Chapter 124 -Caylix-
Chapter 124 -Caylix-
\-Caylix-
The heat spreads beneath my skin, curling around the wounds in my side and shoulder.
Not fast enough.
Another man comes at me before I can properly reset my stance. I catch his sword against mine, but the impact drives straight through the arrow lodged in my shoulder. My arm threatens to buckle and he sees it. His mistake is assuming that means I need my arm. I step into him instead, hook my foot behind his ankle and shove him onto his back. Before he can recover, I bring the pommel of my sword down against the side of his head. Hard enough to keep him on the ground, but not hard enough to make it permanent.
Behind me, steel crashes against steel. I turn in time to see my guard drive one of the trackers backward. He's good, they both are, and that's the problem. Neither one wants to hurt the other. Their blades meet again, but I can see the hesitation in my guard's movements. He knows this man. Every opening comes and goes because neither of them wants to take it.
The tracker doesn't have the same problem for long. He slashes across my guard's upper arm.
"Enough!" I shout.
Both men glance toward me. I point my sword at the tracker.
"He doesn't want to kill you. Stop making that difficult."
The man's expression twists with fury.
"You murdered our King."
There is so much conviction behind the words that for a moment, I can only stare at him. Elise did this. This is not just loyalty to Rhydon, these men truly believe it.
"King Erik is alive."
"Liar!"
He attacks again, but my guard doesn't meet his blade. He steps back, letting Bren follow. My guard's expression changes.
"You still do that."
On the third advance, Bren favors his right side. My guard was waiting for it. He catches the front of Bren's armor and uses his momentum to send him stumbling past, ripping the sword from his hand and throwing it into the trees.
Bren reaches for his knife. My guard catches his wrist before he can draw it and twists his arm behind his back.
"Don't make me hurt you."
"You betrayed us."
"No... I didn't."
Bren throws himself backward, but my guard releases him at the last second. His own momentum sends him shoulder-first into the wagon.
He crumples beside the wheel. My guard checks his pulse and then looks at me.
"He'll heal."
Fair enough.
A scream comes from the wagon as my head snaps toward it.
Gods… It never ends. Two men have reached the rear while we were occupied. One is climbing inside and the other already has the woman halfway out.
Her blindfold is gone and so is her gag.
"Help me!" she screams. "He's taking me to Caelthar!"
Every Veylan soldier still standing turns toward her. Of course they do. Their Queen is calling for them. The man holding her pulls her toward the trees.
"Get Her Majesty out of here!"
I move but someone intercepts me. I don't even slow down. His blade comes high. I catch his wrist with my injured arm, ignore the bolt of agony that follows and drive my forehead into his face. He drops. Another comes from my right. I turn his blade aside and bury mine through the meat of his shoulder.
He screams as his sword falls from useless fingers. I pull my blade free and keep moving as an arrow hits the dirt beside my foot. More archers. I look toward the ridge. Two of them. Both already drawing again. I grab the fallen soldier's sword and throw it.
The blade spins through the air and strikes the first archer across the forearm. His bow drops. The second fires. I twist. The arrow grazes my ribs instead of entering them. Good enough. I reach the wagon just as the tracker carrying the woman reaches the trees.
"Stop."
He turns and his sword comes up immediately. The woman wearing Lenora's face clings to his arm.
"Don't listen to him. Rhydon is King. You have to take me back."
"I know, Your Majesty."
Something about hearing him call her that makes anger burn hotter than the wounds. This woman is wearing my mother's face. These men believe they're willing to die for their Queen, and I don't even know who the hell she is.
The tracker moves her behind him.
"I won't let you take her."
"I know."
His brow furrows as I lower my sword slightly.
"You think you're protecting your Queen. I understand that."
"Then stand down."
"I can't."
"Why?"
Because your king is alive… Because Rhydon has stolen his throne… Because the woman behind you isn't Lenora… Because I'm the prince you've believed dead since I was twelve years old… There isn't time for any of it and whatever Elise has done to his mind won't allow him to believe me anyway.
"I'm sorry."
He attacks. He's fast, one of the best so far. His first strike tests my injured shoulder. The second forces me backward. The third changes direction halfway through, aiming for my thigh.
I barely catch it. He's been watching me fight… Learning. Good. I let him think he's learned enough. He drives me backward again and I stumble deliberately.
He commits. I drop beneath his blade, turn and slam the flat of my sword across the back of his knee. He falls. Before he can rise, my boot comes down on his wrist. His sword drops and I kick it away. He reaches for a dagger but I kick that away too.
"Stay down."
"Go to hell."
"Later."
I turn toward the woman. She runs, of course she fucking runs. I catch her before she makes it three steps. She fights harder than I expect, twisting in my grip and driving an elbow toward the arrow still lodged in my side.
I catch her wrist.
"Do that and I'm going to become considerably less pleasant."
"You have no idea who I am."
"You're right." I pull her toward the wagon. "That's why you're coming with me."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it when we get to Caelthar."
That shuts her up. Interesting. Whatever is waiting for her in Caelthar frightens her more than the men who just attacked us. I'll remember that. My guard reaches us, blood running down his arm.
"More movement east."
"How many?"
"Too many."
Wonderful. I shove our prisoner into the wagon.
"Bind her again."
He climbs in after her as I turn back toward the road. Seven men are down, two archers are injured somewhere above us and three stand between us and the road toward Caelthar.