Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 28

Jakut grips my arm as we head back to the guest tower, though it is not the confident controlled hold of a master, nor the tender caress of an admirer. I am a buffer against the elements.

My own dilemma dampens my sympathy for his desperation. In two hours, I will be forced to leave the fort and abandon Kel when I have only just found him. I thought I would see him again, that I would be the one to break the news that it will be Tug, and not me, taking him home. I thought I would have time to check he is eating again, and have the comfort of witnessing his departure with Beast-face.

Even with Tug and the Duchess's threats, I hadn't given up on the possibility of finding an exit strategy—their secret could destroy any family, but its effect on the royal family, if ever known, would ripple through the whole Kingdom. There could have been a way to sway things back in my favour. But like Jakut, I have run out of time.

The Prince thrusts open the door to Tug and Brin's chamber. "There's been a change of plan," he announces. Brin, half-dressed in underwear with long legs, four colored crystals hanging from his neck, is covered in shaving foam. His skin looks gray beneath the tattooed webbing—lack of sleep, excessive drinking and worry taking its toll.

"Where's Tug?"

Brin glances at me with bloodshot eyes. He opens his mouth, but at the same moment boot steps thud in the corridor. Tug appears behind us, expression neutral.

"We leave for the Red City immediately," the Prince says. I squeeze my crossed arms into my chest, attempting to hold in the thunder-crack of tension. Say "no". Convince the Prince you cannot come.

"If Mirra has passed her test," Tug answers, "we are free to go."

"Two hundred gold coins to escort Mirra and me to the Ruby Court. Then you will be free to do as you please."

"The deal," Brin grunts, "was a hundred when we arrived here and a hundred when Mirra passed her test. We've still got nothing."

"Circumstances have changed. The Carucan army was attacked during the long-sleep. Rumours claim the Eteans hold the King prisoner."

Jakut is not admitting his father could be dead. To himself, or just to Tug? For someone who has no memories, this news affects him deeply. I study the contours of his desolate mind and notice they have subtly shifted. Does he remember something?

After my mother's cleansing, the obliterated years did not begin to come back until she woke from the following long-sleep. Like tokens buried in silt and ashes, winter eroded the sedimentary deposits to reveal fragments and shapes of the past. But Jakut wants his memories a great deal more than Ma did. Perhaps being here has jolted his memory, and I've been too preoccupied to notice.

"Half the Duke's army will be with you," Tug reasons. "What good are we?"

"My uncle and his men believe Mirra is a lady journeying beside me of her own free will. If she takes her horse for a stroll, they will not question it." His gaze zeroes in on my face. "I will need her more than ever now."

"Where else would I go," I say. "You have promised me my freedom and purse, why would I run away?"

"Because there is nothing to keep you." A simple answer, yet it carries an indiscernible undercurrent. "But something keeps you bound to Tug."

Brin swipes the foam from his chin with a cloth, apparently giving up on his shave. His refusal to look at either Beast-face or me, silently confirms Jakut's claim.

"There is nothing between us," I snap, the edge in my voice not helping.

"You have broken your word once," Brin says to the Prince. "What is to say after we deliver Mirra to the Ruby Court you will not change your mind again and refuse to pay us?"