Defy (15 page)

important to get out of here, retrieve my weapons, find Rylan, and

112

return to the palace before nightfall. I wanted to put as much dis-

tance between Borracio and myself as possible.

“Where are my sword and my bow?” I asked as I followed the

men down one of the tunnels.

“You’ll find them where we found you. If someone else didn’t

claim them already.” The man snorted, and his companion couldn’t

quite hide a bark of laughter, either.

There was no way I was going back into the jungle unarmed. I

glanced at them out of the corner of my eye. No bows, but both

carried decent swords. That was better than nothing. I docilely fol-

lowed them on a winding path through various tunnels, the light of

the torch the only thing beating back the darkness. At times, we

sloshed through water, or it dripped on our heads. I tried not to

think about what could be in the tunnels with us. Rats. Bats. Snakes.

I shuddered.

At last, I saw daylight ahead. My sigh of relief was so audible,

one of the men snorted again. I didn’t care. They wouldn’t be laugh-

ing anymore soon enough. We had to climb over a huge boulder

to exit the tunnel. When we were finally standing on the dry

ground with nothing over our heads except sky — a much darker

sky than I’d hoped for — there was no one else there.

“Where’s Rylan?” I turned to ask gruff ly.

“How would we know? We were in charge of you. I’m sure

he’s around here somewhere.” The shorter one smirked. He out-

weighed me by at least thirty pounds. I’d been watching him walk

and noticed that he favored his right leg infinitesimally, most likely from a recently healed injury.

Without any warning, I kicked him in the knee. With a cry,

he dropped to the ground, his leg giving out entirely, just as I’d

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figured it would. Before he even had a chance to realize he was on

the ground, I’d already grabbed his wrist, twisting it in a move-

ment so hard and fast, I could hear the bone snap and his sword

fell into my free hand just in time for me to spin and parry the

blow heading in my direction as his partner charged me. Within

less than a minute, I had disarmed him as well, and they were both

on the ground. I let the guy with the broken wrist be, since he

made no move to attack me again. But his partner tried to get back

up, so I hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of one of the

swords hard enough to knock him out. Aside from a pounding

headache and wounded pride, he’d be fine when he woke up.

“Tell Borracio that I got his message loud and clear,” I said as

I unhooked the unconscious man’s scabbard and tightened it

around my own waist. I sheathed the nicer of the two swords, and

chucked the other one into the river f lowing next to the opening

we’d climbed through.

“What
are
you?” the man who was still conscious asked.

“A damn good fighter,” I said as I stormed away into the dark-

ening jungle.

114

 sixteen 

T
he small fire hissed and popped in front of me, like a

glowing beacon, announcing my presence to any creature —

human or otherwise — that might be lurking nearby in the dark

trees. I felt exposed with the bright f lames illuminating me, filling the air with light and smoke. But it would have been even worse to

huddle in the damp, dark night without them.

My belly ached with hunger and fear. There was still no sign of

Rylan. I’d half hoped he’d notice my fire and find me. If Deron

and the rest of the guard could see me now, it wouldn’t have mat-

tered how many fights I’d won. My fear of the dark and snakes

would defeat me in the end. A completely ignominious way to go.

My body battled between the adrenaline of fear and the exhaus-

tion and need for sleep that made my limbs heavy and my eyelids

slow to open after each blink.

Until I heard a snap in the bushes behind me.

Instantly awake, I held my breath, my fingers inching toward

the sword that lay across my lap. A jaguar or snake wouldn’t make

a noise like that, not if it were stalking me. Could it be Rylan?

I turned to glance behind me and just as I did, I saw a blur of

motion out of the corner of my eye. I swung back around to see a

massive black body lunging out of the bushes toward me. I only

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had time to open my mouth to scream and swing my sword up to

block my neck before the creature was on me, claws and teeth

f lashing in the firelight, diving for my jugular. I threw my weight

backward and tried to lift the sword up into the jaguar’s belly, as

its claws tore through my tunic, pressing me into the ground. I felt

fire on my ribs and arm, and distantly realized it was pain. But

there was no time to assimilate any damage, not while the beast was

still trying to get past the blade. The edge of my sword cut into my

jaw, but I didn’t care. It was the only thing keeping the huge cat

from tearing out my throat.

It tried again, biting down hard, and got a mouthful of blade.

It growled in pain and swiped the side of my head with one mas-

sive paw. More fire exploded across my skull and stars popped in

front of my eyes. My grip on my sword weakened.

Suddenly, the jaguar let out a howl of such pain and fury that

it almost deafened me. A sword protruded from its chest. Hot, red

blood poured from the wound onto me. The cat’s eyes rolled into

its head and it collapsed on top of me, pushing all the air from my

lungs. And then, just when my vision began to go dark from lack

of oxygen, it was gone and Rylan stood over me, his chest heaving,

holding a sword coated in blood.

“Alex! Are you okay?” He dropped to his knees beside me.

The fire was gone now and in its place was a pain so intense, so

excruciating, I didn’t dare move, afraid I’d make it worse.

I was soaked with blood, my own and the jaguar’s. My ribs,

my left arm, and the side of my head all throbbed. I was afraid to

look down and see how bad it really was.

“We need to get you cleaned up and we have to sew up these

wounds. None of them look too deep, luckily, but I can’t tell for

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sure. There’s too much blood, and it’s too dark.” Rylan kept up a

steady stream of commentary as he pulled his tunic over his head

and began to tear it into strips. “I didn’t bring any needles or

thread, though, so we’re going to have to bind them as best we can

and get back to the palace as quickly as possible.”

“I can’t,” I finally said, my voice barely above a whisper. I

sounded like a girl — I couldn’t get my tone gruff enough, but

I didn’t care. I was probably going to die in this jungle tonight

anyway.

“Yes, you can. You’re the toughest fighter in the palace, and

you aren’t going to let one little jaguar finish you off, are you?”

Rylan had bent over me and was tugging on my tunic now. I real-

ized what he was trying to do all at once and I reached up with my

right hand and grabbed his wrist.

“Stop.” It was hard to speak past the pain, the breathlessness

that still plagued me. I wondered if the jaguar had punctured my

lung. “Don’t. Don’t tear it.”

“Alex, you’re hurt and bleeding. I need to clean the wounds

first of all and then —”

“No.”
I tightened my grip on his wrist, trying to pull his hand away from my tunic. “Please.”

He stared down at me, his face shadowed in the firelight. The

light undulated in the breeze, brief ly illuminating his face, and I

realized his eyes were full of remorse. My stomach clenched. He

thought I was going to die, too.

With a deep sigh, he covered my right hand with his left.

“Alexa, I know.”

“You know wh —” I cut myself off with a horrified gasp as I

realized what he’d said.
Alexa.
Not
Alex
. A name I never thought 117

I’d hear spoken to me again. I shook my head, my eyes filling with

tears. My mouth opened, but nothing came out.

His grip tightened on my hand as my whole body began to

tremble. From pain, from blood loss, from shock.

Finally, I managed to whisper,
“How?”

“I’ve known since the first day I met you.” He stared at my

mouth, at my chin, anywhere but my eyes.

The pain that encompassed my body was eclipsed by the shock

pulsing through me with each beat of my heart. He
knew
? He’d

always
known?

“You and Marcel slipped up in front of me; he called you

Alexa, and you responded. He realized I’d heard and later swore

me to secrecy. I’m sorry I never told you. He made me promise.”

The tears that had gathered in my eyes leaked out, slipping

down both of my temples as I lay there on the ground, broken

inside and out. “You knew,” I repeated, my voice hoarse.

Rylan nodded, reaching with one hand to brush the tears from

my face. “Now, please, let me clean your wounds and figure out

how we’re going to help you.” His fingers lingered on my temple.

“I think you’d better let us help you, or else the girl will most

likely die from her injuries.”

The voice came from just outside the light of my fire. I forced

myself to lift my head, but when I did, the pain became unbear-

able. Strange, bright lights popped in front of my eyes and then

everything began to tunnel into darkness. I saw Borracio step into

the circle of the firelight.

And then I was gone.

118

 seventeen 

W
hen I woke, I was lying on a bed of furs and the pain

was gone.

Above me was the same damp stone ceiling I’d seen the last

time I’d woken in these caves, but it was a different cavern.

Someone’s bedroom, from what I could gather, as I turned to

glance around. I was alone, with only two torches to light the

small cavern. I hardly dared look down at myself, afraid of what

I’d see.

“Alex, you’re awake.” I heard Rylan’s voice and turned to see

him rushing through the opening toward me. “How do you feel?”

There was a tenderness in his voice I’d never heard before, and I

remembered that last night when I lay dying on the ground in

front of him, he’d admitted knowing I was a girl all these years.

Simultaneous relief and anger surged up.

“I don’t know,” I answered gruff ly when he dropped to his

knees next to me.

“A healer was with you all night. She only came out an hour

ago, but she said you would be fit for travel when you woke.”

Rylan reached to touch my head, but I jerked out of his grasp. He

pulled his hand back and looked down at his lap, but not before I

saw the hurt f lash through his usually warm chocolate-brown eyes.

119

The eyes I’d taken far too much notice of recently. “You’re mad,”

he said quietly.

“Of course I’m mad!” I burst out. “How could you let me go

on for the last three years without any idea that you knew?”

“Marcel made me swear. He was afraid you’d act different

around me, accidentally reveal yourself to the others. I cared too

much about you to risk that.”

His words wormed past my anger, brushing my heart with

warmth. I could feel myself softening.

“You look . . . really good. She worked some sort of miracle on

you. Are you in any pain?”

I reached up hesitantly, expecting to feel huge gashes on the

side of my head where the jaguar had batted me. Instead, I found

nothing but my hair and three thin lines of puckered skin, as if I’d

already healed and formed scars. “No, there’s no pain,” I finally

responded, my voice soft and disbelieving. “What
is
she?”

“Borracio wouldn’t say, but I heard someone else whispering

about her being a sorceress.”

A sorceress who could heal? I’d never heard of anything like it.

I, like all the people of Antion, had been told that sorcerers were

evil, that the magic they wielded brought only death.

I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt to find the same thing — the

skin on my left bicep was completely healed, with four bright pink

scars to mark where the claws had bitten through my f lesh, tearing

my muscle.

“He said we needed to leave as soon as you were awake and

feeling up to it. He acted like he couldn’t wait to be rid of us.”

Rylan sat back on his heels, watching me as I slowly sat up.

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“If he wants to be rid of us that badly, why even make the

effort to have his healer help me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then let’s go. Prince Damian is probably going to undo all

her hard work when we arrive a day late.” I stood up and f lexed my

left hand and stretched my neck, rolling my head in wonder, not

quite able to believe the pain, the horror of the night before were

gone. I was scarred, but I was better. In one night. I glanced down

and realized I was dressed in clean clothes and my chest was bound

with a clean cloth. Whoever had taken care of me was now aware

of my secret, too. The list was growing at an alarming rate.

I wanted to find this woman, to ask her how she did it, to find

out how I could repay her. To make sure she wouldn’t tell anyone