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What a cocky little asshole.
“Fine,” I growled, snagging the reins before tossing him the sheathed blade. His hands fumbled as he caught it, and he admired it briefly before tucking it beneath his threadbare wool jacket.
“But just so you’re warned…”
I paused at his foreboding tone, about to unhook a worn saddle hanging across from the stalls. “Starlight is much feistier than she looks.”
I doubted it. The mare looked like she would rear back in fright at the sight of a cockroach. “Thanks for the advice,” I sneered, fitting the saddle over her back.
Starlight. Yeah, with a name like that, she would be a real hellion.
“Come on, old broad, let’s see what you got.”
The mare grunted in reply, shaking her muzzle at me in reproach. “Fine. No need to get sassy with me.” I patted her neck, which only seemed to irritate her further. Perhaps the ancient horse had more life in her than I thought.
Grabbing the reins, I led Starlight through the side exit of the courtyard, my hooded head lowered but my steps confident.
You would have thought being the only girl in the heart of the Knights’ sanctum would have made me stick out like…well, like the only girl in the Knights’ sanctum. But not one of the grumbling stablehands nor any of the scurrying servants paid me any mind.
Maybe the oversized hood of my cloak helped disguise me. Red hair still poked out at the sides, but with my head bent to the packed earth, I might very well pass as one of the many errand boys coming in and out of the palace.
This thought bolstered my conviction, and my shoulders lost some of their rigidness.
When I was beyond the main gates of the palace, a bored soldier in desperate need of coffee having waved me through, I mounted my grumbly horse.
Starlight nickered as I hoisted myself onto her back, settling only when I scolded her in my most reproachful tone. She might be feisty, but she had just met her match.
This early, the neatly paved streets were quiet, and the plentiful torches and lanterns raised above the boulevards cast an eerie glow. With no curious eyes to gawk at me, I lifted my head and took in the skeletal city of gray and black.
“Come on,Starlight,” I mocked, kicking her flank to urge her forward. Shaking her mane, the tangled black tresses flicking at her sides, she shot ahead, nearly jostling me right out of the worn saddle. “You don’t like that name, either, eh, girl?”
I could relate. Kiara wasn’t a name I would have chosen for myself.
“Well, if you’re nice to me, then perhaps I’ll help you out. We can always change it to something more fitting.” Like “Thorn”…or “Smart-Ass.”
Starlight brought us to the edge of the city of torches and bones, and right before the imposing gates of Sciona. The half-awake guard who signaled me through barely spared me a glance, more worried about who was venturingintothe capital. I smiled inside.
Past the stone gates and the decaying heads of the king’s enemies, I paused at the last flaming torch. The moon itself wouldn’t do, as the sky was particularly overcast with leaden clouds. Reaching into the saddlebag, I doused my unlit torch in oil and dipped it into the fluttering blaze, comforted as a warm glow highlighted the mahogany in Starlight’s coat.
“All right, girl. Now for the fun part,” I whispered into her ear. She snorted in response.
Time to catch up with the commander and my new friends.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on Jude’s face when I finally caught them.
…
Gods, it was too damn easy. Or maybe I was just too damn good.
In less than an hour, I’d not only tracked down the assemblage of Knights and recruits, but I’d somehow tamed the beast that was Starlight. Apparently, the mare appreciated a bit of sarcasm and some good old-fashioned head rubs.
Just like Uncle taught me, I maintained a safe distance from my prey, trailing behind the modest group, whose faces were impassive as they likely contemplated what unknown terrors lay in wait. I, too, felt the pressure of foreboding in my chest. The night was fearful, the air too still, the glacial chill punishing. And yet, I could’ve sworn I heard my name whispered from the trees.
The night could speak all it wished. Didn’t mean I was obliged to listen.
I rolled my shoulders back and did my best to mentally will away the goose bumps dotting my arms. Above my head, the steel clouds framed the moon, which had become tinged with an ominous red hue the farther I journeyed into the Pastoria Forest. At the sight, my goose bumps grew more pronounced, my skin prickling painfully.
The branches sprouting from the charred trunks were all graced with onyx leaves that shimmered as though crusted in diamonds. It was a hauntingly beautiful sight, all those gleaming bits of fractured light, but I knew it merely disguised all the evil that rested among the roots.
