For a second, when the boy did the deer-in-headlights freeze, Dayn flashed on wide blue eyes and similar moments of fear. A searing bolt of grief rocketed through him, warning that he might have submerged his thoughts of Reda, but they werent gone. Not even close.
Then the kid broke from his paralysis, drew breath and screamed at the top of his lungs, Wolfyn! He spun and bolted, screeching, Mama, Papa! The wolfyns here!
CHAPTER TWELVE
DOORS SLAMMED OPEN on both sides of the road and club-wielding men hurtled out from the buildings and flew from around corners, boiling into the street, shouting things like Get him! Cut him off! The moneys mine! and Dont let him get away!
Cursing, Dayn dodged one club swing, took another on his shoulder and leaped into the road, swinging his sword in a wide arc that was more intended to drive his attackers back rather than hurt them. His mind raced, jammed with thoughts of Damn that witch, and Now what? He was horrifically outnumbered, but he didnt want to kill the villagers. He was trying to save them, damn it!
Looking around frantically while he batted off club swings with the flat of his sword, he searched for a thin spot, an exit, and found
Now! a voice shouted.
Too late, he looked up to see a heavily weighted net flying down at him, flinging open as it came.
Son of a He spun to bolt, but it caught him hard and knocked him down.
Roaring, he lunged back to his feet, staggering as he fought the tangling lines. He got his sword arm free and slashed out, heard a cry of pain and saw the villagers shrink back for a second. But that didnt last long; they closed in just as he freed himself from the net, leaping away and flailing with his sword. He slapped for his crossbow, but it was gone.
He was surrounded, but the villagers didnt come at him, instead hesitating, keeping their clubs raised as they shouted, egging one another. For a second, their hesitation didnt make any sense. Then he realized: they were afraid he was going to change, didnt know that hed only succumbed twice in his life and didnt intend to do it again. Not when part of his promise to his father had been to remember his true self, which wasnt wolfyn.
Heart rocketing, he went for his bloodline magic, sending his secondary canines spearing through his gums. Then he bared his teeth and roared at the nearest villager, doing his best impression of Keely on a bad-fur day.
The man shouted and fell back, stumbling into the guy behind him. They both went down and three others shied away as Dayn lunged through the small opening and raced for the open area beyond. For a second he thought he was going to make it, but then the guys at the outer edge of the crowd saw him coming and started closing ranks.
Zzzt. Thwack! An arrow whizzed past the men and sank itself in the building opposite. They shouted and fell back as a second missile followed the first, coming even closer to them before nailing a rain barrel.
Dayn didnt stop to wonder who or how; he put his head down and hauled ass for the nearest village gate.
Close the gate! The shout went up behind him, and up ahead, two men scrambled from a rickety guard shack and moved to comply, pushing a heavy door that slid sideways on ponderous rollers.
He wasnt going to make it.
Sudden hoofbeats pounded behind him and a familiar voice called, Dayn!
And his heart. Stopped. Dead.
His body might have kept running as he looked back over his shoulder, but the rest of him froze at the sight of Reda galloping toward him on a bald-faced bay horse with white-ringed eyes. She was wearing a mix of the clothing hed last seen her in along with a few Elden-style pieces, including the close-fitting pants and boots typically worn by the members of the cavalry or elite guard. They were old, but the royal colors of his own house still shone clearly.
Reda, he whispered through a throat gone suddenly dry with mingled joy and dismay. Sweet gods.
The villagers scattered like blown leaves as she bore down on him. Then she was steering with her knees and weight as she knocked an arrow in a sleek compound bow and let fly, burying the missile in the village gate no more than a handspan from one of the guys who were fighting to get it shut. The two men shouted, took one look at her and dove for cover, leaving the gate half-open and unattended.
Grab on! She pulled even with Dayn, offered a hand and, when he locked his wrist to hers, used the bays momentum to pull him up behind her.
It was a familiar move, one hed done a hundred times with Nicolai, sometimes even with his father. But the bay squealed and spooked at the move, swerving and then flattening out its haunches as it accelerated to a flat-out panicked bolt that left him sprawled awkwardly on the animals haunches, being jolted loose with every stride.
Whoa! Reda started to haul on the reins, but then glanced back at the villagers, thought better of it and yelled, Hang on!
Dayn did his best, getting a good grip on the empty bedroll straps at the back of the age-cracked cavalry saddle as Reda rode the bolt, steering the white-eyed bay through the village gate and out onto the main road, where they thundered for nearly a mile before the animal began to tire, slowing to a bumpy canter, then to a tooth-jarring trot.
Still, though, the horse was restive and upset, refusing to settle, to the point that it was all Reda could do to spin the creature in a circle as Dayn slid down. The brute kicked out and scooted away, but she hauled it back around in a few snorting, prancing whirls, and then it finally started to calm down, blowing elephant-bugle snorts at Dayn.
Who just stood there in the road, staring.
She didnt say anything, either, just met his eyes with a cool expression that didnt tell him a thing. After a moment, she lifted her chin as if to say, Well?
You can ride, he said, which was dead stupid because that was far from the most important thing. But the sight of her astride the wall-eyed bay, carrying a weapon from her own realm and wearing clothes mixed from the other two, shifted his perceptions, jarring him and replacing his image of wide, scared blue eyes.
I did Pony Club for a bit, played polo now and then in college. She paused. That and the archery were the closest I could get to living out the fairy tales. Until now.
He had told himself he didnt want her here in this wreck of a kingdom, that he didnt have it in him to protect her and do his duty both. But now that she was here, really here, he wanted to fall to his knees and thank the gods and the magic, wanted to kiss her booted toe and work his way up from there, and wanted, somehow, to make things right between them. Because she was here.
The kingdom was a wasteland, Moragh had turned the villagers against him and put a bounty on his head, his siblings were nowhere to be seen and, given how much had been drained from the land, the Blood Sorcerers powers must be immense.
But sudden, illogical joy wrapped itself around his heart as he stood there staring up at a woman who looked like something from the stories of his own childhooda goddess of the hunt, perhaps, or a patr oness of the kings elite cavalry. Yet at the same time she was the Reda he had known in the wolfyn realm, the one he had made love to, cared for, wanted beyond all reason.
His throat tightened, burning with emotion. You used the Elden spell.
But she shook her head. I was sent here.
His blood cooled a degree. Then how?
Your father. At least, I think thats who it was. He pulled me into limbo, told me I had to help you get all the way to the castle, and that you need to remember your true self. And that if I do that, I can go home for real.
I know what I am and what I must bea prince of Elden, with all that it entails. He paused, scrubbing a hand over his face. Why did he send you with the message? Why not just talk to me while I was in the vortex?
She looked past him. I have a theory on that. I got here a few hours ago, bought MacEvoy here she indicated the bay, who had leveled off to flat-footed, eye-rolling suspicion and clothes that didnt scream outsider quite so loudly. Then I justI dont know. Started riding. And that gave me time to think.
He was still working to catch up with the sudden differences in her. The fear was goneor if not gone, so deeply buried that he couldnt see it anymore. More, she was calm and competent, automatically settling her mount with a touch here, a shift of weight there, and wearing the bow naturally across her back as if it had been made for her. The Queens Guard would have been proud to have a woman like her. And a kingdom in need of rebuilding could do worse.
Slow down, he told himself, all too aware that their entire relationship had taken place at a flat-out gallop, and that a single misstep at such speed could be fatal. Your theory? he prompted when she didnt continue.
Meeting his eyes, she said, I think Im a test.
A Oh. He stared at her. No. Thats impossible.
Is it? Looping the reins in one hand, she crossed her arms and just looked at him.
No, it wasnt impossible and they both knew it. More, it made a horrible sort of sense. He was supposed to remember his priorities and his true self. And just as the voice that had come to him as he floated out of his body had demanded a sacrifice from him in exchange for another chance, the magicand his fathercould be trying to teach him the lessons he hadnt yet learned, the ones Elden needed him to master. Focus. Dedication. Discipline. Humility.
Gods, no. Not this way. He wanted to make it up to her, to be with her. Their time together had been the brightest spot, not just in the past two decades, but in all the years he had been alive. With her, he had been a man, an individual, a lover, a mate.
Sacrifice.
Moving slowly, keeping an eye on the horse, he crossed to her. The bay gave a half rear, but then subsided and held its ground, nostrils flaring as he came up beside them, close enough to touch her leg, though he didnt.
He was viscerally aware of the long curves of her taut muscles beneath the cavalry breeches, though, and the familiar royal crest stamped into the leather at the top of her boot, now wearing a slash that indicated it was part of a rebellion, some sort of organized resistance. And deep down inside him where the wolfyn magic dwelled, arousal and satisfaction mingled at the sight of her wearing his family colors. He wanted to drape her in fine silks in those same colors, wanted to run their slippery softness over her body, then follow the same paths with his hands and lips. He hadnt even begun to deal with her loss, could barely comprehend her return.