Maxi knew he was referring to her father. There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask. What would happen now? Did Riftan truly have a plan? Regardless of his renown as a knight, he would be made to answer for his crime of assaulting a duke.
She held her breath as she recalled the gruesome sight of her father’s battered body. If the knights had not restrained him, Riftan would have beaten her father to death. She was sure ofit.
When memories of his half-crazed state flashed in her mind, her thoughts immediately drifted to the things he had said to her that night. Had he been telling the truth, or had it been out of pity? Thinking back to his initial aloofness, it was difficult for her to believe that he had held her in his thoughts for such a long time. Even so, she did not dare voice her doubts. It would shatter the fragile peacebetween them.
When she squeezed her eyes shut and turned on the bedroll to dispel her thoughts, Riftan drew her close.
“Stop worrying. Sleep. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.” He spoke it like a sacred oath.
To her surprise, she felt the tension drain from her shoulders. She wound her arm around his sturdy waist. Whenever she was entwined with him like this, as if locked in a comfortable fortress, all the anxiety within her washed away. Maxi’s eyes fluttered closed as she breathed him in and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, they crossed the mountain and reached Anatol by late afternoon. They galloped down the hill as if riding the wind. The sentries spotted them from afar and began turning the pulleys so that the gates stood wide open by the time they reached the entrance.
Days of traveling on horseback had left Maxi feeling utterly spent. When the returning party entered the city, it took a second to notice the astonishing change. Anatol was beyond recognition. Massive structures she had never seen before stood all over the city, and stalls full of exotic wares from the Southern Continent lined both sides of the expanded road. The people browsing the stalls erupted into cheers when they saw the knights, and the streets began to fill as more and more citizens flocked to them.
Maxi was stunned by the crowd’s exuberant cheers for their lord. The Anatolians waved branches full of dangling red figs at the knights. Riftan was the paragon of dignity as he led the returning party through the crowd.
As they entered the city square, one of the knights rode up to the front. “Commander, we have instructed thegatekeeper to heighten security.”
Maxi anxiously looked up at Riftan. He nodded to the knight and spurred his horseon.
Breaking through the crowd, they cut across the birch forest and up the steep hill toward the castle. Sentries promptly lowered the drawbridge, and Maxi let out a sigh of relief as they crossed. She was finally home.
“Commander!”
Knights doing drills in the training grounds rushed to greet them as they entered the castle. Except for Riftan and the thirty or so men who had traveled to her father’s duchy, the rest of the Remdragon Knights had already returned to Anatol.
Hebaron, who led the party that had gone ahead, patted each of the arriving knights on the shoulder. Maxi released a small sigh of relief when she saw that he was in full health.
A sympathetic smile tugged at the knight’s lips when he spotted Maxi shadowing Riftan. “Welcome back, my lady. I hope the journey was not too hard on you.”
Riftan’s face hardened when Hebaron approached her. He pulled Maxi closer and ordered, “Tighten security at once.”
Hebaron looked at him in surprise, but Riftan turned away as though he could not be bothered to explain. “Double the men on the wall and restrict entry to the city for the meantime.”
With that, Riftan led Maxi toward the great hall as if expecting the other knights to fill in the blanks for Hebaron. Maxi glanced around at their grave faces. Though she had managed to feign ignorance so far, she could not do so any longer. She had to ask.
“Wh-What…will happen now? W-Will there really bewar…?”
“We are only taking precautions,” said Riftan. “That man doesn’t have it in him to lead an army here.”
He quickened his steps. When Maxi staggered, unable to match him, he hoisted her up in his arms.
“I don’t want you to worry about anything. You only need to concentrate on getting better,” he murmured. “Let me deal with that man.”
Maxi gulped. “Wh-What do you intend to do?”
Was he truly going to wage war on her father? Ignoring her panicked expression, Riftan cut across the garden and climbed up the steps to the great hall. Inside, Rodrigo and the servants scurried over to greet them.
“Welcome back, my lord, my lady. It is a relief to have you both home safe—”
“Bring me a bath and some food,” Riftan said curtly. “A change of clothes, too.”
Barely acknowledging their greeting, he started up the carpeted stairs. His breathing remained steady despite climbing two floors without stopping.
Before Maxi knew it, they were in their bedchamber. Relief flooded her when she saw that it was exactly the same as she had left it. Riftan nimbly stepped over the cats that were rubbing themselves on his legs and lowered Maxi on the bed.
“Sit here while I light the fire.”
