I thought back to Oliver’s recitation of the Temple’s wisdom. “I am used to not complaining, Commander.” His eyebrow quirked curiously. “I was raised at the Temple of Eternal Light,” I explained. “The brothers that brought me up did not have much need for horses outside of working their fields. I am afraid I haven’t been on the back of a horse in a very long time.”
“You were raised among monks?” His expression was comical. “For all this time?”
“All this time?”
“For how long?” he clarified. “How much of your life did you spend with them?”
“Since I was a child,” I answered honestly. “Since I was nine-years-old.”
“And how old are you now?”
I tilted my chin. There was a tone to his voice that I did not like. There was an implication there that I was still a child. “Old enough to know that a man should never ask a woman that question.”
“Younger than twenty, I would imagine,” he went on as if I hadn’t spoken.
I turned to him and raised one eyebrow, mimicking his almost constant expression. “And you already know I’m older than nine. What is your best guess?”
“Seventeen.”
I swallowed back frustration at his perfect answer. “Your guess is close enough, I suppose,” I told him.
His answering smile told me he believed he’d won. Which I suppose he had. “And how old are you?”
“No, you must guess. That’s our game.”
My gaze moved over him, taking in the way he squinted and the manner in which his smile stretched across his face. I accounted for his time in the sun, the tan to his smooth skin. He had a full head of hair and all his teeth, the rough scrape of beard over his jaw. There was an air about him that showed world weariness, but also youth and vibrancy and a playfulness I had been trying to ignore.
He reminded me of someone, and the similarity made my throat ache for things that could never be. They weren’t the same person. They couldn’t be. The boy I pictured would be ruling a kingdom by now. And Arrick was an outlaw. But those blue eyes were a perfect replica of the ghost of my past, the ghost that should have been the foundation of my future.
At last I looked at his hands. They were wrapped around leather reigns and stretched long and true. Young hands. They had neither the wrinkles of time nor the scars from many battles, though they were weathered and calloused and proof of a hard life.
“Twenty-three,” I guessed.
He nodded. “Close. Twenty.”
“Twenty!”
He laughed. “Do I look older?”
“Much,” I assured him. His age… Three years had separated the boy prince and me. The same distance between Arrick and me now. It was impossible though. Mere coincidence. Magic from the Blood Wood. I swallowed down my suspicion, hiding my reaction behind teasing. “I would have guessed fifty winters if I had not been worried about offending your ego.”
“Now you’re just being cruel.”
I smiled because he was right.
We rode in comfortable silence for several minutes before he said, “For eight years you lived without horses and yet you are obviously proficient with this one. Did you ride often before?”
“Before the monastery. Yes, we had horses. It used to be a favorite pastime of mine.”
“Well, you have impressed me with your proficiency, Stranger. I commend you on your ability to stay with us even though I know you’re hurting.”
“You are escortingme, Commander. There is no other option.”
I heard the smile in his voice, even while I kept my gaze focused ahead. “I’ve never heard of monks taking in orphans. Is this a custom in Heprin?”
I nibbled my lip, realizing I’d said too much. Monks did not take in children, especially female children, unless they were pledged to the order. Which I clearly was not. “No, it is not custom. I was a special case. The high priest knew my family. He agreed to raise me out of obligation to them.” And to the realm. But I knew better than to say that particular piece of truth out loud.
“And you were the only female among them?”
