The snap of a twig made her wish she had. Her gaze flicked to the trees, hands and heart trembling with the need to run, and she saw the black cloak of a tall, slender man. Cass straightened, and the two of them exchanged hurried gestures before Cass turned to stride toward Miri. He closed the distance to grab the saddle and pull himself up behind her. She startled, shifting forward, but Cass spoke low in her ear.
“We need to get out of here. Terric will take care of our trail.”
Miri tried to look at Cass, but he was pressed too close against her, and she couldn’t see to gauge his expression. “We can’t just leave him—”
“Go,” he whispered into her ear. When he apparently realized she meant to argue, he reached around to her grab the reins himself. “This is our duty, princess. This is his duty.”
Miri’s eyes shot to the cloaked man, who was already starting his work. His duty. It was to protect her and—if need be—to die in place of the queen or her family. She thought she might be sick.
Miri leaned forward. Cass’s chest was pressed against her back. Her guard was apparently unwilling to listen to anything she might say. The queensguard would die if he were caught, but if they stayed, Miri and Cass would die along with him. He was following a queen’s order, not Miri’s. She couldn’t stop it.
The horse raced through the trees, his gait smooth, but Cass and Miri were ill fit in the narrow saddle. Miri pressed her legs tight to stay ahorse, hands gripping over the edge of the saddle leather and into Milo’s mane. A short, sharp whistle came from behind her, then Wolf ran back through the trees, nostrils flared but eyes not wide with terror. He’d been trained well. He came to a stop beside them, and Cass took hold of Miri’s waist to throw her astride. He wasted no time before they were off again, at a full run through the forests of Pirn.
They didn’t stop until well past nightfall, when Cass was satisfied that they had not been trailed. They’d crossed a dozen creeks, only to cross again, and gone through thick brush and sand in order to confuse their path. But they hadn’t been followed. Terric had taken care of that. Gods, she hoped he was alive. She hoped he had not been caught.
They would know soon enough. As soon as they made it to Pirn, rumor of the kingsmen would pass to their ears. It would be a wonder if Miri’s rash action had not set the king’s full guard on a rampage through Pirn.
Miri and Cass set their camp at the base of a small rise, and Cass tied the horses nearby. He lit a fire, snapping the wood with more force than might have been necessary. His fingers were still flaked with the kingsman’s dried blood.
She was a fool—a sodding fool.
Cass leaned down to blow on the flame, and when the light flared, it caught his expression. Miri had thought him angry, and certainly, he was, but something else simmered beneath his displeasure. Terric was a queensguard and had been his friend. Miri hadn’t just risked cost to herself. If Terric didn’t make it, it would cost them both.
Her fingertips curled into her palms. She sank to sit on the cool ground, heedless of the settled dew.
“I’m going for meat.” Cass gave her a look, one that seemed to imply she should stay precisely where she was until he returned—possibly longer.
She managed a curt nod.
Then he was gone. The horses let out quiet breaths and tore occasional clumps of grass from beneath the trees. Shadows shifted outside the fire, and after a time, the faint sounds of the forest returned. Miri tried not to drown in her thoughts. Her hands could do nothing to occupy her mind, for her heart had no interest in finding the occupation. She’d been there before. She’d made mistakes and chosen wrong. It had always made her feel exactly that alone.
By the time Cass came back through the trees, cold had settled into Miri’s bones. She’d added a few sticks to the fire, but it hadn’t helped.
Cass dropped the body of a small rabbit onto the ground across from her. Its form was limp and molded to the curves of the earth. He knelt before it wordlessly and shifted the rabbit to puncture its fur.
“Have you thought about it? About what you’re going to do?” His low voice felt loud in the darkness. His long fingers curled tighter around the animal’s neck as he pulled the pelt slowly down its form.
Miri knew what he was doing, but she would not be scared away, and she let him see it in her gaze.
“You’re not capable of killing a man with your bare hands.” His words were flat and without malice.
She didn’t bother arguing that she would have a sword. She knew how the struggle of fighting went and that it was never truly how one planned. “I have killed,” she said quietly.
“Chickens. Maybe a doe.” He met her stare. “It’s not the same.”
“It’s not different.” It was. Killing to eat was not killing to kill. Wild game was no man. It was only a meal.
Cass was trying to scare her because of what she’d done and because they were getting closer to Pirn and the nearness of executing her plan. But there was no turning back. She had no other choice.
It wouldn’t be easy. And yes, she’d drawn a bow on a deer and watched the light fade from its eyes at her strike and known it would never again fawn. But she’d never killed a man. Of course, she’d imagined it. Countless times, she’d envisioned holding each of those kings by the scruff of his neck, tugging his head back, and holding a blade at his throat as she whispered, “The Lion Queen sends her regards.”
She deserved to be scared. But she would not be turned away.
“There wouldn’t be sympathizers if the kings were doing even a remotely decent job.” Cass’s eyes shot to hers, but Miri kept on. “That man and woman would not have lost their home, their barn, and their freedom if the treasonous bastard lords who stole the throne knew a thing about how to rule. People are starving. Trade suffers even now. A good day’s wage will barely buy a hock of meat.” Miri bit down hard against the words. Cass didn’t need that lecture. He understood better than her.
Things were falling apart. Those men had not taken her mother’s rule because the Lion Queen had done poorly at it. They’d stolen it for greed and because it had seemed like that power was something to envy. Since that day, the people of the realm had suffered. For years, it had only grown worse.
Cass shoved the empty shell of the rabbit, tied to a stick as a mass of strange pale forms, into the fire.
He stayed knelt across the fire from Miri, his eyes on the flickering flames. Miri thought about the words they’d overheard at the inn, the children and girls taken by the kingsmen, and how their blood would be used by the sorcerers at the king’s command.
When the meat had finally cooked through, Cass shifted it away from the flame. It was several moments before he lifted the spit from the fire and came around to settle beside Miri. He didn’t speak as he offered her first share. Miri tore a small hunk free, and the meat was hot against her chilled fingers. He took the spit back, looked at it for another few moments, then slid it toward the fire. He glanced at his boots, settled the heels firmly into the earth, and wrapped his arms loosely around his knees.
Miri took a bite of her portion, but the hot grease felt thick in her throat and made her stomach turn.
They didn’t speak until the fire burned low.