Page 60 of Path of the Dark
She’d done the right thing keeping to the road.
It seemed that Elias had taken the same route, waiting till he was a decent distance from the capital before he struck out south.
Ryana’s smile hardened. Of course, he’d be heading for the border.
Whispering her thanks to the Dark, Ryana sent out fresh scouts in the direction those returning had indicated. She wanted to know exactly where Elias was. She didn’t want any surprises when she approached him.
Stepping off the highway, Ryana lengthened her stride, her tired feet forgotten. Brow furrowed, she walked up the hill and into a dense pine thicket that covered a narrow valley between two mountains. It was the best route south. She wasn’t surprised Elias had taken it.
She needed to move fast. The king’s men would soon dispatch a hunting party. She wanted to find Elias first.
Elias knelt by the stream and splashed water over his face. It was ice-cold, splintering the fog of exhaustion that had settled over him. He’d been traveling all night, and now that a red dawn filtered through the trees, he wanted nothing more than to stretch out under one of the surrounding firs and sleep for a while.
He couldn’t rest though. They would be hunting him now.
He’d yet to hear dogs, but he knew they would have picked up his scent. He’d be lucky to make it to the border.
Behind him, a twig snapped.
Elias straightened up, his right hand drifting down to the blade in his boot. Unsheathing it, he rose to his feet and slowly turned.
The stream ran through a mossy glade. Dark conifers rose around him in a wall, the air heavy with the scent of pine resin.
Elias frowned as he swept his gaze around him. He sensed a presence, could feel someone’s gaze boring into him, but he couldn’t see them.
Resheathing his knife, Elias cocked his head. “You can come out now, Ryana.”
Silence filtered across the clearing. Elias made no attempt to fill it. Now that he knew who lurked in the shadows, he was in no rush to speak.
Eventually, a tall figure stepped out into the clearing. Ryana stood before him, her cloak of shadows sloughing away.
Their gazes met. “How did you know it was me?” she asked. Her voice was sharp, forced.
Elias barely recognized the woman before him. Her face was pale and rigid; her skin was pulled tight across her high cheekbones. Those grey-blue eyes that could twinkle with mirth or darken with pleasure were like two chips of ice.
“Only you could have found me so fast,” he replied. “I should have avoided the king’s men and their hounds for a while longer.”
Her mouth twisted. “So you guessed?”
Elias huffed a soft laugh. “Aye … you could say that.” He paused then, his gaze narrowing. “Did you speak to Ninia?”
A deep groove formed between her eyebrows. “I did … but don’t think that changes anything. You owed her.” She took a slow step toward him then, her gaze burning. “You should have kept away from me.”
Elias drew in a slow breath. “I probably should have,” he admitted. “Yet I couldn’t help myself.”
“And I’m supposed to be flattered by that?”
He held her gaze steadily. “It’s the truth.”
Ryana’s expression grew darker still. Elias noted how the fingers of her right hand’s flexed. She was readying herself to attack.
“All those days pretending you wanted peace.” Her voice turned into a snarl. “But it was one big lie.” She took another, aggressive step toward him. “A goshawk flew in from Veldoras yesterday.” Ryana paused, a muscle bunching in her jaw. “When I told you of Gael, you acted as if you didn’t know him. But in reality he’s your father’s right hand. He’s rallying the enchanters of Veldoras, readying them to fight alongside those of Mirrar Rock. Reoul doesn’t want peace. He’s planning to take on Rithmar using Stynix.”
Elias tensed. In truth he hadn’t understood much of what Ryana had just said. Confused, he frowned, before deciding to address Ryana’s ex-lover first.
“I told the truth about Gael,” he said after a long pause. “I’ve never met the man.”
“Liar.”
