The Kingdom of Belmar

Chapter 32

He furrows his brow, looking at me as though I've gone insane. "Amy are you seriously suggesting me to guard myself behind shields of the Second Regiment?"

"I'm not suggesting, I'm telling. I just –"

"No," he says, shaking his head. "No, no you are not allowed to make such requests. Not after your tantrums and ramblings of wanting to be treated like a proper knight. No, you of all people should know that I would never condone such cowardice, otherwise I'm no better than Tristen."

He makes a good point. I hate that he makes a good point, but a good point doesn't change the fact that my knuckles are white with fear that the love of my life may die tonight, main character be damned. "Cole–"

"You are fortunate I do not ask you to turn around because all I've been thinking these last few days is how I could never live with myself if even a hair on your head was harmed. But I don't, because it is not what you would have wanted, and it would be selfish of me to keep insisting otherwise."

"I'm not trying to be selfish, Cole, I just couldn't bear the thought."

"And I can't bear the thought of not being here, with you. With everyone. I am to fight with my men, or I am not fit to call myself their leader."

And to that, I can't argue. Cole understands who he needs to be, and it's wrong of me to crutch such a noble prince. It's wrong of me to fear for this nation's greatest warrior. I took a pause, heart racing in anticipation. "Do you," I stutter, staring ahead as if this were any ordinary day. "Do you truly believe we'll succeed?"

"I do," he says, and it's so natural. If Cole's afraid, he doesn't let it show. If he's unconfident, it's unnoticeable. But it's the way I can't see anything on him that makes me question the words he says. "I hope."

I hope, too. I hope we make it through the other end of this, together, and that my friends can find solitude in a life in the palace, the life they worked so hard for. I hope Garrison doesn't mourn his lover too much, even despite his apparent betrayal. Most of all, as we entered the clearing to the palace grounds, I hope this works.

That hope didn't last very long, however, crushed like a roach when the knight to the right of me was cut down by the horse. I didn't see it, I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything until the horse toppled over its knight, and blood sprayed ahead of me. Something hit him, something crumpled the steed and I didn't see what it was.

"Cole–" I start to yell, but he's faster than I am. Cole pulls my reigns, ushering his horse in front of mine as he cuts down an arrow midair. The projectile was aimed directly for me, any later and I would have joined that knight on the ground. It happened so quickly, I didn't even see the prince unsheath his sword.

"It's an ambush!" He shouts to the others, the rearguard encircling the prince and I as we're exposed to the open palace air. A tirade of arrows comes raining towards our cavalcade, pulling my reigns backwards to avoid being hit.

Cole's quicker to react, he had already dismounted his horse along with half of the Second Regiment. It takes a beat for me to realize that they aren't impossibly fast, I'm simply hesitating. I'm scared, and it shows. I'm not moving because I know this is it, I know I could die, and there's no guarantee for a third chance at life. This is the moment I've spent so long training for, and seeing a corpse right in front of me makes it all the more surreal.

"Amy," Cole calls, gripping my waist as he pulls me from the horse, narrowly missing another arrow.

From the palace walls, the same walls I once looked at with so much adoration and awe, the same walls that are still illuminated with its iridescent golden light, come charging hundreds of soldiers, all geared for battle. There were not this many guards before, surely not this many ready for combat in the west wing of Lambhurst, to a debilitating degree.