Bryn gasped to find themselves suddenly surrounded. More bandits suddenly dropped down from other structures hidden in the trees.
The lead bandit, who had called himself the Forest King, faced them with a grin. “Welcome to our village, friends. Now, let’s see how much coin you have on you.” He motioned to his associates. “Separate them and search them.”
Bryn gasped as two bandits cut through Valenden’s tether then dragged him away.
Chapter
Nineteen
THE TREE COTTAGE . . . the Forest King unmasked . . . a determined princess . . . a shocking reveal
Bryn was left alone with the Forest King.
He appraised her keenly with a wolfish grin still on his face. “Get her down from that horse.”
Two men pulled her down from her mare. She searched the woods for any sign of Valenden, but they had forced him up a ladder into one of their treehouse structures, and he was hidden now by leaves as surely as if the forest had swallowed him.
“Val!” she called out.
The Forest King signaled to one of his men, who silenced her with a hand over her mouth. The king took a menacing step closer, resting a hand on Valenden’s sword that he’d holstered at his side. “It’s only you and me now, princess.”
Bryn’s heart thumped in her chest, warning her of the danger.
How does he know who I am?
Reading the surprise in her eyes, he laughed darkly. “Didn’t think we’d see past your disguise?”
With the bandit’s hand over her mouth, she couldn’t answer. But now she looked around more urgently for Valenden. The fact that the bandits knew she was the crown princess placed both of them in far more danger than if they’d simply been captured travelers.
The Forest King strode closer, dragging his gaze up and down her body. “Lucky break, I’d say. Here we were hoping to commandeer a pair of horses, and instead we find a runaway princess.Farmore valuable. In fact, I’d say you’re the most valuable prize to be had in these parts.”
He motioned toward the treehouse where they’d taken Valenden. “And who is your companion, princess? I doubt he is your husband, Prince Trei of the Baersladen, as I hear he’s dead.” He leaned in close enough to whisper in her ear, “Whoever he is, I hope he isn’t your new sweetheart because those close to your family have a way of suffering terribly, don’t they?”
Bryn narrowed her eyes.
To her surprise, a voice behind the Forest King spoke in Mir, “That’s enough, Jon. There’s no need to torture her.”
It was the female bandit with the rifle.
To Bryn’s surprise, the Forest King obeyed the woman. He straightened, folding his arms across his chest, and answered back in flawless but accented Mir, “Oh, I’m only having a bit of fun.”
The woman came forward, taking her time appraising Bryn. There had been something familiar about the way the woman spoke: Mir was a common language, and they weren’t far from the border, so it wasn’t entirely surprising to hear it spoken. What had struck Bryn more was how confident the woman’s tone was—and how readily the Forest King had listened to her.
“Let her speak,” the woman said, waving away the bandit's hand.
As soon as the bandit had released his hold on Bryn’s mouth, she gasped, “One woman to another, I ask you. Don’t listen to this Forest King or whatever this rogue calls himself. Let my companion and I go free, and we’ll make it worth your betrayal of your leader.”
The masked female bandit and the Forest King exchanged a long look. Then the woman turned to Bryn and cocked her head as she asked in an even more familiar voice, “What has you thinkingheis the Forest King?”
Confused, Bryn looked uncertainly between the bandits.He never actually called himself the Forest King, she realized.He only said we were in the Forest King’s realm.
In fact, the man with the limp had never called himself their leader at all. He’d done most of the speaking, so it had been natural to assume that was the case, but now Bryn noticed how all the bandits, even the one called Jon, deferred to the woman with the rifle.
“You’rethe Forest King,” Bryn said to her in surprise.
The woman nodded in grim satisfaction beneath her black bandana. “Yes, and you are going to tell us exactly what brings a banished Mir princess into these woods.”
The bandits forcedBryn up a rope ladder into one of the treehouse structures. Despite her apprehension, she couldn’t help but be amazed at the engineering marvel that was the tree structures. This one was the size of a small cottage, built between the tree’s massive branches, almost entirely hidden from the ground by the tree’s leaves. A thatched roof overhead had anopening to let out the smoke coming from a stone-lined fire pit that was lit now with a pot in the coals steadily bubbling.
