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“Then what’s going on? Who could possibly want me dead? Even I’m not foolish enough to believe those were common thieves.”
“Alrick, do you think those were Louis the Great’s men?” Henrike said, pushing off the tree she’d been leaning against to walk over to us.
“King Louis of the Western kingdoms?” Mina wondered.
I shook my head. “No, Louis has no interest in killing the Rhine heir. At least not yet. It wouldn’t be wise. His daughter hasn’t married the future king of the North yet. Louis would need many years to prepare a Northern army if he truly wanted to attack the South. If he kills Mina now, he runs the risk that her father might remarry and try for another heir. One that—” I stopped.One that what, Alrick? Wouldn’t be as hated? Called the Night Queen?
“That the kingdom might hate a little less?” Mina completed the sentence for me. I winced at her words.
“Or even just believe in,” Henrike added.
“Henrike!” I barked at her. She shrugged and then braided her long dark hair as if we were having the most casual conversation in the world.
Mina’s gaze was frozen to the ground.
“The North King Algar...” Mina mumbled. “Could he be behind this?”
Henrike rolled her eyes. “I know you hate us, but not everything is the North’s fault.”
I scratched my chin. “As much as it pains me to say, it’s possible.”
Henrike frowned.
“The fighting style of those men was, without a doubt, Northern,” I said.
“And the mark of the black spider. It seems like something a Northerner would tattoo onto himself,” Mina said.
I froze. “A black spider?”
Mina nodded. “Right before I fell out the window, I saw a spider on my attacker’s arm.”
“Are you certain?” I asked. If that was true, then there was no doubt who was behind all this.
“As certain as I still stand and breathe in front of you,” Mina insisted.
Henrike threw her hands up in the air. “How could he be so foolish! I knew he was many things, but simple-minded was never one of them. His army is on the brink of collapse, his coffers empty. He knows all too well that the Rhine King would wipe the North off the face of this earth if he found out.”
Mina’s eyes widened. “So it truly was King Algar?”
Henrike let her hands drop to her hips. “The black spider is a mark of King Algar’s black knights.”
“An elite group of soldiers with a dark reputation,” I added.
“If this was to come to light, the North would be no more,” Henrike said, a mixture of frustration and worry written all over her face.
“Ifit was to come to light,” I repeated. “Without the mark of the spider, Algar would be one of the least suspected of this plot.”
“But why?” Mina asked. “Surely not because of the things I said at the ball?”
Henrike laughed. “Stupid girl.”
“Well, are you going to explain, or have you devolved into primitive insults only?” Mina barked at her.
A twig snapped nearby; my hand dropped to the handle of my sword. Moments later, a little bunny hopped over the open patch of grass, only to disappear into the woods again.
I let go of my sword. I was too jumpy. “We need to keep moving.”
“What about my belongings at the inn? It’s all I had.”
