Chapter 118: Not Yours to Take
Elias
“Then I will see you home.”
Ridan said it as though the matter had been settled.
I disliked the sentence immediately.
He had found Rubin’s widow alive, carrying Rubin’s child, and grief had apparently restored an old duty in his mind. He would protect her, get her south and return her to the people who had lost her.
The instinct made sense.
The ease with which he said home did not sit nearly as well.
Ridan knew what waited there. He knew the people who would recognize Lyanna, the household she had left and the man whose soldiers had once bowed to her.
I knew how to get her through Drakovia.
I looked at Lyanna.
She was already watching Ridan.
“No.”
Ridan blinked.
“I am going home,” she said quietly. “You are not taking me there.”
“My lady, I only meant—”
“I know what you meant.”
She lifted her hands.
I am not cargo.
Ridan stared at her fingers.
Elias is not taking me to Aeloria either.
His gaze shifted toward me.
I said nothing.
Lyanna lowered her hands.
“I am going because I chose to go.”
Something about her caught me then.
She did not raise her voice or straighten dramatically. She simply stood before an armed man who had served her husband and expected him to listen.
Ridan did.
His shoulders lowered.
“Of course.”
Lyanna waited.
“I spoke badly.”
“Yes.”
“My apologies.”
She nodded.
I had known she was Lady Aramesi almost from the beginning, but knowing the title was not the same as watching someone answer to it.
In Drakovia, Lyanna had survived by hiding whatever might draw attention. Ridan had known her before any of that had been necessary, and the ease with which he accepted her correction made that painfully clear.
He remembered a woman I had never met.
I resented him for that more than I cared to examine.
“You should still come with me,” Ridan said.
“Where?”
“I’m heading toward the southern approaches.”
“Which one?”
He hesitated.
“The old trade routes below the foothills. There are Aelorian contacts farther south.”
“Which routes?” I asked.
Ridan turned toward me.
“The ones that do not involve you.”
The answer landed harder than it deserved to.
He could take Lyanna toward men who knew Rubin’s name and never explain why he belonged beside her. I would reach the same border carrying the name Elias Veras.
That introduction would explain plenty.
Lyanna looked at Ridan.
“If we are travelling together, you will answer him.”
His jaw tightened.
“If.”
“Yes.”
Ridan crouched and drew a line through the mud.
“I came north through the eastern ridge road, then through forest and farmland once the road became too exposed. There are Aelorian scouts along some southern approaches when patrols allow it.”
I crouched opposite him.
“That tells me how you entered the region. It does not mean you know these mountains.”
“I know enough to get south.”
“So do merchants who freeze here every winter.”
His eyes narrowed.
Lyanna stepped closer.
“Show us where you came through.”
Ridan added another line.
“We are somewhere north of this valley.”
“We are west of it.”
His hand stopped.
“I crossed a stream yesterday.”
“There are four streams on this side of the ridge.”
“I know where I am.”
“So do I.”
Asha crouched beside us and looked down at the marks.
Ridan pointed toward one of them.
“I came through the lower pass.”
“Then you were lucky.”
“Why?”
“There is a Drakovian supply road two miles west of it.”
His expression changed.
“They’re still using it?”
“They were three weeks ago.”
“I saw no patrols.”
“That does not mean there were none.”
“How do you know?”
“I commanded in this region before the war moved east.”
His mouth tightened at the reminder of exactly what I had been.
Lyanna crouched beside us with one hand braced against her thigh.
“Where can we reach before dark?”
I pointed south-west.
“There is a shelf above the main road. We can shelter there and take the ravine south tomorrow.”
Ridan shook his head.
“That sends us west first.”
“For half a day.”
“The longer we go west, the longer she stays in Drakovia.”
The phrasing irritated me.
He had been beside her for less than an hour and already spoke as though the road south belonged to him.
Lyanna looked at him.
“I am sitting here.”
Ridan closed his mouth.
She pointed toward the route.
“What is the climb like?”
“The first section is steep,” I said.
“How steep?”
“Too steep for you if we push the pace.”
“I can ride.”
“The horse cannot safely carry you through all of it.”
“Then I walk that section.”
“No.”
Her eyes rose to mine.
I corrected myself before she had to.
“I don’t think that is wise.”
“That is different.”
Ridan watched the exchange.
Lyanna returned her attention to the map.
“What is our other choice?”
“South-east. The ground is easier, but we cross open country twice.”
“Patrols?”
“Possible enough that I would rather avoid it.”
Ridan pointed to his own route.
“My path avoids the worst of the climb.”
“It also takes us closer to the supply road.”
“I saw nobody.”
“You were one man.”
“And you are travelling with two women, one of whom is seven months pregnant.”
I looked at him.
His argument was reasonable.
I disliked hearing it from him anyway.
He knew Lyanna’s old home, Rubin’s soldiers and whatever waited beyond the border. He had not been here for the months between captivity and now, yet he had stepped onto the road and begun speaking about her safety with the confidence of someone resuming a post that had merely been interrupted.
The irritation rose quickly enough that I recognized what sat beneath it.
I wanted his claim to familiarity to matter less than mine.
That was not a useful basis for choosing a mountain route.
Lyanna’s expression had tightened.
Ridan noticed.
“I did not mean—”
“I know what you meant.”
She turned to me.
“If I walk the narrow section and ride before and after, how much strain does that save compared with the south-east route?”
“Most of it.”
“How long would I walk?”
“Twenty minutes if the ground is good.”
“And if it is not?”
“We turn back.”
Ridan looked at me.
“You would turn everyone around?”
“If she cannot manage it safely, yes.”
His gaze lingered on me.
I ignored that too.
Lyanna traced the line with one finger.
“What if we leave the road here?”
I leaned closer.
“That slope is wooded.”
“Which gives us cover.”
“There is no trail.”
“We can lead the horses.”
I studied the ground she indicated.
The trees would slow us, but the slope was gentler than the rock shelf, and we could reconnect with the upper trail beyond the worst part of the climb.
I erased part of my route.
“We do that.”
Ridan looked between us.
“You changed the plan.”
“She found a better route.”
His brow drew together.
Perhaps he had expected me to dismiss her once the matter became military enough.
Asha, who had spent more time watching us than the map, rose and brushed dirt from her palms.
“So that settles today.”
“For today,” I said.
Ridan stood.
“I still think Lyanna should come with me.”
There it was again.
Not that we should all take his route. Not that he should accompany us.
She should come with him.
I could have reminded him that Lyanna had crossed half of Drakovia beside me. I could have told him that she trusted me to know when a road was unsafe and that I trusted her enough to change direction when she disagreed.
Instead, I looked at her.
Ridan noticed.
Lyanna accepted Asha’s hand and stood.
“We continue together.”
“My lady—”
“For now.”
Ridan glanced toward me before returning his attention to her.
“You trust him that much?”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation.
The answer struck somewhere beneath my ribs with embarrassing force.
Ridan looked at her for another moment.
Then he nodded.
“Then I travel with all of you.”
He clearly disliked it, but he went to retrieve his pack without further argument.
I checked the saddle while Asha untied her horse.
Lyanna came toward me fastening her cloak.
I turned our horse slightly and held out my hand.
“How are you feeling?”
“I can manage the distance you described.”
“If that changes?”
“I will tell you.”
I nodded.
There was no mounting block, so I placed my hands at her waist.
Lyanna put one foot into the stirrup and braced both hands against my shoulders.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
I lifted as she pushed upward.
She settled into the saddle, adjusted herself around the curve of her stomach and gathered the reins.
I kept my hand at her waist until her balance was secure.
Only when I stepped away did I notice Ridan.
He had returned with his pack hanging from one hand.
He was staring at us.
Lyanna had already turned toward the trees and was studying the route ahead.
I followed her gaze.
Ridan did not.