AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or maybe Ren was seeking solace too, for the nudges were gentle little grazes that I began to not just relish but crave as the hours dragged on, my sightlessness accentuating every dreadful creak around us until my nerves felt as frayed as my clothes. The smugglers who had originally forged this tunnel must have been fucking crazy. Or desperate.
And then I was yanked to a halt by hands falling on my shoulders, and I saw the torchlight dance through the threads of the cloth as Milady or Milord moved past me. There was a clang of metal, like a bolt on a gate, and then the wind that had been absent this whole time hit me in the face, making me stagger backwards.
By the Blessed, it was cold. And just like how I’d acclimatised to the southern weather during the months I’d spent in Quareh such that I’d felt the chill as we moved north, the shock of the buffeting, frigid wind had me burying my face into the furs around my neck and cursing into their fluffy embrace.
“Through you go,” Milady said, and gave me a hard shove between the shoulder blades that almost sent me reeling. My boots slammed down, the transition from soft dirt to snow only evident by the audible crunch it made, and I fumbled at the knot tied at the back of my head.
“Hey now,” she rebuked sharply, and my wrist was jerked down. “We may be through the range, but ya ain’t getting that off until we’re good and distant. Wunna want you to know where to look if you were ever passing back this way, would we, Milord?”
“That we wunna, Milady.”
“Trust me,” I said through gritted teeth, “I have no desire toevergo into that tunnel again.”
“Hmm,” murmured Ren from a few feet away. It was the first word he’d spoken in hours, yet even that one syllable felt dangerously charged, like a coiled viper or a lit fuse. I wished I could see his face.
“Walk, friends,” Milord ordered, and I felt myself being shoved forward again, my feet scuffing into thicker snow as the ground dropped off sharply. I bit my tongue on a retort to the rough treatment, wondering what they’d say if they knew they were pushing around the impending heir to the entire southern half of Riehse Eshan. Then again, it was nice to be unseen for once, treated poorly just because they were uncaring assholes rather than because of who we were or who we fucked.
Ren’s darkly muttered threats as we descended the slope told me that he wasn’t feeling nearly so appreciative of the anonymity. My prince had always adored the type of public interest I shied from, and I knew keeping his identity hidden since that day we’d fled the Márosian palace hadn’t been easy for him, not when the man so effortlessly drew – and sought, flaunted, and basked in – attention.
After the ground levelled out after about half an hour, we were finally permitted to remove the blindfolds. I blinked and glanced around, letting my eyes adjust. It was night. There was a thin layer of snow clinging to the branches of nearby gorse bushes and the blades of grass underfoot which seemed to sparkle in the moonlight drenching the land, the moon itself hanging high in the sky.
“Now. Our fee?”
No one moved, and the tension rippled thick through the air between us. Then Ren sighed, dug his fingers into his pocket, and handed over the last of our money.
“Pleasure,” Milady drawled, and they turned back towards the mountain range looming in the distance.
“Wait,” I said. “Where are we?”
“They said gettem to Mazekhstam, didn’t they, Milady?”
“That they did. And we’re in Mazekhstam, are we not, Milord?”
“That we are-”
“Yes,” I interrupted. “Care to be a little more specific so we don’t freeze to death walking in the wrong direction?”
“Well.” Milord looked us up and down. “That’ll cost you.”
I scowled at them. We had nothing left to give, and I expected they knew it. “No, it won’t.”
“No it won’t,” Milady echoed, grinning. “Just ‘cos we like you, we’re gunna tell you that there-” She pointed over our heads, and I followed the gloved finger to a frozen lake a short distance away. “-marks the boundary on the Grachyov estate, don’t it?”
I gave an incredulous laugh. “You run your smuggling operation a handful of miles from the home of Mazekhstam’s own fucking Commander?”
“Well,” Milord said, scratching his chin through his beard, “he’s usually in the capital, ain’t he, Milady?”
“That he is, Milord. No one to notice us way out here, there ain’t.”
“Dunna turn around,” he ordered. “Not until we’re long gone.”
My prince was still silent, his expression darkly furious. So I nodded and the two Temarians disappeared behind us, fussing at each other loudly enough that it would have been easy to follow them if we’d wanted to.
“They do realise we could simply retrace our footsteps in the snow?” I remarked to Ren, amused. He didn’t respond.
I chanced a glance sideways, the sinking feeling in my stomach doubling when I saw his face was set into a stony glare.
“You’re pissed at me,” I said.
