Sinking into nothing but the dirt, the spearman's eyes widened with shock. He hadn't missed... but at the last second, Sophie had rolled out of its path. Then, unarmed, Sophie got to her feet and kicked the man to the ground before his hands came off the tip of his weapon. At this point, he was on the ground, and when Sophie pulled his own spear out of the ground and drove it down, she did not miss.
She did it.
The adrenaline from the win slowly subsided from her. I watched her stumble back a step in shock, gasping for a breath. Blood was on her shirt.
Rafe charged for her, pushing past me, embracing her in a hug which she returned. And to my surprise, she laughed with sweet relief--that she was alive, that she had done it. He pulled away and looked at her, his hands cradling her face softly, before leaning in and kissing her fiercely. The crease between her brows smoothed out and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck.
I heard a sniffle, then Ace's voice. "Carter, are you crying?" He wiped his face and sniffed.
"No. It's just cold."
"Yeah, right," she scoffed back.
"It is!"
I allowed myself a small smile because it was the only thing I could do to keep myself from falling apart.
Asik's words stayed with me. The person you're more scared of than anyone. Damn him. He always had a love for mind games. I don't even know if he knew who he was talking about unless of course he decided to do his research and was just fucking with me. Or, the more disturbing thought, that he had been paid a visit and was telling the truth.
That very thought turned my blood cold. I have no idea how he was alive. If he was alive, I reminded myself. I'd seen his corpse, his pale skin. But you didn't stop long enough to check his pulse, to make sure he was really dead. And now he might be prowling around, trying to find you. Then again, this was ridiculous, because why the hell would he be trying to find me? If he was alive, he'd have plenty of other things to do. But you did destroy his life. He destroyed mine first. He deserved it. But you don't really believe that, do you?
The snow brought me back to the present. I was standing next to Sorin, Carter, and Ace. After a moment, I turned and said, "We need to keep going."
Sorin called my name. I gave a half turn.
"What?" He walked over to me and gently picked up my arm, bringing my hand up to my gaze.
"You're dripping blood, little assassin." As I glanced down, I saw blood trickling down my wrist, to my finger, and into the snow. I was leaving a trail behind me.
"Oh, right. That." I looked at Carter. "Can you help?" He nodded. "Good. We can camp up there." I pointed out a little way, and with a nod from Sorin, I continued walking.
"Rafe! Sophie! You fall behind, you stay behind!" Ace called. The two broke apart and started walking. I could hear Sophie say quietly,
"Just to be clear, I'm still pissed at you."
I heard the small smile in his voice. "Of course, darling."
"And that kiss meant nothing."
He was smiling. "Of course."
"You were an asshole and one nearly fatal experience is not going to change that."
"I wouldn't dream of it, love." But after a moment, he added, "Will you ever forgive me?"
"Mmm," she hummed. "I'll think about it."
And then they were silent.
_______________
The wound was just as bad as I'd expected, and it ruined my good shirt.
By the time camp was made and firewood was salvaged, nearly my entire sleeve was covered in blood.
"You've lost about a pint," Carter muttered as he handed me a large flask. "You may experience lightheadedness and dizziness and possibly nausea and a fever depending on the variables-"
"Carter?" I asked as he assessed my wound.
"Hm?"
"Stop talking. I'm about to have tweezers in my arm, and I don't think I can deal with both your rambling and the feeling of my flesh being proded." He didn't respond to me, but said to no one in particular,
"I need water, a clean cloth, and a shirt." I don't know who gave them to him, but eventually, he had everything laid out for him. My shirt was off. I shivered against the cold and took a swig of the liquor.
"Hey!" Carter snatched it out of my hand. "You're not supposed to drink it! It's to disinfect your wound!"
"Can't I get drunk too?"
"No. It's not healthy." I rolled my eyes. "Okay, I'm going to start now."
"Just get it over with." Carter tied off my arm with the sleeve of the shirt to cut off the blood. After, he poured the water on my wound to rinse it off. My arm twitched back instinctively, yet it didn't necessarily hurt. But when Carter put the alcohol on the cloth and dabbed the severed skin, the burning pain shot through me.
"Sorry," Carter mumbled. He examined my arm and straightened, sighing. "I'm going to have to take out the bullet." I blew out a breath.
"No, I want the bullet to stay impaled in my arm," I spat.
"She gets irritated when she's in pain," Ace warned pleasantly.
Carter exhaled. "I'm only trying to help."
"Well try without the commentary."
Frowning, Carter said, "I should just leave this in your arm."
Then he began his work.
It took ten minutes of agony, but Carter finally located the bullet. Thankfully, it wasn't a shrapnel, so the metal didn't break apart.
"You're lucky," Carter said, running another stream of cool water against my skin to wash off the blood. He did the same for his own hands as my blood stained the tips of his fingers red. "It was just a flesh wound. It didn't hit bone or muscles, so it shouldn't take but a few days for it to feel relatively normal. Until then it's going to be sore and that's if we can keep off the infection."
Carter pulled out his suture kit and began preparing the needle. "Good. We need to get to the village in three days. And now with an apparent bounty on my head, I'll more than likely have to find a way to sneak into the town. They'll be checking carriages and bags, so I'll take the weapons and other illegal things with me when we cross the border."
"I'll go with you." I didn't have to turn around to see who had spoken.
"I'd feel more comfortable if you went with Carter," I told Sorin without looking at him. I'd briefly discussed my plan on getting us in earlier that day.
"Well then who will go with you? You won't be able to transport all of our bags of weapons and illegal substances by yourself." Carter began stitching my arm. I winced and took the alcohol again, drinking from it deeply before cradling my head in my hand.
"I was thinking Sophie," I said after a moment, taking another swig.
"Sophie?" Sorin asked. She scowled at the dumbfoundedness in his voice. "I mean, no offense Princess, but if Vera and I or even Rafe and Vera get caught, we can at least play it off as husband and wife. If two women get caught, the punishment will be more severe. Especially in Targaryen." Yeah, where the women are shunned behind the man of the house, I thought with detestation. I'd read books about Targaryen's lifestyle. The men are raised to provide, the women are sold off as girls to the wealthiest bidder. They served their husband, and the punishment for rebellious actions was brutal.
"We won't get caught," I said. "Plus, we can't have the Princess of an enemy nation just stroll up to a security checkpoint. Someone is bound to know her."
"But what if you do?"
I paused at this. "Sophie can hold her own, if that's what you're worried about."
"And why can't we all just sneak in instead of trying mission impossible?" Ace asked. "Carter isn't exactly the best actor we have. No offense."
"Because everybody of importance who attends, gets free, luxurious rooms," Sophie said before Carter opened his mouth to protest. "And we need to be on that list in order to have that."
"Exactly. Carter (AKA the Duke of Helmsing) and his 'guards' will parade up there in a rich coach and jewels, and the 'Duke' will claim some religious or profit nonsense before being let in with hopefully two or three free rooms and three days worth of free food." Carter had long since finished my stitches. He was wrapping up my arm now. His lips were pursed tightly.
"As great of a plan as that is," Sorin started, "how the hell do we get the rich coach and jewels and horses? They'll take one look at our clothes and know we are lying."
"I have a plan for that too."
"Oh great," Ace started, eyes-rolling. "Every time you say, 'I got a plan' someone gets shot or hurt or it turns into an argument and I get a massive headache."
"Well, then, good thing I said, 'I have a plan'," I said sweetly. "Rafe, get my map." Carter finished wrapping my arm. I slid my coat back on as Rafe pulled out the detailed map of Targaryen. He laid it out on one of our blankets. I shifted so I was facing it.
"Asik let it slip that there is a military base two-days ride East." I pointed to the small cluster of tents symbolizing the base. Then my finger drifted North. "It's right by a manor where my sources say a rich lord lives." Rafe's eyes widened.
"Wait--Lord Wailsh?" He asked. A wicked smile spread across my lips. I nodded slowly.
"Lord who?" Sorin asked.
"Lord Wailsh," Sophie said, amused. "He has an enormous land grant from the king. I met him a few years ago. He's nice." Her questioning gaze turned to me and Rafe. "How do you two know him?"
"Well let's just say he doesn't like us much," Rafe said.
"Does anyone?" Ace mumbled.
"Long story short, we stole from him."
Ace responded with, "Shocker."
"Who haven't you stolen from?" Sorin asked exasperated.
"That is a very short list, my friend," Rafe said.
"Wait-" Sophie shook her head and held up a hand. "What did you steal from him? When did you steal from him? Why?" At these questions, Rafe turned to me, waiting to see if I was going to speak.
"When the lord was in Vadon a few years ago, I was consequently on my way back from a mission given to me by the king. When I went to report my findings, Lord Wailsh was there. He made a rather suggestive comment toward me and I put him in his place."
"So you stole from him?!" Sophie exclaimed before I responded to Sorin. My hard gaze turned toward her.
"No. I told him to take his ugly, fat ass back to his manor."
"Holy shit," Ace muttered, chuckling. Sophie was astounded.
"You- you did what?!"
"Your father loved that. Got a few lashes for that one."
Sophie asked, "So then you stole from him?"
"Yes, then I stole from him."
"Two golden chalices with jewels lining the bottom and a priceless family heirloom," Rafe said dreamily. "That had to have been my favorite heist."
"Yeah, I just wish we could've waited to see his face," I said.
"His damn dogs would've bitten our heads off if we had though."
"I would've killed them before they touched my new cloak."
Rafe's eyes widened. "But- but they were dogs."
"Yes and that cloak was expensive."
"Anyways," Sophie said, changing the conversation, "why would we go to Lord Wailish's manor?"
"Why wouldn't we?" Was my response.
She blew out a breath. "Well I don't know, it's dangerous-"
"I thrive in danger."
"You got shot."
"Well maybe not thrive, but I do enjoy it dearly."
"It's stupid," she continued.
"I'm not the brightest of the bunch."
"It... it's reckless."
"Okay, and?"
"It's unnecessary."
"I find it very necessary, actually."
"How? I don't know how many more times we can get shot or chased or almost blown up before I start forming stress lines."
"Yes, because that's what's most important—the Princess not having frown lines," Ace said. "How about, I don't know, not dying?"
Sophie moved a piece of hair from her face. "You have your priorities. I have mine."
Ace rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Royals." Sophie ignored her.
"So what is the purpose then, Vera?" Carter asked.
"Well, we need a carriage and horses to carry Simon Vos Codwell and his guards into the town along with fresh, expensive clothes and money..."
"So, basically, we are going to steal from this Wailish dude not only because we need some of his rich-people stuff, but because you want to get back at him?" Ace asked.
I took another swig from my flask. "Yeah, basically."
She actually looked impressed. "I didn't peg you for the petty type."
"I have my moments. Especially when it includes putting an arrogant man with too much power in his place." To my surprise, Ace smiled.
"I'll drink to that."
She put a hand out. I handed her the flask, and for the first time in a while, the storm between us was calm.