“Wake up.” A pair of ungentle hands stirred her from bone-deep sleep, her body aching in places she hadn’t even known it could ache as she rolled into a sitting position and lifted her eyelids to warm morning light.
How long had she slept?
“Time to get going,” Tabi murmured, slinging her pack over her shoulders and sheathing her swords.
Behind the bushes, Thal and Aiden were folding up blankets and shoving them into their packs, and when they weredone, they emerged with bread and cheese in their hands, chewing. “Breakfast before another day of fighting?” Thal offered her half his bread, but Lory was already pulling out her own provisions.
“What’s the plan for today?” Tearing into the cheese, she savored not needing to starve the way she’d done most of her life. “Should be easy enough to avoid thirty-eight Ashthorn students on vast mountains like this.”
Unfortunately, she seemed to be the only one considering this good news.
“Some of the students have serious tracking skills, especially the thornlings.” Tabi shot her a glance. “My brother is one of the best trackers Ashthorn has ever brought forth, and if some of them can do only half of what he does, you’re fucked.”
Well, wasn’t that lovely?
“They could have found us during the night,” Lory pointed out, earning a headshake from Aiden.
“You had a good head start.” He chewed on his bread, then sipped from his water canteen. “But we were very lucky none of them found us. So, let’s get out of here before they can catch up.”
He started walking without waiting for agreement or even putting the direction they should be heading to a vote, and again, Lory wondered how well he knew these mountains.
“Any particular reason you’re headed south? Want to cross the mountains and disappear in Criulias?” Thal prompted as he fell into step beside the ice wielder.
Aiden shrugged. “Just trying to get as much distance between the camp and Lory as possible before next nightfall. I’m not eager to have Falcrest gut me for failing to protect his favorite student.”
Something dark and painful coiled in Lory’s stomach. Had KhayrivvenmadeAiden come here to watch over Lory like a bodyguard?
“Favoriteis a bit of an understatement,” Thal commented. “I bet it will rip out his heart if we let her die out here. Naturally, gutting us would be the consequence.”
The darkness in Lory coiled tighter.
“Stop talking like that. He’s not going to kill any of you, even if I die out here—which, by the way, won’t be any of your fault. They are hunting me, not you. Well, Aiden, perhaps, for his criminal past and besmirching the Ashthorn name with his general unworthiness”—she sighed at the unfairness—“and his loyalties to me, but apart from that, none of you need to be here. Khayrivven can’t make you?—”
“First of all, he could. He’s our superior,” Tabi cut herself off before she could rage herself into a panic. “And second, we’re here because we chose to be.”
Thal and Aiden nodded their agreement, even though the gut feeling that it wasn’t the only reason Aiden had come didn’t leave Lory.
“Now move your asses. We have ground to cover. Keep your eyes and ears open and your weapons ready. Magic use only in emergencies—we don’t want to alert anyone with flashy tricks.”
When they reached the first cresting peak of the mountains three uneventful hours later, Lory almost believed that thirty-odd hours longer weren’t that bad at all.
Thirty
“How about there?”Thal pointed at the rock formation a little downhill from the second peak, where tall evergreens were more common than the sparse bushes in the lower regions of the mountains. The lukewarm air from the outpost had turned into chilly winds, and Lory had pulled her spare shirt over the blood-stained one to keep warm while the others had pulled on a jacket they’d been issued alongside their packs. Lory knew better than to wonder if the Triad could show any more how little they cared if she survived this trial.
“It’s as good as anywhere,” Aiden agreed, already sliding his pack off his shoulders. “We won’t rest long. Just long enough to eat something, drink, and plan the next ascent.”
With Aiden being the only one who’d been in the mountains before, Lory had left it up to him to find the best routes and safest hiding spots, even though she hadn’t failed to spot large shadows following them wherever they went. She’d mentioned them to the ice wielder, whose only response had been the same one Khayrivven had given her before: “The mountains are infamous for messing with people’s heads.” And “I wouldn’t be surprised if the magic leaking from the Amrin caves made all of us crazy before the end of the trial.”
When she’d asked him about thatmagic, Aiden had shrugged, a gesture he’d perfected over the course of their hike. “I wish I knew more. All I know is to stay away from the caves up in the higher regions of the mountains. Even the Criu rebels seem to steer clear of those.”
That had been that. No more caves.
“Less than twenty-four hours, Lory,” Thal said with a familiar cheeriness that didn’t fit their grim surroundings. “Any idea what the Triad is planning for you when you survive?”
Leave it to Thal to be that optimistic.
“You meanifI survive, and no.” A hearty bite of bread and a sip from her canteen, and Lory was ready to sit down on flat rocks in the shadow of the trees.
