“You know that this won’t keep anyone safe?” she said.
“If need be, I’ll lock you in the hold for your own protection,” Lord Cranston said. “Do I need to do that?”
He sounded as though he was serious, and Kate had seen how implacable he could be before.
Kate shook her head. “No, sir.”
“Good,” Lord Cranston said with a smile. “We’ll find a way to get through this, Kate. I’ll think of something.”
“I’m sure you will, sir,” Kate said.
“Although it’s quite hard to think on an empty stomach. See if the quartermaster has any food for us, and then we’ll plan what comes next.”
Kate gave a short, crisp bow. “At once.”
She set off across the ship, and maybe for the first few paces she did intend to follow Lord Cranston’s orders. The looks the others gave her soon had her coming to a halt. They knew, even if their commander didn’t, that they would be better off without her. They knew that Kate was the reason they had all been put in danger.
She knew it too, and in that moment, she knew what she had to do.
Kate waited until the sky started to darken before she acted. She spent the time in between running errands for Lord Cranston, and guessed that he was trying to keep her busy to take her mind off the threat to her and the others. It didn’t work. Hardly a moment went past when Kate wasn’t thinking about it. The others certainly were. She could see their thoughts. At least one would have thrown her over the side if he could.
Kate went to find Will. He was with his gun crew, a bandage showing the wound that he’d picked up in the battle. He, at least, smiled as he saw her approach.
“I’m surprised Lord Cranston let you come to find me,” he said.
“I just wanted to see how you were,” Kate said, because she couldn’t tell him the truth. She couldn’t tell him that she was leaving, because that would make Will complicit in what she was about to do. She couldn’t risk him bearing the brunt of Lord Cranston’s anger.
“It hurts a little,” Will said, “but I’ll be fine.”
Kate smiled at the attempt at bravery, then moved closer, pulling him to her. She kissed him then, not caring who saw her. She kissed him because there might never be another chance to do it, taking as long as she could, savoring the moment.
“What was that for?” Will asked, as Kate pulled back.
“Because I care about you,” Kate said, “and… well, I wanted you to know that.”
And because she wanted to say goodbye, but couldn’t.
“Lord Cranston will be looking for you soon,” Will said.
“Yes,” Kate agreed. “He will.”
It took everything she had to step away from him and make it back over the deck. She had to move carefully now, slipping along to the starboard side of the ship, where one of its landing boats hung suspended by ropes. Kate worked those ropes in silence, extending her powers to feel for the attention of others and hiding whenever someone passed.
Finally, she felt the boat hit the water, and clambered down into it. Taking her sword, she sliced through the ropes holding it in place, feeling the hemp part beneath her blade and current start to take hold of the landing boat. It wouldn’t be long before they missed her now. Kate knew she had to be well clear of the ship before that happened.
The question was where to go next, but the truth was that Kate had no plan beyond getting off the ship, where she would be no more danger to Lord Cranston, his company, or Will. Especially Will.
She couldn’t go back toward the continent, because then she would run straight into the Master of Crows’ forces. She couldn’t head toward Ashton, because that was the same direction as the ship, and because that would only deliver her to the Dowager’s people when she landed.
Not knowing what else to do, Kate started to row north. She would keep the others safe, whatever it took, and wherever it took her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sebastian picked his way across the broken stone of the bridge as carefully as he could, trusting in the training of his horse but still wanting to push it forward. Sophia was somewhere ahead, and that thought was enough to send him hurrying across the bridge, even when his horse’s hooves skittered on the broken sections.
“Not far,” he told his horse, patting its neck. “We’ll find her soon.”
This time, it felt as though it would happen. This wasn’t some feint designed to send him the wrong way. This was the right road; he knew it. Ahead he could see the estate he was heading for, while behind…
Behind, there were occasional flashes of sunlight from metal that suggested people some way behind him. Sebastian didn’t know whether he was being hunted by bandits, or if it was just some traveler who happened to be heading in the same direction. Either way, the solution for him didn’t change: he needed to keep going.
When he reached the estate, Sebastian found himself pausing, both admiring it and wondering why Sophia would go there. Once, it had obviously been a beautiful place. Maybe it could be again with enough work. Now, it seemed an unlikely place for anyone to come. Only the prospect of catching up to Sophia had brought Sebastian there, but that prospect was enough to send him galloping down toward the house.
No one came out to greet him, but maybe that just meant that they hadn’t seen him coming. Sebastian had to hope that this wasn’t another dead end, so he hopped down from his horse and led it. He walked around the house, looking for a way inside, and taking in the sheer grandeur of the place, only slightly faded with time and fire damage.
When he saw the cottage nearby, he knew that would be the place to go for answers. Where the rest of it seemed as cold and dead as a mausoleum, the cottage had smoke coming from its chimney, and a feeling of good repair that was absent in the rest. Sebastian walked the short distance to the cottage, tying his horse outside and knocking on the door.
“Sophia, are you in there?” he called. “It’s Sebastian.”
“She isn’t here,” a man’s voice said, and Sebastian turned to find himself looking at a man holding a crossbow. Even as he watched, the newcomer lowered his weapon. “But if you’re Sebastian, then I guess I don’t need this.”
“You know who I am?” Sebastian asked.
The other man nodded. “Sophia asked me to send a message for you, but if you’re here now, I guess that means you aren’t back in Ashton to receive it. I’m McCallum, sir. The gardener.”
“What message?” Sebastian asked. He found himself thinking of what had happened back at the crossroads and hoped that this wouldn’t prove to be another attempt to slow him down.
The other man shook his head. “I didn’t read it. Truth is, I never did read so well. You haven’t missed her by much, though.”
“I haven’t?” Hope started to rise inside Sebastian, but he forced himself to stay calm. “Which way did she go? Where is she?”
The gardener shrugged. “She and her friends left a little while ago. She was heading for the fishing village east of here, I think. Said something about trying to find a boat to Ishjemme.”
Sebastian frowned at that. He couldn’t imagine why Sophia would want to go there, to a land that was supposedly beautiful in the summer, but a frozen place for far too much of the year. It didn’t matter though. All that mattered was getting to her before she left.
“I have to go,” he said. “I have to catch up to her.”
“Well, good luck,” McCallum said. He looked past Sebastian, and Sebastian could see the fear on his face. His crossbow started to rise again. “Are they… are they with you?”
Sebastian looked around, and he suspected that his own horror matched that of the gardener. At least twenty riders were bearing down on them, and now that they were more than a half-seen flicker in the distance, he could make out the blue and gray of the royal regiments. More than that, he could identify the golden-haired figure at the front.
Rupert.
“No, they aren’t,” Sebastian said. “But I sus
pect they might be here because of me. You should get inside.”
There was no time for it, though, because the riders were already there, encircling them in a ring of horses and armed men. Rupert hopped down from the saddle with casual grace, tossing his reins to one of the other men and striding forward.
“Sebastian, brother!” Rupert said, throwing his arms wide as if he might catch Sebastian up in a bear hug. “There you are. Mother has had me looking all over this Goddess-forsaken country for you.”
“No doubt causing chaos wherever you went,” Sebastian replied. “What are you doing here, Rupert?”
“Amusingly enough, I’m being the dutiful one,” Rupert said. He yawned theatrically. “How do you do it? It’s so boring. Still, here we are. Time to come home, little brother.”
Sebastian shook his head. “I’m not done here. I have to find Sophia. I’m sorry, Rupert, but there’s no time for this. I have to find her before she gets to the docks.”
“Oh,” Rupert said, looking disappointed. “And there I was thinking that you might want to spend some time with your brother.” He held up a finger, as if an idea had just come to him. “Ah, there’s a thought. We can hunt her down together. Mother said I had to deal with her too, so maybe you can come along while I fetch her and drag her back to Ashton in chains.”
Anger flashed in Sebastian at that thought; at the thought of Rupert anywhere near Sophia.
“If you lay a finger on her—” Sebastian began, but he didn’t get to finish it, because in that moment, Rupert hit him.
It wasn’t a punch. Instead, it was a ringing, open-handed blow, as much insult as weapon. It was the kind of thing men used when they wanted to slap away an overenthusiastic hunting hound, or deliberately insult another to the point of a duel.
“I plan on much more than a finger,” Rupert said, casually backhanding Sebastian. “And you are forgetting your place, brother. Your place is as the one who does all the boring things so that I don’t have to. Your place is to play the dutiful prince so that I am free to do as I wish. It is not to upset Mother. It is definitely not to force me to trek across the kingdom after you.”
Sebastian put a hand to his lip, tasting blood. “So what are you planning to do, Rupert? Beat me until I come to heel like a dog? Mother won’t like that.”
“Mother said to do whatever I needed to do to bring you back,” Rupert said. “If I tell her that you tried to run, and fight, and I just had to hit you a few times to bring you down…” He affected a posture like an actor playing to the ring of cavalry around them. “Oh, Mother, he gave me no choice. Sebastian fought like a wild thing when I told him what I was going to do with his lady love.”
To Sebastian’s surprise, a figure stepped past him. McCallum the gardener had his crossbow up, this time leveled at Rupert’s heart.
“That’s enough,” the man said. “I don’t care who you are, you’ll not threaten Lady Sophia!”
Sebastian tried to push back in front of the gardener. He could survive Rupert’s anger, but he doubted that this man could. But it was too late. He could already see Rupert’s eyes sliding to the other man, a cold look there.
“Sebastian,” he said, with a tight smile. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?”
“Leave him out of this, Rupert,” Sebastian said. “It has nothing to do with him.”
Rupert laughed at that.
“And what will you do to keep him safe, Sebastian?” Rupert said. “Will you come with me quietly? Will you help me to find Sophia?”
Sebastian bit his lip. “Yes.”
If he did it, the gardener would live at least, and if they went to find Sophia, at least that would ensure that Sebastian was there to help her. They could escape Rupert’s clutches together, if they had to.
Rupert nodded at that. “Such a noble thought.”
He nodded again, and this time, it wasn’t to Sebastian. The sound of a shot rang out, and McCallum gasped, clutching his shoulder. Sebastian saw his crossbow bolt flash past Rupert, missing him by a hand’s breadth before flying away into the distance.
“But the fact is that I don’t want you docile,” Rupert said, as the gardener tumbled down to his knees. “And a man who threatens a prince is a traitor who deserves to die.”
As if to reinforce his point, he stepped over to McCallum, drawing his slender duelist’s rapier even as he stepped on the wounded man’s shoulder, making him scream in agony.
“We’re going to bring you back,” Rupert said. “We’re going to find Sophia, and we’re going to make her suffer on the way back to her execution. And you know what, little brother? I’m going to make you watch every second of it.”
Sebastian could feel his rage boiling up then, overwhelming any concerns he had about being surrounded by so many men, bursting through any restraints imposed by brotherly love or duty. He drew his own sword, and he threw himself at his brother.
They clashed, and the sheer momentum of Sebastian’s lunge forced their blades tight together. Sebastian hit Rupert over the top of their crossed swords, then winced as Rupert’s knee slammed into his thigh.
“Ah, now you’re fighting,” Rupert said with a laugh. He punched Sebastian in the ribs, once then again.
Sebastian didn’t fall back under the onslaught. Instead, he brought his head back and then snapped it forward, to crash into Rupert’s face. When his brother’s grip loosened, Sebastian shoved him back, sending Rupert stumbling to the ground.
A part of him wanted to rush forward and continue the fight; wanted to punish Rupert for the murder he’d just committed, and the worse things he’d threatened. He wanted to plunge the sword he held into Rupert’s heart, but…
…but he was his brother, and he couldn’t do it. Sebastian couldn’t kill his own brother. He couldn’t picture having to tell his mother that he’d done it. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
So he ran, instead, aiming for the edge of the circle of men that surrounded him. The men he ran for moved to block him, but they didn’t level pistols or muskets, unwilling to risk killing a prince of the realm. Sebastian took full advantage of it, leaping at the man who was holding Rupert’s horse and dragging him from the saddle. They went down in a punching, sprawling mess.
Sebastian hit the man with the hilt of his sword, catching him clumsily on the jaw, and managed to come up to his feet. He kicked out, knocking the soldier senseless, then vaulted into the saddle of his brother’s horse. Another soldier moved closer, blade out now, and Sebastian slashed at him with his sword.
Then he kicked his stolen horse into a gallop and rode, bursting free of the circle of horsemen. He forced his horse forward, ignoring the sound of a shot behind him. Sebastian guessed that would be Rupert, because the others wouldn’t dare to fire at him. He heard the sound of hooves behind him, and turned to see all twenty horsemen following.
“I hope you’re fast,” he said to the horse, bending low over its neck and forcing it forward. It would be. Rupert always insisted on the finest in everything: the most expensive tailoring, the most beautiful courtesans, the fastest horses. He wouldn’t let his men ride faster beasts than he did. At least, Sebastian hoped he wouldn’t.
The horse ran, and Sebastian guided it as best he could, heading for a stony hillside and picking a path up it. He reached the top of the hill and cut left, down toward a streambed flanked by a stone wall that seemed too high to consider clearing. Sebastian pushed the horse forward anyway, building up speed, and then urging it into a leap.
For a moment, he thought he’d misjudged it. He felt certain that his horse was going to crash into the stone, break a leg, send him tumbling. Instead, it seemed to hang in the air forever as it cleared the wall, its hooves splashing down in the stream. Looking back, Sebastian saw horses pulling up short at the thought of the leap. One man fell from the saddle as his horse shied away from the jump too quickly.
Sebastian knew he wouldn’t have another chance. He kicked the horse forward, putting as much dist
ance as possible between him and the chasing group of soldiers. He rode around the base of one of the nearby hills, putting them out of sight.
If he were just trying to lose them, that might have been enough. He could have picked a direction at random and set off, using the cover of Monthys’s hills to make sure that they never found him again. If he did that, though, he would never find Sophia before she set off on her journey, or before his brother caught up to her. Sebastian needed to get to her, and now it was a race, because if Rupert got to her first…
Sebastian shook his head. He wouldn’t let that happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kate had no idea where she was, and maybe, right then, that was a good thing. Lord Cranston wouldn’t be able to find her if even she didn’t know where she was, and nor would the Dowager’s people.
She’d pulled the boat in to shore an hour ago, dragging it up coastal scree and abandoning it in case someone came looking for her. Would they? Would they track her as a deserter now that she’d run from the company against Lord Cranston’s orders? Kate didn’t know. She hoped not.
Once she’d reached the coast, she headed inland. Now, she wandered a landscape that seemed to be composed mostly of peat and heather, broken only here and there by solitary trees, or small stands of them. There were mountains around, tall enough that they seemed to form the edge of the world, blotting out the possibility of anything beyond them. Kate started toward them, stopped, and looked around, simply not knowing what to do.
Was there any point in walking that way? What did she hope to find? Right then, Kate couldn’t imagine hoping for anything. Hope felt like a curse, dooming her to more pain when it shattered. She’d hoped that she would feel better when she had her revenge on the House of the Unclaimed, but it had only left her feeling like ashes, and it had brought more trouble to both her and those around her. She’d hoped that she could find a life with Lord Cranston’s men, but that had fallen apart as well.
Now she was alone, and Kate had never truly been alone in her life. She’d always had Sophia with her when she was young, then Thomas and Will, the company of mercenaries. Now, she was alone in a land of wind and rain that only seemed to emphasize how far Kate was from human contact.