“Look at me.” He waited until I met his eyes once more. “They know there are two people in this room. The innkeeper recorded it. And thanks to your little game last night, the entire inn knows we have a woman traveling with us.”
He was right. This was my fault.
Lorian seemed to regret his words, because his hands tightened around my arms and his expression softened. “We’ll go to the Taking, and we’ll be ready to leave as soon as it’s done.”
“They’re going to notice me, Lorian. This is it.”
A stupid way to die. This felt like a waste. I hadn’t even gotten close to the city. Hadn’t had the chance to see my brother one last time.
“I won’t let them hurt you.” Lorian’s words seemed to be coming from somewhere far away. I could practically smell the smoke.
“Enough. You’re stronger than this. And you don’t have the luxury of falling apart. Do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“Good.” He let me go. “Now put on your cloak, and let’s all pretend to be pious.”
“I’ll use my magic on the innkeeper so we can sneak past him. He won’t know if we’ve left the room already. It can buy us some time.”
Lorian shook his head. “The innkeeper is a null.”
“What’s a null?”
He was already dragging me toward the door. “Someone who repels magic. It’s unlikely your magic will work on him, and if it did, it would cost you so much power, you’d be useless for the rest of the day.”
Fear had gripped my throat and was squeezing. My only choice was to rely on Lorian and the others.
Lorian swung the door open. Galon was already waiting outside our room. “Marth has the horses ready,” he muttered. “They’re tied at the edge of the town, near the road to Lesdryn. As soon as the ceremony is over, we’ll leave.”
“What if the guards follow us?” I asked, my lips numb. Sometime over the past few days, my concerns had changed. I was no longer worried that Lorian would hand me over to the guards. No, I was more concerned that the mercenaries would die in an attempt to protect me.
“I asked the innkeeper, and they’ll be traveling south from here. As long as we don’t give them any reason to suspect you.”
I followed the men downstairs, noting the innkeeper crossing something off his list as we walked past. Lorian was right. He would have informed the guards if I’d stayed behind.
More guards lined the streets outside. My stomach twisted. I ruthlessly clamped down on the nausea and pulled up the hood of my cloak. Thankfully, it was cold enough that many of the townspeople had done the same. Lorian strode next to me, his huge body shielding me from the crowd. I could practically feel the warmth emanating from him. I could definitely sense the icy rage. Galon strode on my other side, shoulders back, expression unconcerned. His confidence helped with the worst of my terror, and I squared my shoulders.
Cavis and Rythos were waiting at the edge of the crowd, as far from the guards as they could get.
Rythos reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. My stomach settled a little, and I squeezed back. Almost immediately, I was surrounded by hard male bodies. They formed a circle around me, and I knew for sure that if they had to, they’d slaughter anyone who took me. Not just because I was pretty sure at least Rythos and Cavis liked me, but because if I went down, they’d go down with me.
Not to mention, they were all territorial brutes who were currently eyeing the guards like they were imagining their heads on pikes. My own gaze slid to the king’s assessor and got stuck there.
King Sabium had several assessors he liked to use. I hadn’t seen this one before, but they were all the same with their black robes, silver brooches and beady-eyed stares. All of them seemed to enjoy finding the corrupt and ordering their deaths.
Hunching under my cloak, I had to fight the urge to battle my way through this crowd and sprint as far from the assessor as I could. Yet my legs had turned rubbery. Lorian seemed to sense it, wrapping his hand around my arm. I forced my gaze away and turned to Galon, who was glowering at the king’s assessor with a kind of malevolence I’d never seen from him before. I elbowed him, and he scowled at me, dropping his gaze as the town’s priestess walked past.
She was younger than the priestess from our village. But her expression held the same peaceful piety I’d seen so many times before.
The wooden platform she climbed was similar to the one I’d stared at so many times in my town. Next to the platform, a man and woman both stood, their baby clutched in her mother’s arms. The woman was pale, but she strode up the stairs beneath the king’s guards’ watchful gaze.