Page 49 of Deadwood
With the silver rings casting an ominous glow over his dark pants and black shirt, he looked almost like a painting, with rough edges and wind-strewn hair. He was so unkempt compared to the men I was used to, so much more dangerous, and it seemed to draw me to him like a magnet. The shadows only succeeded in emphasizing his tan forearms and sharp jawline, and I fought to keep my eyes from straying to them.
I shook my head, finding myself having taken three steps toward him. The adrenaline was messing with me.
“Keeping you alive, apparently,” he muttered.
“Aside from that.”
He subtly shook his head, his jaw ticking, and began walking toward the tree line.
“Wait,” I called after him before I could stop myself.
He paused, not turning back around.
“What do I say if someone asks what happened?” I suspected Bowen wasn’t welcomed here, and for that, I needed to know if he wanted his presence known. Being out in the forest during Exitium Lunae gave me the impression he was here on another agenda.
“It’s your story to tell, whether you’d like to or not. It can be our secret or the world can know. Your choice.” With that, he continued on his way, disappearing into the tree line.
Maybe it’d be the last time I saw him, but I’d thought the same back in Amosite, and here he’d been, showing up when I was on the verge of being killed. Given his sneaking around, I figured he wasn’t from Torbernite, which made me curious as to why he was here in the first place.
Perhaps this secret was best kept close, for his sake and mine.
CHAPTER 17
The morning after Exitium Lunae, we left for Feldspar as the sun rose, despite the hungover state of our group.
Somehow, I’d snuck up to my room after the incident in the woods without being seen. Most of the guards had been too caught up in celebrating to the point they hadn’t noticed me wearing a man’s jacket as I quietly found the back entrance of the castle. It had been mostly empty inside the home, save for a few servants wandering about as they refilled trays outside, so it’d been relatively easy to get back to my room. I’d peeled out of my torn dress, leaving Bowen’s jacket on the bed as I bathed the sand and dirt off, somehow managing to untangle my hair from the ribbons of the mask. I’d then changed into my nightgown and tossed the clothes in the trash, along with the mask. They were all ruined anyway, and it’d be easier to have a servant dispose of them than explain why the clothes were so battered, and why I had a man’s jacket.
I still wondered why he’d been so easily willing to give me his coat.
From the moment I’d met Bowen on the night of my engagement announcement, he’d been harsh with his words, careful with his phrasing like everything he said and did was calculated. But last night, he’d killed three men simply for threatening me. Well, it was a bit past a threat, but the sentiment remained. He didn’t have to put himself at risk for me, and yet, he did. For a stranger. For someone he’d made clear he wanted nothing to do with. For someone he’d mocked before. He could have walked away, but he didn’t.
And not a soul could know of it.
We’d traveled through the Hollows most of the day, the cover from the thick forest of black pine trees a relief from the beating sun. It reflected off the rings, scorching us with heat as we moved. I was thankful we were heading into Feldspar, known for its fresh water rivers and towering trees, as shade, snow, and a swim in one of their hot springs sounded lovely after the long day of travel.
Feldspar and Torbernite were quite close to one another, not nearly as far apart as the other kingdoms—though their biomes were complete opposites, with Torbernite being warm and sunny and Feldspar being overcast and snowy—so we reached Alkali, their city, shortly after nightfall.
After a full night’s rest to recover from travel and lingering hangovers, we had awoken to freezing temperatures. The salty ocean breeze rolled through the snow-covered pines that battled for height against the massive castle. The building itself had been impressive, with its dark tan architecture against ivory accents weaved throughout the intricacies of each carefully sculpted piece of art. The palace was a painting in and of itself as it stood grand amongst the thick trees.
I’d never have thought such a place to exist. Amosite had forests containing a variety of smaller trees not far from the castle, but those didn’t hold a candle to Feldspar’s. The timber were beasts of their own, swaying with the wind that rolled in from the ocean miles away, sending loads of snow to the ground as piles fell from their branches.
After having tea with Queen Pleum, Lander and I had gone into downtown Crystalline to present our speech to the citizens. King and Queen Pleum had been much more warm than our brief interaction with Sulphur’s monarchs, but the people had treated me the same. Rather than food being thrown at us, though, they chucked balls of snow, soaking my dress through.
As Feldspar and Torbernite were close, Lander and Paxon had been welcomed with open arms. During my time to speak, though, they’d made crude comments, shouting over my words. From what I wore to the way I looked, they had picked on all of it.
But the comments that stuck with me the most were when they’d said Lander deserved better than a fragile woman.
The word had repeated itself in my brain all night.Fragile. And as much as it hurt me to hear, maybe they were right. I wasn’t prepared for any of this. All the slander, the glares, the judgment. My father knowingly threw me to the wolves with no means of preparing myself.
Through it all, Lander had apologized profusely. It wasn’t his fault—the two of us knew that. This was my father’s doing, and I was simply paying the price. He thought he could stick me in front of crowds of irate people, and I would give some simple speech and they would trust me. But what trust would they have in a kingdom that ruined their trade agreements by withholding resources we had an abundance of?
Our world relied on magic for so many things that when my father cut their supplies to such a meager amount, they suffered. They had no choice but to make do, none of these kingdoms having someone like me to replenish their resources.
I’d filled half-empty vials when no one was watching, my magic flowing through my body eagerly when I did, but what little I was able to do was hardly enough. There were hundreds of thousands of people in each kingdom we visited, and one or two vials wouldn’t fix their problems.
But it was a start.
With our unwelcome presence in the city, we had left Feldspar the next morning, hoping to get an early start on the journey over the Brimstone Mountains. I’d been on edge since our departure, memories of the attack in Torbernite plaguing me like the flu.
