Page 18 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

“Do you mind if I take this?” Katrin peered over at the counter she just placed the tunic on. “I’m afraid if I ride back in just my sleeveless shirt I might catch a cold. I’ll return it promptly, of course.” She would not. Would most likely never venture this far into the mountains again. Their interactions would return to the half smile and passing wave.

Ander chuckled, “It would be my honor, Princess.”

“The horse, how will you get him back?” She petted the side of the steed's neck.

“I’ll find a way. Don’t worry about that,” Ander replied.

“Thank you, truly, for all the kindness you have given me.” Katrin smiled at the farmer’s son before turning the horse and heading back to the castle. As she gripped the reins, she noticed a small design woven into the cuff of the tunic, a matching one embossed on the horse's bridle. A sea serpent on top of two crossed swords. Her mind reeled. Something about it seemed so familiar and yet she could not place it. It was not a banner of the isles, she knew that, but she’d seen it before. Her fingers traced the marking, wondering why he had such curious items.

Chapter Eleven

Ember

When her sister arrived back at the castle gates, Ember was waiting, wringing her hands together, trying not to pick away at her fingernails—or worse, bite them. Ajax was behind her, mounted on his horse dressed in full fighting leathers.

She ran to his room the second she overheard the servants say Kohl arrived back alone and injured. Ember found Ajax there, hunched over his table sorting through letters his spies sent back on the sightings of King Nikolaos or his soldiers. The muscles in his back showed through the thin white short sleeve shirt he wore, clinging to every ripple and curvature of his upper body. A glimmer of sweat stained his arms and shone across his brow, his warm brown eyes weary as he scanned the notes.

For a second, she forgot why she went to his room, until he cracked a joke about her panting because of him not because she sprinted from inside the castle all the way to the barracks.

She begged him to hurry, to rally the soldiers to go hunt for her sister, but he calmed her. Explained that this kind of alarm a day before the Acknowledgement was not the best way to handle the situation and that he would personally go out and search for Katrin. That it was his duty as commander, he promised her that he would protect her sister at all costs.

He quickly donned his fighting leathers and slipped out to the castle to get information on what happened to Kohl, where they were before he was injured, and why Katrin was not there after. By the time he returned and grabbed his horse, the eldest princess was barreling in toward the gate.

“Where have you been!” Ember screamed as Katrin came striding in on a horse she did not recognize. She felt guilty about the harsh tone, probably the only time she did, but her sister yet again had gone missing.

With everything Ember overheard when Kohl and Ajax were speaking, she could not help but think something bad had happened. Something she could not prevent. Not that Ember could have done much.

As the fear flashed in her eyes, she realized how much she should have listened to everyone who pushed her to train earlier. She was so unprepared for what was going to happen in the coming week that she went to the commander. She was supposed to be the one people looked to, not him, even if she was grateful for his help in the matter.

“I was in the mountains with Kohl…” Katrin’s voice trailed off. Her sister stopped the mysterious horse in front of them and dismounted, a tremor running through her hands.

“Kohl returned hours ago, Katrin, and with a stab wound from a Nexian spy at that, and you weren’t with him. We thought something happened to you!” Katrin’s brows scrunched, her head tilting to the side, swallowing down a loud gulp.

Katrin walked up to her sister and whispered, “It wasn’t a Nexian spy, Ember. It was me.” Ember gasped looking back over at Ajax who stood there acting like he did not overhear a thing. He might be a gods-damned pain, but he was loyal to their family, to the Grechi, and was told to have the utmost discretion with the events of today. She trusted that he would keep this secret as well.

“What do you mean, it was you?” Ember grabbed her sister’s hand, dragging her behind one of the cypress trees that lined the walkway to the castle doors.

“I stabbed Kohl,” Katrin’s voice cracked, “I didn’t mean to, I just—I don’t know, it was like I wasn’t myself—and then I ran off. I got stuck in the storm.”

Ember took a step toward her sister. “There was no storm, Katrin. The skies have been clear all day.”

“That’s…that’s impossible. Maybe it was just by the mountains, but I assure you it was pouring, thunder and lightning and all.” Katrin shook. Ember thought it was best to go along with her sister. Katrin’s face was worn, her eyes purple and puffy, lips chapped. She was wearing some strange blue tunic, her hair matted down on the side like she was pushed into a lake.

The sun was low at this time of day, but the end of summer heat still raged, and yet her sister stood before her with chills shivering down her whole body.

“Maybe…maybe you’re right,” Ember whispered.

She could still see the blood clotted on Katrin’s dagger from where she stabbed Kohl’s shoulder. Ember could not believe it. Her sister shoved a long bronze dagger through her betrothed’s shoulder. Kohl, who would not hurt Katrin if his life depended on it.

She read about these things happening to victims of the kind of trauma Katrin went through. Researched for the years after her sister was taken, Kohl brought journals and books from the Morentian Library to try to find a way to get Katrin back to who she used to be. Read that sometimes, survivors would have flashbacks, terrors that seemed so real they could not tell the difference between what was happening in front of them and the past. Ember knew about the nightmares—but this—this was something else entirely.

“You should see Kohl, the healers say he will heal, that it didn’t hit anything fatal.”

“Where is he?” her sister asked, hands still trembling, eyes glassy.

“In his suite. They gave him a tonic of his father’s to settle his nerves while they stitched his wound. Apparently it is a concoction from the spices of Votios that causes a numbness in your body. Ajax went to see him earlier to find out what happened and just as they began talking, King Athanas sent him away, he was fuming.”

“Thank you—” Katrin’s lips went tight. “Did he tell you it was Nexos? Or did you just guess that with the threats our spies have seen? You think I don’t know what is going on around me, but as the future queen I hear more than I let on.”

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