Bound (Bound Trilogy) (12 page)

Instead, I said, “You want to get out of here, right?” She nodded vigorously. “Well, I’m going with you. You need someone to help you get to a safe place, and I’d just as soon not be here when Severn returns.” I leaned back and closed my eyes to rest while I could.

“But your men attacked me,” she said. “You brought me here. Why would you help me now?”

I forced one eye open. She sat up in the bed and clutched the blanket to her chest. Her eyes searched mine, perhaps wanting to believe me. I had no way of knowing what she was thinking, or what I could say to make her trust me. It might have been easier to explain my actions to her if I’d understood them, myself.

“It’s your decision,” I told her. “You’re free to do as you please. If you insist on staying here and waiting to see what happens to you in Luid, I’ll stay, too.”

“But I—”

“You should know that this is the last time I’m going to offer to help,” I added. “It will be too dangerous later.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she winced as the raw skin on her cheek stretched. “How can I believe anything you’re saying?”

I didn’t let my irritation show. Heavy footsteps passed by the door. Someone hollered far down the corridor. The ship would be leaving soon.

“Maybe you can’t. But you saved my life, even if you didn’t mean to. I don’t have time to explain more right now.” It was the reason I thought she’d be most likely to give if she were in my position. My family may have considered compassion and kindness the flaws of weaker people, but they ran deep in her.

I glanced at her breakfast. “The bread should be fine, if you’re hungry. I wouldn’t try the berries or the water.” Sara had no more interest in angering Severn than I usually had, and she’d be doing everything in her power to keep Rowan incapacitated. I poured a cup of fresh water from the pitcher on the desk and offered it to her.

She drank it all, and ate the toast. I turned away to retrieve my travel cloak from the wardrobe and pulled it on over my coat. When I turned back she was watching me. Making her decision.

“When do we leave?” She pulled the blanket tighter around her body, and I helped her sit up on the edge of the bed. She flinched when I touched her, but almost toppled over when I let go.

I nudged an old knapsack that waited on the floor. “Those are your things in the boxes. Get dressed quickly. Pack what you need. I suggest warm clothes, whatever you can manage. I have food and bedding. Stay here, don’t open the door until I return.”

“We’re just going to walk out of here?”

“I think riding would be faster.”

I collected supplies and food as quickly as I could and carried the bags one by one up to the deck, where I left them piled in a dark corner. When I returned to the room Rowan was dressed in trousers, brown leather boots that laced up to her knees, a heavy sweater and a jacket. Her pack was stuffed full, and Sara’s basket of ointments and potions sat empty on the bed. I handed her a charcoal cloak with a deep hood. It was Sara’s, the only one I could find that was small enough that Rowan wouldn’t trip over it. She ran her hands over the rough wool and the smooth, pink lining before she pulled it around her shoulders.

“Keep your face hidden until we’re clear of town, and don’t say a word until I tell you it’s safe,” I said. “When Severn comes looking for us, I don’t want anyone to have seen you.”

She looked like she was going to say something, but instead reached for her hood and pulled it over her head.

“We only have one chance to get away from here unnoticed. Keep your eyes down, and we’ll be fine.”

She limped toward the door, and reluctantly accepted my arm when I offered it.

Wooden boards creaked under our feet as we stepped into the passageway, and Rowan hesitated. “It’s fine,” I whispered. “Just keep moving.”

A door ahead and to our left creaked open. One of Severn’s uniformed guards stepped out, yawning, and turned toward us. I released Rowan’s arm and readied myself for a fight. He squinted, nodded, and turned to lock the door behind him. He saw us, but took no notice of us, which was as much as I’d hoped for. I released the breath I’d been holding as he passed us and continued down the passageway.

I took Rowan’s arm again and urged her to move more quickly. The sooner we got off of the ship, the better.

I took Rowan’s knapsack and went ahead when we reached the ladder that took us up to the deck. A cold wind blew in off of the ocean, and I pulled my cloak tighter as I offered a hand to help Rowan up. She looked around and blinked in the cloud-diffused sunlight, took in the sight of the men working to prepare the ship to sail, then looked down at her feet and waited for me to retrieve our supplies. If she was going to run, she was smart enough not to risk it yet.

A pair of gray horses waited for us at the bottom of the gangplank, as I’d arranged. I tied the bags to the saddles, then offered a hand to help Rowan up. She hesitated, but accepted. She took a few deep, shaky breaths as I mounted my own horse, but still said nothing.

We passed a few workers in the shipyard, all of whom ignored or seemed to look right through us as though we were ghosts. As we passed the fence a sailor staggered out of a dingy bar and looked at us with bleary eyes. When I reached out to take in his thoughts I found him struggling to remember some instruction. Something he was supposed to watch out for, to alert someone if he saw someone… something. He squinted at us.

“Say, you’re not… um,” he mumbled.

Shit.

I’d hoped that manipulating so many people would create a group effect that would draw in anyone I’d missed, but this one seemed unaffected.

“No,” I said. Had I been alone I might have taken care of things differently, but I glanced at Rowan and saw her watching from under her hood. Her hands gripped the reins tight, ready to take off at the first sign of trouble.

I reached out to change the sailor’s mind, to make him forget his instructions. I felt the magic go, leaving me weaker. The magic here near the border was stronger than it had been elsewhere, but I needed to get back to Tyrea soon to replenish.

The sailor’s drunkenness worked in my favor. He took a step away, stumbled, and went back toward the ship without further comment.

We went on, Rowan riding beside me down the hard-packed dirt road that led through town and toward the nearby mountains. We wouldn’t be safe until we’d left the obvious path and put distance between ourselves and the ship. Even then, Severn would be after us long before I was ready for him.

I gritted my teeth and urged the horse to move faster.

Chapter Thirteen

Aren

R
owan stayed close behind me as we climbed steep, winding roads, crossed the square and continued up a side street. The little town was packed into the foothills of tree-covered mountains, and the streets twisted back on themselves and met at strange angles with whitewashed buildings packed into every spare bit of space.

Few people were out so early, and those that were gave us no more than a look. They knew to mind their business and no one else’s. Not all of the Darmish were loyal to their own country, and my people used this particular harbor frequently. We were generous with the people, and they repaid us with safe passage and with information when it was available.

They were Severn’s allies, though, not mine. If he came asking questions later, they wouldn’t hesitate to answer.

A curtain twitched in a kitchen window, and an elderly woman squinted down at us. I looked away. As long as we got out of town, it didn’t matter what she saw. Severn would find out soon enough that we were missing, and one old hag noting which direction we’d headed would make little difference.

I closed my eyes to sharpen my focus and sent my awareness back in the direction of the ship, searching for chaos, confusion, or any sense of someone following us. There was nothing yet.

We rode without speaking, accompanied only by the sounds of a far-off pair of crows, the twittering of a few birds, and the sound of our horses’ hoofs as they scuffed through the drifts of pine needles that covered the long-unused logging road we followed toward the mountain. Late in the morning Rowan rode up beside me, looking like she wanted to ask a question, but I shook my head and she dropped back without a word.

Perhaps it would have been polite to ask how she was feeling, but it didn’t matter. We weren’t stopping, no matter how uncomfortable or frightened she was, or how badly a part of me wanted to haul her hack to the boat and insist that I’d caught her trying to escape.

I glanced over my shoulder. Rowan had let her hood fall, and she was watching a raven that flew overhead. My stomach turned every time I saw the bruise on her face, a reminder of how ill prepared I was to protect anyone. She looked calmer now than she had when she was trapped on the boat, though, and for a moment I felt as though I’d made the right choice in helping her.

Hours passed and the sun broke through the clouds. As we moved away from the immediate danger of the ship, doubts crowded my mind. In a moment of irrational anger I had thrown everything away—my family, my future, my identity. If I’d wanted to leave on my own, I could have planned a better escape. What I’d done was stupid and impulsive. But there was no changing the past. I locked those thoughts away and focused on keeping Severn from finding us. Worrying about what I’d done would only distract me from that.

After several turn-offs the road became little more than a path. We crossed a slow-running river shortly before noon and I turned my horse off of the road, letting him pick his way through the sparsely wooded forest for a few minutes before we stopped. “Do you want something to eat?” I asked Rowan, and swung down to the ground.

She opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Perhaps she was becoming as accustomed to the silence as I was. “We can talk now?”

“We could have hours ago. I just didn’t want to.” She shot me a look that would have frozen a dragon’s insides, but it disappeared almost instantly. I wondered whether she expected an apology. She’d have to get used to going without.

When I offered my hand, she refused to take it. “I’ll manage on my own, thank you.”

It took her longer than it should have, but she made it safely to the ground. She limped past me into the woods as I tethered the horses and pulled fresh fruit and dried meats from the bags, eating as I offered the horses a little grain. When Rowan returned, she sat in a sun-lit clearing and devoured her meal. I’d have offered more, but we’d have to make our supplies last. We wouldn’t be going anywhere near a town as long as I could avoid it.

She sat with her knees tucked up against her chest and winced as she bit into an apple. The bruises had faded over the past few hours, thanks to Sarah’s impressive gifts as a Potioner. Still, there was only so much her ointments could do. Morten certainly hadn’t showed Rowan any mercy. I had occasionally regretted killing people in the past, but I certainly didn’t this time.

Her gaze darted away from my face every time I caught her looking at me.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“No? Where I come from abductions don’t usually end well.” She winced at her own words. “Sorry, I’m just…” She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes.

“Nervous?”

She swallowed hard. “Terrified, actually.”

Her openness surprised me. I tried to reach into her thoughts, but didn’t have any more success than I had before.

“You’re safer with me at the moment than you are anywhere else,” I said. “Severn will be searching for us in this area, but we’ll get away from here as soon as we can.”

“Good.” She shivered and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“If I was going to hurt you, I wouldn’t be helping you, would I?”

“I suppose.” She still wouldn’t meet my gaze. Perhaps now that Severn was gone, she considered me the most immediate threat.

I wouldn’t be hurt by that. It didn’t matter whether she liked me. I was already toying with the idea that I could use her somehow, now that Severn was my enemy. That would mean keeping her around, trying to break the binding that had her magic trapped. It hadn’t been my original plan, but perhaps we’d both benefit, if only she would trust me.

“If you’re finished eating, we should keep moving.”

She struggled to stand as I went to untie the horses. I soon realized she hadn’t followed me out of the clearing. My anger caught me by surprise, and I tried not to let it creep into my voice. “I’m not going to rape you, either, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Her eyes grew wide. “Where I come from we believe that’s the territory of weak men and cowards. I am neither.”

“I didn’t mean any disrespect, mister—”

“Aren, please.”

“Aren.” She pushed past a low branch to follow me into the shadows beneath the trees, and reached out to stroke her horse’s nose. “I’m sorry. I’ve never been in a situation like this. I don’t know what to think or expect. Can I ask where we’re going? And if we can talk now, I’d like to ask about why your brother wanted me.”

Before I could answer, a shadow passed over the place we’d just been sitting. Rowan hobbled out from the shelter of the oak trees, shading her eyes against the sun. “What is that?”

“Rowan!” I whispered as loudly as I dared, but she kept going. The shadow passed again. I grabbed her arm to pull her out of the clearing.

“Hey!” she yelled, and I clapped a hand over her mouth. She struggled against me, but stopped when a dark silhouette passed above the trees, feathered wings spread out to soar toward the mountain. For a moment I thought it was Severn’s horse, a winged beast he’d captured years ago. It wasn’t, but it could have been just as problematic. Four legs were tucked up close to its body, and a sharp-beaked head moved side to side, watching the ground. I let go, and Rowan staggered back to lean against a tree.

“What—”

“Gryphon.”

“But we don’t have those in Darmid.”

“Welcome to the borderlands. At least it didn’t see us or the horses. We should move on.”

I tried not to let her see how shaken I was. The gryphon wouldn’t be a problem, but there were worse things hunting us.