We’ve all seen far too much violence to fully trust any stranger on the road.
The man has backed away another step. He’s shivering now. “That’s it, then?” he says hopefully. “You’ll be on your way?”
I swing aboard my horse. “We’ll be on our way.” But then I realize what he said, and I frown. “Wait—you said you followed orders. What orders?”
“To douse all the flames at sunset.” The man’s eyes flick to the unstuck carriage again, then at the other two ahead of it. “So as not to tempt your king’s power.”
I set my jaw again. No wonder it’s so dark and cold.
“Well done,” I say, and my voice is still flat. I pull a coin from the pouch at my waist and toss it to him as we begin to ride away.
He catches it eagerly. “Thank you, soldier!” he calls after us.
I grunt in response.
Then we’re on our way again. My four soldiers fall into formation behind me and their captain. Sev is as quiet as he was the instant we stopped.
I glance over to find his eyes scanning the darkness to our east. “No stories tonight?” I say.
“I’ll have a good story tomorrow about why my balls are frozen solid.”
It makes me smile—until he falls back into silence. Then my face shifts into a frown. I usually count on Sev to talk my ear off when the world is tense and uncertain. In fact, it’s how we met.
Ten years ago, we were twenty, alone and cornered by two groups from Draegonis who’d killed the rest of our battalion. We’d taken refuge in a narrow culvert near the border, sweat-soaked and bleeding. We were nothing more than strangers in matching armor, united by fear and a will to survive. I didn’t know it at the time, but enemy soldiers had already torn my father apart, limb from limb. As the crown prince, I was their next target. My magic was still new and wildly unpredictable, and in my exhaustion, I could barely summon a spark. I wascertain the Draeg soldiers would find us, and we’d both be killed—or worse, taken prisoner.
I didn’t even know his name, but Sev must have seen my panic. Or maybe he was trying to hide his own. The Draegs were closing in on us from both sides, shouting from outside the culvert that they’d found our tracks. I kept desperately sketching sigils in the air, trying to draw fire so we could drive them back, and Sev...he just startedrambling.He started with a story about the girl he tried to charm by leaving tokens of affection at her door—only for her to confide that she was actually madly in love with his sister. Then he told me about bedding a girl who ended up being the captain’s daughter, resulting in him eating slop for a week.
By the time he got to his fourth failed conquest, Draeg soldiers were pouring through the opening—but his distraction had worked. I was ready to punch him to get him to shut up, but I wasn’t panicking. My sigils flared, pulling fire from the enemy torches, swirling into an inferno that I turned back on the attackers. Some escaped the flames, and it was then that I quickly learned why Sev had survived to make it into the culvert with me, after the rest of our regiment had been destroyed. He was shockingly good with a sword. Together, we fought back the remaining soldiers, until we were the only two left standing. We were soaked in blood and both a bit singed from the flames, and it took us two days to make it home to our commanders.
Sev never left my side.
The battle was recorded as my first victory as king. Sev has fought beside me ever since. Now that he’s an army captain himself, he has no shortage of women to woo and charm. I feel like I hear about a different one every week.
I’m surprised I’m not hearing about onenow.
“Youcould ride in one of the carriages,” I say to him. “I’m sure ‘the king’ would like some company.”
He gives me a look. “At least we know why there’s a complete and total lack of firelight in this kingdom. They don’t trust you.”
I snort, then bite the fingertips of the glove on my right hand to tug itfree. I gave my word, but now I’m curious, so I sketch a sigil in the air. Normally, it would pull any fire within a mile right to my hand.
Tonight, the sigil barely emits a faint glow before going dark.
Sev shakes his head. “Do these Astranzans think we don’t have flint?” he scoffs. “We can start our own fire if we need to.”
“No.” I pull my glove back on and glance out across the dark horizon again. “It would make a beacon out of the whole procession. If they hate me this much, I’d have an arrow in my back in under two minutes.”
“Eh. Five minutes. Like you said, they’d go for the carriages first.”
That almost makes me smile.
“Do you really expect an attack?” he says. “I thought that man was going to faint when he saw the crest on Garrett’s armor.”
I frown. The man seemed so relieved when we rode away. It makes me wonder what stories they tell about me here.
Then again, the stories they tell in Incendar are becoming just as bad.
Sev glances my way again, because I haven’t answered his question. Maybe that’s answer enough.
