Page 59 of Path of the Dark
19
Hunted
RYANA LEFT ASHER and Ninia arguing in the alleyway.
They didn’t notice her go.
Pushing past the company of guards who’d just trooped in off the street, Ryana clenched her jaw so hard that a sharp pain darted through her ears. Out in the wide thoroughfare, still thronged with revelers and fire displays as if nothing had happened, she turned right and marched toward the city gates.
Reaching the gates, Ryana found them barred and a row of hard-faced soldiers blocking her path.
“Let me pass,” she greeted them curtly.
“No one out or in,” one of the soldiers replied. “King’s orders.”
Ryana’s pulse accelerated, panic rising within her. This wouldn’t do. She had to get out of the city.
Shoving down the urge to barge past the soldiers, Ryana raised her right hand, revealing the Star of Darkness on her palm. “His Highness has sent me out to hunt the Anthor prince.” she replied, her voice tightly controlled now. “Just in case he’s managed to get outside the city.”
The guards exchanged dubious looks.
“Every moment you waste counts.” Impatience boiled within Ryana now. She was close to gathering the Dark and blasting these men aside. “If Elias of Anthor is indeed beyond these walls, you’re making it harder for me to apprehend him.”
The guard nearest met her eye, before his mouth thinned. “Open the gates.” His order rang out, and a moment later iron groaned as the bolts drew back.
Favoring the guard with a brusque nod, Ryana stepped through the breach.
The heavy iron gates boomed shut behind her.
The fires atop the walls illuminated the world for a few yards, but dense shadows lay beyond the city’s edge. A half-moon bathed the land in a soft silver light, yet even so the darkness had a brooding, watchful edge to it.
Shadow creatures no longer stalked the night, as they had a year earlier, but Ryana felt herself tense nonetheless. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, for it was her ally. Even so, she wasn’t used to venturing out blind like this, without even a torch to light her way.
Ryana drew in a deep breath and gathered the Dark, grabbing at it rather than using her usual gentle summons. The shadows lunged toward her with a growl, boiling around her feet. She’d always cautioned Ninia against treating the Light or Dark so roughly. However, it was difficult when she was this angry.
Fury writhed in her belly, longing for an outlet.
Elias.
I’ll get you … you bastard.
Just the thought of the prince filled her with a killing rage that made it hard to breathe, hard to think. All his talk of peace when in reality he’d been biding his time to strike. Ninia could have been killed.
She should have paid more attention. She should have never let down her guard.
Breathe, she counselled herself.You can’t work in this state … focus.
Around her the Dark gradually settled to an irate chatter. Some of it, she sent ahead. As her scouts, they would search the road and the surrounding hillside and warn her if they found Elias. The remainder of the Dark, Ryana pulled around her in a cloak.
Its nearness steadied her. Heaving in another deep breath, she stepped out onto the road, traveling west.
Ryana’s scouts didn’t come back for a while.
The Royal City lay many furlongs behind her, and her feet where starting to ache, when they finally returned. To the east, the sky was starting to lighten. Dawn was approaching.
Sensing the chatter of the approaching Dark, Ryana halted, tensing as it swirled around her, whispering to her.
Moments later she allowed herself a tight smile.
