Page 13 of An Archer's Reckoning

The idea of such infidelity was beyond disbelief.

Then I thought about how all this would look, how my people would see things. I’d only worn the royal signet for a few hours, and here I was skulking through storeroom basements under muddy streets andrunning away.Worse, I was doing it all with foreign—whatever Keelan was.

The whole thing was senseless.

I stiffened my spine and turned to Wilfred. “Sheriff, I cannot do this. I will be handing the Crown to my mother. She will not need to kill me because the people will beg her to take power from the frightened girl who abandoned them with two of their enemies. I command you to take me back to the inn right now.” My hands flew back to my hips, and I tried to imitate my mother’s best icy stare.

Proctor stepped forward, but Wilfred raised his palm. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, almost somber.

“Jess, if you stay here, youwilldie.” His eyes fell away, and his words cut deeper than any blade. “Isabel will probably kill me the moment her feet touch the shore. You will surely follow.”

I glanced at the Captain. The giant nodded slowly, then lowered his gaze.

Wilfred gripped my arm, something he had never done before. If we weren’t fleeing for our lives, he might’ve lost a hand for touching the Princess, now Queen. “Please, Jess. If they kill you, we won’t be able to stop any of this. The Kingdom will go to war and thousands,hundreds of thousands, will die. Your people will suffer. Keelan’s and Atikus’s people will suffer far worse. You have to leave to protect them, to give them a sliver of hope for the future.”

Whatever ice was left in my eyes melted at his plea. The man standing before me now wasn’t the High Sheriff. This wasUncle Sebastiano. The truth of his words wormed their way in, and I felt my rage evaporate.

I whispered, “Where will we go?”

“I don’t know—and youcan’ttell me. Who knows what powers your mother may command if the Mages fall in behind her? They could pluck information out of my head, and this would all be for nothing. I trust Keelan and Atikus to keep you safe.”

From behind me, Atikus spoke. “We need to get as far from here as possible before Queen Isabel gets here. We need to go.”

I spun, finger pointed accusingly at the Mage. “She’s just Isabel.Iam Queen now.”

Atikus inclined his head. “You certainly are, Your Majesty.”

Moments later, as Keelan and Atikus walked their mounts to the stable’s back door, I found my courage. I nodded to Captain Proctor and turned to the Sheriff. Wilfred surprised me again by wrapping me in a tight hug. He was the father of the traitor who’d turned me over to Isabel, but something in the embrace told me he also carried the burden of his son’s betrayal. I squeezed him back and gave him a peck on the cheek.

When I turned to follow Atikus, Captain Proctor handed me Dittler’s reins. The magnificent beast nuzzled my neck and licked my ear.

“I’m glad to see you, too,” I said, stroking his ear. “How did you get away, boy?”

“We didn’t find him. Seemed more like he found us. Remarkable horse.” Captain Proctor abandoned protocol and lifted me by my waist onto the saddle. “Up you go.”

When I looked down, shocked the guard would dare “handle” his Queen, he gave me a wink and a bow. “Just protecting Her Majesty. Now go.”

I trotted my horse out of the stable to find Keelan and Atikus mounting their own horses, a bay and a mottled gray respectively.

The strangeness of another escape through the back door of a stable sent a shiver down my spine. I thought I trusted a good man then, too.

He betrayed me.

But this seemed to be my only choice if I wanted to live.

It didn’t take long for us to wind our way past the northern border of town. Getting through the endless sea of soldierscamped in the fields outside without being recognized was more challenging.

By the time we made it into open fields, I was struggling to stay upright. Events of the past few days were finally taking their toll. If Dittler had been any other mount, I would’ve ended up in the dirt. The Cretian stallion had grown up with me on his back and felt my exhaustion through our bond. I knew he’d sooner die than let me fall.

Four hours into our journey, Keelan called a halt. Atikus looked little better than me, and his own horse needed a break. The mounts had been worked into a lather.

“Thank the Spirits,” Atikus groaned as he struggled to dismount.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Keelan said. “We had a head start, but Isabel will throw everything she’s got at us once she takes control of the town. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

I watched as Keelan surveyed the landscape.

There wasn’t a tree or hill in sight, just an ocean of grass clinging to its last vestige of life before winter arrived in earnest. Things had been so harried lately I hadn’t noticed how morning started a few moments later each day. The sun’s drowsy arrival that morning reminded me that winter pursued us as much as my mother and her troops.

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