One of the guards climbed up next to the driver in front. Her guard opened the door to the carriage and looked in at the occupants before nodding and ushering Aerity up, then climbing in himself. Seconds later they were moving. Aerity glanced at the two commoner women, both who wore dirty aprons, and she gave them nods, which they returned. If they recognized her, they didn’t make a fuss. She wished there were windows in the cart, but the cloth covering was tight over the carriage.
A shout came from the front of the cart, followed by a loud grunt and a thud. The cart shifted momentarily as if the weight in the front had changed. Aerity grasped the seat to keep from falling. Her guard grabbed the door and was about to swing it open to peer out when the driver shouted back through the cloth wall overhead.
“Sorry about that! All clear now!”
Her guard sat back slowly, appearing as edgy as Aerity felt. The commoner women took the bump in stride, silently.Aerity’s eyes dropped to their hands in their laps and her stomach filled with agitated, nervous buzzing. They were Lashed.
She scolded herself for the rush of prejudice and fear that seeing their lash marks brought. She had no reason to feel distress in the presence of her own Lashed commoners, unfriendly though they may be.
“I thank you for sharing your cart,” Aerity said.
The woman stared, straight-faced, and did not reply. Aerity’s neck prickled.
Her guard sat forward. “This is your queen, Aerity Lochson, who has addressed you—”
“It’s okay, sir.” Aerity lay a hand on his forearm just as shouting rose up behind the cart.
“Stop them!” she heard. Was that Paxton’s voice? She sat up straighter.
One of the women sprang and grabbed the guard’s hand. He tried to pull away, but in a split second his face slackened and he fell forward. Aerity stared in horror at his body at their feet before a shattering scream tore from her throat. She lunged for the door, but the women grabbed her and pushed her back. She screamed, kicked, and flailed her arms against their holds. The cart moved faster.
“Stay still or we will kill you,” one of the women said in Kalorian.
Aerity loathed the whimper that escaped as she went limp in obedience.
Chapter
50
Paxton had only seen the side of the cart driver’s face from afar, lit partially from the light of nearby fire as he pulled away. Recognition frayed the edges of his mind. He’d reined in his horse, and Harrison stopped his steed at Paxton’s side, sensing that something was awry. Paxton’s eyes went to the horseshoe formation of guards surrounding the lasses. Two lasses.
“Aerity is gone,” he said. His pulse shot up so quickly that he had to swallow. His eyes went toward the covered cart and all at once the recognition clicked into place. “Deep seas,” he whispered. That man driving the cart . . . he could have sworn it was Konor. “Harrison, I have to stop that cart! It’s one of Rozaria’s men!”
Paxton shoved the reins of the other two horses toward Harrison as he charged down the hill. On the path he had to weave through townspeople and soldiers.
“Stop them!” he’d shouted.
Up ahead a crowd had formed. They slowly moved aside as Paxton pressed inward, shouting for them to clear the way. And then he came upon what they’d been staring at. A royal guard dead in the path.
“He was thrown from that cart!” a man said.
“Get to safety!” Paxton told the townspeople before charging forward again.
Was Aerity alone inside that carriage? If not, who was with her? Rozaria? He shook his worried thoughts away and urged his horse into a gallop, gaining ground. “Stop them!”
They were nearing the edge of the town when Paxton’s horse was at the cart’s door. He swiped for the handle, but couldn’t reach.
“Aerity!” he shouted. Nobody responded, but up ahead Konor leaned to the side and peered back with wild eyes. Paxton urged his horse forward until he was riding alongside Konor. The man kicked out, landing a blow to Paxton’s horse’s neck. His horse faltered one moment before righting himself with a huff. Paxton leaned and grasped Konor by the back of his tunic. The man spun to try and grab Paxton, but Pax yanked with all his might, sending the man flying from the cart with a holler as he rolled on the pebbled path behind them.
Paxton tried to grasp the reins of the cart but couldn’t reach. The cart horse spooked and turned abruptly up the hill. “Whoa, whoa!” Paxton cursed as the carriage tilted and then toppled over. Screams sounded from within the carriage, and the horse reared with a great whinny.
Paxton yanked his horse to a stop and leaped down.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said a low, seductive voice that he knew all too well.
Paxton slowly turned to face Rozaria, who had walked out from behind the very last house. The severe look of betrayal in her eyes, paired with the utter calm of her body, sent a tremor of apprehension to his core. Paxton said nothing and did not move, though his eyes darted to see who else might step out at any moment.
The door to the toppled cart opened at the top and a brown-haired woman’s head rose. Rozaria called out to the woman in Kalorian, and whatever the woman said made a triumphant laugh spill out of Rozaria. Her eyes gleamed at Paxton.
