Masquerading

5: I am not chasing a betrothal

MORNING was fast approaching; the silvery light that touched upon everything waned as Leif stared across the field. They would come upon the small village of Jarvas within the hour. The Loricai company still traveled under cover of the trees that followed the ravine. He imagined they would do so until they reached Jarvas where they likely had horses waiting.

Killi broke the silence, "It will be harder to take horses in daylight if we need to give chase."

"Then we move faster."

Leif, worn by the long night trekking alongside the woods, wondered how Kyden summoned the energy to go any faster.

The Prince of Faladrin nudged him in the side, jerking his head toward Jarvas, "Perhaps you'll take the Princess back before lunch, eh?"

With a tired smile, Leif set himself to moving quicker. Only the thought of the enemy being equally travel-worn made the idea of fighting them at the end of this easier to swallow. Regardless of how weary his body was, he would do everything to ensure the safe retrieval of the Princess.

He looked over the men who had chosen to take this on with him. They were certainly an odd assortment. Kyden, with his funny Faladrine sword, had discarded his jacket, but wore its armour-plated sleeve—somehow attached to the breastplate. As much as his appearance amused Leif, of the three, he alone wore his own armour.

Killi and Tavis were outfitted with borrowed Aradane weapons and bits of armour that fit wrongly on both for vastly different reasons.

Killi would normally wear Themian armour made of animal bones and teeth strung together and tied in place. It would allow his wide muscled chest room to breathe, unlike the forged metal breastplate and unforgiving leather straps that constricted him now. Tavis, being Miahn, should have fit the Aradane armour well, but he was too lithe so the breastplate and gauntlets shifted about atop his gaudy finery.

Leif could admit to not seeing much in any of the men beforehand, but now, he would owe them a lot.

"Thank you. All of you. Your bravery—"

"Your thanks is not needed, Leif. I did not want to see you lose your princess."

Leif thought back to the understanding that lit on Kyden's face on exiting the tunnels and sought his reaction now to Killi's words. Kyden held his gaze a moment; a quiet smile lighting his face as he nodded in agreement.

"I do not seek to rescue a princess and gain a betrothal. That is not what I am chasing—not as you all are."

"No? I'd sooner believe that Tavis could beat Kyden with a sword."

"Me too!" Tavis laughed at his own expense. "I don't believe your passion is only for preventing a war. What are you chasing then?"

"I chase..."

Leif eyed the thinning woods on the other side of Jarvas, but in the dim light of the early morning, he could see nothing. A pit of guilt formed in his gut as he tried to grasp a way to explain why he could not let the Princess go. With a shake of his head, he pulled himself back to the conversation; he finally had a word for what she meant to him. "Family."

"Family?"

From the brief look he spared Kyden, Leif could see the questions the older Prince wanted to ask.

But it was Tavis—too involved in court news for Leif's liking—who spoke first. "All of the Princess' cousins were in attendance. All ladies."

"This is true," Leif affirmed. "Are we talking or walking?"

"Walking." Killi elbowed Tavis, his tone stern. When Tavis' pace quickened, Killi came up on Leif's side. "So you're siblings then?"

"Siblings?! The Crown Princess of Aradanas is the sole heir to the kingdom, everyone knows that!" Tavis scoffed, and then looked back at Leif with smug disgust. "You're a bastard! So, the besotted King does notice the fine ladies of the Aradane court! Or perhaps it was the Queen... they don't look a thing alike!"

Heat flamed across Leif's face and ears, but he kept his focus on their destination. In any other situation he would have upended Tavis for speaking about his King like that. But he let Killi reprimand the lord again, this time clipping him with the branch he'd been honing into a weapon.

There was enough truth in his statement that Leif caught Kyden's gaze on his face; curious and pitying at once. Not wanting to be scrutinized in such a way, Leif turned away to examine the fenced pasture they walked past.

"There." He pointed, relieved that there was a reason for the subject to be dismissed. At the opposite end of the sizable enclosure was a stable, located beside what looked to be an inn. "We should be able to see the whole village from there." Leif climbed the barrier to cross the pasture, as it cut their time down.

Nerves taut with anticipation as they neared the stable, Leif's hand jumped to his weapon repeatedly as if willing it to be ready. The others did much the same; Kyden's blade slicing through tall grass, Killi's staff whipping through air with fluid movements and Tavis' shield being raised repeatedly.

The whizzing of Killi's staff stopped suddenly, and he tilted his head as if following a sound. Leif watched him curiously for a time until he heard it too—the beating of hooves on the ground.

Leif ran to the front of the stable, but he could make out only the flashes of silver that signified their masks, as the soldiers rode through the other side of the village.

"Leif!"

Spinning around, Leif fumbled to catch the reins that Kyden flung down at him from his seat on a horse.

"Move, Leif!" Kyden barked, then swung his horse around and spurred it into pursuit.

Killi was already thundering ahead of both of them, and Leif could hear Tavis coming up behind him. Launching himself up onto the horse's bare back, he leaned forward and pressed his knees into its flanks.

It was obvious the Loricai hadn't expected to be chased so soon or followed so closely. They rode fast and hard, like their pursuers had set the fields aflame behind them. Not one made an attempt to stop their pursuit, and Leif wondered why.

"The Wilds! They're headed for the Wilds!" Kyden yelled after chasing them for close to a quarter-hour.

Shivers ran down Leif's back. Dense and home to eerie creatures that would scare even the most hardened warriors, the Wilds were alive in a way that normal jungles weren't. People went in and were swallowed up, never to be seen again, if they dared to enter without a ward to safeguard them.

Even with a ward, it was a dangerous place to be.

Leif had been on several journeys to Loricus before, and never once had they traversed the Wilds. Though it made the journey arduous, it was preferable to travel the long way—south to Miah, then through Themi. That isn't to say Leif had never set foot in the Wilds; he had, and it had been the single most terrifying experience of his life. Till now.

Leif pushed his horse harder. He could not allow the Loricai to enter the Wilds with the Princess.