Page 17 of Rules of Stone
“Aye.” Tye stretches lazily, pausing in midmotion, his head cocking attentively to one side. When I open my mouth to ask what he’s marking, Tye clamps his palm over it, his other arm jerking me against his chest. “Shhhh. Behind us.” Tye’s lips are so close to my ear, the whispered words tickle, his warmth and breathing steady against my back. “I told you the guards patrol this all the time. This way.”
14
River
River laid the latest grim report on Headmaster Sage’s desk and stepped back, putting his hands into the small of his back. Great Falls Academy held to the military protocol and, like River himself, Headmaster Sage was a lifelong soldier. That was where the similarity ended. With thin shoulders, a gleaming bald pate, and pointed features that seemed stuck in a permanent pinch, Sage led his troops from behind paper and ink. “That is the fifth unexplained attack in a week, sir, and three dead,” River said, inclining his head. “Should we send the students home until—”
“Of course not. If you’ve lost your mind, sir, please be good enough to inform me in writing.” Leaning back in his chair, Sage studied the reports, his sour expression hardening.
River knew what the smaller man was reading. Assault after assault, with culprits named as everything from wild animals to bandits to fae spirits. So far, all the misadventures remained outside the Academy walls, the attacks occurring on the farms and the small town near the estate. But it kept happening.
Sage shook his head, stacking the reports into a perfectly neat pile to match all the other neat piles in his office. Even the logs in the crackling fireplace had been laid out in strict parallels. “The Academy’s stronghold has stood for two hundred years. Shutting our doors will destroy everything King Zenith has worked for.”
As well as destroy Sage’s career. But that little needed to be said.
“With due respect, sir,” River said, his voice a calm contrast to Sage’s heated tone. “If we lose a student to whatever wild beasts are hunting these grounds, the Academy’s reputation would suffer a worse blow.”
“I was under the impression that student safety was the reason I brought you here to begin with, Captain River. I have already issued instructions prohibiting the cadets from leaving Academy walls. Am I to understand that you find yourself unable to keep them to such basic discipline?” The man flicked the air with his hand. “If so, I urge you to make an example of one, and the rest will lie as quiet as the sheep they are.”
Not the description River would have applied to any of the Academy students, but there was nothing to be gained by arguing that point. More importantly, River wished to give Sage no reason to demonstrate his methods. In a microcosm of two hundred would-be generals, keeping a bit firmly in the cadets’ mouths was paramount; abusing them under the flag of the Academy’s authority was an entirely different matter. Sage would toe the line with Zenith’s daughter Katita and the other royalty, but the offspring of lesser nobles would have no such protection.
Pulling out a handkerchief, Sage coughed wetly. “Meanwhile, see if you can’t find the town’s wandering monster. Once you get your hands dirty, I predict you’ll discover these menacing assaults coming from no more than an overactive wolf or two. If not for this bloody chill, I’d take care of it myself.”
Striding out of Sage’s office into the keep’s long torch-lit corridor, River called on one of the pages to find Coal and Shade—the only two men he intended to take on the night’s outing. Sage might not have intended for him to go tonight, but River wouldn’t wait another minute with the safety of Great Falls at risk. The page, a small lad nicknamed Rabbit, paled at once, giving River a dubious look over a promise that Coal would not smite him on sight.
Coal had that effect on people, River thought, heading down a long spiraling staircase. On most people. Though Coal’s latest charge, Leralynn of Osprey, appeared to have missed the announcement. The young woman would no doubt discover her oversight—to her peril.
River paused, gripping the railing as sudden nausea rolled over him. The new cadet looked so like River’s late wife that he’d nearly grabbed her. Eyes the color of liquid chocolate, lush auburn hair, a self-assured confidence teetering on impertinence that no doubt got her in trouble more often than not. After a quick glance to ensure he was, in fact, alone on the stairs, River let himself sag against the rail for a moment as he rubbed his face. He’d been the one to gift Diana with the mare that threw her to her death. River, who had vowed to protect her with his life, had failed.
The bitter irony of it all was that River had accepted the position at Great Falls to get away from memories of Diana, and here was her ghost walking back into his life.
Two hours later,with the Academy bedded down for the night, River led Coal and Shade out of the compound’s main gate. Dressed in his signature black, Coal was a specter against the night, only his blond hair pulled up into a warrior’s bun providing any relief from the darkness. A darkness that the warrior’s eyes echoed too—had ever since he escaped captivity. What exactly happened to Coal when the islanders took him during that ill-fated scouting trip two years ago, River didn’t know. Not even a direct order to speak of it had worked, and River knew better than to try again.
The Academy’s guards cadre were competent enough, but nothing equated to the battlefield experience River shared with the two warriors. Plus, whatever was truly terrorizing the town and farms, Sage wanted the details kept quiet. River had to agree with that. If the Academy was to remain open as usual, then they needed to control the gossip.
Beside Coal, Shade moved with a predatory lupine grace that made him one of the most dangerous warriors on a battlefield—though the man’s heart lay in healing, not killing. The assignment to Great Falls was supposed to help fill that need, and here River was, dragging him right back out into patrol. “If you’ve other obligations this evening—” River cut himself off at Shade’s curt shake of the head.
“Nothing worth missing a hunt over.” The warrior’s yellow eyes shone. Good. Shade checked the blade sheathed down the length of his spine. “Where do you want me?”
Surveying the moonlit forest, River considered the question. “All the assaults have happened at night, so I believe we are dealing with something nocturnal. We split to circle the wall first, ensure no immediate threat, then reconnect to head toward the farmland and set up on the livestock.”
Shade nodded once, melting silently into the woods. Sometimes River wondered if the male wasn’t part wolf himself for how he prowled through the forest, the smells and darkness of night seeming to free something inside him.
“If you’re this worried, why not send the students home for cause?” Coal asked, moving off in the opposite direction of Shade. “Say they couldn’t master the curriculum.”
“Politics.” River shook his head, his gaze moving as he fell in step beside Coal. “Explaining why we forced one kingdom’s subject out over another will look biased no matter what. All expulsions must be self-selected.”
Coal snorted. “Give me a name of anyone you want sent home and I’ll have her signing paperwork by day’s end.”
“Her?” River knew he should stop talking, but his treacherous mouth defied him. “Would you be thinking of your new student in particular?”
Coal’s eyes remained on the woods. “I was not. But if you mean Leralynn of Osprey, she’ll pack her bags quickly. I know the type.” Coal shifted, drawing a boot dagger into his free hand. “Center of the world, expecting recognition the instant they draw breath in a room—and damn well getting it from every male within range.” The last came as a quiet afterthought that made River’s jaw tighten in the darkness.
15
Lera
With his hand on the small of my back, Tye moves on silent feet along the woods lining the wall, keeping to the darkest patches as we stray farther and farther from the barracks. Try as I may to follow the turns and twists, the grounds—already unfamiliar in daylight—are utterly unidentifiable dressed in cast shadows. The grass is dry with cold, crackling softly around my boots, and the cool air is sharp with the smell of earth and pine. After a quarter hour’s stealth, the male motions for me to stop and crouches next to a set of hedges that look no different from the dozens of others. A few heartbeats later, his hand brushes dirt away from a trapdoor, which opens obediently on well-oiled hinges.
