Page 48 of The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom 2)

“But that’s not the worst of it,” he shouted. “You had your reasons for doing what you did. What’s my excuse? Every detail you learned, every opportunity you had to spy—those were my mistakes. Bringing you to Ithicana was my mistake. Trusting you was my mistake. Loving you was my mistake.” Picking up a rock, he hurled it at a tree. “Ithicana fell because of me, and if you think it will rise again under my rule, you are sorely mistaken.”

She understood then, in that moment, what fueled the anger in his eyes. Not her. Not what she’d done. It was himself whom Aren truly blamed.

And what could she say? To argue that he shouldn’t blame himself for having gone into their marriage in good faith seemed hollow and foolish. Lara opened her mouth and closed it again, rejecting every word that rose to her lips. “Aren—”

She broke off, the sound of hooves filling her ears. Turning in her saddle, she looked back the way they’d come, but it was impossible to see anything through the trees. “There’s someone coming.”

“More than one.” He came up next to her horse, head cocked as he listened. “Do you hear that?”

She picked up on the faint sounds of barking dogs. “They’re tracking us. We need to ride hard. Now!”

* * *

For two daysthey wove through the hills and valleys, struggling to evade pursuers who seemed to never tire, always only a few steps behind no matter how many tricks Lara employed. She stole fresh mounts for them when they came across small villages and farms, leaving their exhausted animals behind in payment. But they weren’t the quality of the mounts her father’s soldiers rode, so with every passing hour the sound of barking dogs and galloping hooves drew closer.

“They know where we’re trying to go,” Aren said to her, shifting in his saddle as the horses drank from a tiny stream.

“I know.” She capped the waterskin and handed it up before filling the other. “I expected Serin to figure out my plan, but not this quickly.” She only prayed that it was because he knew her well and not because he’d captured one of her sisters.

“Your father will have soldiers riding hard up the main highway on the coast and then moving east to cut us off. We don’t have any chance of outpacing them. Not on these nags.”

“They aren’t nags,” she muttered, patting her sweating horse as she climbed back into the saddle. “They’re just not built for speed.”

“I apologize for offending them,” Aren snapped. “But the fact of the matter is that speed is what we need right now.”

Sleepwas what they both needed. Neither of them had had more than a few hours, all of it in the saddle while the other led the horses. She was exhausted and sore, and Aren’s constant vitriol was grinding at her nerves. “We’ll move closer to the edge of the desert. Won’t be much in the way of water, which is why they might not expect the move. Once we get around them, we can cut back to the coast and purchase faster horses.”

If only she were half as confident as her words.

Digging in her heels, she led him up the narrow path, casting occasional glances backward. It was impossible to hide the route they took in the rough terrain, which was now devoid of trees, and she could see the glint of sunlight off a spyglass, the cloud of dust rising beneath hooves.

What she wouldn’t give for rain at that exact moment, for clean cold water to fall from the sky and wash away the filth, to fill her mouth, drown the scent of their trail. But the only sort of storm they were likely to encounter now was the sort filled with dust.

With each passing hour, they rode farther east, the air growing drier and the wind holding the familiar scent of sand. Urging her horse up to the crest of a hill, Lara paused to look down at the red sands stretching out before her, endless and vast as the ocean. “We track south from here for as long as we can until the horses need water. Then we’ll—”

She cut off, eyes going to the cloud of dust moving toward them.Impossible.

“Damn it!” Aren snarled the words, pointing behind them. Two more groups, moving in fast. Pinning them in from all sides.

All sides, that is, but one.

Wheeling her horse, Lara stared east, the red sands seeming to shift and move with the heat waves.

They weren’t equipped for this. Didn’t have enough water, especially considering the horses. But out there, at least they had a chance, whereas to remain meant death or capture.

Making a decision, Lara dug her heels into the sides of her sweating horse and led Aren and his mount into the Red Desert.

25

Aren

He’d never knownheat like this.

For days they’d been riding deeper into the desert, the dust of their pursuers always visible on the horizon.

He’d exhausted the last of the water, his mouth now dry as bone, his skin burning beneath the ceaseless onslaught of the sun, lips cracking. Beneath him, his horse staggered, its sides heaving and hair crusted white from dried sweat. It let out a groan and fell to its knees, sending Aren tumbling into the sand.

“Get up!” he shouted at the animal, pulling on the reins, but it only lay on its side, nostrils flaring.

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