Heir Apparent

Chapter 10

Sybilla

We walked most of the morning like a merry, little band of misfits. The burly mountain man, or so I had taken to calling him in my head, had struck up the lead, which was just as well. I hadn't liked how he had shared a moment with the assassin leader earlier in town. While most spies Icarius employed were loyal to him, I was never quite sure. From experience, I knew we were a fickle lot, capable of turning on our spy-masters for the next best deal, always eager to be on the winning side of a fight, or avoiding one altogether.

Luckily, the future empress seemed to share my opinion. Marching at her side, I could see how she was constantly flipping her eagle gaze between Aeron in front of her and the assassin who begrudgingly followed us. She was getting better at hiding her thoughts behind her eyes, but I could see a flurry racing through her mind. Her hand was resting on the pommel of the sad, little dagger I had procured for her, fingers twitching. After watching her in the square, however, I was sure that whatever blade, sad or not, I could hand her, Jade Virillia would be able to slice a hand off.

The sun was well beyond mid afternoon when Aeron found us a spot to stop off the side of the road with a collection of rocks. By the looks of it, the little collection was a popular place for travelers with an old, well used fire pit and a worn dirt path winding between the boulders. I would have preferred a more secluded place, but with the empress in a plain, linen dress and the rag-tag look of the rest of us, I could reasonably hope we wouldn't be looked over too closely. She might not have a crown on her head yet, but Jade wasn't as inconspicuous as she liked to think.

Jade perched on one of the larger rocks near the center, facing the road, tension lining her features. I hovered near the edge, looking down the road toward the direction we were heading. Voices echoed through the tree tunnel up ahead, light and full of laughter, a stark contrast to the heavy faces that were circling around me.

"Jerky?" Aeron pulled out a few pieces from a parchment wrapped package out of his pack slung around his shoulders. Jade leaned forward to snag a few pieces and I followed her lead, eagerly popping the salty meat into my mouth.

"Mmm," I hummed, "a bit of honey on that?"

Aeron, who had been grim faced most of the morning, smiled, "Why yes. The last tasty bits from my travels on the Southern coast."

"The Southern coast?" Jade perked up. There was the flurry once more.

"Yes. And no, I don't have anything to offer up, General - "

"Jade."

"Jade. I was there months ago. Last I heard, you were merrily slaughtering the emperor's men as you moved north."

The dark haired girl winced, then popped more jerky into her mouth, taking the time to chew it completely. "Slaughtering isn't my intention."

Aeron shrugged and I had half a mind to smack him behind his ears for such a thing. Anyone with half an eye could see how such a thing put a dark glaze over Jade's eyes. I might not have known Jade long enough to call her anything but my empress, but I knew enough to want to keep her eyes dancing, thinking, and full of mischief.

"What do you plan to do once you reach the coast?" The assassin, who Jade had called Xavi, hovered behind my shoulder. His gaze never once turned from the road ahead. Perhaps he heard the same thing I had, or something more. Assassins, and certainly Hired Hands assassins were a slippery sort, prone to all sorts of unnatural tricks and senses.

"Let's just reach the coast first." Jade dropped the last of her jerky into her mouth.

Xavi's eyes left the road and slid over toward the future empress, as if he wanted to say something. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and turned to his watch back to the road.