sleep, and I move my body away before she knows of her precarious positioning only moments before. She sits up, her heavy-lidded eyes resting on me, their softness molding swiftly to annoyance.
My feet sink with each step as we pack up our meager camp, mud coating the bottom half of my boots. The ground is mushy from last night’s rain, and the clouds above threaten more before the morning melts into afternoon.
“Let’s pray to Haythen we find the princess in Fort Lowsan,” Aiden says. “I’ve heard the Prythan Mountains are similar to the Kotar— taller in some places if you can even imagine. If their spring season is anything like ours, it won’t just be men like Silas we will need to keep an eye out for.” He stares into the sky as he walks his mare to the road.
“What do you mean?” Ari asks, tilting her head to the side.
I’ve never seen the Prythan, only heard stories I assumed were mostly fictitious. The kind used to add drama to the tale to keep the listener entertained. Many liken the Prythans to the Kotar, Felshan’s mountain range that boasts some of the highest, most dangerous peaks in all of the Four Kingdoms. But if the stories boasted any truth, then while the Kotar Mountains— which I know well from my training in the Guard— are dauntless, the Prythan Mountains are indomitable.
“This rain, while we are on flat ground, is more of a nuisance,” Otto replies to Ari’s question, his eyes gentle as he looks toward her. “It may cause us to slip around, slow down, and coat our bottom halves in a good deal of mud. However, all this moisture—” he pauses, looking out into the north where I swear I see a faint, shaded outline pushing through the clouds onto the horizon. “Up in the Prythan. Well.” He shrugs, and his eyes glaze over for a mere moment before he forces a grin.
Ari’s brow still lays furrowed, her confusion adding to my own bewilderment. I thought with all her training with Lady Margaret, she would have at least been exposed to the lower of the Kotar. The mountain front that, when compared to the full range, look more like rolling hills. But Ari appears oblivious to the plight of the mountains, even the smallest Felshan has to offer.
Otto catches on to her confusion quickly, not allowing her ignorance to create any embarrassment on her part. He finds an earthworm inching its way across our path, picking it out of the saturated dirt of the road and laying it gently on the back of his hand.
“Think of us as this worm here,” Otto says. “If I tilt my hand, the worm can still make its way up and over. My hand is dry, so there’s good traction. If I add a little water,” he jogs to the side of the road, grabbing and emptying the gathered rain water from a cup-shaped leaf overtop the worm. “The worm moves around a bit, and may get washed away if he’s in the strongest part of the run-off. But for the most part, he has no problem staying aboard my hand— finding his footing again, so to speak.
However, the water mixed with dirt,” he bends, digging his hand into the soft ground, and plopping the contents overtop the creature on his tilted hand, “will push the worm clean off without any notice or hesitation.” The worm drops to the ground with the heap of mud.
Ari raises an eyebrow at Otto’s now filthy hands. “I’m not a child, Otto. I think I could have kept up with a verbal explanation.”
“Now, where’s the fun in that?” Otto winks at her as he finds more cupped leaves to wash away the grime from his visual representation.
“Summer is really the only pleasant time to spend up in the mountains,” Aiden adds. “Autumn leaves the threat of early snowfall, making the journey three or four times longer and killing those who don’t have enough supplies to last that long. Winter boasts temperatures so cold you’ll freeze overnight if unprepared. And spring— impassable roads from winter snow run-offs and extra rain, or being buried in a mudslide.”
“It’s no wonder we don’t all live in the mountains,” Ari sneers.
The gates of Fort Lowsan loom ahead of us.
We urged our horses to go as fast as they could, driven by Otto’s vivid explanation of the danger of the mountains and our hope of avoiding the northern fort altogether.
Parker Aldren must have ridden day and night in order to evade our rescue party. I think of the last time I saw him, standing guard outside the throne room. He had talked to her. I heard him conversing with Lena from where I stood around the corner. A growl rises from my throat as I imagine him plotting against her, against my family.
I knew Evander better than I know my own brother, and the king and queen treated me as their own son. The treachery this family has endured... A tightening pit forms in my stomach, clenching and churning my insides. Not only for Aldren’s treason, but my own part in their pain. I may not have directly killed Evander, but I may as well have been the one who shot the arrow.
I push my guilt aside for something deeper— the pledge I made all those years ago. The one I whispered while clutching onto my best friend’s lifeless body, the Rashan swirling around our forms, its crystal blue water tinged with Evander’s blood. For as long as I lived, I would personally make sure King Cassus, Queen Amelia, and their daughter, Princess Adalena, were protected. That I would never leave their side. I would do what Evander no longer could. Whatever dreams I may have held for my future were reforged that day into a polished sword of promise, one even stronger than Turinian steel.
I see that sword digging deep into Aldren as I watch the life leave his eyes. It’s not pain and anguish that I will feel. No. It will be satisfaction and honored vengeance. My promise fulfilled without any remorse.
20
Ari
Asweapproachtheentrance of Fort Lowsan, everyone’s spirits drop at the sight of dozens of wagons waiting at the south entrance.
A checkpoint of guards, swords sheathed but at the ready if the need should arise, line around the large metal gate from both below and a cove above. It’s a dark, heavy, monstrosity of a thing, built not to keep out simple farmers and tradesman, but apparently armed giants. Additional soldiers stand on the massive wall surrounding the Fort, bows in hand— archers awaiting a command from their leader.
“We need to split up,” Captain Montgomery says, dismounting his horse a few paces back from the line while turning around to face Otto, Aiden, and myself. “I know the Santanas. They have eyes and ears all over the city searching for anything out of the ordinary— and four armed Felshanian soldiers,” he eyes me, tagging me half-heartedly into the category, “are definitely out of the ordinary. But if we separate, go in one at a time, we might pass through without any red flags raising to their spies.”
