CHAPTER 46
Kadin
MY MEN AND Ihid behind the guard house. When one guard left to take a leak, Naveed glided out after him and disappeared. A pair of guards stepped out next, off to take a shift somewhere. I took the lead this time, and Bosh followed.
“Excuse me, sir,” I spoke to the chattier guard, handing him a piece of rolled parchment. “It’s your mother. There was an accident. You’re needed at home as soon as possible.”
“What is it? What happened?” Under the helmet, his eyes were wide and panicked as he took the parchment, but didn’t unroll it.
“No time to explain, my friend,” I urged him. “Just go. Run!”
He took off down a side street and I made to follow, hoping he wouldn’t unroll the sheet and find it blank until a private alley. Behind me, I heard the other guard roar as Bosh did what he did best. “Stop, thief!”
A few minutes later, I returned to our hiding place behind the guard shack to find Bosh already there, tugging a helmet on. “I win.”
I grinned as I pushed back the sword strapped to my waist to sit. “Yes, you do.”
We waited for Naveed, Daichi, and Ryo to trickle back with their new armor as well. The two cousins returned last, bickering as usual.
“No time for that,” I reprimanded them. “Let’s go.”
We stepped out in pairs, making our way through the small town toward the castle where it rose ahead of us.
Bosh and I entered the crowd making its way toward the castle courtyard without a problem. A bottleneck at the gate slowed everyone down, but ahead of us, inside the castle gates, the vast courtyard swarmed with people, eating and drinking as they celebrated Summer’s Eve.
Daichi and Ryo slipped into the crowd a few paces back, still muttering under their breath to each other, while Naveed took up the tail. Ryo dropped back to walk with him in a huff. They were slowing to a stop when I heard a guard call, “Where are you headed?”
I tensed, glancing behind me. Of all the people he’d chosen to ask, he’d spoken to Naveed.
My friend pointed to the castle, but it wasn’t enough.
“I asked you a question, boy!” When the guard’s hand clamped down on Naveed’s arm, I slowed, gritting my teeth.
Naveed subtly signed,Keep going.
Behind me Ryo tried to explain, “The lad lost his voice when that last illness was going around. Don’t pay him any mind.”
“I’m going to need you to come with me,” the guard’s strident voice carried. He wasn’t buying it.
I didn’t need to look back to know when they ran. The courtyard erupted in chaos as the guard yelled and took chase, calling others to follow.
Bosh and I ducked through the archway, entering the courtyard. Daichi appeared a second later, out of breath.
“Member of the Guard, coming through,” I called out, pushing forward, and the protests turned to glares.
We moved together through the mass of people.
“Should one of us go back to help them?” Bosh asked.
“They’ll be alright,” I kept an eye out for other guards. “They’re fast. And they’ll shed the armor as soon as they’re out of sight.” I’d worry until we met up with them again, but the others didn’t need to know that. “We should hurry.”
Down to three now, we set a brisk pace. The guards would be wary of any soldiers they didn’t recognize. “Let’s split up. Find the ceremony. Shouldn’t be too hard.”
