In the moment, they’d raced after Luca and his princess on foot, of course. The shock had slowed them down, and they were too far behind to catch Luca and Amarande by the time they mounted their horse and took off, but they’d been fast enough to see which direction they had gone—west.
The answer wasn’t an easy one. Dunixi plopped down in the dirt, forearms propped on his knees. He wasn’t ever one to admit he didn’t know anything, but when he was silent like this it was as good as an admission. After a minute, he finally spoke.
“If the princess was after him, our employer failed in his aim.” Ula rolled her eyes—she’d said as much. “But we should still be paid for completing the kidnapping. That was our job. Kidnap him and hold him until the princess made her choice. We did and she did.”
Ula cocked a brow. “Yes, but we were also supposed to deliver him.”
This was true. They never were supposed to take him to their ship. That had been an agreed-upon lie. Kidnap him and then keep things moving until nightfall on the third full day—today—when they were to meet an intermediary at the Hand for further instruction.
And payment.
“So now what?” Urtzi asked. “Do we go to the Hand and demand our money without Luca anywhere in sight?”
The Hand was to the east and south. They’d bypassed it in their trip out with Luca. Mostly because caravans liked to converge there and one of the caravans in the Torrent held the Warlord, who had a habit of laying claim to anything of value. And their cargo, as it turned out, was just as valuable as most of them had suspected.
Dunixi had to chew on this one, too. Ula rolled her eyes. “If the princess came to rescue Luca, what does that mean to the politics of the kingdoms? She obviously didn’t want to do what the note required. Which means our man didn’t achieve his aim. Which also means he may not be sending anyone to meet us—he has bigger fish to fry.”
The Eritrian shook his head and then thought better of it, the skin of his neck still raw, Luca’s paste flaking, spent. “No. He’ll meet us. He likely only knows the princess disappeared, not that she went to rescue the stableboy—”
“Luca.”
Dunixi ignored Ula’s correction and glare. “If he believes we succeeded in executing the kidnapping and delivering the blackmail note, he will want his pawn to see if he can lure her out. There’s more than one way to get what you want if you’re creative enough.”
“But we don’t have his pawn.”
Dunixi grimaced. “Ula, there’s more than one way to get what you want if you’re creative enough.” When neither Ula nor Urtzi responded to his twisting the logic back to fall on them, he grimaced more. “We meet the intermediary and inform him we won’t give up the stableboy without payment first. They pay us, we tell him the princess stole him away, and then Urtzi bashes his brains if he tries anything other than running to his master.”
CHAPTER
29
AMARANDE and Luca doubled back to stick to the curve of the forest, rather than angling into the open, the way they’d come separately the day before. It was a gamble, considering the pirates, but going back was one big gamble anyway, so they stayed the route, treating the forest just as they had in that mad scramble this morning—a guide and a refuge, if needed, but definitely not a path.
Within two hours they were back to where they started. Mira almost instinctively slowed her gait.
“Do you see them?” Amarande asked Luca as they both craned their necks into the trees. The sun was at a blinding tilt, and the shadows seemed impossible. “I’m not tracking movement.”
Luca shook his head. He wasn’t as trained as his princess, but his eyesight was strong.
Amarande drew in a thin breath. “What do you think they’d do? From what you saw?”
“Dunixi…,” Luca started, and then changed tactics as the princess tensed, “the leader, he was very concerned with getting paid. So he’s either after us with a vengeance to collect or going straight to the source to see if he can be compensated anyway.”
Amarande’s mouth twisted. Considering they had yet to run across the pirates, if they were after them with a vengeance, they’d pointed that vengeance in the wrong direction.
“Do you think Renard is still at the castle?” Luca asked carefully. It would be good to think about what was waiting for them at home besides the threat of war.
“He may very well be there. His mother, too,” Amarande said, confirming what he had already surely surmised. But there was more he likely hadn’t. “I suppose I didn’t explain why I even allowed myself to have dinner with Renard. After the funeral and my stated piece, the council wanted a stiff word with me.”
“I can imagine they didn’t find your speech nearly as amusing as I did.”
“No. They didn’t.”
“The sword really was a nice touch, Ama.”
“Thank you.” She could kiss him again right there. “They told me I must meet with Renard to make amends. I ran to the stable and found you missing and the note, and felt like I had no choice. I thought it was the best way to bring you home. What I found out when I arrived to dinner was that according to Renard, his mother is plotting to steal his throne.”
Amarande could feel Luca’s mind turning in confusion.
“It’s a very convoluted plan involving marriage, and babies within the next year, which is ridiculous, but when you’ve become accustomed to power…”
“And this plot was dreamed up by Renard about his mother?”
“Yes. But the important part is the way he believes he needs to circumvent said plot. He must be eighteen to rule as king. However, there’s a stipulation in Pyrenee’s rules of succession that if he marries before the age of eighteen, he’s automatically crowned. Therefore, his argument to me was that we both need a wedding in short order to ascend our rightful thrones, so why not marry each other?”
The princess knew Luca wasn’t vain enough to venture something like, And you turned him down because of me? He was also smart enough to know that even if there were an inkling of that thought running around in the depths of his humble soul, reasoning like that wouldn’t be the whole argument.
Luca was quiet, and so Amarande pressed on.
“I said no, of course. But his desperation was palpable. I can picture him in the Itspi right now, puzzling out how to make the most of my disappearance. Surely if the blackmail was indeed his, he will find out soon enough that it failed.”
“Failed … or…”
The princess did not much like that pause. “Or?”
Luca’s heart quickened against her spine. “Ama, did you tell anyone I was missing before dinner?”
The princess’s stomach dropped. “No—but you usually eat in the kitchens. Wouldn’t they have noticed when you didn’t show up?”
“Yes, but that’s not enough. I disappeared. And … you disappeared.” He touched her elbow, his fingertips suddenly bone cold. “Ama, they likely think I kidnapped you.”
Oh, stars.
Amarande’s breath stilled.
“I’m … I’m the only one who knows the note exists and that you were kidnapped for blackmail.” Her mind was racing. She tugged on Mira’s reins to slow her and the wind rushing past them. “There’s only a single horse gone from the stable. And … everyone knows how we are with each other.”