Minutes passed. Jesstin unbuttoned the top of his blouse, where beads of sweat pooled. Sesto was fanning himself.
“Are you both warm?” she asked. She was still bundled in all her layers, and even those weren’t enough as they’d climbed into the snowy foothills.
“You’re not?” Jesstin gave her an incredulous look. “It’s like we’re sitting in front of a blazing hearth.”
“Dreadful,” Sesto said as he palmed his bald head.
“Please share this hearth you speak of, because I’m freezing,” Elloven replied.
Taven was headed back their way, carrying a medium-sized sack. The guards remained on the road.
He swung the carriage door open. She read the uneasiness in his eyes as he turned them on her.
“They’ve authorized us passage. Yes, them too, but they’ll need to wear these.” Taven opened the bag.
“Who are they?” she asked.
“Esguards of Rivenholde.” His answer came swift and with exasperation, as if she should already know the answer. It was another word she’d never heard before, esguard, but the meaning seemed clear enough. He pulled out what looked like a manacle made of some shiny, vibrant metal. “The heathen and the eunuch will need to wear these on each wrist, each ankle. There are larger ones for their necks.”
“Sorry?” Jesstin tilted his head sideways. “You want us to put on shackles?”
“I would love to see you in shackles, but regrettably, these are to save your life.” Taven tossed the bag on the seat, where it landed with a loud jangle of metal clashing. “You’re not curious why you’re sweating, the two of you, but Ellie and I are fine?”
Neither answered, but she could see they were.
Taven huffed. “We’re crossing into Rivenholde. Neither of you is of the blood, and if you don’t put these on, the further we ride, the hotter you’ll get until you eventually melt into a puddle of your own filth.” He snickered. “On second thought, don’t wear them.”
“That’s how they keep outsiders away,” Sesto remarked with a soft huh. “They feel the heat, and they turn back or find another path.”
Taven’s eyes flicked briefly in confirmation. “They will keep you cool enough to pass through. You won’t need them on the other side. Unfortunately.”
“What about the horses?” Elloven asked.
“Beasts are immune. The ward only affects people.”
“I don’t always make the best choices, but I’m not stupid enough to be tricked into putting on restraints believing they’re actually some magical cooling rings designed to save my life,” Jesstin retorted. He flung one of the bands onto the far bench. “I want to talk to these esguards.”
Taven grinned. “By all means! Go on, I cannot wait to watch.”
“Jesstin,” Elloven warned. Taven’s uneasiness had become her own. “He won’t hurt you. If he did, it would hurt me too. Put them on so we can go through safely.”
Jesstin’s glare cut through Taven, who, for a moment, looked scared of him. “Then tell me how to get them off. On my own.”
Taven shook his head with a disgusted glance at the sack and demonstrated. He cuffed himself, the latch clicking as it closed, then sprung it open just as easily. “See? They aren’t shackles, reprobate. And Ellie’s right. So put them on and stay out of sight until we reach the sept, both of you. Ellie, you’ll ride up top with me while I drive.”
Sesto clamped a ring over his wrist and removed it, showing Jesstin. “Seems he’s being truthful, about this at least.” He repeated the act with a mollified nod. “What choice do we have?”
Jesstin cursed to himself and dug his rings out of the bag.
As Elloven climbed up onto the driver’s bench, her eyes locked with the esguard with the four gold stripes. He neither blinked nor looked away, but his boldness made her do both.
“They’ll be fine, Ellie. They wouldn’t have offered the bracers if they meant them harm. And I wouldn’t put your life in danger.” He squeezed her knee. She cringed before she could catch herself. He sighed. “Are you ready then?”
Elloven’s heart pounded in her ears, her palms. She’d been waiting for this day since she’d been a child, but her doubts were back, stronger even, than the morning they’d left.
“Hey, Ellie, love. Inhale. Exhale.”
“There’s a reason they go to all this trouble to keep people out,” she said. The last time she’d felt such unshaped panic had been on the night Fabrien had set her loose in the forest while he and his friends hunted her. She’d fully expected to die that evening, arrows narrowly missing her as they whizzed past, convinced he’d finally tired of her. “Maybe we should go to my mother’s people. I know nothing about Rivenholde, about these esguards, about any of it.”
