Page 49 of Enamored
Halvard nodded solemnly. I’d told him of the threat to the king. I’d speculated about the danger but still had no idea exactly what Maxim and Rasmus had planned. Were they paying one of the Knights of Brethren to betray His Majesty? Had they planted other warrior knights to injure him during the height of battle, making it look like an accident? Or perhaps they were even working in conjunction with King Canute.
Even though I would be safest from the trackers and draco if I waited for a while, I simply couldn’t delay.
We stood, brushed the hay from our garments, and then made our way out into the tunet. The young woman was watching the sky and whispering, her eyes narrowed. She almost seemed to be talking to herself. At our approach, she whispered one last statement. “Kill it.” Then she turned toward us, her face again shadowed.
What exactly did she want to kill? Should I yet remain cautious with her? As soon as the thought came, I shook it off. She wasn’t a threat. If she meant me harm, she wouldn’t have so readily put her life in danger for me.
“Thank you...” I started, hoping she’d supply her name.
“’Tis Lis, Your Highness.” She dipped her head.
“Thank you, Lis. You took a great risk in hiding us. I shall see that you and your father are handsomely rewarded.”
She straightened. “No need. If the king is in danger, I would do my duty to save him in any way I can.”
The father exited the lofthouse carrying two mugs, steam rising from them. As much as I wanted to sip the warm brew, I couldn’t waste another second.
As if sensing my urgency, Lis cocked her head toward the stable. “We’ll tend to your horses while you warm yourselves with mead.”
I hesitated but a moment before nodding. “You are very kind.”
As I took off my gloves and then lifted my hood away, she paused to examine me. Suddenly self-conscious, I brushed at my hair, tied back in a long braid. In the rapidly growing morning light, I likely appeared so disheveled that I could frighten the scales off a lizard.
With a limping gait, the father hastened toward us and handed me the mug. “Your Highness.”
Nodding my thanks, I wrapped both hands around the clay vessel, letting the heat seep into my flesh.
Before I could manage to lift the mug to my lips, a familiar voice came from near the stable. “Princess Elinor. I was hoping I would find you here.”
I spun to find Maxim standing in the shadows. His black cloak and hood shielded him. But I didn’t need to see him clearly to recognize him. Several soldiers stood behind him, their weapons at the ready.
My heart sank. I should have known if Maxim was involved in the chase, he’d find a way to outsmart me.
Chapter
17
Maxim
Thank the saintsin heaven above I’d found Elinor.
Though she’d had a significant lead on her way to the king and the frontline in the Valley of Red Dragons, I’d calculated each path of my race to intercept her, mapping out the shortest routes until at last I’d spotted the hawk circling in the dawn sky and surmised the bird had located its prey—the princess.
I’d picked up the punishing pace, praying with each pounding hoofbeat that I’d reach her in time to keep Rasmus’s trackers from whisking her away.
Upon arriving at the clearing of the tunet, a draco had swooped in, snapping and screeching and slapping its red wings. I’d waited for it to set fire to everything, but it had held back, only charging at the trackers’ horses and terrorizing them before it spotted the hawk and chased after it.
When a maiden had stepped away from the barn and watched the draco fly away, I’d had a strange sensation that she was somehow communicating with the creature.
In studying ancient dragons, I’d learned they could form bonds with humans if raised from infancy. I wasn’t exactly sure how that bond worked, had never seen it in action. But I speculated that the dragon looked to the human as a mother figure of sorts and shared an affinity that carried over into adulthood. Perhaps the draco, as an ancestor of the dragon, could form bonds with humans too.
Once the flying lizard had gone, I’d held back, hoping Elinor would crawl out from wherever she was hiding, clearly a place that had sufficiently shielded her from the trackers and their elkhound.
It had taken less time than I’d estimated for her to step out of the barn. I’d expected her to be more cautious in anticipation of being waylaid. But she’d even tossed aside her hood. Clearly, she wasn’t thinking rationally and needed help if she had any hope of making it to the king.
She lifted her chin haughtily and glared at me. “Go back to Vordinberg, Maxim.”
“I can’t do that, Your Highness.” I had to play my role carefully, at least until I could figure out a way to lose the three guards Rasmus had sent along. Of course, I knew as well as he did that we wouldn’t need three soldiers to seize Elinor and hold her prisoner for the ride back to the capital. No, the real reason Rasmus had insisted on three was because he’d deduced my hesitancy to his scheming and wanted to prevent me from taking Elinor and fleeing. One guard to hold her as a prisoner and two to force me to comply.
