“Eshendai,” Tomaz said, “I see no harm in this. After all, did not the Empire prove to him in spectacular fashion that he is no longer welcome among them?”
“He’s the Prince of Ravens, we can’t trust him,” she said.
“He’s a boy,” Tomaz rumbled gently. “He’s barely older than you were.”
She jumped as if burned, and the Prince flinched back, surprised at her reaction. What had just happened? He wanted desperately to ask, but he knew he would get no answer.
Barely older than you were… had she come from one of the Imperial cities?
A long time passed before she spoke again, and when she did it was without breaking eye contact with the giant. “I understand what you’re saying, but I just don’t trust him. He’s holding something back. I can feel it.”
“The choice is yours,” Tomaz said. “But you have mycounsel.”
“Yes, I know.”
She turned to the Prince then and watched him with an intensity that was quite alarming. Her eyes were flecks of emerald stone, and the lines of her face were hard and angular, like the planes of a marble statue.
She strode forward and held out her hand.
“We have a deal.”
The Prince shook her hand, which was cool and calloused, no doubt from years of work with her daggers. She dropped his hand quickly, a small grimace crossing her face as if she had just touched something covered in dirt and slime, and then turned away.
“Sleep,” Tomaz said, with a tight smile, “and tomorrow you journey without the hood.”
The Prince nodded, not trusting himself to smile, before he lay down, turned over, and pretended to fall asleep. He listened to the sounds of the girl and the giant banking the fire and checking the horses, and then, when they had decided the watch, the sounds of Tomaz settling in for sleep and the girl slipping into the surrounding forest.
The plan had worked. They would begin to relax their guard, even though the girl had reservations about doing so. He was a step closer to making his way back to his rightful place beside his Mother.
And yet, peace of mind did not descend easily on him, and he spent the night, once again, trying and failing to find sleep.
Chapter Seven: Knowing Death
The next few days passed quickly as they traveled through the mountains still surrounded by dense forest. This next leg of the journey took a week, and each day, in accordance with their bargain, the Prince was given a new freedom.
The first day, as promised, the Exiles allowed him to go about the journey with the hood of the over-large, fetid brown cloak lowered.
They also removed his gag.
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” he protested.
“How else are you going to warn us of impending doom?” the girl asked, tone breezy but eyes staring daggers at him.
“Fair point,” he said, and then, taking himself and her completely by surprise, he smiled his biggest, most winning smile, just to make her angry.
It worked. She whirled around, threw his reins to Tomaz, swearing and cursing all “shadow-born Princes,” and disappeared into the trees.
The Prince, half expecting Tomaz to dunk him in whatever body of water happened to be closest at hand, eyed the big man warily, but the giant only shrugged. “You both take yourselves too seriously,” he said vaguely, before mounting his stallion and following in the same direction, the long lead of the Prince’s mount now tied to the saddle of his charger.
As the Prince had promised, he made no trouble along the way. All he did, and all he wanted to do, in truth, was look at his surroundings as they traveled through the forest.
“There’re so many,” he muttered to himself. He was looking at the trees, noticing all of the different types of bark, the short trees, the tall trees, the wide trees, the trees with needle-like leaves. Near midday they stopped briefly, and both Tomaz and the girl went out looking for whatever it was they used to findtheir way, leaving the Prince alone in a small clearing. Alone, but not truly so, for the Prince knew neither Exile was far enough away that he had any chance of escape.
So he sat there on his horse and reveled in the crisp, clear air, so different from the thick haze of Lucien, and made a vow to himself that once he had received his Inheritance he would make time to come back here of his own volition, just to explore.
“Pine,” rumbled Tomaz.
The Prince jumped, startled. The big man seemed to have simply materialized behind him. He had no idea how Tomaz, at least when he wasn’t mounted on his enormous charger, could move so silently. It was almost like the way Guardians, the personal guards of the Children and the Empress, moved. At the thought of this bearded, rough-and-tumble giant with the uniform and manners of a Guardian, the Prince couldn’t help but smile.
