Drawing an arrow from her quiver, Ahnna dropped from her perch, landing almost silently next to the men. Leveling an arrow on the grizzled man with the axe, she said, “Do what I say, and you will exit this situation alive.”
Red Curls hefted his knife, but Ahnna only shifted her stance so that her arrow was leveled at his son. “Use your heads, gentlemen. This isn’t a fight you will win.”
Grizzled lunged.
Ahnna took a quarter step to her left and let her arrow fly. It struck his upraised axe, knocking it out of his hand, but before he could react, Ahnna had another arrow nocked and aimed at his forehead. “Last chance.”
Grizzled lifted his hands, as did Red Curls.
“Good.” Ahnna didn’t lower her weapon. “Remove your bootlaces. Red Curls, you tie up the old man and be sure to tie him tight. Boy, you tie up your father.”
She watched in silence as they obeyed, her scrutiny ensuring that the knots were tight. When they were restrained, she nodded to the boy. “Toss me your laces and get on your knees.”
He complied without argument. Once he was kneeling, Ahnna hooked her bow over her shoulder. The restraints would only slow them down, but short of killing them, which she wasn’t willing to consider, it was the best she could do.
“Hands behind your back.” She picked up his laces. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t kill Edward. Alexandra had him murdered in order to put William on the throne, then framed me.”
“Liar,” the boy whispered. “Everyone knows you Ithicanians are murderous savages. It was you who stabbed him forty-seven times.”
God have mercy, forty-seven?Ahnna swallowed to clear her throat. “If that’s the case, then why are you still breathing?”
Instead of answering, the boy flung himself at her.
Ahnna easily sidestepped, and he fell past her. Except rather than catching himself, his arm buckled. His head struck a rock with an ominous crack.
“Johnny!” Red Curls shouted, even as Ahnna cursed the foolishness of young men.
Ignoring the protests of the men, she crouched next to the boy and carefully rolled him over. He was breathing, but he’d split his scalp and it was bleeding heavily. He needed a physician.
Logic demanded that Ahnna tie him up, because she needed everybit of head start that she could get. Except not even in her lowest moments of the Maridrinian invasion had Ahnna stooped to sacrificing the lives of children.
“He needs a physician.” She rounded on the grizzled man. “Do you know where to find one?”
“Aye,” he said between his teeth.
“I’ll let you go, but rather than troubling me, you’re going to take him to get help. Do you agree?”
He nodded, eyes filled with fear as she tightened Dippy’s girth and fixed her saddlebags in place, along with the rope she used to tether him. Approaching the old man, she shoved him to the ground so that he was prone. “Remember that I didn’t kill you. And know that I didn’t kill Edward either. Tell James what I said when you see him. Between the two of us, he’s the backstabber, not me.”
Ahnna sliced her knife through his bootlaces. In two quick strides, she vaulted onto Dippy’s back, because it would be speed not words that kept her alive. Without a backward glance, she galloped into the night.
3
James
Maven was lathered and breathinghard when he rode into Sableton, the late-afternoon sun bright in his eyes. Only Georgie had managed to keep pace through the journey, as his soldiers’ mounts were a far cry from Maven’s quality.
“Report!” he demanded of the garrison captain. “Have you found her?”
The man stared at his boots rather than meeting James’s stare. “No, sir, but we’re hunting. A patrol spotted her trying to make her way to the harbor, but when they put on pursuit, she escaped. We’re searching the city and holding all ships in port, but so far, there is no sign ofher.”
Georgie held out a wax-wrapped package. “An article of her clothing for the dogs.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Have you found her horse?” James dismounted and handed Maven’s reins to a stable boy. “Bay thoroughbred gelding, tall, no markings.”
“We received her mount’s description from the messenger but assumed she would have abandoned him upon reaching the city.”
