“I am.”
Just say it. Tell him who you are.
Why don’t I?
Because if he learns I’m a Mysec princess, and next in line for the throne, Tovian will try to stop me from getting to Oceanside. He’ll send me right back to River Bend. Nineteen days of fighting my way down the coast, wasted. Five guards sacrificed their lives to get me this far. Telling him the truth means turning back. I can’t risk it.
“You’re Myseci?”
I nodded.
“Alright, Arianelle, I believe you.” He caps his metal canteen and pushes up to standing. “Let’s get you to Oceanside.”
Relieved, I follow him, sun beating down on my neck and back the whole way, muscles screaming with every step.
Chapter 5
We stumble into the encampment well after dark. Smoke hazes the horizon and lingers in my nostrils. I want a bath and a change of clothes. Neither was forthcoming.
“I’m looking for Ephram,” I whisper to the guard, hands raised, palms out. The man’s exhaustion is evident in the lines etched around his eyes and the brackets at the corners of his mouth.
“Campfire,” he replies curtly, after patting me down and finding only the two blades I’m carrying.
When I glance behind me, Tovian is gone. Disappointment stabs me. He was as good as his word. Now I have no way to find him again. I should have told him my real name, at least.
Should’ve kissed him again, at a minimum. I wish I’d had the courage to do more than kiss, too.
Pining for Lorcan fucked you up, girl
Shaking off the stinging thought, I make my way toward the flickering campfire. A group of grizzled men are assembled around it. Some old. Some closer to my age, twenty-one. A man with a bandanna tied around his hair glances up, one eye baleful at my interruption, the other hideously swelled. I gasp.
“Ephram?”
“Who’re you?”
“Princess Raina Myseci.” I set my pack on the ground and take his stubbled chin in my hand, turning his face to the light. He winces. “You’re going to lose that eye.”
“Already have.” He jerks away. “Damned pirate popped it like a grape.” Rising, he extends his hand. “We’ve little in the way of accommodations, but there’s a spring nearby for washing. The women will stand watch for you.” Leaning closer he asks, “Is there any word from the castle?”
I shake my head.
When I called my father to report Orisa’s disappearance, he was beside himself with worry for me. River Bend has its hands full with holding the line against invaders. Many villages in the lowlands near the Great Rielka River have been burned. Homesteads attacked. Our stronghold remains safe, for now.
But there’s still no word from Zosia or her father. Nineteen days of silence. It won’t be easy to convince people to fight, even for their homeland. Not when they’re scared, outmanned, and outgunned, where resistance carries a high probability of death.
I have to try.
I have no choice but to hope.
I will keep choosing hope until it works, or I’m dead. There is no compromise.
“Not yet. She’ll turn up.” I chuckle, a halfhearted and weary attempt at reassurance that sounds fake to my own ears. It’s nothing like Tovian’s warm humor.
I miss him already. He didn’t even say goodbye.
Never even had a chance to thank him.
Ephram isn’t convinced. “I hope so. Without the princess to lead us, morale is…” He trails off, then claps me on the shoulder. “We have a princess. You’re a welcome sight, Your Highness. We might not have much at present, but what we have is yours.”
