Page 116 of Knight's End
Chapter Twenty-Six
Iscrubbed my face clean with seawater as we marched away from the ocean palace. I should've been ecstatic. I should have been over the moon. Against all the odds, we'd beaten the sea witch. We ended a war that had threatened to sweep up every kingdom in Kenmare. Against all the odds, we rescued Avia. My sister was alive and well, though Declan and I agreed that she needed supervision.
I left Pony behind with instructions to guard her. Even crazy, Avia was my sister.
Right as we emerged from the water, on the shores I’d negotiated away from Rasle, a merman popped his handsome head out of the water. He pushed back his blond curls and said, “I have a message from Queen Avia. Once the queen has fully recovered, she will send Lizza to you. The witch has told her about your ‘castle mage problem.’”
“I don’t have a castle mage problem!” I’d groused, but he’d already dived back under the waves. I rolled my eyes. “None of them were my fault,” I muttered, turning to Connor.
My best friend stroked my arm and said, “I know, Bloss Boss.”
After that, I mounted up behind Connor on his gargoyle and my knights and I rode in silence. We rode on the ground, so that we could keep pace with the undead army. Slow, slow pace. But we were no longer headed to battle, so I should have been able to calm down.
I couldn’t. Something agitated me, and I couldn’t tell what.
Ryan flew off at one point, to check on the status of things with his soldiers. He came back three hours later, happy to report that Raj’s generals appeared to have dissolved into in-fighting, struggling to take his place.
“That’s made it easy for our troops to clear them out of Agatha's province. I’ve also heard most of Sedara’s ships are gone. It’ll take them years to rebuild, even with the elvish magic. So, they’re no longer masters of the sea. Looks like Isla and Raj and that sea witch got what they wanted in the end. Only we get to enjoy it.”
I’d nodded and smiled. Our enemies were gone. Threatening allies were weaker than they’d been before. Everything in the world was going my way. Yet, even after hours of riding, I felt like something was missing. I felt like something was off. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I wrapped my arms around Connor’s waist as I wondered what it could be. My best friend slid his hand over mine but couldn’t lace our fingers together like he normally did. The damage to his shoulder had been so intense that even though he'd worked with Ryan multiple times on healing it—even though Lizza had tried to heal it—his arm was still not fully functional. He could only lift his left arm halfway, and he could no longer curl his hand into a full fist. My best friend never said anything, but when I asked Declan how he was feeling, my scholar had responded, "He tastes like exhaustion. Like porridge."
"Why does exhaustion taste like porridge?" I asked.
My scholar ran his hands through his blond hair and sighed. "Why does sarcasm taste like salt? I'm not sure, Peace."
Declan had exhaustion written over his face as well. All my knights did. So, I ended our conversation as my eyes scanned the horizon, searching for the hedgewitch lodge that was our destination.
We landed and dismounted
My eyes squinted. I rubbed them. I squinted again into the distance. I thought I saw something streak through the tall dead grass.
I turned to Blue, who rode a gargoyle on my right. "Did you see that?" Blue stared as I pointed and said, "It looks like the grass moved."
Blue’s eyes narrowed.I hear thoughts. I'll be right back.He was off like a shot, using his super speed.
Ryan steered his gargoyles to walk next to mine. "What's he doing?"
I shrugged. "I thought I saw something in the grass over there."
Ryan squinted. "Probably a deer or something."
"You're right. I'm probably just paranoid after all the fighting we've done."
But when the air rustled around our feet and Blue appeared in front of me, his hand gripping the collar of a ragged looking man, I couldn't help my intake of breath. My instincts had been right.
I stared down at the man, and his grey eyes pleaded with me as he met my gaze head on. Something flashed in my mind. Some sense of déjà vu. Familiarity. But it was gone as quickly as it had come.
"Who are you and what are you doing out here?" I questioned. My tone came out more harshly than I intended. I was on edge. This bit of land was mostly abandoned. Corinna had agreed to clear it of Rasle’s residents. And I didn't want anyone knowing about or going near those amulets.
I eyed the young man suspiciously. His ripped leather pants and the decorative cuffs on his torn white shirt hinted that he came from money. His leather boots screamed it, though they were also discolored and ragged. What had happened? Had the war displaced him? Whose side was he on? Even with the treaty, I didn't fully trust Rasle.
The man ran a hand through his thick black hair. He turned to Blue, rather than answer me. That angered me. He was dismissing me? I had to tamp down on my inner tavern wench, who wanted to kick him in the jaw.
Blue held up a hand toward me as he watched the stranger.
What the hell is going on?I thought at Blue.
