“We’ll miss you,” Sonja says. “You must come and visit us as often as you can.”
Then she, too, is whisked away as the young general appears by her side. “Miss Bellamore,” Marcus says. “Would you care to partake of the refreshments?”
Sonja smiles and blushes. “I would love to.”
I give the general a benevolent smile as she takes his arm. It appears Sonja might not have to wait long for her own proposal. The handsome general can’t take his eyes off her.
Then I’m all alone again. My happiness is bittersweet. Ophelia is to be married. Sonja will soon follow. They will both move all the way to the court in Loegria. They’ve found good men to take care of them, and I’ll finally be free. I’ve done my duty to them, and the Raven’s Beak will be mine to do with as I wish. So why does my chest feel so hollow?
Because I’ll miss my girls, of course. They will be so far away. Warm tears well up in my eyes, and I wipe them away furiously with my thumb. I’m not going to cry again, not on such a happy occasion.
Jared makes his way back to my side of the room to fetch Ophelia a cup of rose wine and offers me the other cup.
I thank him politely but shake my head. I don’t feel like drinking. It’s too soon after the harvest festival.
“If I may ask, where is the prince?” I almost sayfool of a prince, but I catch myself in time. There is no sign of Dietan, not even to congratulate his friend on his engagement. “Is he allergic to happiness, perhaps?”
Jared grimaces and takes a sip from the goblet that I refused. “Ah, Prince Dietan… He’s indisposed. He wouldn’t have missed this for the world, but between you and me, he hasn’t come out of his room all day. He’ll be fine, I’m sure. It can take a toll, this much travel and—”
“And disappearing in the middle of the night?”
“You noticed.” Jared sighs.
“I notice many things that happen around my tavern. Are you sure he’s all right?”
“Positive. He can’t get into too much trouble around here, can he?” Jared remarks with a grin.
I shake my head, unconvinced. These fancy aristos really don’t have any idea how to survive outside their palaces. After all, Dietan wandered off into the woods in the rain when I expressly told him not to. I’m sure Jared’s hiding that Dietan’s gotten himself embarrassingly lost.
What an idiot.
Chapter Eleven
Dietan
“I’m an idiot.”
After my foot sinks into what feels like the fiftieth hole I’ve encountered, drenching me up to the knee in freezing mud, I’m ready to admit that I’ve made a mistake. Why didn’t I listen to Aren? She warned me I’d find my death out here in the forest all alone. But my pride wouldn’t let me give up. Desperation, too, if I’m being honest with myself.
Every inch of me is filthy, and the rain hasn’t relented. I’m starving and frozen half to death. I curse the heavens as I pull myself out of the hole and curse the barmaid as well. Damn her and her common sense.
Back home in Loegria, rain hardly lasts more than a few minutes at a time, the weather changing almost as quickly as a petulant child’s moods. But it’s a whole different beast in Alarice—a merciless, endless downpour. That the land hasn’t completely flooded by now seems a miracle. After Aren pointed me in the right direction, I consulted the map a helpful townsperson drew for me the day before. “It’s on the other side of the wood, just beyond the Halved Hill. Her hut sits overlooking the gully—you can’t miss it.”
“Can’t miss it, my ass,” I grumble to myself. The forest feels unending, densely packed with great oak trees and firs, but it provides little cover. I find shelter under the dripping canopy of a nearby tree and hunker down to gather my strength. I hate the forest. I hate the trees. I hate the mud, and I hate the rain. I hate Evandale. I hate myself.
My teeth chatter as I fumble in my cloak for the map once more, but it, too, is covered in mud. I try to wipe it clean with trembling fingers, but I smear the ink, turning the rivers and borders into one great stain.
I crumple the map and toss it into a puddle. I groan, all caution about kingdom secrets and military espionage washed away by the storm. Surely everyone will start to wonder where I’ve gone.
My lie about a stomachache will only hold for a day or so. Loyal Jared even volunteered to create a distraction, though I cautioned him not to rush into arealproposal for my—and the kingdom’s—sake. Somehow, I don’t think he listened. Who’d have thought he’d fall so hard so fast?
Jared’s engagement celebrations will only keep everyone distracted for so long. Soon, the people of Evandale will notice that no food enters my room, nor chamber pots leave it. The maids will find my room empty, and then the townsfolk will come looking. I shudder at the thought of them finding me lost and shivering in the woods, the truth of my mission exposed. I’d die before I let that happen; although maybe then my father’s councilors can dig the Rings out of my corpse.
Come on, man. Get up. You can do this.
The sorceress’s cottage must be around here somewhere. Even though I can barely see through the rain, I’ve got to be heading in the right direction.
I haul myself to my feet, more mud than man, and trudge on, following the gentle downward slope of the forest floor. I tread carefully. One wrong step and I’ll end up in another mud hole—or worse, up to my neck in a sinkhole.
