Page 4 of An Archer's Reckoning

Istared into the ripples the men’s oars created in the lake. Moonlight flickered with each dip and pull.

The trip had been quiet, the water calm.

I woke a half hour into the crossing. My escape from the Children’s temple felt distant, yet terrifyingly close, as if masked men might somehow emerge from the lake’s depths to drag me under. A strange film tinted the moon and stars above. The giant man sitting across from me stared into the heavens, his mouth agape.

Shouts echoed as the boat approached the shallows near the dock. Torches streaked along the shoreline, marring the inky blackness of night.

“Where am I? Who . . . who are you?” I croaked. My voice felt like I’d swallowed sawdust. I tried sitting upright, lifting my head as a princess should, but my spirit rebelled, and my shoulders sagged.

“My name is Keelan Rea, Your Highness,” he whispered. The man’s gaze remained lost in the sky. His eyes held such grief, it pained me to watch him. “We’re on Lake Irina headed back to town, to your father. I don’t think anyone’s behind us, but we should keep our voices low until we reach the shore.”

Keelan? That was an odd name inside the Kingdom.

I straightened, my back protesting, and craned my neck to follow his gaze.

“What in the—?”

“Quietly, Princess, please.” He cut me off as we stared at a massive scarlet mist curling up from the Children’s temple. It pulsed and writhed as it spread like spilled blood across the sky.

“Whatever ceremony we interrupted must’ve been completed in some other way. Do you have any idea what they were trying to accomplish?” Keelan asked, his tone hollow and stern.

I shook my head. “No. I never knew why I was there or what they were doing.”

“What can you tell me of your time as a captive, Highness? I’m sorry to make you relive it so soon, but anything you remember might help us understand what we’re facing, and time may be against us.”

The drug they’d given me still coursed through my veins, clouding my thinking. Thankfully, it had not stolen my memory.

I wished it would take that, too.

“We weresoclose.” I struggled to recognized my own voice. “Danym and I were so close to freedom . . . to a new life together.”

Keelan’s brow rose.

“Danym betrayed me. He is one ofthem.”

I put my hands over my eyes, as if palms could somehow stop the ache of a heart. They came away glistening with grief.

“I remember . . . they put me in this room. It looked like a royal bedchamber you’d find in the Palace.” My eyes drifted and foundKeelan’s. His jaw was set, yet his eyes were pools of pain, mirrors of my own. “They gave me a syrup that made me sleepy, but they were gentle and, I don’t know, they called meMistress.”

“Mistress?”

I nodded. “Why would they call me that?”

When he didn’t answer, I shivered and stared out across the water.

“I lost track of time. It could’ve been hours or days. I don’t know. They put me in this dress.” I looked down at the shimmering golden gown emblazoned with the near-holy Phoenix symbol in its center. “And then we were in a massive hall. There was a woman in a long red gown and a terrible mask. That’s when I saw it—the ring. I sawmy mother’sring,” I said, suddenly angry. “On that woman!”

Keelan leaned forward. “Your mother? Queen Isabel?”

I nodded.

My hands trembled. Anger warred with grief.

Silence loomed.

“Your Highness, I don’t—”

I cut him off with a glare.

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