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Sahlyn nodded.
I didn’t even want to think of how he’d obtained it or what he’d done to achieve that ploy. But I suppose I was happy he did since it gave me a few more months of life.
“When she discovered this, she sent you after me again to remedy your failure?”
“I sort of…offered.”
I lifted a brow and let out a sarcastic laugh. “You offered to kill me despite our deal?” Although I had no idea if our deal still stood, it had been months since we’d parted with no contact. Maybe the binding power of bargains wore off.
Something intangible flashed in his eyes. “Yes, because there may be another way.”
“Another way to what? Get out of being dead?”
“Yes, for one.”
“I’m listening.”
“Let’s first get you home. Produce a convincing story for your family for you to be traveling. Do whatever you need to do. Meet me on the morrow, mid-morning, at the northern gate.”
“On the morrow? Sahlyn, that gives me the night to generate a story! That’s not—”
“It’s going to have to be, Autumn.”
I seethed and crossed my arms over my chest.
“It's better than being dead. For both of us,” Sahlyn finished, the desperation evident.
And so, I delivered a convincingenoughstory. A man who had been interested in me offered for me to stay at his sister's estate in Xev to give us a chance to get to know each other. I knew it was abrupt and out of character for me, but I’d met the man’s sister from the balls and got along with her well enough—since I had no female friends, this thrilled my mother. From there, I could see if courtship were something I wished to do with this man. I had even offered his name. Oren Satter. My family knew some of the royals' names, but not the lesser-known ones. Oren being lower born was not something my parents cared about. But, I knew how to persuade them easily enough into believing my story. Maybe it was an only child thing, but I had learned at a young age how to manipulate them, to say the right things for them to believe me. I had done it to get my way over going to the north. I wasn’t proud of deceiving them, but I had little choice.
I suggested this was a good trade-off between correspondence and frequent travel. I begged repentance that I couldn’t help in the forge for a few weeks, but lately, Ativan had been helping my father more, and my mother had hired an apprentice for the tannery. They had known eventually, all their pushing for me to find a husband could result in this.
Ativan, on the other hand, did not believe me.
“What are you playing at, Autumn? You are a flighty creature, whimsical in the abruptness with which you do things, but when it comes to strange men—not so much.”
“He… Well, he’s a guard, Ativan. Not a royal.”
Ativan seemed taken aback. This was realistic, though. I had always fancied the guards, and my dalliances had been withhisguardsmen, so he knew my tastes. Gregoire was a guardsman, and the other man I had relations with was a guardsman that Ativan had trained for Feist, then there was Lamen. I had a type, as much as I hated to admit it. I liked a tall, muscular physique and a man that could match me with a blade. A stuffy, castle-living royal courting me was laughable. I knew it, he knew it, perhaps even my father knew. My mother, though, had her hopes and dreams.
However, for a man to fit into my life as a weaponsmith, he had to be a guard, didn’t he? So it still surprised me knowing I wanted to work at the forge that my mother pushed me to these parties, knowing I’d not meet a man who matched me that way.
Yet I did. I had met Oren, and now… Now I had to leave with the huntsman.
“I see,” Ativan said with a slow nod. “That makes sense.”
“His nameisOren. He is a guard at the castle of Xev. We met over the winter and exchanged an interest in courting.”
“Xev is only a swift day's ride, Autumn. There’s no need to live there.”
“I need a break, Ativan. Something new. An adventure. You know me.”
He chuckled. As he’d said, I was a flighty thing.
“Plus, I do get along well with his sister. I could use female companionship for once.”
“How long do you plan to be gone?”
“Not long,” I said, but I had no idea what was in store. The lie slipped out easily enough, though.
