Rose of the Oath

  Chapter 11: Beneath Wolf Skins

  I stumbled back, my fingers digging into the bark. It was nothing. There are always wolves in the forest at night. There are always—

  A low snarl echoed behind me.

  My breath seared my throat. My hand closed on my dagger.

  Another howl, and another, closer, near the entrance of the valley. Was that the pad of feet?

  I spun, yanking out my blade. Gray and black fur rippled in the shadows. I strangled a cry. The wolf’s fangs gleamed as it crouched, and its eyes glittered.

  Soft pads and echoing growls betrayed the presence of more wolves on all sides. Please, no. Retreating a step, I pressed against the tree.

  There were three of the creatures now, or four

  “Please…” The whimper left my lips before I could stop it.

  The wolves sprang.

  I slashed toward the nearest beast, but the dagger skimmed the wolf’s shoulder. I ducked, and it twisted mid-leap, barely avoiding the tree behind me. I struck again. This time, metal pierced fur and flesh and the wolf snarled. His teeth tore against the top of my arm.

  I jerked backward with a cry, my fingers somehow keeping a grip on the dagger. Fiery pain closed about my ankle as teeth sliced through my boot.

  I screamed.

  My knees buckled, my dagger still clenched in my hand. A shuddering sob wracked my body. What had I thought? What had I ever been thinking? To venture out alone. To betray one who had never given me cause for grief. Another wolf leapt—

  A shadow slammed the creature against a nearby tree.

  My breath tore from my throat as I sank to the ground. My whole body ached in one haze of burning pain. I could see them all. Mother. Father. Snarling fangs and glittering eyes. The wolves turned on the beast, and his blade flashed, cutting down one after another.

  Heat swept against my face. I gasped and rolled to the side. Surging upward, I thrust with my dagger.

  The wolf snarled, his eyes raging. Another blade descended. The spark vanished from the wolf’s gaze. The beast’s boot shoved him aside.

  The forest was silent. Blurred. Dark with shadows and pain and death.

  The beast pressed my hair from my face, his worried eyes inches from mine as his gaze pierced my own. It shifted downward as his fingers swept my arms, touching my wounds.

  “My ankle,” I forced out the words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” The beast placed a finger over my lips and his gaze darkened as he touched my boot. I gasped, unable to smother a cry of pain.

  Straightening, the beast slid his sword into his sheath, then bent down, one arm wrapping around my shoulders and the other hooking beneath my knees. I bit back a scream as my ankle jarred when he lifted me. He strode toward the fortress, the shadows falling away on either side as the moon’s silver beams swept about us.

  The beast wavered in and out of focus. We were at the door. In the library. I sank into the divan by a blazing fire. Deft hands wrapped a wolf-skin cloak about my shoulders.

  A pungent smell assaulted my nostrils and I gasped, my surroundings surging back to full wakefulness.

  The beast grunted, tossing the smelling salts on the table, then unlaced my boot. Gently he pulled the bloodstained leather from my foot. I gritted my teeth, my fingers digging into the cushions. He glanced up sharply, his eyes searching mine.

  By the stars above, what were you thinking, out there at such a time? He traced rapidly, before pulling off my stocking. Warmth trickled down my foot. I gasped as the beast pressed a damp cloth against the incisor wounds to stanch the flow of blood. My stomach twisted, and I bit my lip against the pain.

  Faces flashed. Eldric. Helene. Klara. The beast was watching me again, and I glanced away.

  He bent over my ankle, his fingers wrapping the bandage about the wound, then moved to my arm. Why were you out?

  I bit my lip, tears burning behind my eyes. “Tauscher…” my voice faltered. “Tauscher has my sisters.”

  The beast stiffened, but he continued washing the blood from my arm, baring the gashes so similar to his own scars.

  “I saw them in the mirror.” I pressed my lips together, dashing hot tears from my eyes and willing my voice to remain steady. “Eldric is out somewhere, scouting. He can’t help. Tauscher has them. Six months I’ve been here, safe from the war, trying to get out. Trying to get back. You said it was almost over,” my voice choked. “But it is too late now. Too late.”

  Too late. It was over. Tauscher… I buried my face in my arm, draped in the extra folds of the cloak. Silent sobs shuddered my whole body. “I… the rose…” I choked. What had I done?

  The beast’s hand gripped my shoulder, then his fingers closed about my chin, turning me back to face him.

  We will get them back.

  I blinked. “Get them?” I choked. “You need to leave. The entrance, this place…” I pulled away and buried my face in my arm again. “They’ll find it now. They are coming. I used the rose…”

  A tremor ran through the beast’s fingers, but they didn’t hesitate until the bandage was tied off. I forced my gaze back toward him.

  He was watching me. You still don’t know why I am here, do you?

  I shook my head.

  The beast reached to the table beside him and handed me a cup of tea. When had he prepared that? I clutched at the warmth, pulling my arms close to my chest.

  Finally, the beast’s fingers moved in the air. I am the Oathkeeper.

  I blinked, my brow furrowing. Oathkeeper? I opened my mouth, but he shook his head, silencing my questions before they began.

  You know of the Oath of the King. The one I write. It is no legend, Elissa. I was there. His eyes blazed into mine. I was there, two hundred and fifty years ago. When the rose was plucked. When the separation occurred. His jaw tightened. The King gave the Oath to me, to keep the memory alive until I presented it before Tauscher, calling on its fulfillment.

  “The fulfillment?” My mind spun. “The Prince’s coming?”

  The beast was silent.

  I pushed myself up. “The Oath promises the Prince’s deliverance, but he can’t, or won’t, come until you’ve spoken?” My voice caught. “The King has left us to care for ourselves?”

  You’re alive, aren’t you? Faint amusement sparked in the beast’s eyes. He touched the white scar on my forearm. This isn’t the first time Tauscher’s wolves tried to kill you.

  “How…” I met his gaze. He didn’t blink, his eyes steady. My stomach twisted, a half-formed guess solidifying into fact. “It was you?”

  He bowed his head. I was too late for your mother. He studied me. Did you ever wonder why so many of your family died from wolves, down through the generations?

  I blinked.

  You are of Chriselda’s line. The beast traced the words slowly. Again that name. Chriselda. It is true I loved her once, but the Separation cut off more than the valley. Yet still Tauscher remembers, and he uses her line. A death, every generation or two, if I refuse to give up the Oath.

  I stared at him. “Wolf attacks, because of you?”

  He didn’t meet my eyes. I do what I can. Sometimes… sometimes I arrive in time.

  My breath caught in my throat. Stories. Fragments of ancient legends. Of a shadow who fought wolves; one who saved and vanished into the night. I reached out, touching one of the beast’s scars.

  He flinched.

  My fingers clenched into a fist. “But why? You… All the wolves. The attacks. Still you claim the King’s love is true? That His Oath will come to pass?”

  The King cares for His people. The Prince is not bound by the Oath but waits for it as part of the cost. A proving and testing.

  “Then why haven’t you spoken—?” I jerked myself to a stop.

  He glanced away and motioned toward my tea. I took a sip. My nose wrinkled at the strange tang. What had he put in it?

  As I said, Tauscher. I cannot speak until the Oath is spoken. Until, he paused and stared at me, pa
in flickering deep in his eyes. He moves north. Coming here. Coming for me. He couldn’t kill me before, though he wished to. But if he has accomplished his rebellion, then the Oath becomes void. He can do as he pleases. Or so he thinks. The beast let his hand drop.

  I stared at him, trying to focus.

  The rebels cannot be defeated without the aid of the Prince.

  Visions of my sisters flashed before my eyes. My throat ached until I could barely breathe. “Yet you stay here.”

  I was guarding the rose; the one your brother picked. Then it was the safest place for you. But now…

  Now?

  Shall we go find your sisters?

  My eyes burned. “You forget. I cannot leave.”

  The beast studied me curiously. I think you might be able to now.

  I blinked as he blurred before me. Heated talons tore through my chest. Dachs. Tauscher. The beast.

  What had I done?

  “I can’t. You have to leave. Flee.” I tried to stand, but pain shot through my ankle. “It’s not safe here. Not now. Tauscher… I… I’m sorry. I was trying…” The beast pressed me back. My words slurred. Glass slid from my fingers, and distantly I heard the cup shatter against the floor. The tea… what had he put in it?

  Even further, as though from the end of a tunnel, came a series of crashes. Was that thudding on the outer door?

  “You have… to get… out.” I grasped at the beast’s hand. “I’m sorry. I thought…”

  The beast placed a finger over my lips once more, pressing me back against the cushions and spreading the cloak over me.

  Every muscle was heavy. My eyelids drooped. My hand fell limply as the beast pulled away. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think… I forced my eyes to stay open as the beast pulled the fur over my face, leaving only the barest sliver of sight.

  He had to leave. To get out. To escape.

  Tauscher was coming. Tauscher would—

  The rending of wood shattered the night. The beast rose, spinning toward the door.

  “Beast,” I murmured. “Adrian.”

  His step faltered, but barely. He was almost to the door when it was hurled open. I glimpsed black-armored soldiers between the knife-edge gap separating the cushions and cloak. Spears. Flashing blades. The beast’s sword glinted. Now it was gone. The soldiers swarmed forward, dragging him to his knees, slamming him into the ground. Ropes lashed his arms as blood streamed down his face. Shouts and blows. Calls and orders and the tramping of feet. The figures blurred, growing distant, slipping away.

  One thought echoed through my mind as my eyes drooped close.

  They had taken the beast.

  They had taken Adrian.

  Every muscle ached, and blood pounded through his temples. Adrian smiled grimly as rough hands jerked him across the valley and into the forest.

  She’d tried to tell him, no matter how late the warning had come.

  She was safe. Tauscher would leave her be, so long as she left. The brother would find and protect her.

  It was best this way, whatever the King had in store. Adrian had hidden for long enough. Voice or no, he would stand before Tauscher before the end. The night swept deeper, thicker. On and on again. How much further, now? How much—

  The leaves whispered nearby. A breath. A sense.

  Adrian stiffened. Slowly, with care born of an age of stealth, he turned to glance between his captors on either side as the first soldier collapsed in the shadows.