Page 18 of Nightingale (The Broken Kingdoms #1)

J ust as Rian promised, mounts were readied and waiting for them outside the stable gates. There was a black mare that was most definitely meant for her by the size of the creature. The dappled Carylim Riekner next to it was his, with the harness that was fitted over the grey muzzle.

“Fuck.” He cursed and dragged a hand down his mouth as he saw the hawk emblem of the Moordians proudly stamped on the leather. It wasn’t just on the reins either, but the saddle as well as the shining stirrups and polished pommel. Even the horse’s flank held the symbol, pressed into the soft fur with a hot iron bent into the bird shape.

Vrea sent a questioning glance in his direction.

“I asked for the tack to be inconspicuous. This is the furthest thing from that.” He answered honestly and half-heartedly gestured to it, “But we don’t have time to change it so it’s going to have to do. When we cross over into Niroula, I might have to switch it out with something from the army, if they even have anything to fit Kohl.”

The name of the horse, she gathered.

“We can always paint over the sigils if they don’t.” She suggested and found the bundle of what appeared to be food by the stable door. Vrea lifted it with a grunt, hoisting it onto her mare’s back and finding the additional rope to secure it into place. She tied a firm knot, tugging a couple times to test it and finding it satisfactory.

“Not a horrible idea. One that we can better explore once we get on the road.” Rian moved his pack around, setting it against the bedroll that had already been added to both of their saddles, finding the cord under and feeding it through the system of hooks that kept everything in its place. He tethered a bow as well, attaching a quiver stuffed with arrows to the other side.

“We should get moving before the sun casts our shadows towards the palace and eyes start to drift in our direction.” She shielded her sight with a flat hand, gazing up at Hawksmoor Keep as the Prince placed his brown boot into the stirrup and hoisted himself up with an efficient speed.

Vrea fell away from the towering structure and did the same, finding it a bit harder than it should have been but allowed herself that momentary slack from the years of wasting away in the locked room. She’d been able to keep up with toning exercises on her core and throwing punches into thin air but nothing beyond that.

Once she arrived back in Niroula, she’d have to pull Alpheus back into the training room and relearn her old moves in order to keep her in fighting form.

“We can head south, towards the border for the first day and then we should turn east for a bit to avoid the raids that occur in the mountain passes near the edges of the continent.” He informed her as he clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth and kicked his heels into the horse’s side. Kohl took over with a snort, dirt flying up with the drag of his polished hoof.

“If they try anything, then we’ll be ready for them. More than prepared, I’d say.” Vrea responded and urged her mount into a gentle trot to keep up the pace beside him. “I’m not afraid to face a little bloodletting and fighting after nearly three years in confinement without so much as a blade to touch.”

“You sound bloodthirsty, if anything.” He grinned and wrapped the reins around his knuckles twice, letting it fall into a casual place. “Itching for a good round?”

“When I’ve been trained for literal years to kill, maim and torture, of course I feel out of my element after three years of doing none of that.” She explained, “I feel as though the very reason I was born, what I was bred for, has been stripped away from me. Even if it’s violent in its nature, it’s what I’m used to. My mother only continued to have heirs in order to protect my country, to defend it from yours and to fight back. Everything that I am, everything that I was born to be, meant to be, is a weapon meant for killing.”

Rian didn’t speak, as if he felt the same.

“Forgive me if I want to return to that.” Sarcasm laced her voice, twinged with a dash of vexation. “It’s a little bit of my old self that I can regain on this long journey. It’s the only thing I know.”

He cleared his throat as they rode past a set of guards that didn’t so much as pay them a glance of attention. “I never realised that you enjoyed killing so much.”

That was cold judgement she heard. Horrible pity that she had grown so used to murder. Red-hot hatred for his rival.

Vrea took it all in stride, knowing that there was a slice of installed fear in his baritone too. “I enjoy the things I’m good at. Nothing more, nothing less.”

For four hours, they rode in silence.

It took them two to get out of the city, and another to the bustling town below. They entered the mountain range within the third, the hooves clipping in echoing waves. The fourth was accompanied by a rushing stream of water that they tracked down, allowing their horses to pause for a break and a much needed drink as Rian unhooked the water skeins and quietly sent one in her direction. She caught it and uncorked it, drinking deeply to quench her sneaking thirst.

When she was done and attached it back to the saddle, she found Rian observing her like an eagle as they found a field mouse, studying it for the best way to pounce on the unsuspecting prey.

“Not that I owe you any explanation,” Vrea started with a warning finger in the air, “But I haven’t felt like myself in three years. Since your father locked me away. There are other things that I enjoy doing far more than taking lives, obviously, but it’s the one thing that I expected to do sooner than anything else. I won’t have you sit and judge my actions in quiet contemplation when I know very well that you’ve killed your own brother , Rian.”

His features turned to stone, iron and ice in one.

“I’ve heard just as much about you as I have your other siblings, save for Orla which much isn’t known about thanks to your father’s incessant need to keep the poor female confined to her chambers.” Vrea reached for one of the ruby-red apples from the sack and sank her teeth into it, the juice dribbling down her chin as she chewed.

Their rations were limited thanks to the horses that could only bear a certain amount of weight, but it was still more than they could have carried on foot. If needed, Vrea could hunt for a meal with the bow and arrows that Rian kept attached to his saddle. Though the slim pickings of a mountainous range weren’t inviting to think about.

“It’s true that the King has a penchant for keeping pretty damsels in need of heroic knights to save them, hence Castil’s taunting name.” He admitted to her. “I think it started off as a mean joke at his expense at first, but then it caught on thanks to the shade of his hair. I feel bad for him anytime someone uses it.”

“Your father doesn’t seem very fond of him, yet Castil reminds me the most of him.” She commented, taking another large bite. “They’re both cunning, cruel and vicious when it comes to the matter of taking what they want.”

Rian cast a look in her direction that alerted her senses that he was hiding something. Something that immediately made her suspicious. “Whilst you’re not entirely incorrect about the fact that my elder brother shares some savage characteristics of our sire, you’re wrong as well. Castil is perhaps the furthest from our father out of all of our siblings in everything save for his mind, which is a cunning reproduction. Theseus was the perfect carbon copy, and I think that Regulus is shortly following in his footsteps.”

The sweet tasting apple was gone in five more bites and she wiped at her sticky chin with her sleeve. A nagging impression pushed into her mind. “What makes Regulus and Castil different?”

“For someone who swears up and down that she hates my family, you seem to be asking quite a few personal questions about them.” Rian winked at her and she instantly scowled, turning to wash her hands in the stream as Kohl continued to lap the cool water up with his big tongue.

“Easier to kill when I know my targets better.” She shot back, and she knew that he heard the mask of sass that she coated it in.

“I think I should have clearly stated that my help in your rescue and release means that you have to forfeit killing my siblings.” He tsked in a false disappointment and took a hold of the stirrup as he unhooked the thin metal piece, guiding it into a lower position. “ Any of them.”

“Why?” Vrea asked as she cleaned each of her fingers individually, scrubbing at any of the sugary mess left behind from the fruit. “Want the pleasure of offing them yourself?”

“Perhaps you’d best gather your facts a bit more thoroughly, Princess. I’ve only killed one of my siblings, which only happened because of an accident.” He walked around Kohl, keeping one hand planted on the hindquarters to alert the horse to his whereabouts at all times. “And he was trying to kill me, so fair was fair.”

That was stinging pain in her head for him, at the fact that he hadn’t purposefully meant to spill blood that night but it had been a defense move, a quick action to save himself. It coursed through her veins like charged thunder and she connected with it, with the fear of ending one of her favoured brothers as they tried to end her instead.

“But what’s done is done. It’s not like I could go back into the strands of the past and reverse the effects of his own thoughts and actions. Raj was the one that started it and Raj was the one that paid the ultimate price.” Rian fixed the other heel hold, tugging on the leather and earning a pestering swish of a thick tail from the beast. “I did what I had to do, just as I will always do. I didn’t want to be the one bleeding out on the marbled floor.”

He paused, fingers tightening into a fist.

“I hate that we’re not only expected to kill our siblings, but scolded out of forming attachments in order to better prepare us for their death, urged to make it by our hands,” Vrea uttered softly as she unfolded a fraction of the truth for him to see.

He was right. If they were going to succeed in getting across the borders, then they needed to trust each other. It didn’t have to be fully, but enough to sleep without worry beside the other and wake in the morning. Killing Rian, Castil or the King could remain in her most pleasant dreams, but she’d tuck it away for the time spent in the real world.

“Even in this whole, war-ravaged world of ours, I find that to be the most barbaric thing out of it all.” She added.

“It’s not fun, for any of us. It doesn’t matter which side or house we come from.” He replied, leaning against Kohl with a propped crook of his arm. “Hence why I’m trying to end this war. Maybe now you’ll better understand my reasoning.”

She did.

“I’m still allowed my reservations, but yes. I do. I don’t want this pointless war to dredge on for longer than it already has. So if you say you have an idea on how to stop it, then I’m all for it. Provided that it isn’t utter bullshit to get you close enough to Vasthold and wipe out my entire family, the Queen included.”

Rian barked out a rough laugh that came from low in his chest, “I highly doubt I’d get away with that.”

“You wouldn’t.” The female agreed, glancing back at the horses, aching to get back on the road.

He noticed, reading everything in her stance and asked, “Ready to start up again?”

Vrea lifted herself from the place on the rock, which had begun to dig its angular edges into places that held a lingering ache. “How long will we ride for before stopping for the night?”

“I figured we’d go till dusk and settle in the first mountain range. I can take the first watch whilst you sleep and then I’ll wake you in three hours so we can swap. With the first night over us, we should be closer to the Blacklegs.” He pondered outloud, scrubbing at his clean-shaven chin. “Unless you’d prefer the first watch?”

She shook her head. “I don’t care.”

Rian placed his foot in the stirrup and reset himself in the saddle, moving until he was perfectly in place. He gestured for her to do the same and she did, a warning look shot in his direction that told him not to order her about anymore unless he wanted to lose any part of him.

The Prince merely chuckled in a careless way and took a hold of the reins once more. “This is going to be a fun trip.”