Page 62 of Warrior Princess Assassin (Braided Fate #1)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The Warrior

T hey’re too far for me to hear anything they’re saying.

That doesn’t stop me from trying.

My soldiers are trying to listen, too—or maybe they simply know I am. They haven’t made a sound . They’re all braced for this to go badly. Every quiver is still strung across their backs, their reins tucked in one hand, their bows held ready in the other.

Jory looked almost wounded when Callum didn’t obey her order to put up his weapons. Talk about bold—the very idea that she would expect to command my best soldiers is nonsensical. But she clearly expected them to obey, and they didn’t. In that moment, she almost faltered.

But her conviction is so strong . My men considered it. Only for a heartbeat of time, but they thought about it.

She didn’t see that—but I did.

Sev looks over at me, and he keeps his voice low. “How long are you going to let this go on?”

I study the small crowd ahead. There aren’t more than two dozen people, with Jory and Asher at the center. A little girl of about six years old walks between them, every now and again swinging from their arms. Lady Charlotte walks just behind. No one’s voice is raised. No weapons are in hand.

I’m still waiting for it, though. When I lift my gaze to the gates to Lastalorre, there are others waiting, drawn by the shouting. I would have preferred to enter the city quietly. I can’t believe I was so reckless as to draw flame to my palm.

And then the princess walked right into the fray.

We’re lucky there are so few of them—and that none were more heavily armed.

If she knew what the last few years have been like, she never would have dared.

There’s a reason I didn’t tell the Suross settlers who I am.

There’s a reason we took circuitous routes to get here.

A month ago, a man came at me in the middle of the night, when we were riding back from the Draeg border.

It was pitch-black, and I didn’t see him until the last second.

He meant to put a dagger into my thigh, or maybe my waist, right at the gap in my armor.

I twisted in time, and instead, it went into my horse’s flank.

The animal reared—then collapsed, nearly crushing the man, and me with him.

We ended up grappling in the dirt, half tangled in the tack, the horse flailing around us.

“Your magic is killing us,” the man snarled in my face, right before I drove a blade into his body.

“It’s not my magic,” I said, but he was already dead.

The memory fills my head more often than I like to admit. Every time I do, shame curls around my thoughts, and I have to shove it away.

Jory and Asher swing the little girl again.

That same shame is curling around my thoughts now .

I didn’t see the children as they were advancing down the hill. I didn’t see the pregnant woman.

Maybe the attack by the Draeg soldier was too fresh in my head, but I just saw attackers. Adversaries.

“Ky.”

I rub at my eyes, then look over at Sev. “What?”

He frowns, and I realize I didn’t answer his question. I don’t know how to answer his question.

Because Jory simply got down from the horse and...walked up to them. Heedless of danger. Asher right by her side.

Daring. Chaotic. Admirable.

Sev tries a different tack. “We’re twenty feet back. The princess is—”

“Thirty feet,” says Roman.

“Thank you. Thirty feet back. The princess is unarmed. Defenseless.”

My eyes flick to Asher. I saw him take down my soldier.

I watched him slide under an assassin to take her place.

Then I saw the princess stab a Draeg soldier in the thigh while a knife was at her neck.

“She’s not defenseless,” I say.

Sev makes an aggrieved noise and keeps going. “You have no idea what they’re telling her.”

That hits the mark. I look over at him.

His eyebrows go up. He knows he’s got me. “Are you just going to let her walk into Lastalorre like this?”

Let her . She almost took control of my soldiers right out from under me. I’m beginning to think there’s not a whole lot I can stop the princess from doing.

I turn and look at him. “No.”

He lets out a breath, clearly relieved. “Well, good, because—” He breaks off sharply as I swing down from the horse, midstride. “Ky! What are you—”

“Take my horse.” I toss him my reins. “I’m going to join her.”

IT DOESN’T FEEL like thirty feet. It feels like a mile.

Once I’m on the ground, jogging out from the horses, the gap between my soldiers and my people seems like a chasm I don’t know how to cross.

I’d lay down my life for Incendar, and I’ve watched thousands of soldiers do that very thing at the border with Draegonis.

But my people here believe I’m harming them instead of helping them.

They attacked without hesitation. Their fury—fury at me —was clear.

I knew it. I expected it. I just didn’t expect it to be this bad.

Jory glances back, looking over her shoulder, and she seems surprised to see me on the ground, halfway between her and the rest of my soldiers.

Many of the others notice her reaction, because sudden tension flares among the people surrounding her.

I immediately feel like I’ve made a misstep, and my steps slow.

For an instant, I wonder if I’ve made all the wrong choices here, and they’re going to draw the few weapons they have and we’re going to have a battle anyway.

My hand is automatically beginning to sketch a sigil, calling fire in case I need it.

But the princess leans down toward the little girl and says something quietly, and suddenly the child is sprinting across the distance toward me.

I shuffle to a stop, nonplussed.

The girl gives an exasperated huff when she reaches me. “Come on,” she says, grabbing my hand before I finish that sigil. “Princess Jory says that if you want to walk with us, you have to keep up.”

Her fingers are so tiny and cool against my own, and it’s almost jarring. I can’t remember the last time I was this close to a young child. “I...yes, Lady.”

She gives me a tug, so I jog by her side until we reach the group.

I can only imagine what Sev thinks of this .

If I expected a kind reception, I don’t get one. Every gaze is a bit cold, but there’s an undercurrent of fear, too. They know who I am—and they know what they just did.

There was a time when my people never looked at me this way.

“See, Mama?” says the little girl. She still hasn’t let go of my hand, but she’s looking up at the pregnant woman. “He didn’t hurt me.”

Well, that stings like a dart. My jaw goes tight.

“I see.” The woman is a little pale, and she holds out her own hand. “Come walk with me now, Hannah.”

The little girl drops my hand and skips over to her mother.

Even the princess seems a bit frosty. Her eyes are cold and challenging, and with Asher at her shoulder, she looks every inch a rival queen, here to negotiate for resources before we abandon pleasantries and go to war.

“Your Majesty,” she says coolly.

“Princess.”

“Have you come to walk with us?”

“I have.”

“Good.” She turns and starts walking again, and it seems like the people around us are holding their breath, waiting to hear what we’ll say.

I fall into step beside her, but my thoughts are already categorizing where the men are, and which ones have weapons.

Jory reaches out and takes my hand, and it’s so startling that I almost jump. But her fingers close around mine. There’s a part of me that doesn’t like it. I want both hands free.

But Jory’s voice is calm as she says, “These people didn’t come to fight with you.” She glances at me. “And once these gentlemen began scuffling with your soldiers, their families came to stop them—not to heighten the tension.”

She’s clever in the way she says that, assigning blame to no one.

I’m not sure I like it.

I’m also not sure she’s wrong.

She continues, “I have been telling your people that you spent months negotiating with my brother, Prince Dane. That you hear their worries, and you have been taking steps to protect them.”

“Yes,” I say gravely. “I have.”

“Well, you haven’t done enough,” one of the men snaps. “Your magic has been scorching the fields.”

“It’s not my magic,” I say.

“It’s fire! ” says another.

My jaw is tight again. None of these are unfamiliar arguments. “I cannot control the wildfires—”

“They aren’t just wildfires,” says a dark-haired woman near the back. “These fires come from nowhere —”

“And no one can stop them!” the pregnant woman cries.

“We keep running out of food,” says one of the children, and the others begin to echo it, like chirping baby birds.

“And now our livestock are going to starve,” a man calls from the edge of the crowd. “Once the cattle and chicken die off, we won’t have—”

“I know !” I say, and my voice is a crack like thunder. Sudden silence falls. I stop and gesture out at the dried fields we just rode across. “I am your king! You think I don’t see the state of my kingdom?”

Two of the women flinch. Several of the men are glaring again.

The little boy’s face crumples, and he starts to cry.

Fuck .

I would give anything to be sent back to the worst battle on the border, right this very second.

“I have spent months trying to find accord with Astranza,” I say, speaking into their scowling silence.

“I yielded everything I could to satisfy Prince Dane. I know our fields are nearly bare. I know our food stores run empty. I know you have heard stories from Netherford and Covepoint about the barren crops. I know you are desperate .” I look from face to face, making sure they hear me.

“But know this, too: Draegonis waits at our eastern border, watching for every sign of weakness. You have heard those stories, too, from every soldier who comes home. If you think you can rip me off the throne and solve your problems, the Draeg army will be happy to give you a new one.”