Heir Apparent

Chapter 7

Dedicated to my Grandfather, who passed away Oct. 4th from COVID-19 after a month long battle. I hope I will continue to make you proud as you look down from up above. Love you, miss you.

Jade

Three more times they moved me. Three more days that my men had not come for me. While I knew that if they clashed with these assassins now, I would lose a great many of them, I began to long for the day when I could do something of my own accord. The Capital might have felt like a cage, but I still had some autonomy within those walls. With the Hired Hands, I had several guards at my back day and night. There was no privacy for my bathing habits, and my wrap was changed under watchful eyes.

The second night, Melena delivered a new tunic. The third night she changed my bandages once again. She said little during those two visits, only reminding me how to keep my wounds clean and to keep myself limber. There was something in her barring that was different. She was solemn, distant. Before, she had made some attempt to connect with me, now, she did only what she needed to do.

Xavi, however, visited often. His visits were not the social call I kept attempting to make them, but reminded me more of the days when I was training with Merien and Gil. He made me stretch and flex my hand, or do passes about the room where I was being held. When I tore my stitches in my side the first night, he watched me closer, eyeing for any signs that I was over-doing it. I felt like some animal being trained to perform for coin. Whenever I could, I pushed back, or I turned his little exercise on its head. I may have made a deal to save Hera, one I kept telling myself I would make time and time again, but no one said I had to be willing. My name had not been signed on anything, a fact both myself and Xavi were beginning to regret, I imagined. Without a signed contract, we both knew it was only a matter of time before I was strong enough for an escape.

An escape that was looking more and more difficult. With each move, we traveled further from the Capital. If I were to escape now, I would have at least three days of travel to reach the safety of my stronghold. Three days of outsmarting the world's more feared assassins. The odds were slipping further and further from me, but even now, I knew I wouldn't get far in my condition. I'd end up dying from infection on wounds still fresh enough to kill me. Xavi knew, and I knew too. But Xavi did not see the tiny clues I tried to leave behind: scuffled footprints, a half empty pot of ointment, bandage wrapping, anything that would look out of the ordinary for the skilled trackers I kept in the 51st.

The fourth night was miserable. Rain beat against the wood slats of the stable I was being sheltered within. The wind would snake its way through, threatening to douse our pathetic fire. Xavi, Horus, and the two spearmen huddled around the fire with me. My ankle was tied on a tether to a post, like a horse. I kicked it out, pulling the rope taunt now and then. Xavi shot me a glance out of the side of his eye each time. With another howl of the wind, I pulled the wool blanket tighter about my shoulders. Xavi had promised to find me a woolen jerkin in the morning to help with the chill.

Sitting around the fire brought flashes of old memories. Gil was always there, by my side as part of the match set of knights that we were, and sometimes my mother or Merien as well. Different campaigns, different camps, different seasons. Always with a small fire, and almost always with some laughter. The lot I was stuck with now were not the laughing sort. The spearmen and Horus certainly not, though I managed an amused smirk from Xavi now and then.

Outside, the storm raged on, thunder clapping nearby. A few of the horses stuck sheltering with us grumbled, ear flicking, and an occasional foot stomp. I certainly understood how they felt. Normally, I loved a good thunderstorm, the rolling clouds and flashes of light, but with an ankle firmly tied to a post, I couldn't find it in me to appreciate nature's fury.