The carriage was quite snug, with Wren and Leo on one bench and Galen and Commander Duncan opposite, but it was an open-air conveyance, which allowed them to better take in the landscape. While Galen’s attention was fixed on the prince, Commander Duncan’s beady gaze was trained on Wren.
She smiled. “Ready to have some more fun?” she whispered into Leo’s ear. Commander Duncan glared.
“Always.”
* * *
They passed through the main gate, taking a hard left to ride on the road, allowing the prince to see the breadth and scope of the Border Wall, its full height and impressive length, disappearing over the horizon.
Prince Leo’s reaction to the gleaming bonedust bricks was similar to most who laid eyes on such a sight; he tugged at his collar and muttered, “Is that… what I think it is?”
Wren smiled and recited some of the information Odile had given her, detailing the keystones and the palisade.
As they continued toward the nearest tower, Commander Duncan pointed out other pertinent details, like how many guards garrisoned each of the forts and towers and how the remnants of the Old Roads provided easier passage across the wild landscape, which was riddled with jagged cliffs, volcanic rock, and steaming geysers. There were deep caves and crevasses gouging the landscape and making travel beyond the roads dangerous and unpredictable. Even the forest that ran alongside the Wall to the north was twisted and dense and impossible to traverse, no matter how much they tried to cut it back. There was some decent farming land to the south, in the Cartesian Valley, but mostly, the wealth of this region had always been in mining.
As the carriage kept up a steady pace, Leo relaxed into the journey, asking questions about patrols and feigning interest at their responses.
Wren did her best to both keep an eye on their surroundings—she was a valkyr-trained bonesmith, after all—and keep Leo company, but he wasn’t in the mood to chat. It seemed hangovers were not his forte.
Commander Duncan had just been explaining how the towers operated when the carriage began to slow. Wren and Leo were facing forward, so Commander Duncan and Galen had to crane their necks to see what the holdup was.
“There’s some debris on the road,” one of the guards said, bringing his horse alongside the carriage.
Wren stood. Several massive stones littered the path, along with a scattering of debris from an apparent rockslide. The road sliced through the rough landscape when it could, as it had done here, resulting in soaring cliffs and jagged outcrops on either side of them. The tower was just out of sight beyond the distant ridge, and coupled with the dense copse of trees that rose to the east, they were left in a bit of a blind spot.
Commander Duncan blustered about patrol routes and assignments—this should have been noticed before their arrival—annoyed that the state of the road made him look inept in front of the prince. Galen, too, was talking loudly, commanding the prince’s guards to clear the obstruction at once.
Leo, meanwhile, was tense again, looking around the carriage uneasily.
“Don’t worry. You’re safe,” Wren promised, extending her senses just in case—but the palisade had done its job, and there were no undead to be found. “Come on, why don’t we stretch our legs a bit while they sort this out?”
Leo looked at her then, a strange expression in his eyes. Then he darted a glance at Galen. For the first time since they’d left the fort, the prince’s retainer was paying him no mind.
Wren saw it as an opportunity. She leapt from the carriage, and with a deep breath, Leo followed. His gaze continued to dart around them as they strolled along the road, soldiers mounted and alert on either side.
“Are you okay?” Wren asked once they’d gotten a bit of distance from the wagon.
“Of course,” Leo said abruptly, but he was nothing like the smirking, laughing prince she’d met the night before. Had it all been the alcohol? He eventually did flash her a grin, but it was forced. “I’m always okay.”
“Well, maybe we—”
A sudden, strange whistling sound brought Wren up short. She whirled around just in time to see one of the guards standing near the carriage drop to the ground, an arrow shaft protruding from his eye socket.
There was a moment of shocked silence. Then, to the north, a thunder of horses’ hooves echoed down the road, followed by another volley of arrows. Several peppered the carriage and landed in the ground, though others found their targets, who dropped the same as the first one.
Galen shouted for the prince, but then his eyes went wide. Wren turned to see more horses coming from the south. These were not Breachfort guards. These were attackers.
They were surrounded.
The debris on the road wasn’t from some accidental rockslide. No, it was very much on purpose.
Wren looked at Leo, at the strange mix of fear and resignation on his face.
This was a trap, and they’d walked right into it, delivering Prince Leopold Valorian on a golden platter.
ELEVEN
“Get down!” Wren shouted, throwing herself against Leo and tackling him to the ground.
He looked at her with wide-eyed confusion, wariness etched into every feature. True, Wren was not a properly trained soldier or one of the prince’s personal guards, but she was closest to him and surely had more combat training than him—even if it was mostly against the undead.
“Into the trees,” she hissed, shoving him bodily, so that they staggered and crawled toward the side of the road.
Shouts went up from the guards, preparing for a fight, while Galen looked around frantically. “To the prince!” he cried. “There, in the trees!”
Wren cursed vehemently, wanting to strangle the man—there was still a chance this was a random Breachsider attack, that they didn’t actually know there was a prince of the realm in their midst. Not only was Galen alerting them to that fact, but he was also giving away their position.
Her brain scrambled, but there was nowhere else to go—no place to hide on the open road as their attackers barreled down on them from two sides, and the Breachfort soldiers and royal guard hurried to take up arms. Those on foot ran to the carriage, the only protection available, while those who were mounted prepared a counterstrike.
Then, amid the chaos, the smell of burning wood.
The trees… Perhaps they intended to smoke them out.
“We’re under attack,” Leo said blankly. Wren thought he was in shock.
“Very observant, Your Highness,” she muttered. She hesitated, looking back the way they’d come—then forward, into the trees. The burning trees.
It didn’t matter. It was their only chance. The forest was dense, which provided good cover from the artillery coming their way, and it was their best route for escape. If they could make it through to the other side, they might be able to disappear into the wilderness—find a cave to hide in until they could return safely. Wren could protect them from whatever supernatural threat might be lurking out there, and surely reinforcements would come. Despite the tower being out of view, guards manned the Wall, and eventually someone would see the smoke and raise the alarm.
Whatever happened, she had to protect the prince.
“Let’s go,” she said, jerking her chin toward the darkness of the trees.