Page 46 of The Freedom You Seek

But the gates were already closing behind us, and before I could sign to the others, a lone figure slipped through the barely open gateway right behind us. It was the Iolesian soldier from earlier who obviously didn’t accept the verdict of the Marsian ones. In an instant, chaos broke out on the Marsian side, and the gates opened once more.

The guards burst into action and went after the man who was running toward the treeline in the distance. At least everybody was ignoring us—apart from the greedy soldier, who stared daggers at us.

Before I was able to tell Fig what I’d observed, he issued a command. “Follow me. Quickly!” He urged his horse to transition into a swift canter, which would provide us with enough speed to make progress without raising suspicion or straining the horses too much.

I double-checked if my grip on Jama was secure enough and followed Fig. Hastily, I directed my mount closer to him. “There was one guard on the Iolesian side of the border who worries me, Fig.”

“I noticed it too. That’s why we’re making such haste.”

“What did you see?” Jama chirped in, and I ignored her for the moment. It was likely she’d get mad soon, but I would address it at a later time—or preferably never.

“We should have dealt with them.” My expression turned dark, and I could feel the magic in my blood responding. “Let me ride back and save us some trouble.”

Fig contemplated my words, then nodded. “It’s actually not a bad idea to have someone monitor the situation.”

I couldn’t help but deadpan at his choice of words. That didn’t sound like the bloodbath I had in mind. “Monitor the situation?”

“Yes. Try to find out what they’re talking about or what their movements are. And Dion, it goes without saying—no violence at this point in time. Nothing that would warrant further investigation.”

I clenched my jaw in frustration. I only realized I’d tightened my grip as well when Jama winced from being clutched too hard.

“You’re an ass,” she hissed. “First, your act at the border, which was needlessly mean, by the way, then ignoring me, and—also your overall behavior.”

“I can live with that. Thisasshere is trying everything he can to keep you alive.” My answer to Nayana was clipped—I didn’t have time for an argument—before I glared back at Fig. “All right, reconnaissance it is. Will you take her?”

Fig shook his head. “I don’t want to strain my horse any more than necessary.”

I grunted in confirmation. It made sense, as he was the heaviest of us, courtesy of all his muscles.

A suspicion crawled into my mind, spreading with an icy foreboding, and I stiffened before Fig continued without a care in the world. My eyes narrowed dangerously. If he dared—

Fig wasn’t affected by me gutting him with my gaze at all. “Thain will take her.”

The finality of his order compelled me into an instinctual reaction—a growl from deep inside my chest rang through the air, and I bared my teeth.

“Fine with me,” Nayana said, unable to read the metaphorical room, irritating me even more.

Of course, the tiny woman was fine with the opportunity this presented to her. I bet she was glad to get rid of me for a while. I wasn’t too unhappy about temporarily handing her over as well, but why did it have to be Thain, of all people?

Not for the first time, I contemplated doing the world a favor and getting rid of him—in the most permanent manner possible.

“Then it’s settled,” Fig said, smirking at me. Bastard.

“Don’t you worry, sweet thing, I won’t let you fall,” Thain whispered in my ear.

“I have no reason to be worried. Don’t forget, I rode with Dion for weeks, and even he didn’t drop me. Though I bet he wished for it many times.” Although my words were meant as a joke, there was a grain of truth in them.

A small laughter escaped my lips. I’d gotten to know the redhead well enough to understand he was a shameless flirt. I didn’t take it too seriously when he used terms of endearment for me or acted like my personal hero.

Passing the time with him was easy, but I’d never give in to his advances. Not that we were often in each other’s presence anyway, thanks to Dion. Who, by the way, would be more than pissed after returning from the mission Fighad assigned to him. He’d always dodged provision runs for the past few weeks, and my best guess was that the reason might have been the redhead who beamed as if he was the king of the world when he helped me up on his horse.

What surprised me the most was that Thain acted quite polite. He didn’t pull me too close or touch me indecently—neither intentionally nor accidentally.

“IgnoreHis Broodiness.He was born with a frown, scowling instead of crying like a normal baby.”

Laughing with him provided a welcome distraction after the tense situation during the border control. As long as I didn’t dwell on the fact that Fig and Dion thought some guard had behaved suspiciously, I was fine. “What’s the problem between the two of you, anyway?” My question diverted the conversation to a more serious note—or so I thought. “Whenever I ask Dion, he just huffs, glowers at me, and changes the topic.”

“Oh sweetling, I can tell you that. So, listen up. We didn’t know each other before this mission. I mean, yes, we’re both soldiers in the king’s army, but we’re placed at very different stations, and the force is huge, I can tell you that. Actually, the only one I knew before all of this was Antas because his mother lived in the same place I grew up in, and I think he did so too, although he never confirmed it. It’s some sort of commune, quite remote, but still my favorite place in the worlds, by the way. From all that I’ve gathered, Antas isn’t a fan, but maybe things were different in the past when he presumably was living there, I don’t know. He gets incredibly tight-lipped when I try to find out,no matter how much I poke and prod. I think I actually saw him visiting his mother once, but since I had a wild phase at the time, I could be mistaken. He’s—”