The Shadow Throne (The Ascendance Trilogy #3)

Finally, I drifted off, but it was a restless sleep filled with haunted dreams that kept me on edge. In them, Amarinda was on the same ridge in the camp where Imogen had fallen, begging me to come after her. Telling me that she was intelligent and strong and would fight for me. Then I heard the whoosh of an arrow —

I woke up with a start, sweat on my brow. But I soon realized it wasn’t the dream that had awoken me. Something near us had made a noise.

The horses were tied close by, but not immediate to our camp. Whatever the noise had been, it was minor, but something clearly had disturbed them.

As silently as possible, I reached for my sword and got to my feet. I poked at Mott and Tobias and, when they awoke, motioned for them to follow me. We had only taken a few steps when we caught the sound of our horses on the run. We gave pursuit, Mott racing far ahead of Tobias and myself. One of the horses must’ve pulled free. Mott caught it and, jumping into its saddle, set off to get ahead of the thief and force him back this way.

Tobias and I kept running in the direction of the noise. I yelled at Tobias to run to the right, in case our horse thief circled back that way. The thief continued forward, but another of our horses escaped and veered toward Tobias. He was able to grab the reins and calm the horse enough to climb on its back, then he set off as well, leaving me alone.

It wasn’t long before I lost sight of him, and Mott was already too far away. I wasn’t sure which way I should go until several minutes later when I heard Tobias yell, “Help! I see him!”

They were coming toward me, and I ran to intercept. The thief would come upon me first and be greeted by the sharp end of my sword.

Only it didn’t happen that way. When Tobias cried for help, our thief responded.

“Tobias?”

That was the princess’s voice.

Still running forward, I saw her approach in the moonlight. Amarinda had stolen our horses, and now that she recognized a friendly voice, she immediately turned back to race toward Tobias. When they were close, she slid from her horse, as did he. I was near enough then to call out to her, but something silenced me. Somehow, this reunion belonged to them, and not me. So I only watched as the princess called Tobias’s name and ran to embrace him. Several days ago, when I had seen them pressed together in the small space of the escape carriage, they had looked uncomfortable and awkward. Clearly, that had passed now.

“How did you get here?” she asked. “When you were captured, I thought” — her voice choked — “I thought they’d do to you what they did to Jaron.”

Tobias saw me behind them and released her as if she burned him. With an eye on me, he said, “My lady, what they told us about Jaron was a lie.”

Then he turned her to face me, and she stared a moment as if unable to believe her own eyes. The light from above was fairly dim, but her long brown hair tumbled in tangles down her back, her fine dress was torn and stained, and she was limping from having only one shoe to wear. She was dirty and ragged and clearly exhausted. Through all that, she was as beautiful as ever.

“Jaron?” She stumbled forward in disbelief. “Is this possible? They said you were dead.”

“I nearly was.”

“But how —” Amarinda was close enough then to touch me, and her face melted in sympathy. She reached out a hand to brush a lock of hair from my face. The hair had covered a dark bruise on my temple, a personal gift from the vigil Terrowic to me. “Jaron, what did they do to you?”

Rather than answer, I took her hand and kissed it, then asked, “Tell me of yourself. What do you need?”

She smiled. “All is well, my lord, but I am hungry.”

“We have food at our camp.”

“I know. I smelled it cooking earlier tonight, and in fact, that’s how I found your camp. But when I got there, I saw the Avenian uniforms, and the horses packed with Avenian saddles. I had no idea it was you. My plan was to release the horses, and when you all went after them, to sneak into camp for some food.”

“It was a risky plan.”

“Yes, but I was very hungry. And taking this risk turned out better than I could’ve hoped.”

By then, Tobias had brought his horse over to us. Despite the embrace he had just shared with her, he was awkward once again as he assisted her into the saddle. I climbed up next to ride with her back to camp. Her arms were around my waist, but I felt her turn back to look at Tobias as we rode off. It sealed in my mind a suspicion that had been growing for some time.

Tobias and the princess were in love.

Mott joined us soon after we arrived at camp, and was clearly as relieved as the rest of us to find the princess safe and unharmed. But I also caught him staring at me with his brows pressed low. Clearly, he understood that something was bothering me, but he knew better than to ask.

We built up the fire for her warmth, offered her tea, then Mott began warming her some food while Tobias and I reorganized the camp for her comfort and privacy. For his own safety, I would’ve preferred it if Tobias worked much farther away from me, but he seemed too focused on her return to be aware of my anger. While we worked, she told us the remainder of her story from the time Tobias had been captured.

“I knew I had to get inside Carthya’s borders,” she said as she ate. “But they were searching for me so heavily in the north, I was forced to go south. Finally, I was able to cross into Carthya and hoped to find some of our own people who would help me get to Drylliad.”

“Everyone’s gone to Drylliad already,” I said. “It’s not safe for the families out here on their own. And especially not safe for you. Why didn’t you go on to Bymar, as we planned?”

My tone was harsher than it ought to have been and she would have been justified in replying with equal harshness. But instead, she softened her words. “They told us you were dead.”

“I might’ve been! That’s all the more reason to protect yourself!”

“No, it meant I had to return to the castle so that our people could be assured the throne still stands! If they know what they are fighting for, people will continue to fight, but if word spread of your death, they would start to wonder. I had to return so that I could provide them a purpose.”

I stopped my work to steady my emotions. Whatever else I felt, words like that marked her as a true royal. There was no question of either her courage or nobility.

Tobias said, “The night before we left the castle, you asked her to rule if something happened to you, and to consider a husband from Carthya. She only did what you wanted, Jaron.”

“Really?” I didn’t need his help with this. He’d already helped me plenty. I felt my anger rise again. “Is this what either of you think I want?”

Amarinda drew in a breath to say something, catching my attention, but she remained silent. We continued staring at each other until Mott stood and said, “I’ll check on the horses.” He cocked his head at Tobias. “You should help me.”

“Why?” Tobias clearly wasn’t interested in going anywhere. “They’ve been fed and watered, and their knots are good.”

“Because I told you to come and help!”

From the tone of Mott’s voice, Tobias must’ve realized their leaving had nothing to do with the horses. But I didn’t miss his glance back at Amarinda, full of sympathy that she was left alone with me, and regret that he would not be allowed to remain here with her.