Page 34 of Warrior Princess Assassin (Braided Fate #1)

Chapter Sixteen

The Warrior

O nce again, I’m riding in a slow procession across the snow-covered fields of Astranza. I thought I’d be returning to Incendar with a new bride in a carriage and a flutter of hope in my chest, but now I’m bringing a woman who hates me and a prisoner who wants me dead.

Sev is silent at my side again, my soldiers trudging along behind us, the carriages creaking and rattling as we pass over uneven ground. The clouds overhead have shifted, allowing the moon to beam down on us all, promising another endless night.

It’s reckless to travel again so soon. We’re all exhausted and hungry, driven by nothing but duty and desperation, the worst combination for any soldier.

But we need to get away from the palace.

We need to get out of this kingdom . I have no idea who I can trust, but so far it seems to be no one in Astranza.

Dane spoke a lot of words to point the finger at Draegonis, but I don’t believe any of them.

It was too neat. Too easy. I couldn’t challenge him, however.

Not with such a small group of soldiers.

Not without risking my sister being left alone.

It was bad enough when I thought Dane’s men were going to attack in the snow.

On the way here, I remember wishing I’d brought the whole army—and just now, I’m regretting that we didn’t. If I had more soldiers, I’d send runners ahead to have troops waiting at the border, just in case.

But I don’t, and I’m not sending any of my men away. Not while I’ve got a vengeful princess in one carriage and a chained-up assassin in the other.

When Jory arrived in the palace courtyard with half a dozen trunks and her lady-in-waiting by her side, her expression was cold and her eyes were fierce. I offered them both a hand to climb into the carriage.

The princess completely ignored me. She climbed inside on her own.

Her lady’s eyes were just as stony, but she offered me a curtsy. “Lady Charlotte, Your Majesty.” Then she ignored my hand herself, and climbed in after the princess.

I could feel my men watching this, but they weren’t smirking this time around.

Asher is in the other carriage, the chain between his ankles looped through the wooden rail that supports the seat.

It’s clear the palace guard roughed him up.

His movements were slow and awkward, his face full of fresh bruises, right down to a spot of blood where his lip was split.

I’ve seen how quickly he can move, so I had Callum hold a weapon on him while I adjusted the chain.

I expected him to spit profanity at me the whole time, but he was silent as a dead man, his eyes locked on the floor of the carriage.

Every muscle on his frame was taut, however, and I’m no fool. I clicked the shackles closed with a little more force than necessary. “Behave,” I said, and then I dropped the key in the pouch on my belt.

I waited for him to tell me off—or even spit in my face, the way he did to Dane. But he did neither.

Despite that—or maybe because of that—a twinge of regret flared in my chest. The same twinge that’s been poking at me since the moment I tricked him. I hesitated before closing the carriage door.

“What happened to your shoulder?” I said, because he was still sitting crookedly.

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond.

“Dislocated?” I guessed. Asher didn’t move, so I glanced at Callum. “Check. Fix it.”

That got a reaction. Asher’s eyes flashed up, and he drew back into the shadows of the carriage. For a second, he looked like a wounded animal, cornered and ready to attack. “Don’t you fucking touch me.”

I was too tired and too agitated to deal with a fight, so I sighed. “Fine. Suffer.” Then I shut the door.

So now we’re all riding, all freezing, all irritated.

All starving, too. After Asher put the notion of poison in my head, I wouldn’t touch a bite of food from the palace, and I wouldn’t let my men eat anything either.

I really didn’t think anything could be worse than the way we traveled last night, but apparently it can.

Maybe the silence is too much for Sev, because when he speaks, his voice is aggrieved. “Are we going to talk about it?” he says.

It’s the first thing he’s said in miles, and I look over. “Talk about what?”

He’s got his cloak drawn up against the cold, the fur pinned in place to cover half his face and keep out the wind.

But his eyes find mine. “The fact that we were supposed to stay a week but we barely even stayed a day ? The way you didn’t marry her?

Or how about the Draeg spy you’ve got in a velvet carriage instead of shipping his charred bones back to the border?

” He pauses, and his sarcasm thickens—or maybe it’s anger I’m hearing.

“Perhaps something about how they stole our king , yet we’re escorting them to—”

“Sev.”

“I could go on.”

I give him a look.

From behind me, Callum calls, “How about the fact that we’re all hungry enough to eat one of the horses?”

Sev snaps his fingers. “That too.”

I frown.

Ahead of us, the snowy landscape stretches on for miles . A burst of icy wind whips between us all, and someone at my back mutters, “ Fuck. ”

Behind them, Roman says, “I have a few strips of dried beef left in my pack.”

Garrett and Callum both inhale sharply. Even Sev looks back. “Leave it to Roman to be prepared,” he says under his breath.

“Divvy it out,” says Garrett.

“I didn’t say I was sharing .”

Hooves shuffle in the snow. Garrett and Callum must be whirling their horses around. “Well, we didn’t say we were asking —”

Sev gives a brisk whistle through his teeth. A call for them to come to order.

They all fall sharply silent. Shuffling hoofbeats return to an even cadence. But I can feel their agitation.

Any other night, this would be lighthearted teasing, especially from Roman. Of all of them, he’s the most easygoing, the slowest to anger, the last to argue. Tonight, everyone’s voice bears an edge. I can only imagine what they’ll be like in a few hours.

“Five more miles,” I say to Sev, and I make sure it’s loud enough for them all to hear it. “We’ll find an inn for the night.”

“We left the palace to find an inn ? What are we going to do with the prisoners?”

“The princess isn’t a prisoner,” I say tightly.

My own agitation is flaring, because I don’t know what to do with Asher yet.

“And I’m not convinced Asher is working for the Draegs at all—though maybe this Hunter’s Guild is.

Either way, Dane’s claims don’t quite fit.

He’s been an ass all along, and if there were any truth to those orders, he could have been protecting himself . ”

“Sure—or this assassin and the princess could have been working together. Holding you there. Waiting for others from Draegonis to claim you—or your body.”

I think about that, turning it around in my head. Jory definitely believed Asher—no question. Her worry for him was genuine, too. When we rode back to the palace, her emotion—her tears —seemed real. I saw her flare of panic when Dane issued Asher’s sentence.

And she was worried for me, too—at first. I heard her breath shaking when we first emerged from the tunnels under the palace. She stepped in front of Asher when he had a dagger in his hand.

Asher! Stop hurting him.

So that leaves Asher himself. While I might believe that a skilled mercenary could convince a young woman to help him kidnap a king.

..that doesn’t seem to fit any of what happened.

He left me in the snow—and it was my choice to follow them.

He didn’t even want me there. He felt he was risking something to protect Jory.

Not just from assassins. From me, and from her brother. That all seemed genuine, too.

But he was so worried about going back to those slavers . I heard it in his voice when we spoke, and I saw it in his face when Dane set the price of his crime to one million silvers.

My fingers tighten on the reins when I think about that part.

A million . I doubt any man could work that off in a lifetime.

If I’m understanding their justice system correctly, the funds would go right into the royal family’s pockets.

It’s almost enough to make me think Prince Dane set this entire thing up himself.

The thought strikes me like an arrow, and I freeze.

But then I shake it off. Too complicated. And I know Astranza needs my magic and my army. Why risk the alliance? He could set Asher up for an attack on anyone else in the palace without needing to risk everything we’ve been working toward.

I don’t trust any of this.

“Do you want to have any of this deliberation out loud?” Sev says, and his voice has the same edge as before.

I don’t want to bicker with him , so I say, “It wasn’t like that. Asher wanted the princess to leave me behind. He wanted her to run.” As I’ve been turning over the events in my thoughts, I keep tripping over the fact that Asher really didn’t kill Nikko.

“And he left Nik alive,” I add. “A Draeg spy wouldn’t do that.”

“If he wanted to run, what stopped them?”

“They weren’t prepared.” I pause. “He had ample opportunity to kill me, Sev. We know what the Draegs would do with me. There’s no way they would have let me go. And I don’t like how quickly Dane laid the blame at their feet. It’s too easy.”

“Well, you didn’t hire an assassin to kill the princess.”

“No.” I keep thinking of that moment Asher said one of my men could have hired a Hunter. But I can’t make that work out in my head either. I’ve known them too long. We’re too close.

Sev is still musing. “If you think he lied about Draegonis, does that mean Dane hired one to kill you ? Why bother? We were outnumbered in the palace. You had no fire. He could have set the army on us when we arrived.”

“I know.” I glance over again. “That’s why we’re getting the hell out of here. But the princess could still be a target. That’s why I brought her with me.”

He falls silent again, contemplating.