Page 128 of Lady of the Drowned Empire

“Only for an hour though.” He squeezed my thigh. “You’ve been off your schedule for too long. I have complete faith in you, but you have to keep at it, especially now. So we’re going to run north, and then we’ll rest and walk, and I’ll travel us up ahead as far as I can before nightfall so we can find somewhere safe to stay—and hopefully find dinner.”

“Where do you expect us to be tonight?” I asked.

“Cretanya by this evening.”

“Is there another brothel there?”

“There’s plenty,” he laughed. “I could map them up and down the Empire. But that’s not usually where I stayed. I became very familiar with some inns and cave systems along the way. The caves are nice. They’re free and usually empty, and some have pools to bathe in—heated, too. The only problem is, well, there’s a chance of running into other forsworn. Forsworn who really embody the title. But the bigger problem is the caves are being used as nests for the akadim.”

“One of us probably needs to stay up all night if we’re going to stay anywhere like that.”

“I know an inn,” he said, “in Cretanya, where we’re heading. The owners’ granddaughter is married to Sean. They’ve let me stay there before. They’re kind. And discreet. Although I’ll probably check in by myself and come get you, bring you straight to the room.”

I knew this precaution was because even if these people were semi-family for Rhyan, we couldn’t be seen together.

“After Cretanya, though, I’m going to direct us west, taking the mountain pass along Korteria. It’ll keep us out of the capital.”

I took a bite of my breakfast stew. “Do you think it’s too dangerous for us to be in Korteria? With…my engagement?”

Rhyan practically growled. “That is not happening.” He exhaled. “But I’d rather risk Korteria than Numeria. It’s too risky to be close to the Emperor. After tonight, though, we’ll most likely be sticking to caves. Once we’re north of the capital, my face is far more recognizable. And I am far less welcome.” He looked ahead, his gaze distant.

I reached for his hand and squeezed it. The north was in his heart—I hated the pain he must have felt at being rejected by what had been his home.

Rhyan gave me a small smile in return and kissed my cheek before inhaling his breakfast stew.

An hour later, our packs strapped to our backs and fully dressed in our soturion armor, Rhyan and I left our safe haven. We both kept our hoods up, planning to vanish immediately into the woods, trusting the camouflage of our cloaks to protect us from any soturi searching for me or my sisters. But a sharp gust of wind blew off my hood, exposing my braided hair.

Despite the sun having been scarce for days, it was in full force this morning, and I caught a glimpse of the edge of my braid from the corner of my eye. It was bright red. Batavia red.

Asherah’s red.

A woman stepped outside of the hut next to ours, tying a large fur-lined robe around her body. It was the Elyrian woman who’d served our dinner last night. She was staring straight ahead, a focused expression on her face, her eyebrows knit together. But then she caught my gaze, and her eyes widened as she saw my red hair.

Rhyan was behind me in an instant, pulling my hood back up.

“Morning,” he said politely, nodding to the woman, his hand tightening around mine. He started walking at a brisk pace, leading me away from the hut toward the woods we’d arrived in.

“She knows who I am,” I hissed.

“No. She was only staring because your hair was a different color from last night.”

“Exactly. I’m known for that.”

He chewed the inner corner of his cheek and looked over his shoulder. “We paid for discretion,” he said.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

Rhyan pulled me behind a tree. “That’s their job. To be quiet. Far more scandalous things have happened here.”

“And how do you know these things if they’re so discreet?”

“Just trust me, Lyr. You stay here enough times, you see things. Things I’ve never heard spoken anywhere else.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Let’s just go. We have our task. We’re going to stick to it. If we worry about everything, we’ll get nowhere.” His hands were inside my hood, his thumbs stroking my neck. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Rhyan pulled us deeper into the woods for our run. Having been through Elyria multiple times to hunt, he created the path we’d follow, keeping to the spots where the snow was lightest between the trees. He had to circle back to me a few times—I wasn’t used to running in full armor or while carrying anything with me. Plus, the terrain was uneven beneath my feet. But I had to admit, I felt good after over a week of not running.

Afterwards, Rhyan led me through a couple of cool-down stretches, and when we continued on, his hand wrapped around mine, threading our fingers together.