Chapter 115 The Man on the Road

Chapter 115 The Man on the Road
Elias

The man stepped into the road with a sword already drawn, and by the time his boots cleared the trees, mine was in my hand.
“Stay back.”
I kept my eyes on him while I listened behind me. Our horse shifted under Lyanna, leather creaked as she shortened the reins, and somewhere to my left Asha dismounted.
The stranger stopped beneath the trees rather than advancing into the open.
His clothes had been chosen to reveal nothing useful. A brown cloak covered most of a coat that did not match his trousers, and both had been worn long enough to pass for a traveller's. Mud dulled his boots. His scabbard bore no crest, and there was nothing at his throat or shoulders that belonged to a regiment.
The way he held the sword was harder to hide.
His weight stayed balanced over the balls of his feet. His left side remained turned slightly away, and the blade rested low without becoming careless. He was not frightened enough to rush me and not foolish enough to assume I would rush him.
He had been trained, whether he still wore a uniform or had abandoned one long ago, and he was doing his best to ensure I could not tell which.
His eyes moved over me once before shifting toward Asha.
“Road's wide enough,” he said.
His accent stopped me from answering immediately because it was unmistakably Aelorian.
Behind me, Lyanna drew in a breath.
The stranger heard it.
His gaze went past my shoulder.
I moved sideways before he could take another step, keeping myself between him and the horse.
“Keep your distance.”
He no longer seemed to hear me.
His sword lowered until the point touched the mud.
For a moment, I thought he had recognized me.
Then he looked past me again.
“Lady Aramesi?”
I turned my head.
Lyanna had gone motionless.
Her fingers rested loosely around the reins, and she stared at him with an expression I could not place because I had never seen it on her before.
The man took one step.
I matched it.
He stopped.
“Lyanna?”
Her eyes widened.
“Ridan?”
The name changed her face so quickly that I understood before either of them moved that he belonged to a part of her life I had never seen.
The stranger closed his eyes.
His sword slipped from his hand and landed beside his boot.
“Gods.”
His palm covered his mouth.
Lyanna shifted forward so quickly that the saddle creaked.
I sheathed my sword and reached her before she tried to climb down without the mounting block. She caught my shoulders as I lifted her from the saddle.
Ridan's gaze dropped to my hands.
I noticed the look, and from the way his eyes sharpened, I knew he noticed that I had seen it.
I set Lyanna down and let her go as soon as her boots found the ground.
She crossed the space between them.
Ridan met her halfway and stopped so abruptly that they nearly collided.
His hands rose toward her shoulders and hovered there.
“I thought you were dead.”
Lyanna's mouth tightened.
Whatever permission he had been waiting for came from her face.
He pulled her into his arms.
She went willingly.
I moved back toward the horse.
Ridan held her as though he expected her to disappear if he loosened his grip. His hands shook once against her back before he steadied them.
Lyanna pressed her face against his shoulder.
I looked away long enough to scan the tree line.
When I looked back, Ridan had drawn away but had not released her entirely.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“We searched.”
Lyanna closed her eyes briefly.
Ridan kept speaking.
“We searched everywhere we could. Rubin had men on every road before the crossings closed. We thought you might have been moved east, and then someone heard prisoners had gone north, so we sent—”
His words stopped.
His gaze had fallen below Lyanna's face.
Her cloak had shifted open during the embrace.
His hands loosened around her arms.
I knew what he was seeing before he looked at me.
His eyes moved to mine.
There was no accusation there yet, but I could see him trying to fit the sight of her into what he knew about the months since her capture.
He looked back at Lyanna.
“How far along are you?”
Asha shifted somewhere behind me.
I stayed where I was.
Lyanna rested one hand against her stomach.
“Nearly seven months.”
Ridan stared at her.
His lips parted, but he said nothing.
I watched his eyes move as he counted backward from seven months and compared that against the five months that had passed since Lyanna was taken.
His gaze snapped toward me again.
Suspicion had arrived now.
I could not fault him for it.
If I had found Serena after months in enemy hands carrying a child beside an enemy commander, I would have wanted answers before I wanted courtesy.
“Seven?” he asked.
“Nearly.”
“You were taken five months ago.”
“Yes.”
The tension left his shoulders so suddenly that he seemed to sway.
He looked down at Lyanna's stomach.
“So it was before Drakovia.”
Lyanna nodded.
“Yes.”
His eyes closed.
When they opened again, they shone.
“Rubin?”
Lyanna's fingers tightened against her dress.
“Yes.”
Ridan turned away and pressed both hands against the back of his head.
I watched him take two steps toward the trees before stopping.
Asha had moved to the road behind us and was watching our back trail, which left me free to keep my attention on Ridan.
He turned toward Lyanna again.
“He didn't know.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Ridan frowned.
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“In Drakovia.”
He stared at her stomach again.
For the first time since he had recognized her, his expression softened.
The change happened so quickly that my chest tightened before I understood why.
“Rubin has a child.”
Lyanna lowered her eyes.
Ridan stepped closer.
“He doesn't know.”
Her head came up.
I saw the answer reach her before she spoke.
Ridan saw something too, because his smile vanished.
“Lyanna?”
She looked at him for a long moment.
“No,” she said. “He doesn't.”
Ridan waited.
I knew what she was trying to make herself say.
I moved toward the edge of the road and took the horse's reins with me.
Asha glanced over.
I shook my head once, and she understood that I wanted to give them more space.
Ridan's voice came from behind me.
“Where is he?”
Lyanna did not answer.
I fixed my eyes on the trees.
The wind stirred the upper branches, and water dropped from the pines onto the road.
“Ridan.”
His boots shifted against the mud.
“What?”
“He's dead.”
The silence behind me lasted long enough that I turned.
Ridan had not moved.
Lyanna stood several feet away from him with one hand over her stomach.
He stared at her.
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“He died in Drakovia.”
Ridan shook his head again.
“No.”
Lyanna stepped toward him.
He moved backward and struck a root with his heel.
His hand caught the trunk beside him.
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“I saw him before the eastern crossing fell.”
Lyanna's mouth trembled.
“He was captured.”
“He wasn't supposed to be there.”
“I know.”
“He was looking for you.”
Her eyes closed.
I already knew that Rubin had died trying to reach her, but hearing it from one of his own men made the fact settle differently.
Ridan pushed away from the tree.
“He wouldn't stop. We told him the roads were gone. He sent men around the southern pass anyway, and he went to the camps himself. Every group coming out of Drakovian territory was questioned. He had your description sent ahead to villages he'd never even seen.”
Tears slipped down Lyanna's face.
Ridan looked at her stomach again.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out at first.
“He didn't know.”
Lyanna shook her head.
“No.”
“He was looking for you, and he didn't know.”
She covered her mouth.
Ridan bent forward and braced both hands against his thighs.
For a second, I thought he might be sick.
Instead, his knees gave enough that he lowered himself to the ground beside the road.
He sat with his elbows on his knees and covered his face.
Lyanna remained standing in front of him.
I had watched her grieve Rubin in pieces for months. I had watched her carry his name without always speaking it, and I had learned when the memories had come too close for questions to be useful.
This was different because Ridan had known Rubin in the life Lyanna had lost. He had stood beside him before the eastern crossing fell, travelled roads with him and watched him search for her.
There were things about Rubin that Ridan could give back to her in ways I never could.
Lyanna crossed the remaining distance and lowered herself beside him.
Ridan looked up when her hand touched his shoulder.
“I should have been with him.”
“You couldn't.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
His face tightened.
Lyanna moved closer.
Ridan bowed his head against her shoulder.
She held him.
I looked away.
Part of me wanted to stay close enough to see her face, but I ignored the impulse.
Whatever existed between Lyanna and me did not give me a place inside this grief.
Asha approached without speaking.
I handed her the reins.
She took them and remained where she was.
I walked several yards farther down the road until the bend gave me a clearer view south.
Behind me, Ridan said something too quietly for me to understand.
Lyanna answered him.
I did not turn around.
I watched the road and listened to the trees while she sat with a man who had known her husband alive.