My chest is so tight that it’s hard to breathe. My guards didn’t deserve this. I hate that Allisander and the other treasonous consuls have put them in this position.
I stop in front of him. “Who else did you tell?”
He shakes his head fiercely. “No one. No one, Your Majesty.”
Even if he’s telling the truth, the others might have spread the word before coming here. Saeth is right; we can’t remain. It’s probably already been too long.
The crossbow is slick in my palm. I can barely think over the pounding of my heart. We came to fetch more guards, and now we’re going home with fewer people than we started with.
I force my racing thoughts to organize. I wish we hadn’t come. I wish I had Quint and his little book because he’d surely have an idea for a way to talk me out of this.
But maybe that’s exactly the solution I need. We wanted information from inside the Royal Sector. Maybe I can get it another way.
Is this cowardly? I don’t know. I don’t care. I can’t do this again. I can’t.
When Corrick orders an execution, sometimes I don’t think I can watch, and I have to think of my parents, the betrayal they faced. It helps me chase the emotion out of my chest. It helps now.
Regardless of Sommer’s situation, he still made the choices that led him here. People are still dead because he betrayed me, too.
I lift the crossbow until the point touches his neck, and he cowers back into Thorin’s legs, slipping a little in the mud.
I don’t yield. “If I leave you alive, you will answer every questionI have about everything that has happened since the instant I disappeared from the palace.”
“Yes,” he gasps. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“If you try to escape, if you spend one moment fighting my people, if I suspectone single lie, you’ll wish I made your death quick and painless right here. Is that clear?”
He nods, then winces as the point of the arrow presses against his throat. “Yes,” he whispers. “Yes, I swear it.”
I look at Francis. “If we bring him back, do you have men we can trust to keep him under guard? A place we can keep him secure?”
The man’s eyes go wide. “I think so?”
“I need to be sure, Francis. If he escapes, he’ll bring down the whole army on top of us.”
He nods. “Yes. I’m sure.” He swallows hard. “I’ll guard him myself if I have to.”
“Good.”
Nook is climbing up the hill, a little breathless. “I led the horses out of the water. The wagon lost a panel from the side, but the axles are solid.”
I lower the crossbow from Sommer’s neck, then look at Thorin. “Gag him. Bind his feet once you’re in the wagon. We’ll need to keep him low in case we run across the night patrol.” Then I look to Saeth, standing with his young family. His wife still hasn’t met my eyes, and I honestly can’t blame her. “Recover whatever weapons we can salvage,” I say, “as quickly as you can.”
Little Ruby still has her face pressed into her father’s shoulder. “Is it time to open my eyes yet?” she calls, her voice like music in the rain.
There are still bodies scattered on the ground. We haven’t won a battle. The looming war feels impossible.
Never, I think. But that sounds bleak and fatalistic, which are horrible qualities in a king. I’ve already failed in enough ways tonight. I turn away to head for the wagon myself. “Hopefully soon, Ruby,” I say, filling my voice with a conviction that I hardly feel. “Hopefully soon.”
After a while, the rain eventually lets up, clouds beginning to clear from the sky. The moon beams down on us, which isn’t a blessing, because it makes everything more visible. I keep waiting for another arrow to strike the wagon. Every muscle in my body is tense, and I’m simultaneously desperate to be back in the Wilds yet also dreading it. We thought we’d be bringing back a minor victory, and all we’re carrying are stories of death and failure. I think of the way Quint used to spin news from the palace, but there’s no way to spin any of this.
We’ve learned that there was a fifth guard in the woods, the one who was first shooting at us. Saeth and his wife stumbled upon him almost by accident. Then they found Nook as he was running down the hill.
It might be the only reason any of us survived.
This was all too close.
The wagon rattles loudly in the night air. Everyone is silent, even the children, as if they can feel the weight of it all. Thorin drives, and I’m right behind him, against the wall again, bracketed by hay bales. It all seems silly now. Saeth tried to sit in front of me once he unstrapped his daughter from his back, but I waved himoff and told him to sit with his family. Now Leah is tucked against his side, nursing the baby to keep him from crying. She has one hand clutching that crossbow, and she still hasn’t met my eyes. I keep thinking about what Lennard said before he died.Do you know what they did to your wife?
