The other noru bounded over top of it. Vi watched as they leapt off of it, continuing forward until their momentum was spent and the riders could get a better handle on the beasts. Vi ran, crossing the distance.
“Ellene! Ellene!” Vi cried out, even though she knew, logically, that her friend was all right. If she could survive the inferno Vi had made in the jungle, her rocks could hold up against some noru weight.
The rocks retreated, like an egg cracking, revealing the precious girl within. Vi only ran faster toward her dazed friend as Ellene straightened. She slid to a stop, wrapping her arms around the girl’s shoulders.
“Ellene, are you all right?” Vi held her fiercely.
“I’m fine…” she muttered. “Not so loud… I think I hit a rock… or something. My head feels funny.”
Vi straightened away. Sure enough, a river of blood ran down the side of Ellene’s face. Vi looked over her shoulder in a panic. Jayme was on her way, but slower in her military garb. She turned in the opposite direction, to the riders that stared on in shock and horror.
“Darrus!” Vi stood and called. He was there in a second. “Take Ellene back to the stronghold. Summon Sehra and Ginger. And try not to jostle her too much.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine…” Ellene’s mutterings faded when she was solidly in Darrus’s arms.
“She’s not. Don’t let her say otherwise and avoid being checked out,” Vi commanded.
“Yes, princess.” There was not one mention of the mysterious disappearance of Vi’s aforementioned sickness. Darrus shifted his weight in his saddle, making sure Ellene was situated. In a tone that he clearly only meant for the girl to hear, he whispered, “I’ll take care of you, I swear.”
With that, the noru was off.
“What, what happened?” Jayme panted.
“I sent Ellene back.” Vi turned to Gormon. He was off walking as though nothing had happened. Then, she looked down to the saddle. “What in the Mother’s name happened here?”
“A terrible or brilliant stroke of luck.” Jayme frowned at it. “If you had been on that saddle, as we’d said was the intent… then you would’ve been the one trampled.”
It was true.
If the riders couldn’t stop for the daughter of the Chieftain, Vi didn’t think they could’ve for her. Even if Vi technically outranked Ellene, in the eyes of most Northerners, she was merely the daughter of the man and woman who had brought them to heel.Disliked in the North, disliked in the South,the day’s realizations compounded. Knowledge she’d always had, on some level, of her position made real.
No… if she’d been astride Gormon when the saddle straps broke, her only hope would have been for Ellene to have made a shell to protect her.
But Vi had seen what had happened with the other noru bounding above the stone with such ferocity that the ground itself rumbled. And she knew Ellene’s control of her magic was not mature enough to be relied on beyond the instinct of her own self-preservation.
“We’ll see if it’s brilliant luck… if Ellene is all right,” Vi muttered, picking up the saddle. “Now, to bring this back and have a word with the leather master… let him know there’s something faulty in his design.” Jayme’s expression darkened as she stared at the saddle. “What?”
Jayme crossed over, holding up the girth. Right where the leather curved into the buckle was a straight line—impossible to see once the saddle was in place, but now undeniably sinister. Vi stared at it, knowing what she was seeing. But she couldn’t process it. It didn’t make any sense. Itcouldn’tmake sense.
“Someone, I think was hoping you were on that saddle…” Jayme said. “Because this has been cut nearly all the way through.”
“What?” Vi whispered. But what she really meant waswhy?
“Someone wants you dead, princess.”
Chapter Twenty-One
On some level,Vi had always known she’d lived a sheltered life.
When she was less than a year old, she’d been transported to the North and placed under the care of Sehra’s mother. When that Chieftain died, Vi’s protection fell to Sehra herself, the same woman who had struck the deal for her life. While both relationships had never been particularly warm and the people’s opinion overall reflected their leader’s, Vi had always feltsafe.
Now, staring at the tampered saddle leather, she wasn’t so sure. Yet another time in a terribly short period, her world felt different, inexorablyshifted. Vi swallowed hard. Staring at the saddle would do her no good. There were no more answers to be had here, for now, and staring at them would only rouse suspicion from the others.
“We’ll bring it up with Jax when we get back. Tell no one else.”
“Understood.” Jayme slung the saddle over her shoulder. The cut pieces swung harmlessly, no doubt unassuming to anyone who didn’t know to look for the betrayal. Her eyes drifted over to Andru, who was still staring at the tree line. “Not even him?”
“Not even him.”
