Promising Light (50 page)

Dar took out his map again, and
they huddled in the tall grass with a map. Before the royals
arrived, perhaps they would have been able to spare two days by
going through Jolen. But now that the Protectors were in Kleisade,
now that they had Chad, they needed to hurry. They’d have to go
quickly, too. If they were caught, they wouldn’t have Kleisade to
protect them.

“I really, really don’t like this
idea, but…” Dar trailed off. “I think we should split
up.”

Matilda nodded. “The Protectors are
looking for a group of us. With Holden, one of the groups will be
two, at the most three. They’re going to expect us to stay
together.”

“I can communicate with everyone
if something goes wrong,” Holden said.

Dar rubbed his chin. He tried to
think of another way, but the more they talked about it, the more
he saw the sense in it. It would really lessen their chances of
being caught, and they’d meet up before going into the Mumbar
Jungle, where the jungle was just as dangerous as the Protectors,
if not more.

“I’ll go with Grace,” Dar
said.

“What makes you think that’s a
good idea?” Matilda snapped.

He gritted his teeth. “What makes
you think I’d leave her with anyone else?”

“If someone finds the two of you
together, what are they going to think?” Matilda asked. “The prince
or her father or her brother—they’ll kill you in an instant and do
whatever they want with her.”

He looked at Grace, who had her
arms crossed.

She met his eyes with a concerned
expression. “I think she’s right. They’re already talking about
killing you, but if you were alone with me…”

“Then what?” he asked. “How much
worse could it be if they’re already going to kill me?” He put his
hand on her knee and dropped his voice. “I don’t want to leave
you.”

Grace touched his hand and squeezed
his fingers. “Me, neither.”

Matilda let out an exasperated sigh
and turned to Sierra and Evan. “You see my point,
right?”

“Yes, I do,” Evan said. He made
eye contact with Dar, and Dar knew how hard that was for Evan. It’d
happened only a couple times since Dar had taken Sierra and Evan
from Tisha Slonan. “Dar… there are worse things than
death.”

Dar swallowed, looking down at his
hand entwined with Grace’s. “It’s okay. I’ll take it if I have
to.”

Grace kissed Dar’s hand softly,
smiling at him.

“Fine,” Matilda said with a huff.
“Here’s what I propose… I’ll go first with Holden. Lee, Dar, and
Grace next. Sierra and Evan last. That way, if something happens to
us, you can know to turn back.”

“We wouldn’t turn back!” Sierra
said. Evan looked just as insulted as he glared at
Matilda.

“You two are the ones wanted for
murder,” Matilda said. “Turning back might be a good
idea.”

They arranged signals: Lee would
speak to animals nearby to warn the others. Matilda would use
Holden if she was captured and to periodically check on the others.
They brainstormed ideas for Sierra and Evan, but couldn’t think of
anything.

“With you guys going ahead of us,
we should be fine,” Sierra assured them.

“I can check on you every now and
then, too,” Holden said.

They packed up their things in grim
silence. Right before he and Matilda left, Holden tried to contact
Chad, but he said there was a mental block. Dar had no way of being
sure if that were true, so he had to trust Holden’s
word.

Matilda hid Sierra and Grace to
outsiders and she and Holden left.

The others waited outside of Aron.
They found a copse of trees next to a river and unsaddled their
horses to let them graze and drink water. Dar worried about the
plan. He wanted to go back into town and see if the Protectors were
still there, but he didn’t feel safe leaving Grace.

When it was time three hours later,
Dar woke Grace from her nap, and she stirred, looking at him in
sleepy confusion. “Time to go,” he said.

Dar turned to Sierra, who sat
against an oak tree. “You two be careful,” he said.

She stood up and hugged Dar. “You,
too.”

Dar looked at Evan, who’d been
pacing for at least an hour. Evan stopped and stuck his hand out
for Dar. They shared a stiff handshake, and Dar hoped they survived
this to rebuild their relationship.

“We can fix this,” Evan
said.

Dar nodded, swallowing. When he
turned, Grace and Sierra pulled away from a hug.

Lee, Grace, and Dar saddled their
horses and got their bags ready. Grace’s hair was pulled back into
a braid, and she wore riding pants. She hardly looked like a noble,
but she still held herself with the dignity. Dar met her eyes and
held her horse while she mounted. He patted her leg then went to
his own horse.

They idled for just a moment before
leaving Lee’s house behind.

They rode all day, alternating
between galloping and trotting as the horses allowed. When they
reached the forest, the sun had set and they were forced to slow
down because of the dark. Holden contacted Dar halfway through the
night, checking where they were. He and Matilda had just reached
the Haltar border—no trouble yet.

They moved with speed the first two
days. The road they’d chosen was less traveled; overgrown weeds,
fallen trees, and other obstacles occasionally got in their way. If
they saw anyone else on the road, they’d trot past without a
thought. No one ever stopped them, but they went off the road to
avoid small villages along the way. Dar slept hard at night, Grace
curled up next to him, his body aching, his skin covered in
sweat.

They had planned to only stop when
absolutely necessary, but their horses weren’t invincible. They
hadn’t had the chance to find long distance horses, so they found
spots far off the road to rest. Only once did they find water deep
enough to fully bathe, so by the time they neared Belisha on the
third day, the three of them were stinky and filthy. Even Grace,
who used to look immaculate before leaving her house. Occasionally
they’d daydream about hot baths, warm meals, delicious wine, and
other luxuries.

On the third day, they were a
couple hours from the Cosa forest in Belisha when Holden contacted
Dar. The Zinna told him he and Matilda were waiting for them at the
forest since Dalya’s settlement had been so eager for Grace last
time. Dar wished there was a way around the forest, but it would be
a five or six hour detour. Time they couldn’t afford.

They stopped for a small meal and
fresh water; from the surroundings, Dar was fairly sure Jeshro and
Lisbeth’s manor was an hour north. Past that was the Cosa forest,
and eight or nine hours past that, Nyad and Mumbar
Jungle.

“Did Holden contact Jeshro?” Grace
asked.

“When he contacted me an hour ago,
yes,” Dar said. “Didn’t I tell you that?”

Grace shrugged, leaning toward the
river to splash her face. “Maybe you did and I was too tired to
comprehend it. What if we and the horses are so exhausted we can’t
survive Mumbar Jungle?”

“We’ll be fine. We’ve been fine so
far, haven’t we?”

Grace smiled and looked at Lee, who
was already asleep next to the river. “What did they tell
Jeshro?”

“They told him where we were
going. But nothing about our groups or where we heard it from. He
and the other elders are going to try to meet us in Nyad to help in
Mumbar Jungle.”

“As long as they don’t try to
force me to get pregnant.” Grace dampened her hair before pulling
it into a braid again. “Should we wake Lee up?”

Dar leaned closer to her, shaking
his head. He pulled her close and kissed her. Her body was stiff at
first, surprised, then she relaxed into him, her hands pulling at
his collar. He ran his hands through her hair, upsetting the braid
she hadn’t had a chance to tie back. She pushed him onto his back
on the riverbank and crawled on top of him. He didn’t care that
they were sweaty and dirty. He just wanted to revel in the moment,
no idea how many they had left together.

He reversed their positions and
pulled away, panting. He looked down at her, her blonde hair
half-braided, parts of it splayed out in the rocks. Dirt on her
nose. Her lips red and slick from where he’d been kissing her. Her
eyes boring into his. He wanted to remember this forever, along
with every other minute they’d had together. She pulled him down by
his collar for another kiss.

A few minutes later, he whispered,
“I should wake Lee up.”

She nodded. “We should keep
moving.”

He slowly stood. He held a hand out
for her and pulled her to her feet.

She wiped her finger along his
cheek. “You’ve got dirt on your face.” She shook her head. “We’re
filthy.”

Dar walked over to Lee and shook
his shoulder. Lee snorted awake. “Did I fall asleep?” he asked,
rubbing his eyes. “Oh, my… let’s go.”

They left the road to go around the
manor, knowing Protectors would have people watching. “Is there a
way around the Cosa forest?” Grace asked.

Dar shook his head. “Not one we
have time for.”

“But that reward is still out for
me.”

“Matilda and Holden said they were
waiting for us. They should be able to help us if there’s
trouble.”

Lee looked up at the clear blue
sky. “Good thing it’s light outside. It won’t be like the first
night.”

They approached the Cosa forest.
“Let’s just get through it as quickly as we can,” Dar said,
withdrawing his sword. “Get your dagger out, just in
case.”

Grace reached into her bag and
pulled out her dagger. “I hope I won’t be needing this.”

Dar’s heart was pounding; he hadn’t
forgotten the greedy looks of Dalya’s settlement, especially that
man named Hash, the last time they’d been here for Evan’s horse.
“I’ll go first, Grace next, Lee last?” he suggested.

Lee and Grace nodded, and Dar set
off.

As soon as he was in the forest, it
seemed darker. The trees seemed to close in around him, but he knew
it must be in his head. He urged his horse on along the path,
keeping his sword ready if he needed. His horse leapt over a fallen
tree, rocking Dar on the saddle.

The path grew smaller; now the
trees really were closing in. Dar ducked to avoid a branch and
slowed his horse to a canter. He looked over his shoulder to look
at Grace and Lee. Grace had a fierce look on her face and she gave
Dar a quick nod.

They moved deeper into the forest.
When Dar looked up, he could hardly see the blue sky through the
leaves of the trees. It seemed colder now, even as Dar was moving
quickly.

Suddenly, the air around him
changed and his body changed of its own accord, back to his
original state. He swore; Grace could be visible to them, too.
“Keep going!” he called over his shoulder.

Back in his original form, strength
flooded back into his body, and he took a deep breath of
air.

His horse reared up when they
reached an obstacle in the path: a large tree in the road, one that
wouldn’t be easy to leap over. Dar held onto the reins to keep
balance as his horse skidded to a stop. Grace and Lee’s horses
stopped just behind him.

“They’re getting closer,” Lee said
breathlessly.

They dismounted, and Dar led his
horse around the tree off the path. Tangled weeds caught at his
feet, and he struck them with his sword.

As they were nearing the path on
the other side of the fallen tree, Grace screamed.

* * *

Chapter
Thirty

Dar spun around, his sword raised.
Grace fought with a teenage boy with blonde hair, kicking him in
the legs and scratching at his face as he tried to tackle her
down.

“Let her go!” Dar said, pointing
his sword at the boy.

Grace shoved the boy, and he
tripped over a bush and fell to the ground. The knife in his hand
fell on the dirt, and Grace scrambled after it. The boy tried to
tackle her, but Dar put his sword at the boy’s throat. “Don’t touch
her,” he said.

Grace stood up, panting, the boy’s
knife in her hand.

A laugh behind Dar made him spin
around. Half a dozen men and women had surrounded them. “The
reward’s five thousand ryrels now,” one of the men said, his gaze
on Grace.

“Where are Dalya and Ned?” Dar
asked.

The man laughed; he had a long
mustache and scraggly blonde hair. “Who cares?” he asked. “We could
start our own settlement with five thousand ryrels!”

The others nodded, closing in on
them.

“How would you split it up?” Dar
asked, stepping toward Grace.

The man looked at the others around
him.

Dar turned to tell Grace to get on
her horse and get her dagger out, but she was already halfway on
her horse. Smiling, Dar turned back to his horse and mounted. The
boy grabbed at Grace’s foot, but she kicked him in the
face.