Running Out of Time

Running Out of Time
Ingrid

Beri thunders underneath me, a machine of muscle and sinew I don’t know like my own. The lance droops, ridiculously heavy. The crowd roars like a distant ocean. I can barely see Kaloni through the sun behind her, but the basics should be the same. Present a small target, aim for where they’re weak, don’t fl—

Her lance hammers into my chest, crushing air out of my lungs. My body twists. Vision darkens. Where are the reins? Where are my fucking hands?

I hit the ground like a sack of shit, and any remaining whisper of breath oozes out of me in a pathetic wheeze. Should’ve taken the helmet they offered me. My ears ring, and the back of my head throbs like my heart is there, trying to patch up whatever damage I did all by itself..

The sun glares down at me with distant disdain. I should’ve known. The second I saw the armor, I should’ve known.

Kaloni fucking cheated.

She knew what the fuck I meant. Her little speech made that very clear. Never jousted the way we do—if there weren’t a few hundred eyes on us, more than a few of whom are her loyal guards, I would’ve marched down the lane and knocked those words out of her mouth.

Something blocks the mocking sun. Amval? I reach up dizzily, hoping. The fear in his eyes… he knew what happened. He was coming to warn me, like I would have warned him last night if Kaloni didn’t oh-so-kindly post a soldier outside my door “to make sure I didn’t try to tamper with our arrangement.”

A hand grabs mine. Too small to be his. I squint.

It’s her. Grinning. Dark hair still in that perfect little bun and barely a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

I try to wrench my hand back, but she holds on. Has she always been stronger than me, or did that fall mess up something important?

“Come now,” she says. “It’s good sportsmanship for me to help you up.”

“I don’t give a fuck.” I try to pull away again.

“Don’t be a sore loser.” Kaloni yanks me to my shaking legs with surprising ease. “After all, your engagement party is tonight.”

Rage burns through me. I’m about to be much more than a sore loser. I open my mouth—

“Thank you all again!” Kaloni says, the wind amplifying her voice and ripping mine out of my throat. “I have to see the princess to our healers now, but the next bout is coming up!”

Two more riders take their places at the end of the lanes. Kaloni pulls me along with her, away from the noise. I try to speak, to say fucking anything, but the wind jams down my throat like a fist and steals any sound I attempt to make.

Not only can I not tell everyone this was a fucking sham, but I can’t even warn Amval. Kaloni might be distracted right now—might have been distracted setting this all up last night, if there’s already a party—but she won’t be for long.

Amval is running out of time, and I can’t do anything.

At least Kaloni actually drops me off at the healer, instead of throwing me in the empty dungeon. To the healer, Tazi, she says, “Look her over carefully. Recai will be along to retrieve her when she’s through.”

That’s the name of the bastard who stood outside my room all night. I grit my teeth and wait for Kaloni to leave.

“I’m really okay,” I tell Tazi.

“Luna’s orders,” she replies, looking deeply into my eyes, “and, I am sorry, but you’re not.”

I sigh. “What if I’m trying to get out of here quickly so Recai can have a little free time? My friend Bengu was hoping he could….”

“Your friend?” Tazi pushes me to lie down on her table and begins unfastening my armor.

I nod. “Ask her how much she owes me from the last hand of cards we played, and you’ll see.”

Tazi’s eyes go distant with a mind-link. Bengu only mentioned Recai once, to say that he told her the rumor about another kingdom being behind the accidents, but soldiers and maids don’t talk very often. Hopefully, my semi-educated guess is enough.

Tazi smiles faintly, and her eyes clear. “She is terrible at cards. All right, it seems like your head took the worst of it. If you swear you’re not in pain anywhere else—”

My mark burns like it’s trying to melt through my skin, and I think I might have twisted my ankle, but I nod.

“Bengu should just talk to him.” Tazi mutters to herself as she wanders off to concoct something for my head.

Thankfully, her loyalty—or her desire for gossip—makes her hands fast. Within a few heartbeats, I’m out with a sticky, herbal-smelling bandage wrapped around my head. I lurch through the door and promptly slam into the far wall.

Slightly unsteady. I can work with that.

I just need to find someone who can reach Amval. Someone who will believe me and whom he’ll believe.

With a grimace, I shed my leathers and hide them in a corner and then begin making my way to the hallway where I’ve been sleeping for the few last weeks.

My mouth tastes like sick, hidden behind a tapestry, by the time I finally reach Joli’s door and knock.

“Ing—whoa!” She catches me as I nearly topple inside. “Kaloni really got you good, didn’t she?”

“She fucking rigged it,” I mutter.

Joli helps me inside and sits me on her couch. Goddess above, I feel like I’ve been hit by an avalanche. Or two. I need to lie down.

But I need to make sure at least one of these three Jolis understands me first.

“What do you mean, she rigged it?” The one in the middle offers me a cup of water.

I drink greedily. There, now at least my mouth doesn’t taste like something died there. When I look up, she is watching me with worried eyes. The expression doesn’t suit her, but neither does all the crying she’s been doing.

Fuck, what do I tell her to make her believe?

“I didn’t say I’d never jousted like that,” I say. “I just challenged her to a joust, and she didn’t tell me what that meant here.”

“Damn.” Joli shakes her head. “I should’ve warned you. Kaloni is very competitive about her jousting.”

I shake my head—no, can’t do that unless I want to be sick again. “There were stakes. Real ones. I have to marry Cirocco now.”

“What? Why?”

“Because otherwise she would have to abdicate.” I know I’m not telling this right. I can’t find the words in the right order, and Joli is looking at me like I have even more heads than she does.

I pitch to my feet. “My room. Now.”

She grabs my arm and helps me down the hall. I’m leaning on her too heavily, I reek of sweat, and she might still be able to smell the vomit on my breath. But I need to explain. She has to listen. She’s the only one who will.

In my room, I lead her immediately over to my wardrobe, throw open the doors, and push the dresses aside. “I was right. Amval was murdered, and so were your parents. And they did it.”

Joli looks from me to the map with wide eyes. “Ingrid….”

“I’m not crazy, I’m just dizzy.” To prove it, I walk all the way to the bed and sit—lie down. “There is someone in danger I need your help to save. Just…just look.”

She takes a deep breath but then goes quiet. I’ve earned her trust. When she came back after her first smuggling trip, she ran to me in a panic, saying she forgot to tell me not to mention what she was doing to anyone. She wouldn’t be mad if i did, but had I?

The hug she gave me when I told her she never had to ask made me feel a little like an actual big sister.

So I’ve earned at least this much. I let my eyes flutter shut as she reads.



Someone is shaking me. I lurch up, and my head screams—but slightly quieter than before. Joli pulls her hand back, and I look at her. Only one and a half Jolis. An improvement.

One and a half Jolis looking like they also just got hit by an avalanche or two.

“Astralis,” she says.

I start to nod, remember, and just say, “Yes.”

“I heard the word once.” She sits on the bed next to me, shaking her head. “When I was smuggling supplies to Moonlight Hollow. I drove right by a pair of men, and I heard it. I could tell it was a secret, so I circled back to hear the rest, but by the time I got there, they were gone.”

“I challenged Kaloni to a joust because she told me, to my face, that she was part of their leadership. That she’d killed your parents and Amval”—the truth dances on my tongue, but it’s not really mine to give—“and that she didn’t care if I knew because no one would believe me.”

“No,” Joli says softly.

Goddess above, I am tired. Where’s that anger that got me all the way here when I need it? I’m just cold, scared, and tired.

“I don’t lie,” I say. “Unless it’s to save someone’s skin. The truth gets you surprisingly far. And, be honest with yourself—what do I stand to gain if I’m right?”

Joli studies my face, hunting for an answer she’s not going to find. I’m too tired to try to use my expression to convince her. If the naked truth isn’t enough, then I may as well just run away while I have time. Before Recai finds me. Maybe I could gather some kind of support outside the palace and do…something.

“Nothing,” Joli says. “But…Kaloni?”

Through the fog of my all-consuming headache, I can tell she still doesn’t believe me. She’s leaning away, frowning, staring at the floor. It’s textbook, Exactly as Mother taught me.

But her gaze flickers toward me, and there’s something there. A kernel of doubt I haven’t seen in Amval. She might not believe me, but she doesn’t exactly disbelieve me either.

I grab her hand. “Honestly, I don’t need you to accept that she’s behind this right now. She’s no threat to you unless you threaten her, and she finds out.”

Joli mouths the word threat like it’s new. Goddess above, these fucking Soms. If I were her age, and someone told me one of my siblings had murdered another one, I’d barely be surprised. Things might be different now, but I can’t imagine them always being this way.

“Okay,” she finally says. “Then what do you need? You’re obviously out of Tazi’s care early for a reason.”

“I’m fine.” And if the edges of my words are a little slurred, that’s nothing another nap won’t fix.

“That groom,” I say. “The one who drove the other carriage to the festival. I need you to find him and warn him. Kaloni is going to kill him.”

Joli opens and closes her mouth. She looks at me, then away. “Kill him? Not just fire him?”

“He’s been working with me.” That should be safe enough to tell her. “Kaloni knows that, and she said she was going to deal with him appropriately.”

No response.

“Do it after she announces the engagement, so you know I’m telling the truth.” Fear cracks my voice down the middle. “Please.”

Joli bites her lower lip.